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Choosing Your Profession

The next thing that you need to do now that you’re level 10 is figure out what professions you want to learn. There are lots of choices here and it can sometimes get confusing trying to figure them all out. Allow me to break it down for you.

There are two main types of Professions - Primary and Secondary. There are 10 primary professions and you can learn any two of them. Three of these are considered Gathering professions and seven are considered Crafting professions. The gathering professions are: Skinning, Mining and Herbalism and the Crafting professions are: Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Alchemy, Tailoring, Leatherworking, Jewelcrafting and Engineering. The three secondary professions are: Fishing, Cooking and First Aid.

Since I just recently watched a couple of Demetri Martin clips I felt like making some flowcharts and graphs for you. (I made these charts via Gliffy.com - highly recommended.)

Here’s what we’re gonna do. First, I’m going to teach you a little bit about how professions work in general. Then, I’m going to explain each of the 13 professions and tell you what you can expect from them. Lastly, I’m going to discuss some tips and strategies for making the most out of your profession choices.

Learning a Profession

All professions work in the same basic manner. To learn a profession, you need to go to a profession trainer (usually found in all the capital cities*) and pay 10C to learn the first proficiency level of your brand new profession. If you need help finding them in the city, you can always ask a guard. Aside from any racial bonuses, you will start out at skill level one in each profession. You raise your skill simply by using the profession, i.e., pick herbs, enchant items, do blacksmithy things, etc.

*As you are required to have the Burning Crusade to learn Jewelcrafting, these trainers are only found in the Burning Crusade areas: The Exodar, Silvermoon City and the Outlands.

There is a total of 5 proficiency levels for each profession, and a required skill level (and character level) to be able to access the next proficiency for your trade.

So let’s take Mining, for example. To learn Apprentice Mining, the only requirement is that you be level 5. This will allow you to skill up to a maximum of 75, at which point you must learn Journeyman Mining in order to keep skilling up. However, if you choose, you may learn Journeyman Mining at a minimum skill level of 50 and character level of 10. Once you hit skill level 125 and character level 20, you can learn Expert Mining if you choose. If you want to wait a little bit, then you can continue skilling up until you hit 150. And so on and so forth….

Now lets take a closer look at skilling up in your profession. Remember a couple paragraphs ago I said that to skill up you just need to use the profession? Well, that’s mostly right. Here is a look at Damer’s Jewelcrafting book.

Notice how some of the recipes are different colors? That color is the key to skilling up.

Orange means you are almost guaranteed to skill up - 99.9% chance.
Yellow means you are likely to skill up - somewhere around 85 to 90% chance.
Green means you may skill up but it’s not likely - I’d say around 25 to 40% chance.
Gray means you will not skill up - 0% chance.
Red means you cannot do the recipe/gather yet. Come back once you’ve skilled up some.

(Also, in case you’re wondering, the number by some of the recipes means that I have the mats needed to do X number of those items.)

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Ok, now that we know how professions work, let’s take a look at what your choices are.

Gathering Professions

Herbalism - Herbalism allows you to pick various weeds, flowers, plants and herbs that you find in “nodes” all around Azeroth (and the Outlands). When you learn Herbalism, you also learn the “Track Herbs” skill which allows herb nodes to appear on your mini-map. The herbs you pick can be used for Alchemy, sold via the AH, or smoked.

Mining - Mining allows you to take minerals, ore and stone from the ground. It works in a similar fashion to Herbalism in that you find nodes to mine from. Learning Mining gives you the “Track Minerals” skill which allows ore nodes to appear on your mini-map. You will also occasionally mine Gems from mineral nodes. The ore you mine can be used for Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, or Engineering, or sold via the AH. I don’t recommend trying to smoke it.

Skinning - Skinning works a bit differently than the other two Gathering Professions. Instead of finding nodes to gather from, you get leather from skinning various beasts that you kill. Skinning is probably the easiest gathering profession to skill up in, as you will kill many many beasts in the course of regular play and won’t have to go out of your way to find them.

Crafting Professions

Blacksmithing - Blacksmithing allows you to take the metals and stone obtained from Mining and use them to create Mail and Plate armor, many different kinds of weapons, and numerous other items, such as keys to open doors and locks, rods needed by enchanters, and various Trade Goods used by other professions. There are quite a few weapons and pieces of armor that do not drop anywhere in the world and can only be crafted by Blacksmiths. At the higher levels in Blacksmithing, you can choose a specialization of armorsmithing or weaponsmithing. A choice of weaponsmithing allows you to choose a further specialization of axes, hammers or swords. A complete listing of all Blacksmithing recipes can be found here.

Good For: Warriors and Paladins will get the most benefit from Blacksmithing, as they can use all of the crafted weapons and armor. Shaman and Rogues would be able to use some of the weapons created, but none of the armor, so this is probably not the best profession for those classes. (Shaman can wear mail after level 40, but most 40+ Blacksmithing armor recipes are for Plate.)

Alchemy - Alchemy lets you create various and sundry potions, elixirs and flasks from the plants gathered by Herbalism. The potions created by Alchemy have a very wide range of effects: health and mana boosts, buffs and magical resist increases, and temporary weapon enchants, to name a few. Alchemists are also able to provide a valuable service by transmuting various items and materials used by high level players. In addition, high level alchemists are able to specialize in Potions, Elixirs or Transmutations. A complete list of all Alchemy recipes can be found here.

Good For: All classes can benefit from Alchemy.

Tailoring - Tailors take the cloth dropped by humanoids all over the world and use it to make Cloth armor, shirts, and bags. There are numerous pieces of cloth armor than can only be made by Tailors and even a few items that can only be worn by Tailors. The ability to make bags is very useful, as not only will the Tailor himself need them, but they are always in demand by other players and can often be sold at a profit. High level Tailors can choose to specialize in Mooncloth, Shadoweave, or Spellfire Tailoring. A complete list of Tailoring recipes can be found here.

Good For: Cloth wearing classes (Mages, Warlocks, and Priests) will get the most benefit from Tailoring. Every class can use the bags that Tailoring makes, but the majority of Tailoring recipes are for Cloth armor.

Leatherworking - Leatherworking allows players to take the leather skinned from beasts and make it into Leather (and possibly, Mail) armor, armor kits to boost your total armor count, and quivers and ammo pouches to hold arrows and bullets. High level Leatherworkers can choose to specialize in Elemental, Tribal or Dragonscale Leatherworking. A complete list of Leatherworking recipes can be found here.

Good For: Leather wearing classes (Druids, Rogues, Hunters and Shaman) will get the most benefit from Leatherworking. There are a few recipes that every class can use, but the vast majority are for Leather armor. Additionally the Dragonscale specialization, which produces Mail armor, allows Hunters and Shaman to continue to craft their own armor after level 40.

Enchanting - Enchanters have the ability to place permanent enchantments on weapons and armor, and they can also make a small number of trade goods (such as Mana and Wizard Oils) that can be used by themselves or other players. The enchants that they provide center around attribute bonuses (Stam, Int, Agi, Str and Spi) but they also have a number of enchants that focus on other areas. For example, there are enchants to increase your run speed, threat caused, attack speed, and healing and damage done by spells. To enchant items, a player uses materials obtained by Dis-Enchanting Green or higher items. Enchanting is generally considered the most difficult and expensive profession to level. A complete list of Enchanting recipes can be found here.

Good For: Every class can benefit from Enchanting.

Jewelcrafting - Jewelcrafting, not surprisingly, is the skill of crafting jewelry and gems. Initially, it allows a player to create rings and necklaces which can be used by themselves or sold to other players. Jewelcrafters can also create stone statues, which heal the crafter for a short time when used. At a skill level of 300, Jewelcrafters start crafting Gems, which are used in certain high-quality level 60+ armor and weapons to provide additional attribute bonuses (similar to an enchant). Jewelcrafting mats are obtained from Mining and Prospecting ore. A complete list of Jewelcrafting recipes can be found here.

Good For: Every class can benefit from Jewelcrafting.

Engineering - Engineering is probably the most difficult Profession to summarize. It allows a player to create many, many (many, many, many) different types of gadgets. Some examples are: Guns, Bombs (thrown at a target area and causes damage), Scopes (increases damage done by guns and bows), Jumper Cables (allows a non-rezzer to sometimes rez an ally), Charges (to blow open doors and locks), Control Devices (take control of mechanoids or humanoids for a short time), Bullets, various non-combat pets, and many more things. Engineering uses mats obtained through Mining and a complete list of its recipes can be found here.

Good For: Every class can benefit from Engineering, however there are a few classes that find particular benefit from certain Engineering items. Many Paladins, who as a class have limited ranged abilities, will become Engineers for the grenades that they can make. Due to the cost involved in making them, the grenades are usually saved for PvP use, but can be used in PvE as well. Furthermore, many Hunters, taking advantage of their Feign Death ability, will take Engineering to be able to craft and use the Jumper Cables, thus allowing them to rez their party after a wipe (sometimes). (Many Rogues do this as well, although Vanish is not quite as effective as Feign Death). Hunters are also the only class that really benefits from using a Scope on their bow or gun.

Uber Pwnage - Oh wait, this is actually a Warlock skill. Not a profession at all… My apologies.

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Making Your Choice

Ok, now that you know what to expect from the various Professions, here are a few strategies on choosing them wisely.

Traditional Method

The traditional method for choosing professions is to select the crafting profession you like the most and then choose the appropriate gathering one to go with it, as seen in the chart.

This is a perfectly valid and acceptable method for choosing your professions. If you are not too focused on leveling, and just want to enjoy yourself and quest and level slowly, then this is probably the method for you. There were many nights when I first started playing that I would do nothing but work on my trade skills. Usually the goal in this method is to hit level 70 and 375 in your professions at about the same time.

Quick Note: Tailoring is not technically the gathering profession for Enchanting. However, as neither Tailoring or Enchanting requires a second gathering profession, the two are often coupled together. Additionally, Tailoring allows you to make lots of low cost Greens, thereby providing mats for Enchanting once they are dis-enchanted.

Non-Traditional Method

The non-traditional method is best summed up by the chart below.

The non-traditional method is usually used by people who are more focused on leveling quickly and want to choose professions that will help them make the most gold on the way. As I mentioned in my Gold Guide, my advice is to take Enchanting and one gathering profession (I’m an Enchanter and Herbalist). However, many people will take two gathering professions and this will serve you beautifully as well. (Quick note: If you’re going the two gathering professions route, make one of them Skinning. You can’t track minerals and herbs at the same time.)

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Secondary Professions

These get their own section because there’s no limit on how many you can learn. So feel free to go crazy here too.

First Aid - First Aid lets you make bandages from cloth that can be applied to yourself or an ally. This is an essential skill for non-healing classes, and it can also be helpful to healers in certain situations (to save mana, for instance). The only caveat to First Aid is this: if you are a Tailor, you will be using the same cloth for both First Aid and Tailoring. There is generally enough cloth to supply both professions, but be sure to to be conscious of this.

Fishing - Fishing lets you fish! Grab a fishing rod and head to a lake or body of water and you’re good to go. You can obviously catch fish (good for eating, pet food, and Cooking), but you can also occasionally catch herbs, potions and other random items. Some people consider Fishing to be boring, but I find it peaceful and relaxing.

Cooking - Cooking lets you take various ingredients (usually dropped by beasts) and turn them into yummy tasting meals. The food from Cooking recharges your health (and mana too, sometimes) and additionally gives you temporary stat bonuses. Personally, I try not to eat anything that came off of a Murloc. If you don’t learn Cooking at an early level, I can guarantee you will wish you had later.

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