A couple of profession questions

[antieuclid]

Thanks to multiboxing, I'm now up to 22 alts and I'm starting to get mildly frustrated by trying to keep track of who's at what crafting level and who needs what mats. I have a Google Docs spreadsheet to track skill level, and keeping it updated is how I keep myself amused on Tuesday mornings, but it would be nice to have this done automatically somehow and even better to find some way of keep track of the fact that char A needs 200 Iron bars, 40 Medium Leather, and 10 Citrine to level Blacksmithing etc.

Also, not all of the alts have professions yet, and I'm not sure which ones are best. Obviously I'm making sure that each 5x group has a skinner/miner/herbalist/enchanter, but I'd like to fill the other 6 profession slots to best take advantage of cooldowns. So far I'm thinking tailoring, because I'm leveling in instances and I have giant amounts of cloth, and it would be neat to have a constant supply of ebonweave etc for my main tailor once everybody gets high enough. But other than tailoring and alchemy, what are some cooldowns that would be valuable to have once I start getting into Wrath content?

[badashh]

I wouldn't have more than one tailor in all your groups. All the gear is BOE in wrath, so you can distribute when you get there. Also I would start up your own guild bank and stock up mats when you hit 60 or so make a decision about what you want to do what prof, other than gathering you are too low to care about the other profs.

[Jafula]

Titansteel ('http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55208') Used For ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37663#reagent-for')

Blizzard may add new trade skill recipes in future patches, so don't rely on all tailoring being BOE.

Also, my tanks trade skills will be Blacksmithing / Jewelcrafting, the later due to the the BOP +defense gems.

[Jafula]

but it would be nice to have this done automatically somehow and even better to find some way of keep track of the fact that char A needs 200 Iron bars, 40 Medium Leather, and 10 Citrine to level Blacksmithing etc.
An addon that writes the required info out to the Saved Variables and a C# .NET 3.5 winforms application with a SQL Server Compact backend could be an interesting project ...

[-silencer-]

If you don't have other characters with maxed professions, make sure your group has at least 1 of each.. although now with inscription, that makes 11, so you'll have to leave something out for now. Unless you have hunters, I'd leave engineering out of the group. Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting are more important for the group overall, and they're going to use a ton of ore to get to 450. Since my 6-man team has all 11 professions + tailoring x2 for another cooldown, all my new characters on my main realm are designed for what strictly benefits them for the BoP specifics. Tanks get BS & JC. BS have a couple BoP socketing recipes, and JC has a few top-level BoP gems & trinkets. Engineering isn't a bad choice for a tank though, since the epic engineering helm for any class is very good. Engineering is especially nice for paladin tanks pre-level 50, since it'll give you a good ranged attack to pull with.. bombs/rocket launcher.

Otherwise, it's usually best to have one crafting skill based on the character's armor, and the other be either BS for a melee weapon/gun, enchanting for casters, or JC for anyone else.

[-silencer-]

Hmm.. looks like Jewelcrafting isn't either of the two best options for a tank in WotLK. I pulled this from a wowhead comment and checked some of the stats.. they appear to be correct:

[B1] Tanking:

*
Herbalism = 2000healing/3mins (11 heal per second), not on GCD can be tied to other skills to always be used.
*
Mining = 50 stamina
*
Alchemy = 320 HP (Flask of Stoneblood)
*
Enchanting = 48 stamina
*
Jewelcrafting = 33 stamina
*
Blacksmithing = 60 stamina or 40 Def or 40 Dodge
*
Leatherworking = 50 stamina
*
Inscription = 32 Dodge Rating
*
Tailoring = 300ap/15second proc from Swordguard Embroidery (highly not worth taking tailoring for this)
*
Engineering = variable based on value of crafted helm and hand enchants, gadgets are priceless (like a mother's love, not the good kind)

My personal suggestion:
Plate tank: Mining & Blacksmithing
Druids: Mining & Leatherworking
These combinations provide a large amount of stamina boost as well as access to relevant gear for your class to help out.

[B2] Physical DPS:

*
Herbalism = 66.7AP (average, requires consumables)
*
Skinning = 32 Crit rating
*
Alchemy = 64 AP (Flask of Endless Rage)
*
Enchanting = 64 AP
*
Jewelcrafting = 42 AP or 21 AGI or 21 STR or 21 Crit Rating or 21 Haste Rating or 21 Hit Rating or 177 ArPen
*
Blacksmithing = 80 AP or 40 AGI or 40 STR or 40 Crit Rating or 40 Haste Rating or 40 Hit Rating or 280 ArPen
*
Leatherworking = 64 AP
*
Inscription = 64 AP
*
Tailoring = 300ap/15second proc from Swordguard Embroidery (highly not worth taking tailoring for this)
*
Engineering = variable based on value of crafted helm and hand enchants, gadgets are priceless (like a mother's love, not the good kind)

My personal suggestion:
Rogues, druids, (Shaman/hunter): Skinning & Leatherworking
Warriors, paladins, death knights, (shaman/hunter): Blacksmithing & Skinning

These provide the most benefit for your class, (with craftable gear that you can wear).

[B3] Caster DPS / Healing:

*
Herbalism = 33.3SP (average, requires consumables)
*
Skinning = 32 Crit rating
*
Alchemy = 37 SP (Flask of the Frost Wyrm) OR 13 MP5 (Flask of Pure Mojo)
*
Enchanting = 38 SP
*
Jewelcrafting = 27 SP or 21 Crit Rating or 21 Haste Rating or 21 Hit Rating or 9 MP5
*
Blacksmithing = 46 SP or 20 Crit Rating or 20 Haste Rating or 20 Hit Rating or 16 MP5
*
Leatherworking = 37 SP
*
Inscription = 36 SP
*
Tailoring = ~24dps from Lightweave Embroidery, ~16mp5 from Darkglow Embroidery
*
Engineering = variable based on value of crafted helm and hand enchants, gadgets are priceless (like a mother's love, not the good kind)

So, it looks like Mining and Blacksmithing are back to being the best choices for a tank.. or Blacksmithing and Inscription for +32 dodge instead of +50 stamina. Jewelcrafting is worse than quite a few of the professions for tanks. The couple extra JC-BoP gems aren't that much better from the top BoE gems - not enough to make up the difference that +50 stamina from mining or +48 stamina from enchanting.

[puppychow]

never trust wowhead! haha JC is definitely one of the best profs for a tank, you get to stack 3 epic gems (that only JCs can use) and there are definitely +stam (+33 x3) and +defense (x20 I think) gems, which are huge when initially gearing up a tank - especially a DK, since their gear has defense issues, 60 extra defense would be huge. Also a brilliant tanking trinket only JCs can use. Plus daily quest to get dragon eyes is real money - 200g+ for 10 mins of work. So no, Jewelcrafting is imo the BEST tank profession in wotlk so far.

Mining is ok, titansteel is not worth much anymore so just flat +50 sta is nice; but then again blacksmiths get 2 extra sockets so it evens out imo (altho mining is 100x ezier to level).

I'm not a huge fan of inscription, its expensive to level up w/o a big stockpile of herbs, and while the shoulder enchants are the best in game, it only takes a few weeks/months (less after next patch) to get Sons of Hodir to exalted.

I'm leveling my DK and he's gonna be BS/JC, no question JC is the best for tanks in my mind right now. The only prof i don't have is BS so just going with that, I also think they are going to add future BS patterns that are more self-enhancing as well. Probably self-inscription stuff too, since its (imo) the weakest WOTLK profession besides engineering and alchemy.

[-silencer-]

never trust wowhead! haha JC is definitely one of the best profs for a tank, you get to stack 3 epic gems (that only JCs can use) and there are definitely +stam (+33 x3) and +defense (x20 I think) gems, which are huge when initially gearing up a tank - especially a DK, since their gear has defense issues, 60 extra defense would be huge. Also a brilliant tanking trinket only JCs can use. Plus daily quest to get dragon eyes is real money - 200g+ for 10 mins of work. So no, Jewelcrafting is imo the BEST tank profession in wotlk so far.

Mining is ok, titansteel is not worth much anymore so just flat +50 sta is nice; but then again blacksmiths get 2 extra sockets so it evens out imo (altho mining is 100x ezier to level).

I'm not a huge fan of inscription, its expensive to level up w/o a big stockpile of herbs, and while the shoulder enchants are the best in game, it only takes a few weeks/months (less after next patch) to get Sons of Hodir to exalted.

I'm leveling my DK and he's gonna be BS/JC, no question JC is the best for tanks in my mind right now. The only prof i don't have is BS so just going with that, I also think they are going to add future BS patterns that are more self-enhancing as well. Probably self-inscription stuff too, since its (imo) the weakest WOTLK profession besides engineering and alchemy.

Yeah, after looking further, the numbers are slightly off from the comment I pulled, but you're not looking at the *difference* between JC and Mining in end-game stats. Without a doubt BS is #1 for tanks just for the extra sockets, but the difference between being a JC and a Miner is really only the cost of leveling it up. (Since both JC and BS use a TON of ore, I'd rather only have to level one.. with BS being first on the list initially. If you already have another character with high JC to bring in gold, it's a waste to do it on the tank as well.)

Look at the numbers.. you can't deny that BS/Mining is an easy choice on cost of leveling and end-game stats:

Jewelcrafting instead of mining:
+41 stamina (x3) Solid Dragon's Eye (+123 stamina)
minus +24 stamina (x3) Solid Sky Sapphire (+72 stamina) that a non-JC would be using:
Total: = +51 stamina.

Mining instead of jewelcrafting:
+50 stamina (mining 450)
Total: = +50 stamina.

Since both characters will also be able to use epic boss drop gems (likely +30 stamina each) in sockets beyond the initial 3, there is no difference there.

Therefore, the tradeoff between jewelcrafting and mining is that mining is only 1 stamina worse but costs MUCH less to level (in fact, by comparison, it PAYS to level). It's not a massive difference in end-game stats. I do agree on inscription - even being a DK, the extra stamina from mining/jewelcrafting is far more valuable than the +32 dodge benefit from the inscription shoulders over Sons of Hodir shoulders.

[Mukade]

but it would be nice to have this done automatically somehow and even better to find some way of keep track of the fact that char A needs 200 Iron bars, 40 Medium Leather, and 10 Citrine to level Blacksmithing etc.
An addon that writes the required info out to the Saved Variables and a C# .NET 3.5 winforms application with a SQL Server Compact backend could be an interesting project ...Um.......


<?php

$chars_1 = array("char1", "char2", "char3", "char4"); //account 1 chars
$chars_2 = array("char1", "char2", "char3", "char4", "char5", "char6"); //account 2 chars
$chars_3 = array("char1", "char2", "char3"); //account 3 chars

$chars = array_merge($chars_1, $chars_2, $chars_3);
sort($chars);

$realm = "Eonar";

echo "<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"5\"><tr>";

foreach ($chars as $char) {
echo "<tr><td>" . utf8_encode($char) . "</td>";
$input_file = file('http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=" . $realm . "&n=' . rawurlencode(utf8_encode($char)));

$sect_copy=0;
echo "<td>";
foreach ($input_file as $line) {
if (preg_match('/^.*?Primary Professions:.*?$/', $line)) {
$sect_copy=1;
} else if (preg_match('/^.*?Health:.*?$/', $line)) {
$sect_copy=0;
} else {
if ((preg_match('/^<h4>(.*?)<\/h4>$/', $line, $found)) && ($sect_copy==1)) {
echo $found[1]. ":";
}
if ((preg_match('/^\/images\/pixel.gif<b style=" width:.*?<span>(.*?)<\/span>$/', $line, $found)) && ($sect_copy==1)) {
echo $found[1] . "
";
}
}
}
echo "<td></tr>";
}

echo "</table>";

?>


Just harvests all the trade skill data from each character's armory page, and displays it in one place. I should really change it to update a locally stored file instead of querying armory every time it's run. Besides this, all I use is the Ten Ton Hammer trade skill levelling guides, and I make tracking mats for trade skills easy by having dedicated bankers for each kind of item (twinks do come in handy, not having any other use for their bank slots).

I do wish bank contents was available through armory, as I'm not inclined to learn LUA to make an addon to copy the data out. If you're swimming in gold though you could always get a guild bank for each bank char, as the contents can be seen in armory.

[Mukade]

I should probably mention that you need to put your character names in where it says "char1", "char2", etc, change to your realm, and change the address from eu.wowarmory.com if you're not in the EU.

It handles accents in character names thanks to the utf8_encodes.

With a little more work (and a good understanding of regular expressions) you could have it generating a table with all kinds of data.