Professions Question

Einstein

Hey folks,

I know there's a few threads on profs etc, but just wanted to make a fresh one if thats cool.
I dinged 80 the other day with my lock, and really started thinking bout my profs.

My main is a lock (80), and currently has Tailoring(410) & Enchanting(330)
Next is my DK (65), and has Mining(145) & JC(135)
Then My priest (51), has Tailoring(200) & inscription(110ish)

I'm having a big hassle trying to justify keeping Enchanting atm. Essences are so expensive, i just haven't levelled at all since expansionm and am now thinking of going herbalism, as I feel it has more gold making possibilities, although I realise by dropping EC, i lose the bonus of ring/cloak enchants.

My priest is the next route for me, and while tailoring was a must before the expansion for a priest, the new high lvl items are all BoE which means I can make em on my lock and send them to priesty. So all of a sudden, tailoring on priest seems a little useless at this stage.
BTW, had low level alt thats 136 in herbs so hes been gathering the herbs for the inscription.

So with the priest I was considering dropping tailoring and picking up alchemy.

So possibly have a new structure of

Lock(main) - Tailoring/Herbalism
Priest - Inscription/Alchemy
DK - Mining/Jewelcrafting

I've never been particularly strong at making G in WOW, and feel its time to get my as$ in gear for epic mounts all round.

So any info, experience, or ideas you guys might have, is mucho appreciated.!

tyvm

Ivan

First of all, I would preface all this by saying; dont judge professions based on whether items are BoE or not. 3.1 is likely to add a bunch of epic bind on pickup items across all professions either using drops from the new instances or requiring recipe drops from there. These will have significantly higher item level and will be better itemised due to being BoP.
This fits the pattern of professions in TBC and is one of the few things that are sorely missing from WotLK professions so is likely to come soon.

With all that said, tailoring is one of the weakest professions at the moment, with the cloak enchants being pretty poor (again, likely to change) and having little to no other bonuses to speak of. All while being one of the most expensive professions to level up, Enchanting being another one.

Mining is one of the best ways to make money, certainly the best gathering skill and made even more useful by an epic flying mount. Jewelcrafting makes obscene amounts of gold on a daily basis, but only once you hit 375 and start doing the dailies and getting at least somewhat rare recipes. This can safely be done with a level 70 though once you acquire 375 JC. Jewelcrafting levels pretty fast from 340 or so but requires heavy investment or quite a bit of boring mining to supply mats. Mining is another great money maker as titansteel cooldowns and bars sell well even now and have a very healthy markup.

Enchant will really take off in the coming weeks, even more so once new enchants start dropping but it has always, and will always, be an expensive leveling process. You need to decide if it is worth it to keep going. Personally I would say yes, at 330

With regards to your current situation, depending on what route you still want to take, either gearing up the lock or leveling up the deathknight, I'd just stick with the professions you have in either case. The choice would be to focus on mining and eventually JC through mining, or to focus on mining and try to make money through that to fund the locks other professions and eventually be in a position to make money from the lock professions.

It's really up to you, if you just recently hit 80 then you have quite a few heroics ahead of you with the lock and should gather quite a bit more cloth as well as greens which you will eventually be able to disenchant.

Dont give up on large prismatic shards and arcane dust, as you can easily enough farm 70 instances with your warlock if you pick a suitable spec for it or get one or two more to help you.

With respect to the priest, tailoring is a waste for an alt. Especially when you have it on your main. As you can make most throwaway items on the warlock and give the BoE epics to the priest. And once the items start getting better and BoP the priest will most likely not be in a position to raid to get the recipes or reagents.

Herbalism is a solid money maker alright, but like all gathering professions, it will require a significant investment of time. I would recommend waiting till you hit 60 with the priest and then get the epic ground mount. Then proceed to level up herbalism and get cracking on the inscription skill again.

There isnt much money in inscription at the moment, but in 3.0.8 the off-hand inscription crafted items will no longer require inscription which should make them reasonably better for an income and the priest will most likely want to use some of the crafted off-hands. Possibly even your warlock too

Beyond that, the ink situation becomes easier, as you will be able to use northrend herbs to trade to an NPC vendor for any level herbs. Alternatively, you can begin crafting the darkmoon faire cards but while the potential is there for big money it is really a rather hit and miss, lottery-type affair.

Inscription is one of the few professions whereby you must still discover new recipes but the discoveries are daily and fairly cheap to do.

I went with Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting and while they were very expensive to level, especially without a miner, the profit potential at max levels is fantastic. Jewelcrafting allows you to buy ore and prospect for gems. With most gems earning decent cash, the real advantage comes when you can turn those gems into finished products. The resilience gems and some of the metas sell for good money and even just the service of Jewelcrafting is quite profitable.

Phew, if you managed to read all that, then you have my respect
To summarise all of that rambling, the best answer I can give is to stick with the professions that best complement the class/role. For caster dps, that will invariably always be enchanting/tailoring even if it might not seem like it at the moment. Therefore to maximise your lock you should consider maxing those profs out first. Blacksmithing is the best suited to DKs but Jewelcrafting is better at the moment with the lack of BoP Blacksmithing stuff. Of course this is subject to change and when epic gems start appearing in the next content patch, jewelcrafters bop stuff will suffer and blacksmithing self-only sockets for bracers and gloves will get even better.

But I'd still say stick with jewelcrafting at least until you max out the lock and/or priest

The priest could go either way, but keep in mind it will be very difficult for you to make a profit from your inscripting, by buying herbs and producing any of your Inscription crafted items. Therefore, I'd heartily recommend you consider going herbalism on the priest.

Hope that answers some (all) of your questions.

Einstein

Jebus!

Took me a while, but great advice Thanks a mill!

And just to clear up wot ya said at the end, you suggest picking herbs at 60 with the priest and dropping tailoring?

Cheers again

Ivan

Yeah, once you hit 60 you'll be able to scrape together cash to pick up your epic ground mount which will make leveling up herbalism alot easier. Tailoring will be pretty much pointless for the most part and will just use up cloth that you can better use on your warlock/first aid or just sell.