Professions worth it?

So, when I first made a 5 box team, I did the following professions:

-Skinng/Herb on main
-Enchanting on 1
-Mining on 1

I felt that it was majorly debilitating to my leveling speed. So, for my 5 shamans, I ditched all professions except Enchanting so that I could DE items.
I just hit 58 and ran into the Outlands... Do you guys think that it would be worth it to "powerlevel" herbing on one of my toons... or skinning, or something? How long would it take to run around as a lvl 58 on a mount to level herbing from 1-300 you think? Not having my epic ground mounts, I feel like I may be missing out on some cash.

Skinning, mining, herbalism, all gathering professions get easier to powerlevel when you have a mount. Enchanting meanwhile makes the game easier without taking up that much bagspace. I recommend it. It's just that it's going to be nearly twice as fast doing it on an epic mount.

Look at your servers economy and consider making several alchemists to make money selling transmutes too, I'm working on that right now

Get 60th, get epic land mounts, then go back to the old world and level the gathering skills.

Enchanting is defenitely worth it. I'd say put it on all your toons and power them to the point they can DE quest rewards.

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Originally Posted by 'zanthor',index.php?page=Thread&postID=45409#post4 5409

Get 60th, get epic land mounts, then go back to the old world and level the gathering skills.

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Problem is that I wont have the cash at 60. I have about 1000g spread across the characters at 58 and I need what, 700g x 5 = 3500g to get all 5?

hmm.

Minimally I would do the gathering prof and enchanting.

Save all the herb/skin/ores if you want to level a profession, otherwise sell it at the AH.

Some of the old world mats is worth it because there are always people trying to powerlevel a profession.

I opted for Herb/Mining on my main, and skinning on a clone since you can /cast skinning I don't have to switch over. I also have one enchanter, a jewelcrafter (simply because it's the only profession I've never done on any of my toons), and a leatherworker to hopefully make some useful gear as I level. I decided not to bother with Alchemy since my server has terrible PVE progression, I think the top horde guild only killed Kael this past week and there's only one or two other guilds even in T5 content.

My only problem is I find that it's hard to keep up both mining and herbalism at the same time (my skinner is already at like 220 skill at level 30). I did get a pretty late start, level 18 or so, that didn't help I guess.

I have done 1-375 herbalism a couple times with epic ground, regular flying. It took me like 3 evening sessions, not sure how many hours though. It takes longer than you might think because there are stretches where the plants that will give you a skill-up are fairly spread out and I guarantee that you will run into people who are after the same spawns.

Yeah, my main fear is wasting 3,4,maybe 5 days leveling a gathering profession while I let my other 4 chars sit. Seems like a waste of leveling time :(

Jewelcrafting + Enchanting (on Main) because of the uber JC only gems. Enchant because extra min-max enchants on Rings.


Mining + Engineering.
Buy a repair bot to carry and pop it out when you're ready to sell while inside a dungeon.

Enchant + Tailor. You make tailor stuff, and DE them for your Enchant needs.

Herbalism + Alchemy. Once you get 300 Herb, you can get to 375 just running around Hellfire Peninsula. It's that easy.
Alchemy is a bit more of a pain, but I went for Transmutation Mastery.

Skinning & Leather-- I did not bother. PvP items > LW tradeskills, for less time.

Blacksmithing might be the same uselessness when 2.4 comes. Even with Primal Nether and Nether Vortex more obtainable, S3 weapon and armor is easier to get.

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Originally Posted by 'Sanctume',index.php?page=Thread&postID=45505#post 45505

Skinning & Leather-- I did not bother. PvP items > LW tradeskills, for less time.

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Not of real consequence to boxers but the Primalstrike set for rogues >>>>>>>> than any PvP gear if your goal is to maximize dps for PvE.

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Originally Posted by 'Bigfish',index.php?page=Thread&postID=45416#post4 5416

Enchanting is defenitely worth it. I'd say put it on all your toons and power them to the point they can DE quest rewards.

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sorry but that is a very incorrect answer. the cost to lvl enchanting far outweighs the return you would get from old gear unless you are like getting epics on every character every day and DE'ing large pris and voids on all of them but even then... The reason to have enchanting is to DE drops you get from instances you dont need and to sell for money. 1 enchanter is just fine and I would also say dont bother with other professions until you have an epic land mount. and even then its debatable (i alreayd have most professions accounted for on other 70s which is one big reason I dont bother) But IMO 1 DE'er is a must. if you really want to go crazy youcan pickup 1 of each profession that way you can get the unique bop patterns in instances and sell the finished product for money if you really want. the bop items are also a consideration for choosing a proffession if you have cash to burn, but most of those things are something that isnt even considered till youve been 70 for a while and taken care of the basics.

and keep in mind this. pvp gear has its stat points in just that...pvp that means instead of getting say spell hit (or hit) you get more stamina, or crit. I see it way too often where people just go "omg look I have s2/3 I can do kara" well thats great you have a 93dps mainhand, too bad you cant hit a raid boss worth a damn. So unless you are a healer (druid kodohide set is some of the best gear for resto druid for example) dont go crazy with pvp gear too much. It wont be too bad outside of raiding but keep in mind the item stats are not geared toward pve so gear accordingly. Now if your goal in life is to get in the top 10 5v5 ratings then go crazy lol otherwise just something to keep in mind that having 12k hp doesnt necesarily mean you can do a heroic ;)

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Originally Posted by 'Gallo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=45420#post454 20

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Originally Posted by 'zanthor',index.php?page=Thread&postID=45409#post4 5409

Get 60th, get epic land mounts, then go back to the old world and level the gathering skills.

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Problem is that I wont have the cash at 60. I have about 1000g spread across the characters at 58 and I need what, 700g x 5 = 3500g to get all 5?

hmm.

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If your main priority is getting you're team leveld up asap I'd forget about all professions with the exception of perhap skinning as you will come across ALOT of skins that can be sold for some decent cash. Bank ALL greens and save all cloth on alts, yes this will take a ton of bank space and you'll need a few alts. Once your team hits 70 then you should have enough items to DE and cloth to easily level one of your toons to max out talioring and enchanting. Or if you are planning on making several taliors you will still have a damn good amount to start you off and save you a ton of gold in the end. BoE's just auction off. Low level shards don't even sell for what you could vendor low level blues for.

As for gathering professions, as you have noticed they slow you down wayyy to much. WIth a mount you can do it all at 70 in a fraction of the time. The only reason I suggest leveling skinning along the way is because you have to kill the mobs anyways before you can skin them which you will be practiaclly one shotting most beasts with a 5box anyways, as well as how quickly skinning level up. You easily max out your skinning b4 you are even killing mobs for the next skinning bracket. Herbing and mining you have to constantly be looking for and running out of your way to get to while skinnable mobs run straight up to you :)

my 2c

Edit: Also wanted to mention that if you do plan on making a LW, all the skins you can save up along the way will also greatly decrease the costs once you hit 70. Otherwise all other professions I'd just forget about till 70.

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Originally Posted by 'Tdog',index.php?page=Thread&postID=46431#post4643 1

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Originally Posted by 'Gallo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=45420#post454 20

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Originally Posted by 'zanthor',index.php?page=Thread&postID=45409#post4 5409

Get 60th, get epic land mounts, then go back to the old world and level the gathering skills.

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Problem is that I wont have the cash at 60. I have about 1000g spread across the characters at 58 and I need what, 700g x 5 = 3500g to get all 5?

hmm.

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If your main priority is getting you're team leveld up asap I'd forget about all professions with the exception of perhap skinning as you will come across ALOT of skins that can be sold for some decent cash. Bank ALL greens and save all cloth on alts, yes this will take a ton of bank space and you'll need a few alts. Once your team hits 70 then you should have enough items to DE and cloth to easily level one of your toons to max out talioring and enchanting. Or if you are planning on making several taliors you will still have a damn good amount to start you off and save you a ton of gold in the end. BoE's just auction off. Low level shards don't even sell for what you could vendor low level blues for.

As for gathering professions, as you have noticed they slow you down wayyy to much. WIth a mount you can do it all at 70 in a fraction of the time. The only reason I suggest leveling skinning along the way is because you have to kill the mobs anyways before you can skin them which you will be practiaclly one shotting most beasts with a 5box anyways, as well as how quickly skinning level up. You easily max out your skinning b4 you are even killing mobs for the next skinning bracket. Herbing and mining you have to constantly be looking for and running out of your way to get to while skinnable mobs run straight up to you :)

my 2c

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this is a good idea i agree. I actually am lvling up my enchanting as I go, thus allowing me to save space since I can continue to DE anything I come across and the stacked mats take up much less space than their raw counterparts. Also, a sort of undocumented annoyance is that skinning skillups slow down considerably after lvl 300. Its actually very slow but its not a huge issue since by then you are getting kodohide skin and scraps which sell quickly but just be prepared to skin lots and lots of outlands beasts to cap skinning (like 3-6 kills per level)

*edit* if you ever plan to level LW on any character then save everything you skin and put it in the bank/alt, especially the low level stuff or you will pay out the eyeballs for it later on.

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Originally Posted by 'marvein',index.php?page=Thread&postID=46428#post4 6428

sorry but that is a very incorrect answer. the cost to lvl enchanting far outweighs the return you would get from old gear unless you are like getting epics on every character every day and DE'ing large pris and voids on all of them but even then... The reason to have enchanting is to DE drops you get from instances you dont need and to sell for money.

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I think you can fund most of your enchanting leveling by DEing quest rewards that you're not going to use or by DEing old armor as you replace it. Another reason to have enchanting is so that you can get that last little bit of bonuses from enchanting your own rings.

I currently have enchanting on just one of my guys, but I've saved every green+ item they've ever gotten so that I can DE the stuff once I start leveling enchanting on them.

Personally, I'm holding off a little bit on my profession plan until I see how the new profession in WotLK impacts my team. I have 4 spell-casters, after all...

I've neglected actually leveling professions (enchanting aside) for the moment. But what I have been doing is still gathering. I still have a miner and i just run him off to grab a mine while my others are still going about their business. IMO, as long as its not your primary doing the gathering, its worthwhile to have that bank full of materials whenever you decide its worthwhile to level someones profession.

Although, space of course becomes an issue, but I've got my own little guild just for me, and I'll be buying up those guild bank tabs for the extra space and ease of trading between my other 5 box teams.

I had my Tailor/Enchanter skill as I went. Honestly, I don't think it took that much time away from my leveling... besides, the bag space/alts needed to store it all till 70 is retarded.

I followed one of the powerleveling professions guides and I think I was 300 in both in the mid 40s? Then I just DE'd and sold all my mats for epic mount funds until I needed 300-375 stuff.

I'm guessing when added up I spent no more than 2-3hrs making stuff/DE'ing stuff?

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Originally Posted by 'Boylston',index.php?page=Thread&postID=46492#post 46492

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Originally Posted by 'marvein',index.php?page=Thread&postID=46428#post4 6428

sorry but that is a very incorrect answer. the cost to lvl enchanting far outweighs the return you would get from old gear unless you are like getting epics on every character every day and DE'ing large pris and voids on all of them but even then... The reason to have enchanting is to DE drops you get from instances you dont need and to sell for money.

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I think you can fund most of your enchanting leveling by DEing quest rewards that you're not going to use or by DEing old armor as you replace it. Another reason to have enchanting is so that you can get that last little bit of bonuses from enchanting your own rings.

I currently have enchanting on just one of my guys, but I've saved every green+ item they've ever gotten so that I can DE the stuff once I start leveling enchanting on them.

Personally, I'm holding off a little bit on my profession plan until I see how the new profession in WotLK impacts my team. I have 4 spell-casters, after all...

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no actually you cant, you dont get skillups for DE'ing past about lvl 80 so the rest of the skillups must come from actually burning enchants. Now, leveling up enchanting on all your alts to have the ring enchants falls under the category I mentioned of "when you have money to burn". IMO the only professions that you should bother with *while* lvling to 70 would be enchanting on one character to DE drops you dont use. skinning since you are going to be killing skinnable mobs atleast at some point and no reason to waste potential cashflow. and possibly first aid which people have mixed opinions about. All the rest should come after you have taken care of the essentials, such as getting to 70, training all your skills, epic land mounts and being moderately geared up.

Enchanting is a bitch once you get to 260 or so. I can't imaging leveling 5x enchanters.

In the end, I'm just gonna wait until I get epic ground mounts (maybe 64-65ish) before I try to level herbing. I always level my enchanter to keep DEing instance gear, but thats about it. I just want to get to 70.

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Originally Posted by 'Chorizotarian',index.php?page=Thread&postID=46626 #post46626

Enchanting is a bitch once you get to 260 or so. I can't imaging leveling 5x enchanters.

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i found the biggest hurdles were actually right near 300. Im interested to see how it goes with my shamans because up to this point I have always had enchanting mats coming out of my eyeballs from gear I dont use. But my strategy is if anything (bop or boe) drops that I dont need it gets burned and stored for later. my enchanting is around 225 now and Ive got easily enough mats for 50-60 enchants that are orange skill level and i dont expect that to change. Each time I think it will be an issue I gain a level or two and go into a new instance where the next tier of items give me plenty of mats. I even had enough to give to my brother to level his enchanting (hes like 315 now, he is doing it on his druid to get the all stats ring enchants)

I didnt have enough money to buy a mount at 40 or an epic mount at 60. These all came about 4 levels late. I used Gold I had on mains to buy the non epic ground mount.

I think I leveled fast. 3 toons to 70 in 11 days 20 hours. Speed was most important for me, so like others suggested I skipped doing professions while leveling because I barely had enough bag space to loot corpses let alone pick up herbs, leather, and ore. Leveling the three professions while leveling will cost you anywhere from 5-60k xp/hr depending on your level (dont forget to take into account the extra AH time, Auctioneer is assumed). But you'll get your mounts 4 levels sooner.

You could make the argument that the time will be made up when you're riding around outlands 40% faster then me on my normal mount. Maybe? Four levels is a lot of traveling, but with the shaman class I minimized it as much as I could by using flight points and Recall. Less time on the slow mount then other classes.

My advice would be to do only leveling. Bag Management X3 was enough trouble for me. I had my epic mount by 64 and the income from outlands quests was great enough for me to buy a flying mount as soon as I dinged 70. I've been leveling my professions while waiting for BG and Arena Ques in Org. Seems to be working well.

Professions are a must, you are going to need the Gold for Repair Bills alone.

just wanted to add that I do not have mounts for my shamans for several reasons.

1. ~500g is more than I care to spend when Im trying to get epic flight form.
2. ~ pre-outlands 95% of my time is spent inside an instance so a mount wont do me any good there
3. ~my hearth is now in shattrah as of lvl 40 thanks to a mage guildie lol (he just randomly came over and made me a portal and said "dude you gotta go to shatt thats awsome!" haah) so being able to, every 15min (recall I love you) go to any major city in a matter of minutes has made travelling minute.
4. Once I get to outlands I will probably go for the mounts since ill have taken care of other expenses by then (and being to do dailies on 3 lvl 70s is pretty decent cashflow lol) Since I will be doing much more questing in order to gear myself up before running instances.
5. Ghost wolf is enough for now and I can do it while in combat so win/win

I would say the only professions worth your time when leveling are
Skinning - If you are going to skin have it on your main char so he can loot/skin all at once

Chanting - For reasons stated earlier

Tailoring - Tailoring can be a real space saver and give lot of extra mats for leveling enchanting. Especially at higher levels when you can turn 100 Mageweave that takes 5 slots into 20 bolts of mageweave that take up 2 slots.

Mining - Can be a pain to level as well, but if you run WC and RFK you can level your mining in the instance. Make sure you have your mining up to 125 before you start RFK, there are at least 2-3 nodes of iron in there every run. There may be some nodes in Mara as well.

When you hit 70 you could use the mats you have saved up from mining/skinning to decide if you want to BS/engineer/JC/LW. And you can level herbing in about 3 hours or less to 300.

in my runs through mara ive seen lots of mythril nodes and a few iron nodes. mainly in inner mara. I dont think there are in mining nodes in outer purple. might be a few in orange though.

Currently running a 70 pali with capped enchanting / alch - 4 x 63 shaman with no trade skills.

Im waiting till 70 to sort out trade skills, though as people have said being able to DE while instancing is a great form of cash, I usualy sell the decent BOE items and De the BOP and bad items.

Im thinking:

1 enchanting - DE etc
5 alch - trasmute masters for quick easy cash every 23 hours
2 tailor - make spellcloth etc, and a use for nether i farm
1 mining - to grab the stuff in instances
1 herb- to grab the stuff in instances

I wont skin, I cant see it taking up too much time skinning every mob with 1 char while the others wit there waiting.

Proffesions always take time to level, as they already have said, w8 with gather proff. untill u have 100% mount, and at lease one should be enchanting, i regret that i didnt put my main to enchanting, ive sold shitloads of questrewards + blue's from isntaces :/.

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Originally Posted by 'Effex',index.php?page=Thread&postID=46919#post469 19

5 alch - trasmute masters for quick easy cash every 23 hours

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All alchy's can Xmute -- being a master gives you a MINISCULE chance that you can get extra procs. I believe they took away the 5-proc. :( Suvega got the 5-proc once on a primal might and it was sweet, but it's not common.

Both Suvega and I switched to pot and flask mastery. Xmute will probably not return you the initial investment (4 primal mights) to become a master. You can still do the xmute earth -> water to get money every 24 hours like an extra daily, without having to be xmute master.

Pot/flask spec isn't capped per day, so there's more profit there. Not that alchy has much profit, but it's more than xmute. I promise you.

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Originally Posted by 'Fursphere',index.php?page=Thread&postID=47040#pos t47040

I have 3 xmute masters. I get about 1 - 2 procs per week (7 days) between them, which normally yeilds 1 to 2 extra items.

In short - its a complete waste of time and money. It probably used to be cool - but it sucks now.

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It was cool back when you crossed your fingers and wished for a 5-proc. Not so cool when you go 2+ months without a proc.

Not to mention it was bugged for a LONG time such that nothing but primal mights could proc. I believe they fixed that, but I never got a proc after the fix either. I think I've had a total of... 2? 3? procs

My luck sucks. I'm the kind of person who /roll's and gets a 1 out of 100.


Meanwhile after switching to pot spec and making maybe 20 mad alchy pots, I learned Flask of Blinding Light, Flask of Pure Death, and another flask that I can't remember and would consistently get an extra 3-4 pot proc every time I'd make 3-4 mad alchy pots. Not too shabby. Shame that my luck with those mad alchy pots is always to get the melee enh shammy elixir buffs >.<

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Originally Posted by 'Vyndree',index.php?page=Thread&postID=47034#post4 7034

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Originally Posted by 'Effex',index.php?page=Thread&postID=46919#post469 19

5 alch - trasmute masters for quick easy cash every 23 hours

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All alchy's can Xmute -- being a master gives you a MINISCULE chance that you can get extra procs. I believe they took away the 5-proc. :( Suvega got the 5-proc once on a primal might and it was sweet, but it's not common.

Both Suvega and I switched to pot and flask mastery. Xmute will probably not return you the initial investment (4 primal mights) to become a master. You can still do the xmute earth -> water to get money every 24 hours like an extra daily, without having to be xmute master.

Pot/flask spec isn't capped per day, so there's more profit there. Not that alchy has much profit, but it's more than xmute. I promise you.

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they absolutely did not remove the 5proc. when i get home ill post a screenie of one recently. xmute mastery just takes a little dedication. always, always burn your cooldown the moment it is up. And it absoultely gives you your return on investment. I have procd over 30 extra primal mights since being specd. and that isnt counting the times I just did things like earth->life or earth-water. However if you are looking for a source of pots/elixirs for your group than the other masteries would likely benefit you more.

*edit* blizzard did indeed break it for a few months recently but ive gotten a 5proc and 2 3procs ssince doing primal mights

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Originally Posted by 'Fursphere',index.php?page=Thread&postID=47063#pos t47063

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Originally Posted by 'Vyndree',index.php?page=Thread&postID=47058#post4 7058

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Originally Posted by 'Fursphere',index.php?page=Thread&postID=47040#pos t47040

I have 3 xmute masters. I get about 1 - 2 procs per week (7 days) between them, which normally yeilds 1 to 2 extra items.

In short - its a complete waste of time and money. It probably used to be cool - but it sucks now.

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It was cool back when you crossed your fingers and wished for a 5-proc. Not so cool when you go 2+ months without a proc.

Not to mention it was bugged for a LONG time such that nothing but primal mights could proc. I believe they fixed that, but I never got a proc after the fix either. I think I've had a total of... 2? 3? procs

My luck sucks. I'm the kind of person who /roll's and gets a 1 out of 100.


Meanwhile after switching to pot spec and making maybe 20 mad alchy pots, I learned Flask of Blinding Light, Flask of Pure Death, and another flask that I can't remember and would consistently get an extra 3-4 pot proc every time I'd make 3-4 mad alchy pots. Not too shabby. Shame that my luck with those mad alchy pots is always to get the melee enh shammy elixir buffs >.<

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How do you respec from Xmute to Pots or Elixers? Do you have to scrap alchmey and start all over? I rarely use pots / flasks / elixars... probably should but I don't.

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talk to the npc that offers the quest for the mastery you want to get. you might be charge some gold for it and sometimes not it depends on what you are and what you are going to.

Cost is 100 gold from memory. Back when transmute spec was good, people used to do the potion mastery quest and pay the 100g to respec to transmute - it was cheaper than buy 5 x primal mights. :)

Cheers,
Stealthy

It cost me and Suvega to just head to your old mastery trainer to unlearn and pay 100g. Find hte new mastery trainer and learn your new mastery. No need to re-do the quests.

Or was it 50g at one trainer and 50g at another? I can never remember. 100g total.

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Originally Posted by 'Vyndree',index.php?page=Thread&postID=47034#post4 7034

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Originally Posted by 'Effex',index.php?page=Thread&postID=46919#post469 19

5 alch - trasmute masters for quick easy cash every 23 hours

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All alchy's can Xmute -- being a master gives you a MINISCULE chance that you can get extra procs. I believe they took away the 5-proc. :( Suvega got the 5-proc once on a primal might and it was sweet, but it's not common.

Both Suvega and I switched to pot and flask mastery. Xmute will probably not return you the initial investment (4 primal mights) to become a master. You can still do the xmute earth -> water to get money every 24 hours like an extra daily, without having to be xmute master.

Pot/flask spec isn't capped per day, so there's more profit there. Not that alchy has much profit, but it's more than xmute. I promise you.

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Im already pot master and have been for ages on my main, as I dont want to spend ages using trade skills to make cash, i just want a quick press of a button once a day going transmute master and doing earth-water with it is the easiest imo. as for the initial cash outlay, if you go erm either potion or eliver mastery i forget which its an easy cheap quest to do then just pay the 200g to transfer to transmute mastery.

>>> MINING UPDATE <<<

with patch 2.4 you can now go from 0-290 just from smelting :) i spent a few hundred and did it that way soo much quicker. wanted it up fast as Im running normal MT and theres 2 adamantite / rich nodes there

woot, my mining on my main has been so slow, been level 70 a few months and still under 300, lol

Im making all my characters tailors so I can farm primal moon cloth to make mass Primal mooncloth bags (20 slots) and kit my char and bank out and then sell them on the Ah.
I rarely see them on our server AH and when I do they go for about 300-400g and go within 6 hrs so I imagine its a good money maker:)

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Originally Posted by 'Majestic_Clown',index.php?page=Thread&postID=4724 8#post47248

woot, my mining on my main has been so slow, been level 70 a few months and still under 300, lol

Im making all my characters tailors so I can farm primal moon cloth to make mass Primal mooncloth bags (20 slots) and kit my char and bank out and then sell them on the Ah.
I rarely see them on our server AH and when I do they go for about 300-400g and go within 6 hrs so I imagine its a good money maker:)

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might have to check that outon my server too, could swop out alc on 4 chars for it

Ya I have plans to lvl mining on my warrior in plans for the future (he is an alt alt alt lol) however thorium ore is 40g a stack on my server so actually mining is the best option and use the smelting thing to fill gaps. of course that is server dependant

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Originally Posted by 'marvein',index.php?page=Thread&postID=47324#post4 7324

Ya I have plans to lvl mining on my warrior in plans for the future (he is an alt alt alt lol) however thorium ore is 40g a stack on my server so actually mining is the best option and use the smelting thing to fill gaps. of course that is server dependant

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few things to rmemeber so spening 40g a stack on thorium ore doesnt seem to bad....

your only smelting the ore, you still get thorum bars back which will sell for close to 40g anyway. so free or almost free gains

you have to mine from 290-300 on thorium so youl get a stack atleast to sell and recoup your loses.

Dont think your going to go mine to gain then smelt what you mine and gain again, chances are by the time u finish mining it'll turn grey in smelting so no skill gain.