Professions in Wrath of the Lich King. What do you think?

Karl Hungus

One of the main things that's hit me about the new expansion is what they've done with the professions, or at least the ones I'm familiar with. I've heard some friends online being delighted with alchemy and others being dissapointed with tailoring. For me, I'm absolutely thrilled with what they've done with blacksmithing, and somewhat annoyed with leatherworking (Edit: no longer annoyed with leatherworking, see further edits for details).

What's your opinion on your given profession?

Now, before Wrath, I had decided to drop blacksmithing in favour of skinning simply to make money. I saw something that made me instantly want to take up the profession again: shields. I quickly dropped skinning and shot my blacksmithing up to 370 the other day, and on hitting Northrend tonight, I made myself a Cobalt Triangle Shield which kicks the living daylights out of the shield I had before. One of the things I found about being a protection spec warrior, was that there really wasn't a decent shield to be had without getting into raids. There was an astonishing rift in quality between a good raid dropped shield, and one you could pick up before that, so me being someone who's never raided, I could only get some ok gear.

There's quite a few shields on offer, and while the Cobalt Triangle Shield is BoP, at level 73 there's the Saronite Defender and Saronite Protector, both of which have over 6000 armor and are bind on equip so you'll get these on the auction house or find me to make 'em for you, or maybe some other blacksmith, but I wouldn't trust them. Then at level 77 there's the Saronite Bulwark, again BoE, and the stats look great, comparing favourably to the level 70 epics. Those shields should see any tank up to level 80 no problem, at which point I'll be making myself a Titansteel Shield Wall. According to the gear list here, that shield is in the top 5 in the game and again it's something you could find on the AH or have made for you if you're not a blacksmith. I'd say it's going to be as common as muck for every level 80 tank out there, but jesus I'm well impressed that Blizzard has given us such a powerful crafted item.

Overall, I've already replaced a few pieces of my gear with items I've learned to make in Northrend now, such as the Cobalt Shoulders and a few other cobalt pieces. Everything looks like it'll be usable by one class or another, so you're not just making vendortrash to level. You can also use an Eternal Belt Buckle to add a gem slot to your belt. Very handy! A fair bit of my gear won't be replaced just yet, but I think that on the whole Blacksmithing is greatly improved by the addition of shields, especially such powerful ones.

Edit - I mistakenly thought that armor kits could only be used by leatherworkers, it is in fact, only kits of this kind that can only be used by leatherworkers. Not sure what's the purpose of the soulbound effect on armor kits now, perhaps to stop people from augmenting armor and then auctioning it, or to prevent twinks from using hugely powerful kits? I've left my initial thoughts on leatherworking intact though, I don't like to over-write what I've written previously:

Leatherworking on the other hand, I'm somewhat annoyed about. I've found it to be an incredibly valuable profession to have, quite simply because of all the awesome armor kits you could make, either for your characters or to sell. If you wanted extra stamina, it was a great alternative to enchantment, especially with the items being usable on the head or shoulder slots. Now, armor kits are only usable by the leatherworkers who make them! Something as simple as the lower level Borean Armor Kit makes any item soulbound to you by applying it... sucky...

Some of the different kits are great in their own right, such as the Fur Lining - Stamina or Frosthide Leg Armor, but making it bind to the leatherworker, it's like enchanting being a requirement to use enchantments, or only jewelcrafters being able to use gem sockets. That's altogether terrible, and on this aspect, I'm really very dissapointed in what they've done to leatherworking. I know there's some items that can only be used by their respective profession, but having every single new armor kit BoP is taking the piss... It's taking a majorly useful profession and absolutely nerfed it. (Edit - it's not nerfed, and it's as good a profession as ever!)

Thoughts?

dlofnep

I'm way too lazy to level them up. I stopped at level 60.

Karl Hungus

dlofnep wrote: »

I'm way too lazy to level them up. I stopped at level 60.

Seriously? That's very lazy indeed, I went from 1-350 blacksmithing in a single day, then went up to 370 the next day.

dlofnep

Really? I have leatherworking & skinning on my rogue. There's no real need for me because you can just grind PvP gear. Unless you want to try and make cash, then it's useful. Costs so much money or effort to level up

Karl Hungus

Leatherworking is always good for the armor kits you can make, even on the best PVP gear, you can still stick a leg armor on there and armor kit on head or shoulders, where you can't get enchants. Although to be fairly honest, I'm still a little miffed about the +90stam on bracer not being available to non-leatherworkers, but I think the ability to add sockets to your gear for blacksmiths make up for it.

Nehaxak

Yeah I have LW on the Hunter and I'm really unimpressed now with it, actually find there's nothing I can make to use as PVP gear will be tons better anyway.

I'm still stuck as to what to pick as professions on the DK. Mining/Engineering probably.

Am really impressed also at the additions to blacksmithing, will be happy to level it up on the warrior when I get around to it in a few months. Will get the DK to 80 first, then Hunter, then I'll see if I'm bothered levelling anything else up.

Krieg

With my DK, im still contemplating the current professions. I want to wait until there is some proper feedback on skill lv 450 professions, as to what I can benefit most from.

For example the engineering skill was fairly crap until they released patterns such as the goggles and other useful things. It can go either way with any profession. You might be unhappy with a profession, then blizz release new patterns making up for the previous crappyness

On my main, enchanter/miner. I haven't had much time to skill up either of them. But im quite happy with some of the enchanting stuff available and Im sure mining is still going to be an atm machine

Karl Hungus

I haven't created a Death Knight, not bothered just yet, I'd rather stick with my current two and level them. Looking at leatherworking, I've been focusing more on what will benifit my warrior to be honest, this for example, looks like a terrific bit of tank gear.

I would agree though, the blacksmithing additions really outshine the leatherworking items.

Krieg wrote: »

Im sure mining is still going to be an atm machine

Absolutely, I've been watching the price of Cobalt Ore on the AH, and it's going for 10g a pop on my server. It's also been very, very hard to mine due to the amount of other players mining for it. My blacksmithing is at 380 at the time being, but there's no rush with it, as I'm still only level 70 and can't use anything else I might make for a while yet.

Gummy Panda

Can any give me a detailed list of bs?

Wowhead seems to be incomplete or bliz haven't added everything yet.

Btw looks like bs can create entry levrl pvp gear

EDIT: my dk is still in starter gear at lv67. I need upgrades

Krieg

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Can any give me a detailed list of bs?

Wowhead seems to be incomplete or bliz haven't added everything yet.

http://wow.crafterstome.com/recipes/blacksmithing.html
Yeah I think blizz haven't issued all crafting patterns yet, the link provides patterns up skill 440, which im presuming is the same for wowhead

Anti

on my mains i always have skinning, borean leather 60-70k a stack lol, and lw/ench. Skinning has been at 450 since a few hours after launch, apparently some guy got it about 20 mins before me. LW is a nice little money maker with the leg armor and the flame/arcane etc etc patches. But enchanting is a pain in the hole, stupidly expensive to lvl. Ive put well over 5000g into it now and not even at skill level 300.

Gummy Panda

Manties wrote: »

on my mains i always have skinning, borean leather 60-70k a stack lol, and lw/ench. Skinning has been at 450 since a few hours after launch, apparently some guy got it about 20 mins before me. LW is a nice little money maker with the leg armor and the flame/arcane etc etc patches. But enchanting is a pain in the hole, stupidly expensive to lvl. Ive put well over 5000g into it now and not even at skill level 300.

I assume you mean 400 skill lv for ench as i have done 1-375 in less then 1000g.

Highlander's guides on the wow forums are good. JC was the one profession i ever had that i spent a fortune on.

Not sure if i want to go BS + mining for my DK as it will seem great at first then people get their first few raiding epics and no one wants your stuff.

Alchemy + Herb was always good fun. Had it on my prot warrior and was great for raiding. I consumables, thats why my warrior had 375 fishing & cooking before it was cool to have fishing.

Inscription + herb. Not sure about this profession. I don't think it will be as profitable as JC.

JC + Mining = big money earner pre-wotlk. My druid had JC and ench, yet he easily made a profit off the ah by buying ore and prospecting it.

So i'm kinda confused what to choose.

Karl Hungus

Gummy Panda wrote: »

So i'm kinda confused what to choose.

You could always go mining and skinning? Right now there's an awful lot of people trying to level their professions, so it's probably well worth getting in and getting your cash now while you can, and pick up a different profession at a later date.

I'm currently questing in Borean Tundra, and by lord, it's very hard indeed to mine cobalt, a lot of players seemingly have the landscape stripped bare. I've been in a rush of 3 players who dives for a node at one point (I got it though, woo!) so it's nuts. I leveled my mining to 450 earlier though, decided to take a look at the Sholazar Basin, and I spent about an hour just exploring it, the spawn rate for the saronite nodes was unreal, it's extremely tightly packed, and very few other players around to strip the place. Ended up with 76 bars (2 ores to the bar) which are now placed in my bank for later use. I think that's gonna take a lot of the effort out of gathering later, as there's some fantastic stuff to be made between the 390-400 skill that uses saronite.

Anti

Gummy Panda wrote: »

I assume you mean 400 skill lv for ench as i have done 1-375 in less then 1000g.

Highlander's guides on the wow forums are good. JC was the one profession i ever had that i spent a fortune on.

Not sure if i want to go BS + mining for my DK as it will seem great at first then people get their first few raiding epics and no one wants your stuff.

Alchemy + Herb was always good fun. Had it on my prot warrior and was great for raiding. I consumables, thats why my warrior had 375 fishing & cooking before it was cool to have fishing.

Inscription + herb. Not sure about this profession. I don't think it will be as profitable as JC.

JC + Mining = big money earner pre-wotlk. My druid had JC and ench, yet he easily made a profit off the ah by buying ore and prospecting it.

So i'm kinda confused what to choose.

Nope, i mean 300

When ever the mats are available, they are stupidly expensive on my realm.

Einstein

my 2 mains are 70 lock and 50 priest...
Profs for lock are 374 tailoring and 330 enchanter
Priest is 250 tailor and 75 inscriptor, i have a 25 pally who collects herbs...
but for DK i'm real confused as to what to get...Was thinking maybe herb/alch, as he could be a better herbalist than the 25 pally, send on whats needed to the priest for inscription and keep whats needed for alchemy...
Tailoring is a must for priest and lock I feel tho...with the BoP's u can create in higher levels...

Karl Hungus

Ok, it's been a while since Wrath came out, how's everyone else finding the professions?

I have to say, I cannot be more thrilled that I took up Blacksmithing again, it's just magnificent. Level 75 now, and almost every single piece of armor I'm wearing, I've crafted, there just doesn't seem to be much better out there. To boot, blacksmithing is now a money maker! The Eternal Belt Buckles are selling faster than I can make them almost, I've got enough for all the epic flying training at 77 now, and I've loaded up with frostweave bags.

People have said before that Blacksmithing was a waste of time and money, but right now it's just the most incredible money maker I've seen in the game, and it doesn't take an age to grind for the mats. Leveling the skill seemed pretty painless too, as most of the armor sells on the AH for a good price too.

Nehaxak

Only thing is, the mats to make that belt buckle would probably sell for more than what the belt buckle sells for, once more people get selling those buckles on the auction house and prices drop.

At the moment I'm making a ton of gold from selling the simple armour patches and the drops of arctic leather are selling for 100g+ a pop, which is a nice bonus

Anti

Artic fur is going for 10g a pop on my server, ****ign RP ******s. Had enough of this ******* realm

Nehaxak

Manties wrote: »

Artic fur is going for 10g a pop on my server

Well buy loads of those arctic furs before you do transfer

Anti

But where to transfer too, thats the problem

Karl Hungus

Nehaxak wrote: »

Only thing is, the mats to make that belt buckle would probably sell for more than what the belt buckle sells for, once more people get selling those buckles on the auction house and prices drop.

Actually, they go for way more than it costs to make them tbh. I've made a profit of about 50g just buying the mats on the AH and selling the buckles.

nix

I'm gonna grind Mining and Engineering on my DK, i dont know much about the professions for wotlk.


Can someone inform me if its a bad idea to go with engineering? Will i make much profit from it etc ?

Or would i be better off grinding BS or Enchanting ?

Mr. CooL ICE

Tailoring is a nightmare to level up. On my server (bladefist), the realm first 450 tailor only achieved it yesterday, and I was only 9 points away from him/her. Frostweave stacks mostly go for 20-30g and the other main ingredient, infinite dust, goes for about 130g a stack. The main thing slowing me down is the ability to craft items with ebonweave/spellweave/moonshroud, as the AH never has those and nobody replies to my calls to buy their cooldowns either. Tailoring guildies are too lazy to level up tailoring too.

Luckily enough, mining is my other profession, and that's a sheer money maker with cobalt bar stacks at around 30g (~60g for the first week) and saronite bars at around 110g a stack. Titanium bars go for about about 50g individually.


I made an easy profit yesterday. I noticed crystallized fires were going for about 50g each, but the eternal fires were 73g each. I bought three eternals, used about 15 crystallizeds to craft some frostsavage gear, and sold the remaining crystallizeds at 35g each. They were all bought out within 20 mins :P

Kiith

I found levelling Tailoring to 375 bloody hard, so i dont look forward to (or see myself doing) the 375 to 475 grind. Same with Engineering. Mining is fine, but i'm finding very few cobalt nodes at the moment. All the lvl80's seem to be flying about mining all my stuff.

I do want the Magic Carpet and the Motorbike thing though, so i guess i will level them both up at some stage.

Blowfish

LordChessington wrote: »

Tailoring is a nightmare to level up. On my server (bladefist), the realm first 450 tailor only achieved it yesterday, and I was only 9 points away from him/her. Frostweave stacks mostly go for 20-30g and the other main ingredient, infinite dust, goes for about 130g a stack.

It's the exact same for my server. You know there's something not quite right when it takes longer for the the first max tailor than it does for the first HC Malygos kill.

The main thing slowing me down is the ability to craft items with ebonweave/spellweave/moonshroud, as the AH never has those and nobody replies to my calls to buy their cooldowns either.

I went the opposite way, sunk 2k into getting to the point where I could make ebon/spell/moon cloth and then made it straight back by flogging them on the AH. The BoE epics at the higher tailoring levels are a bit 'meh', but I'll likely make them anyway as off sets. Still though....flying carpet

Unusually enough, I'm finding enchanting much easier to level than tailoring, I've hit the same level enchanting as I have tailoring just by de'ing quest rewards.

I do have the advantage of having a 73 alt with Skinning and mining though. Without that I'd be completely broke by now.

Gummy Panda

i'm thinking i'll got JC + Mining. always seemed like a good money earner. Jeweller's gems and trinkets seem nice too

Woden

I think chanting is a real **** to lvl as usual!

Bloody cosmic essences.

Blowfish

Woden wrote: »

I think chanting is a real **** to lvl as usual!

Bloody cosmic essences.

Oddly I've way too many of them. It's the dust I'm seriously lacking.

DRakE

Manties wrote: »

But where to transfer too, thats the problem

not Outland

DRakE

Oh and as a miner, I've found you can make 200g a day profit from buying the mats for a titansteel bar, smelting it and selling it.

they go for around 370-400g

TheDoc

I think ill take mining and blacksmithing for my Dk.

And i think ill spend today just leveling it, want a break from levelling etc.

And i just want to make serious money for flying mount etc