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Category:WoW Professions  

Not only are characters adventurers of a particular class, but they are also able to learn several crafting tradeskills. There are a total of 10 professions in the game, as well as 3 Secondary Professions. Players are able to learn the ins and outs of no more than two primary professions, however the three secondary professions do not count against this total.

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Primary Professions

  • Alchemy creates Potions, Elixirs and Flasks from herbs. These potions range from immediate effects such as healing to long-term buffs.
  • Blacksmithing is the fashioning of weapons, armor, and other metal goods.
  • Enchanting destroys magical items into their basic components (disenchanting) and using those materials to add bonuses to other equipment.
  • Engineering creates various mechanical objects, some of which do not work on a consistent basis or can only be used by an engineer.
  • Herbalism allows for the picking of various medicinal plants that can be detected on the herbalist's mini-map.
  • Jewelcrafting sculpts uncut gems into particular patterns that provide bonuses when placed inside of a Socket, and can also make some basic jewelry items.
  • Leatherworking produces leather goods from skins, including armor and armor patches. It's important to note that the higher levels of leatherworking also are able to produce mail items. This allows the skill to scale with classes such as Shamans who begin wearing leather but learn to wear mail at level 40.
  • Mining harvests metallic ore from deposits that can be found throughout the world, and smelts the ore into usable bars.
  • Skinning a creature will take its pelt for use in making leather armor.
  • Tailoring designs clothing items from raw cloth, and also creates bags and other containers.

Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning are often referred to as Gathering Professions. By contrast, the other professions are usually considered Crafting Professions.

Most of the crafting professions require the aid of someone with a particular gathering profession to supply the necessary materials. For example, a leatherworker needs skinned leather. Since your character can learn two primary professions, it is often wise to pick two skills that complement each other.

Secondary Professions

  • Cooking prepares raw fish and meat for consuming. Even when an uncooked foodstuff is edible, cooking it will give it a bonus of some kind.
  • Fishing involves sitting still by a pool of water, waiting for a bite. You will occasionally reel in items that are not fish.
  • First Aid is an essential skill for nearly every class, allowing the character to create and use bandages for rapid healing. Even classes that are capable of healing themselves can benefit from First Aid because it will allow the character to heal quickly without using mana.

There is little or no reason not to spend time learning the secondary skills. Fishing and cooking can be boring, but first aid is essential to the survival of most players.

Learning a Profession

To first learn a profession, you must locate a Profession Trainer. You will need to train the apprentice level of skill (this can be trained at any trainer) At that point you will have a skill of 1 out of a possible 75. As you practice the skill it will increase. (See Using a Profession.)

As you gain skill, you may be able to learn new recipes from your trainer. Also, when you are approaching a skill of 75, you will want to train beyond being an apprentice to a journeyman. This will raise your skill cap to 150. Otherwise, you will never go past 75.

You will be able to visit a trainer again to increase your skill cap to 225, 300, and 375. (These levels are called expert, artisan, and master.) As your skill increases, you will be able to make newer and more interesting things...or be able to harvest more challenging items in the case of gathering skills.

Note that the secondary professions will not allow you to train at a trainer beyond a skill of 150. For the secondary professions, you will need to purchase a book to train the skill range from 150-225, a quest will increase your cap to 300 and another book will allow you to reach the maximum, unmodified cap or 375. Refer to the individual secondary skill pages for more information.

Using a Profession

To use a gathering profession, you only need to find an item you can gather and right-click it. For skinning, this is as simple as killing a creature that is skinable, and then looting the body. For herbalism and mining, you will need to locate herb and ore nodes. Fortunately, you will have a tracking skill for finding nearby plants and deposits. You will need a skinning knife to skin or a mining pick to mine. These can be bought from any "Trade Goods Vendor."

Production professions are slightly more complicated. First you will need to open your spellbook and look under the General tab for your profession. This will open a Tradeskill Window that will list all of your available recipes, and in parentheses after each is the number of those things that you can actually make/perform based on the materials you have in your inventory. Clicking on a particular recipe will show the items required in the lower half of the window. If you are able to make this item, you can press the Create or Create All button to start crafting.

It is important to note that the recipes (and gathering attempts) will be written in different colors.

  • A skill that is red is impossible to attempt. (gathering only)
  • A skill in orange lettering is almost certain to grant a skill-up.
  • A yellow recipe is likely to produce a skill-up.
  • Green is unlikely to increase your skill, but has a chance.
  • A gray recipe is trivial to you, and there is no chance at all of gaining skill from it.

As you become a more capable craftsman, the recipes may shift into a lower color, so it is important to keep up with the most recent recipes you can train.

Other Recipes and Trainings

All production professions will have some items that you cannot learn from a trainer. Instead, you will find a recipe out in the world. Some of these will be from a Limited Supply vendor, and others will be World Drops.

Training to the next tier of craftsmanship requires finding a trainer that is able to teach it to you. Most trainers have a limit on what they can teach you. If you are looking to move beyond them, then you may need to travel to another location. If you read the text on the trainer before clicking the "I would like to train" dialog, they will usually indicate where you can find a more capable trainer. You can also refer to our List of Trainers.

It should also be noted that moving to the next tier has a required level associated with it. You must be level 5 to begin a tradeskill, 10 to become a journeyman, 20 for expert, 35 or 40 for artisan, and 50 for master.

If you should decide that you want to embark upon a new profession, you will have to unlearn one of your two existing professions. To do this, open your Skills Window, click on the skill you wish to unlearn, and click on the "no" symbol next to the skill listing that appears at the bottom.

Starting with the 225 level, secondary skills do not have a standard trainer. Instead there is either a book to buy or a quest to perform. (See List of Trainers.)

Some production skills also have specialties. When you reach a certain level, you can pick up a focus in one aspect of the profession. This allows you access to certain specific recipes, or in the case of alchemy, bonuses when trying to create potions/elixirs/transmutes.

Making Money from Tradeskills

Production skills seldom, if ever, make money. Most players who invest heavily into being a complete leatherworker or engineer will find themselves in the red. It takes some good business sense to find items nobody else has or is making money from, and exploiting the market. It can also take tenacity. For that reason, if your goal is to make money, it is not advised to work on a production tradeskill. Take two gathering skills instead. As a cruel irony, the reason production skills lose money is because they spend it on raw materials from the Auction House that gatherers collect. Skinning and either Herbalism or Mining will net a greater profit than nearly any other pairing. Enchanting also has great potential for making money, without requiring a gathering skill, but tends to be very expensive to level.

Tradeskill Pairings

A frequently asked question is "What tradeskills should I do?" You must consider what you expect from a tradeskill, whether to make money, or fill a niche in the market, or simply produce some useful items for your character. There are some crafter-only items for each profession to encourage players to not just rely on others for their production.

Common pairings:

  • Herbalism/Alchemy: Herbalism is the natural skill required for Alchemy. Good for any class.
  • Mining/Blacksmithing: Same as above. Good for Paladins and Warriors depending on class spec and blacksmithing specialisation.
  • Mining/Engineering: Same as above. Good for any class.
  • Mining/Jewelcrafting: Same as above. Good for any class.
  • Skinning/Leatherworking: Same as above. Good for Druids, Rogues, Hunters and Shamans.
  • Tailoring/Enchanting: Neither of these skills has a gathering skill, so they work well together. Good for Warlocks, Mages and Priests.
  • Enchanting/any gathering: Similar logic to the Tailoring match. Good for any class.
  • Skinning/Herbalism: Excellent moneymaking. Good for any class.
  • Skinning/Mining: Same as above.

While it is possible to combine herbalism and mining, it's less ideal than the other pairings because both make use of the tracking feature and only one type of tracking can be used at a time.

Tradeskill professions are divided into three subcategories:

Primary, and some Secondary, professions are also grouped into 3 sub-categories:

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This page last modified 2008-06-03 19:16:26.

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