Thread: WoW: Tradeskills + Items.

Ok, here i go again.

In WoW, you have the option of taking up trades.
You can take up two trades (forthknown as professions) and only two, with teh addition of SECONDARY professions. These are basics like cooking and First aid.
These professions can be dropped at any time in favour of another, so dont worry if you select the wrong one initially.

The professions are generally broken into two categories. Crafting and Gathering.
The gathering professions are Herbilism, Mining and Skinning. The crafting professions are Engineering, Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Tailoring and Leatherworking. There is also another profession called Enchanting.

Several of the professions actually split off into others later on. For example Blacksmiths (when they reach high enough level) can branch into Armoursmiths, or weaponsmiths. If they take up weaponsmithing, they can then specialise in Axes, Swords or Hammers.

YO MC HAMMER! BREAK IT DOWN!

Mining:
You mine for ore and gems in veins and deposits. You can smelt the ore and sell it for a nice profit, or you can learn Engineering or Blacksmithing to make things from the ore.

Herbalism:
Basically the same as mining, you gather herbs from herbs growing around. There is a slightly smaller market for herbs at some servers, as they mostly only supply alchemy.

Skinning:
This is also a gatherer profession, but unlike the others, you dont collect from nodes, but mobs you kill. This makes it a lot easier to get large quantities of leather and grind at the same time, and leather is needed in very many professions! This can make you a good profit, or you may learn to be a leatherworker.

Engineering:
This is no big moneymaking profession. Engineering will probably spend more than it gains, but in return, you get some REALLY nice equipment and gadgets, especially at higher lvls. It fits good for all classes, especially those that use guns, as you may make AND upgrade guns! Paladins may also like engineering, as it gives paladins their ONLY way to get ranged attacks! (Exept some lvl 40 spell that only can be used as enemies that would die very soon anyway.) Engineering can make you bombs, guns, cool glasses and gadgets that can revive you, shrink enemies, give underwater breathing, and so on. In addition you can make yourself some cool companions, exploding sheep, squirrels, fighter robots and fighting dragons. Its a good rule to always have mining in addition to Engineering, as you`ll be needing MUCH ore.

Tailoring:
Arguably the easiest profession, as the ingredients mostly drop from humanoids, making you some experience AND fast gathering. They are also pretty cheap at the Auction. Tailoring is making cloth armor and bags, and is, of course, most useful to cloth wearing classes. With this profession, you also make things you actually will use before the higher levels. You will also need thread and dyes from vendors and leather from skinners. You wont need any other professions to gather the most important ingredients for Tailoring

Leatherworking:
Like tailoring, an very easy profession. You will need more ingredients to gain a high skill, but they are easier to gather. Leatherworking fits leather-wearing classes like Hunter, Rouge, Druid and Shaman. Some classes will be able to use mail armour later, taking the use away from this profession. Choose skinning with leatherworking, as skinning supplies most of what you need for leatherworking. With leatherworking, you can make equipment you will use all from the start. You will need thread and some other stuff from the vendor, as well as some things from other players and mobs.

Enchanting:
This is supposed to be the hardest profession in the games, fit for only the high lvls. I think that it is possible for a low lvl to be a decent enchanter! As an enchanter you will have to destroy items of green quality or higher to get ingredients. This means gaining less money... Wrong! As soon as you get those beastslaying and +damage enchants for weapons around lvl 90 you make big bucks! Choose tailoring beside enchanting to get enough high quality items for free, then disenchant what you make. Then you sell your weapon enchants in some crowded place. I made around 1g per beastslaying enchant at my lvl 14 priest, giving me a good fortune. Some runs in the Deadmines will give you MANY disenchantable items.

Blacksmithing:
This is an profession that will need many different ingredients. I advise choosing mining as your second profession, as mining gets you most of what you need. Dont expect to either need or manage to make money on what you make before you learn the silvered and green iron stuff at lvl 130 or so. You will need some vendor bought equipment, leather and leatherworking goods in addition to what you get from mining. A good way to lvl is to buy ore for all your money at the Auction at buyout, make items off all you bought and sell what you make at the Vendor. Then you use what you gained for more ingredients. Continue until you're satisfied or got very little money. This is not advised before you have some gold in your pocket and lvl 100 or higher in blacksmithing.

Alchemy:
A profession i have little experience with, but i know that potions are VERY handy! Alchemy makes potions. You need herbs gathered with herbalism and vials from the vendor to make potions. Potions can give you health and mana while fighting, especially handy for mages and healers, that may run out of mana in the crucial moment. Non-healers will need the health potions when not backed up by a healer or when the healer has died. As an alchemist, you can also make potions that give you better stats, more damaged, bonuses like faster running and such.


There is also a secondary profession called First Aid. VERY VERY HANDY. Try to get it asap and level it as you level your character. Unless your a healer, you will use it ALOT.

First-Aid:
Good for non-healers. Bandage yourself and your friends, replenishing health both in and out of combat, at least if the monsters are attacking someone else at the time (damage interrupts the 'channel' of the first aid bandage). Bandages are made from the same ingredients as tailoring goods: Linen, Wool, Silk, Mageweave, and so on...


Items..

edit - resting my fingers again. brb.