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Trade Skills FAQFollow

#1 Feb 07 2007 at 3:10 PM Rating: Excellent
** **** **
This sticky was originally compiled by LockeColeMA. This FAQ is it's successor. It has been updated to reflect changes introduced with the Burning Crusade expansion. Comments, suggestions, additions, subtractions, and all that jazz are WELCOME. Please use the Email User or Send PM link at the top of each post or discuss here on the thread.

Questions such as "How do I make money with Leatherworking?" have not been touched to much extent. The WoW economy is in flux post-BC and I am inclined to think it will stay this way for another few weeks. However, I welcome any thoughts on the new economy and how certain trade skills will fare.

--thermalnoise
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Table of Contents

1) General Trade Questions

Primary Trade skills
2) Alchemy
3) Blacksmithing
4) Enchanting
5) Engineering
6) Jewelcrafting
7) Leatherworking
8) Tailoring
9) Herbalism
10) Mining
11) Skinning

Secondary Trade skills
12) Cooking
13) First Aid
14) Fishing

1) General Trade Questions

Q. What are trade skills?

A. Trade skills are the crafts of World of Warcraft. You take items you have found off of enemies, bought from vendors, or gathered in the wild, and turn them into something that is hopefully more useful. Many times you can sell these items; sometimes you'll use them immediately.

Q. What are the requirements for trade skills?

A. You can start getting trade skills at level 5. If you need to find a trainer, ask a guard (they'll put a flag on your mini-map if you ask under "Professions"). There are tiers for skills:

Level 5 - maximum skill is 75 (Apprentice - need to be at least 50 to raise).
Level 10 - maximum skill is 150 (Journeyman - need to be at least 125 to raise).
Level 20 - maximum skill is 225 (Expert - need to be at least 200 to raise).
Level 35 - maximum skill is 300 (Artisan - need to be at least 275 to raise).
Level 50* - maximum skill is 375 (Master) - Primary professions can only train in the Outlands so the account must be Burning Crusade enabled.
* Level 45 minimum required for Fishing, and level 35 required for Cooking/First Aid.

These apply to the primary production skills: Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Engineering, Alchemy, Jewelcrafting, and Enchanting. There are also three primary gathering skills: Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning. With mining and herbalism, you will get a "track resource" button. Clicking this will show resources nearby on your mini-map as yellow dots. If the dot is gray, the resource is under the ground.

Only accounts that are Burning Crusade expansion-enabled can learn Jewelcrafting. Non-expansion accounts may use items made by Jewelcrafting, though.

You can ONLY have 2 of these 10 primary trade skills. You can drop one to make room for another, but if you take it back up later, you will have lost all of your recipes and all of your skill levels.

In addition, there are three secondary trade skills: fishing, cooking, and first aid. You can have all three of these in addition to your primary trade skills.

Q. I am level 50 and need to train to 375? How do I get to the Outlands?

A. Only players who have reached level 58 may enter the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. But there are other ways to reach far-reaching places, and that includes mages' portals, warlocks' summons, and meeting stones. A player of any level may use those means to reach the Outlands and visit a trainer. (See more about this in the Enchanting section.)

You may return to Azeroth using the portals located in the center of Shattrath City or your hearthstone.

Q. How do I craft something?

A. Push "P" to open your skills/spells window. Under the General tab, if you have the skill (say, tailoring), click the tailoring button. You'll see a list of recipes that you have learned and can make. If you have the materials for the item, next to its name you will see a number: this is the maximum amount of the item you can create with the materials you currently have on hand.

You will never fail to craft something in World of Warcraft. You can fail to gather (pick, mine, or skin) something, but you can try again without penalty. You will never fail more than three times (providing you can mine it).

Q. What's with the colors on my recipes/resource nodes?

A. The color system is how likely you are to get a skill-up when you gather/craft something. Orange means always (100%), yellow means usually (50-100%), green means rarely (0-50%), and grey means never (0%). Red means you need to raise your skill to gather/craft the item (A message will display on-screen that will say how high your skill needs to be).

Q. How can I make money in WoW? (Torux)

A. The best way is to take two gathering professions (mining, skinning and/or herbalism) and sell the items you get in the auction house to crafters. Some people learn enchanting, then disenchant items they no longer want (as well as soulbound items from quests), and sell the dust, essence and shards to enchanters. Shards sell for alot more than dusts and essences.

A1. This holds true for the first forty levels or so, usually up until you get your mount. With a mount, your money-making abilities increase ten-fold. You can move faster, gather more per hour, and increase your profits (and this is just with gathering). However, even later in the game, the easiest way to get money is to get some rare recipes and make items no one else can. Charge a base line and have people bring you materials; it's free for you and good for them!

Another good way to make money is to play the AH; buy low and sell high. I won't go into this daytrading technique; this is stuff for people with a lot of time and good market skills ^_^ Keep in mind a lot of people are upset by morals here: when you overstep the line and buyout everything to resell it at a higher price, it tends to become a pain. If you can do it, hey, it's all good! But odds are that a lot of people will scoff at your price and make you eat the deposit fees. A better idea: look for underpriced items and sell them at the current price. This is easy and effective.

WondrousTremor took some time to put together some great tips for money making. Check them out here:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/journal2.html?user=399528;mid=1144949044223327607;num=0;page=1

Q. How do I unlearn a skill? (Torux)

A. Open your list of skills ('K') and click on the trade skill you wish to unlearn. At the bottom will be a description of the skill. Next to that is an icon that you can click to unlearn the skill. Be warned, this will completely remove any knowledge you have of that skill, and therefore if you wish to relearn it in the future, you will have to start from the very beginning.

REPUTATION
A VERY comprehensive link to reputation, including what patterns you can get and how to get reputation levels for the factions. I will link this for any reputation questions in the future. One problem... it links to thottbot instead of allakhazam >_>
http://www.wowwiki.com/Reputation

Edited, Feb 7th 2007 7:33pm by Darqflame

Edited, Feb 8th 2007 1:13pm by thermalnoise

Edited, Mar 15th 2007 3:10pm by thermalnoise

Edited, Mar 16th 2007 4:31pm by thermalnoise

Edited, Apr 10th 2007 9:59am by thermalnoise

Updated min level for Master professions from 50 to 45 based on player experience feedback

Edited, May 11th 2007 9:47am by thermalnoise

Updated to correct master professions min levels

Edited, May 18th 2007 11:26am by thermalnoise
#2 Feb 07 2007 at 3:10 PM Rating: Excellent
2) Alchemy

Overview: Alchemy is the process of gathering herbs and creating potions from them. These potions give you temporary stat increases or added effects. These effects generally last an hour before another potion is needed, or they fade upon dying. Other potions can restore HPs, mana, or remove debuffs. To make a potion you need to buy vials, which come in four varieties.

While only alchemists make potions, anyone can use them (unlike engineering). Potions can tip the balance in your favor in PvE and PvP; however, people in duels often consider them to be unfair. Cry babies. Specify the rules first before a duel; using your profession to help you win is NOT cheating in my book.

Healing/mana potions can be found off some enemies. Stat potions are only created by alchemists or come as quest rewards.

Check out the "Everything BC Alchemy FAQ" thread on Worldofwarcraft.com forums for some great information on recipes, specializations, and masteries.

Q. What are these transmutes I keep hearing about? (LockeColeMA)

A. A transmutation is an alchemist's special ability (well, besides making potions, obviously). At level 225 you can create a soulbound item called a [wowitem=9149]Philosopher's Stone[/wowitem] that is required for transmutes.

And you also get your first Transmutes (from the Gadgetzan Alchemy vendor):
[wowitem=9304]Transmute Iron to Gold[/wowitem] and [wowitem=9305]Transmute Mithril to Truesilver[/wowitem]. You basically make the "normal" items into their rare spawns.

However, these particular transmutes are relatively worthless. At level 275, you can [wowitem=12958]transmute Arcanite[/wowitem]. Arcanite is needed for a lot of engineering and blacksmithing items, so there is some demand for it. And only alchemists can make it! As you progress to the Outlands, you'll find transmutes for various diamonds (Jewelcrafters will need these) and Primals (useful in all the crafting trade skills).

Things to note: to transmute you need the necessary materials, which are usually just the metals, essences, or primals. Transmutes will trigger a cooldown (up to 24 hours) on your Philosopher's Stone which means you will have to wait before you can do another. These cooldowns are character specific: having multiple Philosopher's Stones will NOT allow you to transmute more often.

Q. What are these Flasks I hear about? (LockeColeMA)

A. Flasks are the uber end-game potions. They require an obscene amount of items to create, and can only be crafted at an Alchemy lab. You will find these labs in Scholomance (In the Lich's room), Blackwing Lair (In the room just past the Broodlord), and in Shattrath City (super easy to get to after level 58). Not to mention that the recipes are all rare drops or randomly "discovered" when making 300+ skill recipes. Flask effects last two hours and through death, which makes them appealing to for running instances and to PvPers. Keep in mind that you can only have one Flask effect at a time and the component cost is too high for many.

Q. How do I "discover" a recipe?

Master Alchemists (skill capped at 375) can discover a new recipe randomly while creating a known potion, elixir, flask, or transmute. You can only discover a recipe by making recipes you learned in the Outlands. However, you can discover a recipe no matter your location i.e. You don't have to be in the Outlands.

Drysc posted this on the O-Boards about the rare discovery chance:
Drysc wrote:
The discoveries aren't intended to be common, they're extremely rare in fact. It's really intended to be a bonus if you happen to get one, and not something every alchemist is guaranteed to see. They're so rare that if you're putting effort purely towards discovery you could be spending a lot of time and resources to simply be disappointed. If you do find one, it should be a happy discovery, and not a waste of time if you don't.

What I'm saying is don't expect to discover one, but if you do then congratulations.


When you discover a recipe, you'll get the same animation that occurs when you level or gain a reputation with a faction. You'll also see a note in your main chat log about what exactly you discovered. At that point, you should see the recipe in your Alchemy spellbook.

NOTE! The only way to learn 300+ Flask recipes is by discovery.

Here's a thread on the O-Boards that is tracking what people discover by making what potions.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=73518091&sid=1

Q. What are the three Alchemy specializations?

A. (Provided by Morthandeus)

"Master of Potions is straight-forward, basically anything like Major Protection Potion or Super Mana Potion you have a chance to get up to 5 from a single set of materials. You can expect, over time, to get maybe 15-20 percent extra yield from your materials. To become a master you must hand in 5 Super Healing Potions, 5 Super Mana Potions and 5 Major Dreamless Sleep Potions as well as get a quest drop from High Botanist Freywinn in the Botanica wing of Tempest Keep. You don't get any unique recipes. [Quest NPC: Lauranna Thar'well at the Cenarian Refuge in Zangarmarsh]

"Master of Transmutes works exactly the same way but is limited by the shared cooldown. You might get extrememly lucky and get 5 Primal Might or 5 Skyfire Diamonds from a single set of materials, but you're only going to be doing one transmute every 24 hours unlike potions where you are only limited by the availability of herbs and cost of vials. To become a Master you hand in 4 Primal Might to the NPC (Zarevhi), unlike Master of Potions this does not require a flying mount to visit Tempest Keep and is therefore more attractive to alts. Assuming a 20% yield increase you would need to do 20 days of transmuting Primal Might to break even, after that it's all profit. You don't get any unique transmutes.

"Master of Elixirs is interesting. The obvious application is for all the various DPS boosters such as Onslaught Elixir, stat-boosters like Elixir of Mastery and the various Defense elixirs, in total there's about 30 different Elixirs in the game. What is less obvious is that Flasks also count as Elixirs. This is very significant as Flasks are high-value items made using relatively rare materials (Black Lotus or Fel Lotus) but unlike high-value transmutes there is no cooldown. Also, the new Flasks in TBC are all discovered - you can't just farm a mob for a drop. This means that if you're the only person (or at least one of a small number) with a Flask recipe and you're a Master of Elixirs then you may get a large number of raid guilds coming to you for flask-making and being willing to pay well for the service. The quest involves doing the Black Morass instance (in the Caverns of Time) and getting 10 Essences of Infinity from Rift Lords and Rift Keepers. Hand them in with 5 Elixirs of Major Defense, 5 Elixirs of Mastery and 5 Elixirs of Major Agility to Lorokeem in Shattrath's Lower City to become a Master. There's no unique elixirs for masters.

"It's well worth consulting with other guild members so you don't end up with 5 transmute masters and nobody doing elixirs and potions. Transmute mastery is 'stackable' in a guild or crafting circle due to the cooldown, whereas for Elixirs and Potions you really only need one each if those people can make the key recipes that you need. Any character who has been lucky enough to discover a Flask recipe should seriously consider Elixirs as their mastery, especially if nobody else on server can make it.

"Right now from polling my own guild and various friends it seems a lot of people (especially alts) seem to be going for Transmute mastery with an expectation of being able to sell a Transmute every day for a small amount of gold and keep any extra output from mastery procs for themselves. Taking a very simple numbers example, selling Primal Might transmute every 24 hours for 5 gold you would expect to earn 100 gold in fees and 4 extra Primal Might that can be sold for lets say 150g each on the AH. That's 700g minus fees over 20 days, or 35g / day. By comparison, a Master of Potions or Elixirs with a recipe that has a 1g profit margin could buy or gather mats for 30 potions, get a 20% yield increase for 36 potions produced and sell those for equivalent daily profit (36g/day) but with the potential for far more if you can get enough materials and there's enough demand. The work or cash investment up front drops off sharply if you have people coming to you for potions/elixirs and you keep the extras."

In Patch 2.1, players can return to the quest giver for their mastery, and "forget" it for 100 Gold. Then you have the option to pick up the quest for another mastery.

Q. What makes money with Alchemy?

A. This varies depending on server age, population demographics, time of the week, and other things. Here are some decent ideas:

Healing potions/mana potions: Always in demand due to Battlegrounds and PvE use. However, usually the price of ingredients is more expensive than the potions themselves! Potions also drop off enemies at a rate that I would say is at best uncommon.

[wowitem=5634]Free Action Potions[/wowitem]:
These things sell like crazy on WSG honor weekends from what I hear. Not tough to see why; this is the best thing a flag-carrier can use!

[wowitem=2459]Swiftness Potions[/wowitem]:
These also sell like hotcakes on WSG weekends; a speed boost for 15 seconds is great. Also a great PvP tool outside of BGs. The problem is that Swiftthistle can usually go for crazy prices, and the recipe is a random world drop and rather expensive off the AH. If you have cheap Swiftthistle and the recipe though, you can make a killing.

Edited, Feb 17th 2007 2:17pm by thermalnoise

Edited, Feb 20th 2007 11:07am by thermalnoise

Removed note about alchemy mastery being irreversible, and added note about how to respecialize in patch 2.1; Updated list of money making potions

Edited, May 17th 2007 1:16pm by thermalnoise

Edited, Jun 8th 2007 9:05am by thermalnoise
#3 Feb 07 2007 at 3:10 PM Rating: Excellent
3) Blacksmithing

Overview: Blacksmithing is a profession that lets you make weapons and mail (and later plate) armor. The weapons created include daggers, swords, maces, and axes. The ability to make mail pretty much drops off at level 40, when Paladins and Warriors upgrade to plate; mail-crafting past level 40 for Shamans and Hunters is in Leatherworking at that point.

Blacksmithing has two primary specializations: armorsmithing and weaponsmithing. Weaponsmiths are then divided again into an area of mastery: swordsmith, hammersmith, and axesmith.

To get started, you'll want a few things... first and foremost, mining. To make almost everything, you'll need ore and possibly gems. You also need a blacksmith's hammer, along with an anvil to create blacksmithed items.

Q. Why is blacksmithing a good profession?

A. Right now blacksmithing is what I would call one of the most completed professions. It has different routes, something promised to other professions (tailoring and enchanting) in the future. It serves multiple purposes; while Warriors and Paladins will be able to make great armor out of it, rogues, hunters, and shamans can all make weapons they can use. Also, blacksmithing is needed to create the epic hammer that will be come the legendary Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=17182

Unlike gathering skills, a high level blacksmith is potentially able to buy materials right off the AH, smith something, and sell it for a profit. This obviously requires using the AH to plot price potentials, but the possibility is definitely there.

Unlike Tailoring, the ultimate pre-MC items blacksmithing can create are actually darn useful. The enchanted thorium items come to mind. These items can blow away the Valor set (depending on what kind of gear you are focusing on). For weaponsmithing, the Heartseeker, Arcanite Champion, and Arcanite Reaper are amazing weapons; the Arcanite Reaper reigns as one of the best Warrior weapons outside of MC+ raid instances.

Also, unlike alchemy and enchanting, you won't be called a cheater if you use your own smithed items in a duel >_>. I hate people who call others cheaters, but hey, it is a reason...

Q. What are some of the rare patterns for blacksmithing?

I don't know if anyone would actually ask this, but there are some difficult to get patterns. Some are worthless, some are situationally useful, and some are really good.

Darkrune: These patterns are from a repeatable quest in Silithus called Still Believing.
These three armor pieces have a hefty amount of shadow resistance on them. The Dark Runes drop off enemies in Scholomance.

Enchanted Thorium Platemail: These patterns are learned off of the Advanced Armorsmithing pieces (you combine them together to form the book, get the quest, and drop them off in DM to learn the patterns). These are amazing pieces of equipment for tanking; they have a healthy dose of stamina, decent strength, and +defense. Great for tanking.

Bloodsoul: Some of the mail that blacksmithing can make after level 40. This is decent hunter gear: agility and stamina, along with 3% crit and a passive mana regen bonus. This is from the Zandalar trolls (ZG faction), so you need ot have pretty high reputation to get these from them.

There are also all the things you can get from the Timbermaw, Argent Dawn, and Thorium Brotherhood factions. With the TB, Exalted nets you the plans to make a [wowitem=17193]Sulfuron Hammer[/wowitem], which is used to make the legendary hammer, [wowitem=17182]Sulfuras[/wowitem].

Q. Okay, I can choose my path: armor or weapon... so... what do I choose!?

A. Well, the first question is a matter of class: Warriors and Paladins will primarily be the only ones taking armorsmithing, as they are the only classes who use plate armor. But as to the question of which to choose... it gets tricky. I won't deny that armorsmithing has some great recipes, as does weaponsmithing. And you don't lose all the recipes; there is life after your path, and both sides can learn some of the same generic blacksmithing recipes. But your path opens up new patterns for you. Remember you need to have at least 200 skill (might be more, not sure of the prereqs...) and around level 40 to choose. Note: you need 210 skill for some parts of the prereqs for armorsmithing at the very least... so you might want to be artisan (225, level 40) before you start.

Great outline in the comments for Alliance armorsmithing:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=5283

To find the respective quests for weaponsmithing/armorsmithing, check the Trade Skills: List of Trainers bar on the left, and go to blacksmithing.

Note: weaponsmithing has fewer patterns at first, because you are not specced into one of the three branches of it: hammer, sword, or axe.

Q. What do I do to become specced in a weaponsmith mastery branch?

A. First, be at level 50 and have your Blacksmithing at 250. Second, go to Everlook, in Winterspring. Third, look for the three people hanging out in the bank. You'll notice them easily; one is Lilith the Lithe, a dancing undead. Another is a human, Seril Scourgebane, and the last is a troll, Kilram. These three are the masters of the weapons; their quests will get you into the path you desire.

Q. How do I change my specialization?

A. As of Patch 2.0.3, "Blacksmithing/Leatherworking specialization has changed with specialization providing recipes to make powerful items that only you can wear. You can now unlearn a blacksmithing or leatherworking specialization and learn a different one by finding the appropriate NPC, paying the fee to unlearn your old specialization, and then find the new specialist to learn a new one. Also, all of the old blacksmithing/leatherworking recipes that required specialization no longer require it and can be learned by any blacksmith/leatherworker."

What does this mean? Before, a blacksmith could not learn the armorsmith-specific plans before completing the quests. Now, if the recipe is learned on Azeroth (i.e. not the Outlands), then any blacksmith can learn it. As a result the specialization really only applies to 300+ BoP plans now.

In addition, according to WoWwiki.com's Backsmithing page, "Since the Release of The Burning Crusade you are able to learn any of the weapon specialisations by simply talking to any of the three master and asking them to teach you. The quests however still rewards the same plans. These abilities can be unlearned for a cost and another weapon specialisation can be learned in their place."

Check out this thread for more information:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=69;mid=1170711129306355425;num=2;page=1
#4 Feb 07 2007 at 3:10 PM Rating: Excellent
4) Enchanting

Overview: Shiny...

Enchanting is arguably the best money-maker in the game, and the most difficult to level. It is a very unique skill; you're not going to be selling enchants on the auction house, but you'll need to log into a big city and set up a macro to advertise in the trade chat channel. I do highly recommend a macro; typing out your enchants and prices dozens of times will get old fast.

Enchanting needs 4 ingredients: a rod, dust, essences, and shards/crystals. The rods are made by blacksmiths and then enchanted to a useful state by the enchanter his or herself. The dust comes often from green armor that is disenchanted, the essences from green weapons, the shards from blue items (either armor or weapons), and crystals from purple (epic) items.

Disenchanting is the bane of an enchanter's existence for the most part. You need a massive amount of materials to enchant an item, so you need to disenchant a massive amount of equipment. To get that much, you aren't selling it, so you lose a lot of money that way. Generally enchanting is not recommended for a player's first character; better to have a high character able to send easily found items to an alt than to buy them off the Auction House.

That being said, enchants can fetch very high prices.

Q. I have heard enchanting can be used as a gathering skill... what does this mean?

A. Disenchanting can indeed be used as a gathering skill. Only enchanters can make dust/essences/shards, and there is always a demand for these items. There are a number of ways to get these items easily:
- Quest rewards are soulbound and BoP. Instead of vendoring them, disenchant them to useful materials.
- Boss drops in instances are usually blue and BoP: free shard, especially if no one wants the item, or you can farm it yourself.
- Less popular equipment, such as Boar/Wolf/Whale, usually won't sell on the AH, but it can be disenchanted.

Here is a helpful chart put together by LiveJournal.com user Sventhelost that details which instances yield particular enchanting mats: Enchanting - Instance List

The idea with all of these is that you take these materials and instead of using them, sell them for a profit on the Auction House. Enchanting materials have one major highlight: they have no sell value, and are free to list on the AH. These materials can go for very good amounts; be on the lookout for underpriced equipment, buy it or win a low bid, and disenchant to resell the resulting material for a profit. See Veliv's Guide to Making Money by Disenchanting

Skill level determines what items you can disenchant:

Skill   Item Level 
  1 	 1-15 
 25 	16-20 
 50 	21-25 
 75 	26-34 
100 	35-39 
125 	40-44 
150 	45-49 
175 	50-54 
200 	55-59 
225 	58-63 (BC items) 
275 	64+ (some exceptions) 
300 	70 Epic


Q. How far will disenchanting take me, skill-level wise?

Disenchanting will give skill-ups until 60. After that, you'll need to do enchants to further your skill.

Q. What profession should I take with enchanting?

A. Enchanting is indeed a stand-alone profession (well, more or less). It gives you the required skill to get materials and make something out of them. In this way, it is a lot like tailoring; you don't need a second profession to support your craft (as, for example, blacksmithing NEEDS mining for most of the way up to 300).

Therefore, the tried and true formula is Enchanting/Tailoring. With this combination you can make your own items to disenchant. The catch is a minor one: you won't get any weapons made from tailoring, so getting essences can be slightly harder. Also, now you take out cloth as a source of income, making yourself even poorer.

Another combination is enchanting with a gathering skill. This way you can make money and then buy items off the auction house. It frees up any cloth you find to be sold, but means you need to either go after beasts in particular (for skinning), or out of your way for resource nodes (herbalism/mining). Out of these skills mining probably would make the most on its own, as two professions need a lot of ore.

(Added thanks to Nekar)
I would not suggest Enchanting as a profession until later in the game. Low level enchanting will not make much, if any money, for you. Pick a profession that will make you some money! At low levels, most items vendor for more than they are worth in enchanting mats. Most low level enchants are given away free from enchanters looking to get a skill-up. Even mid to high level enchants are usually sold for less than the cost of the mats.
Later in the game it is very easy to skill up enchanting to the higher levels. Enchanting starts costing more and more money to skillup around skill level 250.

(As a second skill, I would suggest Leatherworking over Tailoring because):
1. Cloth costs more than leather. Sell your cloth and buy twice as much leather at the AH for making items. (see the price of Wool vs Medium leather)
2. Green leather armor uses less special items to make. Lots of patterns that only need leather and thread.
3. Leather armor has a greater chance to DE into essences.
I know of no cloth armor that DE's into essences over 30% of the time, with leather there are several and they only need leather and thread to make! Look hard enuff and you will find that for 1.5Gold in LW mats you can make 10Gold worth of essences 30% of the time, the other 70% you only make 1 to 3 gold.
10 items cost 15Gold to make
10 * 30% * 10G = 30 Gold
+
10 * 70% * 2G(average) = 14 Gold
So, for the cost of 15Gold in LW mats, you can make 44Gold in Enchanting mats. Need money? sell the mats and make more!

Q. How do I know what is worthwhile to disenchant?

A. First, know what items sell. Items with "Wolf" "Whale" and "Boar" usually don't sell on the AH (except at low levels, when DPS is more important to most than stats). Also, although the general chance of disenchanting is green armor = dust, green weapon = essence, etc, these can change. Some green armors have higher chances for essences; some greens weapons have lower chances.

Q. I've noticed those glowing weapons! What enchants give them, and what are the colors?

A. (Provided by Torux)
"In general, enchants that have a factor of +3 or more will glow, with the exception of minor beastslaying, which glows at +2, and +intellect and +spirit, which (as far as I'm aware) only glow with +22. The higher the factor, the deeper the glow.
 
Enchant            Colour 
Beastslaying       Red 
Elemental Slaying  Red 
Damage             Blue 
Agility            Green 
Intellect          Yellow 
Spirit             Yellow 
Crusader           White 
Icy Chill          Bright White 
Lifestealing       Purple 
Fiery              Orange/Red 
Demonslaying       Orange/Yellow 
Unholy             Green, with 2 skulls rotating around the weapon 
Spell Damage       Purple

Q. I'm 225, and I don't know how to get to 300 enchanting! What is required?

A. There are two options. The "old" way (Pre BC) was to enter the Uldaman instance and make your way to the trainer. The "new and improved" way is to go to Shattrath City in the Outlands and visit the Master Enchanter on the Scryer Tier. You cannot do this once you have picked your allegiance to the Aldor faction, so either pick Scryer or get your training before choosing.

Here is the old method to get to the Uldaman trainer:
Sioux wrote:

The trainer's name is Annora, and she's in the Uldaman instance in the Badlands.

There is a back entrance to Uldaman in Dustwind Gulch, surrounded by elite troggs. If you can find this entrance it's much closer to her, although you may need to bring a friend; there's an Obsidian Guardian just inside the instance who will be right in your way. I couldn't kill it solo at 45, the way I did it was to freeze trap him, run past him and FD. Beware also the Shadowforge dwarves in the room right beyond.

If you can handle shedding the aggro, or don't mind taking a death for the cause (die just past the dwarves in the hallway, it's fairly safe to rez there if you look out for the bats), you can solo this. I would *highly* recommend being at least level 45 if you plan on doing it solo, because there are eleven scorpions (not elite) in the room where she pops. You must kill all the scorps before she'll appear.


Before you get to the Uldaman trainer, though, know this (Capitolg with cleanup from LockeColeMA):
"So after you get to level 35, you will need to come up with, I think (it could be more, but I know it is not less) 10 gold (leaning toward 15). This will make sure you never have to come back. Now, to get all she has to offer you need to level from 225-250 right next to her, and for that, you have a few choices.

At 220 you learn Enchant Bracer - Greater Spirit, it uses Lesser Nether Essence x3,Vision Dust,and will reliabley give you skillups though 235. beyond that you will learn Enchant Boots - Agility. It uses 2x Greater Nether Essence(youch), ride that for 10 skill ups, and it is Enchant Bracer - Greater Stamina time this guy can be rode form 245-250 and takes 5 x dream dust each.

There may be cheaper ways, but this one worked for me, and I used the mats I could get cheap (or free).

I recommend the Enchantrix add-on from curse-gaming to get a better idea of what will disenchant to what. Note that some percentages are waaaay off, especially for rarer items.

http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=147

More Guides

A guide on this site. Slightly dated, and it varies server to server, but it gives a good idea of how to level tailoring and enchanting to 225 for relatively less money:
Leveling Enchanting for Le$$ (by Dacypher)
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=393

Edited, Apr 10th 2007 9:58am by thermalnoise

Edited, Jul 12th 2007 9:54pm by thermalnoise

Update to Disenchant chart

Edited, Aug 17th 2007 10:17:46am by thermalnoise
#5 Feb 07 2007 at 3:11 PM Rating: Excellent
5) Engineering

Overview: "Explosions! I need more EXPLOSIONS!"

Engineering is a fun one. Like alchemy, it is a mostly consumable profession; however, you can create a lot of extra items as well. Engineering is one of the most unique professions out there; you make pets, bombs, trinkets, and other crazy devices. At the same time, it comes with a fundamental problem for money-making: almost all of the engineering items you create need engineering skill to equip or use. Therefore, your only true market is also your competition, thus making selling items very difficult.

However, engineering is arguably one of the best PvP skills. Bombs do damage and add stun effects. The trinkets can do anything from throwing nets, to shooting fire, to deflecting magic. The equipment can give you a variety of effects, from underwater breathing to slow fall effects.

Engineering goes hand in hand with mining; everything you'll need comes from mining, with a few items from other professions (for example, leathers). So although your engineering will leave you poor (if powerful), taking time out to mine will net you some gold.

Engineering also has an inherent, um, quirk. The things you make (usually ones that aren't consumable, such as equipment with effects or trinkets with effects) can... sometimes not go as planned. Although your creations can save your party from the brink of death, it can also sometimes set you on fire at a critical moment. But hey; what's life without a gamble, right?

Q. Can you give me a decent difference between Goblin and Gnomish engineering?

A. Luckily, a topic in the Trade Skill forum caught my eye, so I'm stealing from it ^_^

Capitolg wrote:

#1 The Death Ray vs the Dragon gun: the death ray seems so cool, yet when you factor in the dammage it (Always) dose to you it dose not take long before you realise you are not dealing with as "Cool" of a item as you once thought. I guess if you were a pally, or other low DPS class the ray has some places where it would shine, yet overall it is not that great of a item. The dragon gun looks even worse at a first glance, but looks can be deciving. as long as you have 5 targets, the Dragon gun will out dammage the deathray, My record for the Dragon gun is 19 targets, the total dammage on that shot was 12350 HP between all my targets, it would take 6 realy good shots with a death ray to get that kind of DPS. unlike the death ray, the dragon gun is not a garuenteed dammage to the user....

#2 The boots, both specs make rocket boots, key diffrence is that the goblin ones dont reuqire engenering so they can be sold at a larget rate than the gnomish boots.

#3 while some of these are irrlivant due to BoE status, i list them anywho.
Gnomish Shrink Ray vs Goblin Mining Helmet/Goblin Construction Helmet(because not all folks can use the minin helm) OK theese both suck, the shrink ray is better, but it is a matter of just getting one, my goblin eneneer uses a shrink ray.

#4 Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector VS Goblin Mortar Heck they both stop runners, one just dose it by killing the target, the net-o-matic sounds better, but with falure rate the mortar wins, but.... they are both BoE so it dose not matter.

#5 Lil' Smoky VS Pet Bombling, while i love Lil Smokies glasses, the bombling is way cuter.

#6 Gnomish Harm Prevention Belt vs Goblin Sapper Charge there are way better sheilds in the game(AB) and they dont have falure rates, yet the single tic hellfire that is the saper charge remains usefull through DM and ZG, yet bot still BOE

#7 Gnomish Battle Chicken VS Goblin Bomb Dispenser the chicken holds more of a laugh factor, but bottom line is that in the end a bomb dispencer dose more dammage, and faster. This is a win for the Goblin folks.

#8 Gnomish Mind Control Cap(nerfed today, no longer useable on in combat targets)vs Goblin Rocket Helmet . Heck the rocket helm owned the mc hat way before they nerfed the MC hat. pushing goblin as a better chocie again.

#9 Gnomish Cloaking Device Vs The Big One, so the trade off is a less than a lesser invis pot(because thats what the cloking devce is) vs the bomb with the bigest blast radius in the game. think this one is clear who wins.

Drum roll please......
#10 World Enlarger(totaly useless consumable)VS Goblin Jumper Cables XL(more reliable than the basic ones)

looking at the 10 diffrences between the spec it is eazy to see that the "Toys" of gnomish spec are mosty novilty(the nerfing MC helmet sure did'nt help) while the goblin tools "really do some damage and can be helpful" Hey wait, thats what you said you wanted. So, do yourself a favor and stop wanting the grass on the other side of the fence and embrace your spec and enjoy it. it is by far the "More DPS" route of the two.


Response to above quote, on why Gnomish beats Goblin:
LockeColeMA wrote:

1. Death Ray versus Dragon Gun:
Death Ray is my preference. Dragon Gun is good for people without AoE... but it can fail at a critical moment, set you on fire, and fear you for a few seconds. Ouch. Not cool. With a Death Ray, you know what you're getting: damage to yourself, and more to the enemy. There are fun things to do with this: a Paladin can make himself invincible and then cast it, for no damage to himself. Plus, the Death Ray can do a TON of single-target damage (my highest crit, on my level 46 Gnomish engineer warlock, is around 1.9k. A great finisher move, especially since you can just bandage after ^_^ Also, Warlocks have AoEs, and thus little use for a Dragon Gun).

Personally, I face single targets more often than groups. Also, many enemies have fire resistance, potentially reducing the goblin gun's damage.

2. Boots: These are almost equal, IMO.
Gnome: 30 minute cooldown and an engineering requirement. Ick. The backfire for this is that you stop getting the movement boost before the 20 seconds are up, OR you run around randomly.
Goblin: 5 minute cooldown and no engineering requirement (woo-hoo!). The backfire is that they blow up (damage is bad!), the boots are destroyed (you always lose the rocket fuel >_<), and you need to be an engineer to remake them.

I personally would choose Goblin on these... actually, I would probably use neither, but if I HAD to choose, this would go to goblin. Dang.

3. Shrink Ray: You already admitted it wins :-D

4. Net versus mortar: The main thing here is that when the mortar messes up, you get MAJOR PAIN :-P. When the net messes up, you get stuck. The mortar blows you sky high for fire and fall damage, I believe. I might be thinking of bronze mortars for the fall damage. Hmmm. One person in the mortar's item page said he got hit for 9k fire damage when it backfired on him ^_^

Since net-o-matic has the same cooldown (10 seconds), won't hurt you when it backfires, and roots the person for longer... I say net-o-matic wins.

5. Pets: Up to personal choice.

...

Who am I kidding? Bombling rocks.

6. Sapper Charge is better, but the harm prevention belt actually always works... when you get banished, you are invincible, and thus taking no damage :-P. It's good until higher levels... the protection really needs to scale up with level >_>. Sapper Charge is also insanely good at lower levels, but it does hurt you, so keep that in mind.

7. Chicken vs. Bomb: I think the bomb wins because it is AoE damage, BUT! the chicken also has its uses. It is level 46, I think, so for a lower level character... w00t! It does decent damage (15-75 per hit, 1.5 second attack, and it lasts for 1m 30s), it can fury to attack twice as fast, and it TAUNTS! This makes it a decent semi-tank item... every half an hour.

8. Helms: Goblin wins. MC cap is good if you get the drop on an enemy and they don't see you coming, though :-P

9. Yeah, this is no real contest, they are two completely different items. The Big One has a high component cost, which is one thing to keep in mind... but the cloaking device has an insane cooldown. And you are wrong about the effect of the cloaking device; it is true invisibility, not lesser. You literally disappear (you aren't even considered "stealth", so increased stealth detection items and effects do not help!). You can't use it in battle, though. But if you see someone running at you... POOF! You're gone :-D

Two different items... you can't really consider them next to each other.

10. World enlarger lowers your aggro radius, which is nice. Jumper XL work more often, but they can obviously still feel. However, the price of these are average of 39 gold, while the normal ones are 5 gold. Ouch. Once again, completely different categories.

I say they are more of less equal (obviously, hehe :-P). I like devices and effects more. I guess the idea is... goblin will make you use more materials, and gnome will make you use fewer potions (but have much longer cooldowns :-P).

On the plus side, now that every item has a different and separate cooldown (since 1.11), you can cycle through your fun effect trinkets more often! Hurray!

Different strokes for different folks; I agree with Capitolg that Goblin is good... I just like Gnomish better for my own gaming.


Q. How can I skillup my engineering without spending too much time or money?

A. Check out "Leveling Engineers Efficiently", a great guide from PrayForMojo:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=69;mid=1118346753249104115;num=10
#6 Feb 07 2007 at 3:11 PM Rating: Excellent
6) Jewelcrafting

The Jewelcrafting profession was introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion. As such, only accounts that have purchased and activated the expansion can access Jewelcrafting trainers in the Exodar (Draenei capital), Silvermoon City (Blood Elf capital), and the Outlands. However, all players can use items crafted by a Jewelcrafter.

Jewelcrafters mainly produce rings, necklaces, and cut gems, with the odd assortment of other items like healing statues and trinkets. Jewelcrafters will need both smelted metal bars and the raw ore, so it makes sense to take up Mining as the accompanying trade skill. The raw ore is needed for Prospecting (learned at skill 20) which destroys 5 ore to yield dust and gems. The smelted bars are needed for the items you'll craft, of course.

A full fledged Jewelcrafter with Mining will have 4 key trade skill abilities in their Spellbook (Press 'P' to open): Jewelcrafting, Prospecting, Find Minerals, and Smelting.

Read Azuarc's Non-crafter's Guide to Jewelcrafting for those who want to take advantage of cut gems but don't wish to take up the trade.

Q. What are "sockets" and what gems can I make for socketed items?

A. Socketed items contain "slots" in which cut gems are inserted. If a piece of armor or a weapon can be socketed, you can shift-click the item to open the Socketing UI window. Socketed gear will only be found in the Outlands. You won't get a socketed item at level 20, in other words. In addition, cut gem patterns require 300+ skill.

There are 4 types of sockets: Red, Yellow, Blue, and Meta. You can place a jewel into any socket but to get the socketed bonus, you must match colors. Orange gems can fit red and yellow, green can fit yellow and blue, and purple can fit blue and red. Meta sockets hold high-level, powerful cut gems such as diamonds. Only meta gems can go into a meta socket.

Q. How do I count an Orange/Purple/Green gem in regards to Meta Gem bonus requirements?

Meta Gem sockets will sometimes specify that Yellow gems must outnumber Red gems, or some other similar requirement. Fairly simple for those Red/Yellow/Blue gems, but what about the "secondary" colors (Green, Purple, Yellow)? Here's the answer, straight from a Blizzard Blue:

Quote:
Multi-coloured gems count as both (or, in the case of two "Spheres," all three) of their colours. Thus, a "Green" gem will count as both a Yellow and a Blue gem for the sake of Meta-Gem requirements; likewise, an "Orange" gem will count as both a Yellow and Red gem. The colours of the sockets themselves are immaterial, so a "Purple" gem in a Yellow socket will still count as one Red gem and one Blue gem for the Meta-Gem.

This, however, brings up an interesting conundrum. What if you have a Meta-Gem like the Mystical Skyfire Diamond, which requires that a player have more Blue gems than Yellow gems socketed in their equipped armour, and you possess a number of Green (i.e. Yellow and Blue) gems?

That's right, they'll effectively cancel themselves out, as each counts as both one Yellow gem and one Blue gem. Tricksy, eh?


Here is a chart you can refer to in order to decide on gems:
Gems and Sockets

In addition, the Jewelcrafting recipe page here on Allakhazam should suit your needs.


Jewelcrafting Powerleveling Guides
http://wow.crafterstome.com/guide/jewelcrafting.html


Updated to add Sockets/Cut Gem information

Edited, Feb 8th 2007 10:17am by thermalnoise

Edited, Feb 14th 2007 12:18pm by thermalnoise

Update: Added link to guide

Edited, Mar 1st 2007 9:25am by thermalnoise

Update: Meta Gems and secondary color gems

Edited, Mar 27th 2007 12:58pm by thermalnoise
#7 Feb 07 2007 at 3:11 PM Rating: Excellent
7) Leatherworking

Overview: Leatherworking lives up to its name: you create pieces of leather armor using leather. Amazing! There are also some bags and items like armor kits (armor buffs that give additional armor, like an enchant). However, leatherworking later makes mail as well (since Shamans and Hunters get mail at level 40). Thus, this craft is primarily a benefit for Rogues, Druids, Shamans, and Hunters. The craft then has three trees: tribal, elemental, and dragonscale.

Q. What Leatherworking specialization should I choose for my <Insert Class Here>?

A. One of the most difficult decisions of a Leatherwoker is to choose one path. In general (provided by Anarquin in the following link):

Dragonscale: Mail items with resistances, magic-oriented buffs, and some +attack power items. Example: Cenarian Circle Exalted rep yields a pattern for the [wowitem=20380]Dreamscale Breastplate[/wowitem].

Elemental: More agility and stamina, still a few resistances, and some passive effects. This seems to be the most Rogue-ish route.

Tribal: Mostly magic-oriented buffs with leather-typed armor benefiting Druids. Kourg noted, quite correctly, that the Devilsaur set gives some good Rogue-stats, and there are Feral Druidic gear items in here, not only magic-oriented ones.

Bible of Leatherworking:
Dragonscale, Elemental, and Tribal: Let's Talk
http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=69;mid=1104439096442978895;num=69

Q. Where is the Cenarian Circle Silithus leatherworking vendor and what can I buy there?

A. Aendel Windspear sells some mail leatherworking patterns.
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/mob.html?wmob=15293

Q. OK - So how do I specialize now that I've decided the path to take?

A. Here are the quests for each line of Leatherworking. For every specialization you need to be level 40 and at least 225 skill (although you do not need to specialize to get past 225 skill).

Dragonscale (Alliance):
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=5141
You're looking for Peter Galen in Azshara; be careful, it is around level 45-50 in the area you want to be. You need to collect two Tough Scorpid Breastplates, two Tough Scorpid Gloves, and 10 Worn Scales.

Dragonscale (Horde):
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=5145
Thorkaf Dragoneye is in the Badlands, in Camp Bosh. It should be around 40-45 enemies there. You need to collect two Tough Scorpid Breastplates, two Tough Scorpid Gloves, and 10 Worn Scales (same as the Alliance).

Elemental (Alliance):
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=5144
Sarah Tanner is in souther Searing Gorge; man, you guys have a tough time, hehe! You'll need to ride through the Badlands from Loch Modan, go all the way west to Searing Gorge, and head straight south. Before you get to the mountains, you'll find her. You'll need 2 Heart of Fire, 2 Globe of Water, 2 Core of Earth, and 2 Breath of Wind.

Elemental (Horde):
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=5146
You're looking for Brumn Winterhoof, apparently in the Arathi Highlands (I could not find him on the map). You'll need 2 Heart of Fire, 2 Globe of Water, 2 Core of Earth, and 2 Breath of Wind, same thing as above.

Tribal (Alliance):
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=5143
Caryssia Moonhunter in Feralas, I'm thinking around Thalanaar. It'll be a tough run from Feathermoon to there, but if you're on a PvP server, it would be tougher to go from Tanaris through Thousand Needles to here, I would think. You need a Wild Leather Vest and a Wild Leather Helmet.

Tribal (Horde):
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=5148
You're looking for Se'Jib in Stranglethorn Vale, who is southeast of Grom'Gol, I believe on the other side of the river. You need a Wild Leather Vest and a Wild Leather Helmet.

Q. How do I change my specialization?

A. As of Patch 2.0.3, "Blacksmithing/Leatherworking specialization has changed with specialization providing recipes to make powerful items that only you can wear. You can now unlearn a blacksmithing or leatherworking specialization and learn a different one by finding the appropriate NPC, paying the fee to unlearn your old specialization, and then find the new specialist to learn a new one. Also, all of the old blacksmithing/leatherworking recipes that required specialization no longer require it and can be learned by any blacksmith/leatherworker."

What does this mean? Before, a leatherworker could not learn the specialization-specific patterns before completing the quests. Now, if the pattern is learned on Azeroth (i.e. not the Outlands), then any leatherworker can learn it. As a result the specialization really only applies to 300+ BoP plans now.
#8 Feb 07 2007 at 3:11 PM Rating: Excellent
8) Tailoring

Overview: Tailoring is making items out of cloth. Mostly the items consist of cloth armor and bags to hold items. Warlocks, Mages, and Priests (all cloth-armor wearers) will get the most benefit out of this craft. Others may take it up for the bag-making.

Q. Where do I get cloth from?

A. Okay, rather basic question. Cloth drops off of humanoid (and usually zombie/skeleton-like undead) enemies. There are exceptions to this; Naga are humanoids and do not drop cloth, for example. The level range for cloth is, approximately:
 
Mob Level       Drops 
1-15            Linen cloth 
15-25           Wool cloth 
25-40           Silk Cloth 
40-50           Mageweave Cloth 
50-60           Runecloth 
60-70           Netherweave Cloth


These are the normal types of cloth, and are only rough estimates. People seem to have the hardest time finding mass quantities of Wool and Mageweave. Runecloth is constantly in demand for bandages/cloth-turns/Tailoring. Linen is pretty popular, but usually dirt cheap (as it is everywhere as a low level). Silk is very common when you hit your 30s, but the AH price might be higher than you'd expect because the game puts more value into its level rather than its commonality.

Q. I just found a Mooncloth pattern! But... how do I make it?

A. At level 250 you can finally start making Mooncloth. The pattern is for sale as an unlimited quantity in Everlook; it only costs 5 gold there, so if the AH's price is hovering around 10 or more, consider taking the trip. I made it at level 38... but let me tell you, Felwood is rough at that level :-P. Died three times just getting to the FP in the northern part, but I only died once by Furbolgs, right at the end of the Timbermaw tunnel.

To create Mooncloth, you need two things: two pieces of Felcloth, and a Moonwell. Moonwells seem to be the tough thing to find, but really they are all over, just keep your eyes open. Any Night Elf should know what a Moonwell looks like from some of their lowbie quests on Teldrassil. Basically is is a pool with glowing blue water. Step into the pool and choose to make Mooncloth.

Moonwell Locations
- Darnassus, Temple of the Moon (Alliance controlled)
- Auberdine, just outside the inn (Alliance controlled)
- Duskwood, in the Twilight Grove, although now you need to avoid a huge dragon to get it (Alliance convenient)
- Thalanaar, which is on the border of 1k Needles and Feralas (Alliance controlled)
- Desolace, Nijel's Point (Alliance controlled)
- Feathermoon Stronghold's large tower, right at the base (Alliance controlled)
- Ashenvale, NE of Astranaar (you need to go there for the Dartol's Rod quest) (Good for both factions)
- Moonglade, Nighthaven
- Teldrassil, Dolanaar (Alliance controlled)
- Stonetalon Mountains, Stonetalon Peak (Alliance controlled)
- Felwood, Jaedenar and Ruins of Constellas (corrupted but usable) (good for both factions)
- Tanaris, Caverns of Time
- Stormwind Park (Alliance controlled)
- Cenarian Hold in Silithus (neutral to both factions)
- Cenarian Refuge in Zangarmarsh (Good for both factions, but has some mobs surrounding it)
- Ghostlands, off the coast of Goldenmist Village (Horde controlled) (Take the Silvermoon City portal from Undercity, head south to Ghostlands and then west to the Village -codexia)

* Thanks to Morthandeus for an updated list in this thread.

[wowitem=14256]Felcloth[/wowitem] drops only off of high level Satyrs (demons). Felcloth is not considered actual cloth; you can't make bandages out of it, and it is a rare drop. The best place to farm is probably in Northern Felwood; the droprate is a bit low, but they drop money and Runecloth too, so it's not a complete waste. Or try Azshara; there are a bunch of Satyrs there as well. You can always resort to buying off the AH. Another option is the merchant imp Vi'el in WInterspring; he sells two pieces (80s each) in a limited quantity (not sure what the respawn time is; thanks to Zornov with this tip).

Keep in mind that Mooncloth has an insanely long cooldown: 96 hours (4 days). Mooncloth is used in the Mooncloth set (it's like Magister's with slightly fewer stats, a bit lower level, and no set bonuses), in the Bottomless Bag (18-slot container, which takes 12), in Mooncloth Bags (16-slot container, takes 2), and in some epics (Belt of the Archmage, Gloves of Spell Mastery, Flarecore Robe, etc).

Q. What are the Tailoring specializations?

A. When your skill reaches 350, you may choose a tailoring specialization that give the tailor a number of BoP patterns.

- Mooncloth Tailoring: This spec focuses on +healing gear. You can make primal mooncloth recipes and create an additional [wowitem=21845]primal mooncloth[/wowitem] at a moonwell.
- Shadoweave Tailoring: You get shadowweave recipes (+shadow/frost) and can create an additional [wowitem=24272]shadowcloth[/wowitem] at the Altar of Shadows.
- Spellfire Tailoring: You get spellfire recipes (+fire/arcane) and can create an additional [wowitem=24271]spellcloth[/wowitem] in Netherstorm.

Note: All Tailors can make Primal Mooncloth, Shadowcloth, and Spellcloth but the specializations give you an added bonus of creating an extra one of that type. In addition, the cooldown is not shared by these cloths so you could make 1 of each at a time.

Q. Any tips with Tailoring?

A. As a way to somewhat supply yourself, I'd take up Skinning as a secondary. That way you'll have leather for some bags which require it (for example, Runecloth bags need two Rugged Leather, so I save myself a bit by skinning my own kills).

Many people take up enchanting to supply items to disenchant. Basically, it is suggested you supplement your income with hunting good items that sell well. Also keep in mind that as a Tailor, you will most likely not sell cloth, so that takes a decent chunk out of your income. Therefore, a gathering skill can be very beneficial to make up the loss.

Q. I hit 250, I see one more recipe at 255... and then what? How do I get to 300? And where are all those Runecloth patterns?

A. (Provided by Tyrandor, with editing)
All righty, the easiest thing I can see doing is to get your tailoring to 260 and get the Pattern: Runecloth Bag recipe. It's a limited sale from the vendor in Everlook. At the very least you should be able to break even by powerleveling with bags... or become Mr. Popular by handing out free ones ;-).

Other ways to get points: at 250, you can create Mooncloth every four days... so do so! it's a free point and needed for a lot of higher recipes. Also, just making Bolts of Runecloth should get you to 260.

You can try to make the Runecloth recipes (and they'd be decent to disenchant), but I think making the bags and selling them will see you get more profit overall. The points will come in slower as you near 300, but if you can make a profit off of the bags, then it works out better in the end :).

PS: Looking at Runecloth Belts, these seem pretty good if you want to disenchant them. The three comments seem to indicate so, at least.

Q. How about making money?

A. Tailoring has some relatively rare recipes that usually are in the form of bags. Post-BC, standard bags made from Netherweave (both the 16 and 18 slotted ones) are profitable. Cenarian Circle reputation (Revered) can net you the recipe for a 24-slot herb bag, the Satchel of Cenarius. The pattern for the 24-slot enchanting bag drops off Magister Kalendris in Dire Maul. There are also Soul Shard Pouches of various sizes for Warlocks. However, as a server ages these staples may not sell as high as the market becomes saturated. On the flip side, 18+ slot bags are BoE which means no hand-me-downs to alts, so all new characters will have to fork over the money and/or mats at some point if they wish to have their own large bags.

The best way to make some good money: get your hands on a rare pattern. Then you can make it for like 20 gold if someone brings all the materials to you :) In addition, if you obtain a recipe for a BoE item that requires a [wowitem=23572]Primal Nether[/wowitem] and you actually obtain said nether, you are in a position to charge well for the crafting. Primal nethers are BoP so only the crafter can make use of them. Prices will vary on your realm but expect a fee between 100-200G for just the nether alone.

Q. Is a Mooncloth Bag worth the materials, or a waste of Mooncloth?

A. (With input from Reednut) Bags can be a steady source of income, but the Mooncloth bag has become outdated. The BC expansion introduced 16 and 18 slot Netherweave Bag patterns that are more reasonable to make versus the old Mooncloth pattern. For roughly 35G and 5 minutes of your time, the Imbued Netherweave bags win out over the Bottomless Bag which requires 12 mooncloth i.e. 48 days of cooldown or 120G without taking other mats into consideration.

Edited, Feb 7th 2007 6:13pm by thermalnoise

Edited, Feb 9th 2007 3:48pm by thermalnoise

Edited, Feb 22nd 2007 8:30am by thermalnoise

Update to Tailoring at 250, and notes on making money re: Primal Nether

Edited, Apr 10th 2007 9:53am by thermalnoise
#9 Feb 07 2007 at 3:12 PM Rating: Excellent
9) Herbalism

Here is the official thread (TM). This has all the information you will ever need. I'll write up what I can, and try to scale down all the information into an easier format:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=69;mid=110367074252647014;num=143

Ohmikegod's guide to Herbalism: Plants, where to find them, and their uses
http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=69;mid=1169526340315352482;num=22;page=1

LockeColeMA's "Everything you wanted to know about herbalism"
http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=69;mid=1135630689225051736;num=0;page=1

Q. What are the best herbs?

A. Well, what do you want them for? There are some rare herbs, and some that very needed in certain potions. Some are almost useless. I'll list some that stick out in my mind:

Black Lotus: This rare herb is needed for sub-300 skill Flask recipes in Alchemy. You need level 300 skill to pick it. I myself have found this in the Burning Steppes and Winterspring.

Fel Lotus: This has a random, small chance of being picked off regular herbs in the Outlands. It is needed for 300+ skill Flasks.

Plaguebloom: A nice find, it is around level 290 or 300, and can readily be found in three areas: Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands, and Felwood.

Mountain Silversage: Another good one, it is used in Major Healing Potions. The best place for this is, hands down, is Un'goro Crater. It grows on the mountains that compose the outskirts of the crater. Run a circle around the entire area and look for the dots on your mini-map to show up.

Ghost Mushroom: These grow underground, and you only get yields of one. Outside of elite areas/instances, you can find these in Skulk Rock, in the Hinterlands, surrounded by 46-47 oozes. There are only three spawns, and they have a 10-15 minute respawn timer. Elite areas to go: the Troll city in the Hinterlands, where you need to go for saving Sharpbeak. Also, Maraudon has some.

Swiftthistle: sometimes found in Briathorn and Mageroyal. Used by alchemists to make swiftness potions, but also needed by rogues who wish to cook thistle tea. Most commonly found in areas lvl 10 - 20 (The Barrens, Silverpine Forest, Stonetalon Mountains, Westfall). (Torux)

Fadeleaf: Used by rogues to make blinding powder. Since alot of rogues favour skinning/leatherworking over alchemy/herbalism, there's a strong chance these can sell for a very high price to higher level rogues.

Q. What is the use of getting my herbalism higher? Are enchants worth getting?

A. Having a higher skill does not produce higher yields in my experience. You will never pick more than one Black Lotus or Ghost Mushroom at a time. The best you can do is get your skill difference to a yellow level, so that you never fail in picking an herb.
#10 Feb 07 2007 at 3:12 PM Rating: Excellent
10) Mining

Mining Guide (pre-Burning Crusade)
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=392

One thing in the guide that might have been overlooked: silver, gold, and truesilver are rare spawns of tin, iron, and mithril, respectively. If you want these materials, mine in an area with a lot of the "normal" spawns, and eventually some of the rare ones will pop up!

Q. Where can I find <Metal Type Here>

A. Use the Search feature of the website to search on the ore vein.

Example: Search on "Copper Vein" and you'll get this page with a list of Zones and Dungeons in which you can find the vein. Also listed are the types of stones and gems that you'll find along with the ore.

Q. Are there gear or enchants to increase my skill?

A. There are two enchantments that give [wowitem=11150]+2 skill[/wowitem] or [wowitem=11203]+5 skill[/wowitem] to Gloves.

Q. How do I learn Smelt Dark Iron Ore?

A. (Provided by hukai) To Turn [wowitem=11370]Dark Iron Ore[/wowitem] into bars you need to take them to the Black Rock Depths:

Speak with Gloom'Rel, who stands on the right side of the room of the seven dwarven spirits. This room is near the end of the instance, and takes quite a while to reach. Gloom'Rel will demand a tribute in order to teach the art of smelting Dark Iron. NOTE: Make sure you speak with Gloom'Rel before speaking with Doom'Rel or any other of the dwarven spirits. Once you start the battle sequence by speaking with Doom'Rel, you can't go back to Gloom'Rel and learn your smelting.

Place the tribute items into the Spectral Chalice that appears next to Gloom'Rel after you speak with him. You may need to speak with Gloom'Rel again after you offer your tribute; I don't recall. You now know how to smelt Dark Iron!

*Tribute Items*
- 2 Star Ruby
- 10 Truesilver Bar
- 20 Gold Bar

Smelt your Dark Iron at the Black Forge. As you exit the room of the seven dwarven spirits, turn right, and you will be facing the bridge to Molten Core. Just prior to the bridge is a path to the left, leading up to a waterfall of lava, in the midst of which is the Black Forge. NOTE: It takes 8 Dark Iron Ore to create 1 Dark Iron Bar, so bring everything you've got!

Edited, Apr 12th 2007 8:45am by thermalnoise
#11 Feb 07 2007 at 3:12 PM Rating: Excellent
11) Skinning

Skinning is interesting as a gathering skill. For one thing, the typical "orange means always" rule does not apply. I have found that the skinning-skill-ups work like on a point system. Every skill level you reach, you need a certain number of points to get to the next level. Orange gives you the most, while green gives the least (excluding grey, which is none). What does this mean? By the time you get over 150 skill, you'll notice that you are not getting skill-ups from skinning orange-colored beasts. It will take anywhere from 2-12 orange-labeled beasts to get another point.

Usually though, this doesn't matter, and skinning levels up very quickly when you do it constantly.

Q. How does skinning skill work?

A. Your skinning skill determines what level of beast you can skin. The number it works out to is skinning Skill / 5 = Level. So if you have 200 skill, you can skin up to a level 40 beast. Skinning skill does not determine the quality or item you get.

Q. What will I skin?

A. It depends on the beast. Usually you will get leather; the types of leather generally follow the rule of cloth. However, there is more of a mix-up with what quality you will get; even when I skin level 56 bats in the EPL, I still get Thick Leather (which I can get off level 40 enemies). Also note, the number of leather you get can vary; I usually get two leather off of elites instead of one.

Other items you can skin include hides. These are rarer; generally I get around 1 Hide every 10 pieces of leather. Again, the quality of hide can vary; I can get both Thick Hides and Rugged Hides.

Off certain monsters you will get different items. Turtles, for example, can be skinned for Turtle Scales. Same with Scorpids. Dragonkin, although not beasts, can still be skinned (I loved ST and UBRS!). Dragonkin will also drop Dragon Scales of varying color; it depends on which dragon flight you skinned. These scales are used almost exclusively in Leatherworking; and obviously Dragon Scales are used mostly in Dragonscale Leatherworking. Scales are typically skinned off level 40+ mobs.

Q. How does skinning compare to other gathering crafts in terms of money?

A. Skinning will get you money slowly but steadily. You will get money in small, constant amounts. The key to making money is to skin everything. By selling a lot of leather (which stacks to 20), you can make a good amount. The easiest way is to do quests involving a hunt of beasts; and then gather their leather. Three birds with one stone: exp, quest rewards, and leather. Since beasts seldom drop anything decent, this makes hunting them profitable.

Skinning Etiquette: While I say "Skin Everything!", please be kind; do not stalk people to skin what they kill. Be careful of skinning a recent kill if someone is still in battle; they will be very angry if they're fighting for their life and you're stealing what they want to skin.

Q. Is there a special Hide I can skin? BC Update Needed!!!

A. Ohhhh yes there is. The Pristine Hide of the Beast:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=12731

This epic hide is skinned VERY rarely off The Beast in Upper Blackrock Spire. It is used to craft an epic item, and sells for a ton on the Auction House (if it is ever sold). Note, you have a .5% chance to skin this. Good luck :-P

Note: There is a large debate over who gets to keep a PHotB. UBRS is usually done by a 15-man raid group, and in most cases there will be a Need roll for it. Just because you skin it does not mean you get to keep it! After all, you wouldn't even have the chance to skin it if you didn't have 14 other people backing you up ^_^ There is a debate over whether armor piercing effects decrease the chance of a successful skin; I think they do NOT. But honestly, at a .5% chance anyway, who can say for sure?

Another item you can skin: [wowitem=17012]Core Leather:[/wowitem]
This is off the level 62-63 elite Core Hounds in Molten Core. This leather is used in mostly fire resistant crafted epics.

Q. Wait... how do I skin a ?? boss? Can I boost my skinning over 300?

A. Yes! Unlike some other professions, skinning needs to be boosted to be any use to the end-game skinner. For this you'll need 2 (or 3) things:

[wowitem=12709]Finkle's Skinner[/wowitem]
Which drops off The Beast in UBRS. You NEED to equip this item to get the bonus; Paladins can not use daggers, and thus cannot use this item. If you are a skinner, and this drops, and you want to skin The Beast, make sure you have dagger skill taught to you first or you can't equip it to skin the Beast!

[wowitem=19901]Zulian Slicer[/wowitem]
Drops in Zul'Gurub, the 20-man raid. It must be equipped to get the bonus. Paladins can use this one :-P

[wowitem=11166]Enchant Gloves: Skinning[/wowitem]
This enchant gives you +5 skinning skill. Obviously, you need to have the gloves equipped to get the bonus.

Rogues/Warriors/Hunters/Shamans can dual-wield and get +25 skill (since the Zulian Slicer can be held in the off-hand). Lucky them!
#12 Feb 07 2007 at 3:12 PM Rating: Excellent
12) Cooking

Overview: Cooking allows you to take raw foods and whip up some cooked ones! Cooked foods generally restore more hp/sec than their raw counterparts. Some cooked foods give you a "Well Fed" effects, which will boost a stat for up to 30 minutes if you remain eating for more than 15 seconds. There are some other foods with different effects.

Q. Who uses cooking?

A. Everyone can use cooking! To reduce downtime, cooked food is great. You'll get more hp back faster if your food is cooked. Whether you are soloing or in a group, well fed bonuses can give you a nice edge. Warriors and Rogues will use cooking most often as HP regen as they take direct hits (bandages work better, but have a cooldown). Hunters will use cooking as well, because their pets need to eat and cooked food restores more happiness than uncooked food.

With the introduction of the Burning Crusade, the possible stat bonuses were given a boost. Foods cooked with a skill of 300+ generally give a 30 min buff vs. the 15 minute buffs of pre-BC foods. There are also a greater variety of stat increases beyond the traditional Stamina/Spirit, making the trade skill a great asset for every class.

Q. What do you need to cook?

A. In general you only need a basic campfire, which (if you aren't near one) requires a flint and tinder. The wood for the fire can be stacked. By the way, a basic campfire adds 4 spirit if you are within its range. When you don't see a fire, look around for an alternative cooking flame such as a Stove or Cooking Table.

Many of the stat-boosting foods require additional ingredients (spices) to make. See a Trade Goods vendor for these spices. Basic grilled upgrades (like cooking a raw fish) does not require anything but the fish and a fire.

Q. What are some nice added effect cooked items?

Azerothian Recipes
-[wowitem=7676]Thistle Tea[/wowitem]: Restores 100 energy instantly. A great Rogue item.
- [wowitem=13928]Grilled Squid[/wowitem]: Well Fed effect increases Agility by 10 for 10 minutes.
- [wowitem=13931]Nightfin Soup[/wowitem]: For the occassional magic-using cook, Well Fed effect grants 8 mana every 5 seconds for 10 minutes.
- [wowitem=13934]Mightfish Steak[/wowitem]: Well Fed effect grants 10 Stamina for 10 minutes.
- [wowitem=12216]Spiced Chili Crab[/wowitem]: Well Fed effect grants 12 stamina and spirit for 15 minutes.
- [wowitem=12217]Dragonbreath Chili[/wowitem]: Occasionally belch flames at enemies when struck in combat! This is always a crowd-pleaser ^_^. It's nice to get a little extra damage; the flames do around 60 damage, and I believe hit in a cone in front of you.
- [wowitem=20452]Smoked Desert Dumplings[/wowitem]: Gives you a whopping 20 Strength for 15 minutes! These are from quests in Silithus though, and will require a decently high level skill (280 or so, I believe) to get (and level 45 to eat). (Added by Kourg)
- [wowitem=21025]Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops[/wowitem]: I'm adding this more for fun than anything else :-P This is the ONLY epic cooking recipe. Why is it epic? The quest for it is part of the AQ gate-opening series. You need to kill level 61-62 elites with a full raid to get the meat for it. The food itself gives you +25 stamina, which is great... but it is insane to get, and to make :-P (Original info by Turicus, who didn't mention it was part of the AQ opening ;-))

Outlands recipes
- [wowitem=27657]Blackened Basilisk[/wowitem]: 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 minutes
- [wowitem=27663]Blackened Sporefish[/wowitem]: 20 Stamina and 8 Mana every 5 seconds for 30 minutes
- [wowitem=27666]Golden Fish Sticks[/wowitem]: Increase healing done by 44 and Spirit by 20 for 30 minutes
- [wowitem=27664]Grilled Mudfish[/wowitem]: 20 Agility and Spirit for 30 minutes
- [wowitem=27665]Poached Bluefish[/wowitem]: 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 minutes
- [wowitem=27655]Ravager Dog[/wowitem]: 40 attack power and 20 Spirit for 30 minutes
- [wowitem=27658]Roasted Clefthoof[/wowitem]: 20 Strength and Spirit for 30 minutes
- [wowitem=27667]Spicy Crawdad[/wowitem]: 30 Stamina and 20 Spirit for 30 minutes

Q. Where do I get recipes for Cooking?

A. Asides from the cooking Trainers, try any general goods, fish dealer, or even Innkeepers. Flip to the end of what they sell and look for recipes. It is very possible to get from 0-300 with only fish and fish-cooking recipes; but to get added effects and well fed statuses, you need to gather additional ingredients and more-difficult to find components.

(Torux) Not specifically a tradeskill related question but more a quick tip. If you've no intention to cook, don't sell things like boar meat or scorpid stingers to vendors. Save them up in stacks and put them on the auction. A lot of people at later levels want to raise their cooking skill but don't want to spend hours killing low level mobs to get the meat to cook (specifically rogues who need to learn to cook thistle tea... speaking from personal experience). They'd much prefer to simply buy the stuff.

I'd recommend saving;

Chunks of boar meat
Clam Meat
Scorpid stinger
Stringy wolf meat.

Basically the very first uncooked meats that drop from low level mobs. These are the main reagents used to get the cooking skill required (60).

Q. What is the Cooking Quest?

A. In order to raise your skill past 225, you must complete Clamlette Surprise. This quest is available at level 35 (thanks, Turicus!), and you must have maxed skill (225/225). There used to be a bug where if you logged out after getting the quest finished you couldn't level any higher, so it is recommended you get at least one more skill point before logging out.

Edited, Apr 4th 2007 8:43am by thermalnoise
#13 Feb 07 2007 at 3:12 PM Rating: Excellent
13) First Aid

Q. Why would I do first aid?

A. Bandages are very very very useful. If you run out of potions, or run out of mana, and you have a way to divert the mob's attention for 8 seconds, you can gain 2000 hp. For healing classes, they are a nice supplement if you can't heal any more or want to save mana; for classes without healing, they significantly cut back on downtime.

Q. How do bandages work?

A. Easily enough. You right-click the bandages and select yourself. Little red crosses and sparkles will show up around your character, and you'll gain hp every second. This is a channeled ability: you cannot move or do anything else while bandaging yourself. If you get hit you will stop bandaging yourself. Every bandage has a cooldown of one minute on the person who gets bandaged. Therefore you can heal your entire party with bandages, but then you need to wait for the bandage effect to fade before you can do it again.

Q. Okay, I'm convinced. How do I make them?

A. Bandages come in two forms: normal and heavy. Normal bandages take one piece of cloth, and heavy take two. The difference is in how much hp they restore; heavy are usually more powerful than normal, although not twice as powerful as you might expect from the cost.

To make a bandage, get the skill (ask a guard to direct you to a trainer), then just open the first aid screen and select the bandage you want to make (assuming you have been trained in it). You'll start making them if you have the cloth. Your skill will rise like any profession, but this is a secondary, so you can have it along with fishing and cooking. Nifty, huh?

Q. I hit 150 skill, and there's no trainer! What do I do!?

A. You need to buy the [wowitem=16084]First Aid manual[/wowitem]. For Alliance, the vendor (Deneb Walker) is in the ruined city of Stromgarde, in Arathi Highlands. He is in the Alliance-friendly section, right outside the prince's room. For the Horde, the vendor is Ghok'kah in Dustwallow Marsh.

Note: These vendors also sell the books for Heavy Silk and Mageweave bandages. Buy them!!

Q. Okay, now what? I'm stuck at 225, and there's no new recipes...

A. Well, now you need to do the First Aid quest. People hate this quest. It took me three tries my first time to get it, and only one my second time. It is a lot easier if you do it with someone else (although they need to have the bandages, or be on the same quest). The quests are Horde Trauma and Alliance Trauma.

Alliance (starts in Ironforge): http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?source=live;wquest=6625
Horde (starts in Orgrimmar): http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?source=live;wquest=6623

Q. Where are the rest of the First Aid recipes?

A. After you pass the Trauma quest, the doctor you got the quest from will teach you the recipes for free at a certain level. Heavy Mageweave is at 240, Runecloth is at 260, and Heavy Runecloth is at 290.

To raise your skill past 300, you'll need the [wowitem=22012]Master First Aid book[/wowitem] from a vendor in Hellfire Peninsula. Horde need to go to Falcon Watch and Alliance need to go to the Temple of Telhamat. You should also pick up the Netherweave and Heavy Netherweave Bandage books while you are there. But you'll have to skill up on Heavy Runecloth in order to learn Netherweave Bandages at 330.

Q. What about anti-venoms?

A. As a general rule, anti-venoms are not useful. Keep in mind though, for PvP anti-venoms are great. They take out things such as a rogue's slowing poison, which is a wonderful help. The problem is that venom sacs are hard to come by; check the type you need and type it into Allakhazam's search engine to find the best drop-rates.

Edited, Feb 23rd 2007 10:43pm by thermalnoise
#14 Feb 07 2007 at 3:13 PM Rating: Good
14) Fishing

Q. Where is the best place to raise my skill with fishing?

A. It is a common misconception that you need to move areas to raise up your fishing skill. The truth, whether good or bad, is that your skill rises at the same rate anywhere; and that rate goes by the number of successful catches you make, not by the level of fish you catch!

Therefore it stands to reason that if you want to powerlevel your fishing, you can do it anywhere you can reliably catch fish! In fact, you will actually harm your fishing skill-up rate if you fish in an area where you consistently get "Your fish got away!" messages.

Why do people fish in higher areas, then? The answer is easy: fishing normal fish gets you almost nothing of value. Fish, even the level 200+ ones, sell for a couple of copper to a vendor. However, fish are used in alchemy and cooking; so if you're spending the time to raise your skill and you can reliably fish in an area where the fish have a good niche on the market, why not sell them at the AH and make money while raising the skill?

Fish you'll want for alchemy: [wowitem=6358]Oily Blackmouth[/wowitem], [wowitem=6359]Firefin Snapper[/wowitem], and [wowitem=13422]Stonescale Eel[/wowitem]
The fun fish (Ohmikeghod added): [wowitem=6522]Deviate fish[/wowitem]

As for cooking fish, well, this is tougher. Basically you can find a fried version of any raw fish which requires nothing more than a fire. If the meal gives an added effect (well-fed), then you usually need spices as well up until you enter the Outlands. Almost all cooking recipes are sold from vendors, so if you see a fishing, general goods, or trade vendor, browse the items he sells and see if he has recipes. You can take cooking all the way to 375 with fish alone :). And later on there are some decent cooking skills with some 15 and 30 minute buffs associated with them; not bad if you're going to be eating between fights anyway (it helps that you can eat and drink at the same time). See the Cooking section for more details.

Q. What are schools and pools of fish? And floating debris/wreckage?

A. Let me tell you a story. Back in the day, fishing was considered too profitable; fish could be sold to vendors for a great amount of money, for very little effort... a perfect profession for gold-sellers, as it were. Fearing inflation and fishing bots, Blizzard nerfed the price of fish; BAM! 1-2 copper a fish. Fishing fell off the radar for all but a few die-hard fans. Included in this nerf was the significantly higher drop rate of items.

Fishing now being nerfed, Blizzard took a new look at it a few months later and decided to make it fishing new and improved; but how to make it difficult to bot while keeping the prices low and the profession as interesting as possible?

Answer: Schools of fish! Along the coast, Blizzard set up spawn points for schools of fish: Oily Blackmouths, Firefin Snappers, Sagefish, Deviates... all of these. The idea is that if you fish in the spawn pool, you run a much higher chance of getting the kind of fish it lists (or you'll get something like stranglekelp).

Thus, if you are aiming for a particular kind of fish, look for the pools. Since most of these fish have somewhat low catch rates, boosting the catch rate to 80-100% for 3-6 casts is great! If you have a mount (or don't mind walking) and want a particular kind of fish instead of the junk you usually find in between the desired ones, look for pools of fish.

Note: As of 1.11, swarms of Stonescale eels have appeared in STV, Tanaris, Feralas, and Azshara.

In the Outlands, you'll find pools of Feltail, Sporefish, Bluefish, and Mudfish, along with occasional pools of pure water (these yield Motes of Water, useful to all professions in the 300+ skill range).

As for floating wreckage, this is just fun. Usually the wreckage contains chests, either locked or unlocked. You also can fish bloated fish; fish that can be right-clicked to receive a gem from inside (I personally find a lot of Aquamarine, which might be ironic, due to it being from fish :-P). Stranglekelp is also a common catch, and fishing up alcohol (with stamina buffs for 15 minutes) is not uncommon.

The chests from wreckage usually contain potions, money, leather, ore/bars, and bolts of cloth (as in, what you would get from tailoring). This is nice at higher levels, because a chest with 3-4 Bolts of Mageweave is effectively the same as 15-20 Mageweave Cloth in a single catch! This is great if you have a tailoring alt or just want to make more money on the AH.

Equipment can still be fished up, but it is very rare.

Q. What is with this Fishing Tournament I have heard of?

A.
Fenrig wrote:

Every Sunday at 2pm in STV, you'll see special pools of Tastyfish appear in any coastline water (except Booty Bay). The goal: Fish 40 Speckled Tastyfish before the competition does. There are 2 main rewards, a trinket that turns you into a fish (no need to breath, and about 125% swim speed I calculate) and a +35 Arcanite fishing rod. There are 3 secondary quests you can complete by fishing one of three rare fish, this can still be done after someone has won the competition (2-4pm). The rewards for that are a lucky fishing hat, boots, and eternium fishing wire (all give +5 fishing). Just hit Booty Bay a bit before 2pm and you'll see the quest givers etc.


That's basically it. The competition can be fierce, especially on a PvP server, where STV is a ganker's heaven already. Just as a note, I ran up and down the coast for 75 minutes without seeing anything... really bad luck on my part, I suppose.

Q. Okay wise guy; I know the areas, I know what to do to skill up; but where do I go for CASH!?

A. Fishing for cash relies on a couple of things: you either fish for lower alchemy fish (firefin/oily blackmouth), high alchemy fish (stonescale eels) or chests (for bolts of cloth, etc).

At lower levels, the low alchemy fish are easy to come by. If you're under level 20, you can still fish in areas like Menethil harbor, and while you'll find a lot of junk fish (if you don't fish in pools), you'll make some money.

Higher level fishers (post 20) find their best bet is Stonescale Eel fishing. There are some good places for this, but the catch rate is approximately the same for all areas (8-12% or so). For Alliance, try Feathermoon Hold in Feralas (south of Desolace). The northern part of the island is an Alliance town, so ganking will be very unlikely. Horde, do the same zone but go from Camp... uh... Tarujo? Something like that; it is in Feralas (go west from 1k Needles), and it's a good place to avoid being killed. For both factions, the coast of Tanaris offers decent fishing for Stonescale Eels, but there is always a lot of cross-faction encounters there, so be careful (this is the safest and probably easiest location on PvE servers). And a bit note: you need 300 fishing in Tanaris to not get "Your fish got away" messages. So you can go pre-35, but use 75-100 +fishing lures.

For higher level players (35-40+), you can try your hand along the coast of STV to get boxes/chests. There are a lot of spawns; and if you do this on Sundays, expect a ton of traffic and competition for the Tastyfish spawns. This is dangerous on a PvP server; I would recommend a much higher level to keep yourself relatively safe from ganking.

For the extreme fisher... try Azshara. There are spawns in the area, like fish pools, but for elemental water. Fishing in these gives very high yield rates for elemental water, globes of water, and (the big one) Essence of Water. There are only one or two spawns at a time, but they are in static locations (out of 6 possible locations). You need 300 fishing + lures to try here; I think 400+ to keep fish from getting away. You can also fish Stonescale Eels in Azshara. The enemies along the coast vary from high-40s to low 50s, so you'll need to be a high level to do this. Luckily, Azshara sees relatively small amounts of traffic, so ganking isn't a huge problem... unless someone else is hunting Essence of Water spawns.

When it comes to the Outlands, check out the The Burning Crusade Fishing Guide

Q. If I do want to fish in my appropriate level's area, what skill do I need to have to fish there?

A. This is from the fishing guide on this site (props to Awata):

Fishing seems to scale up along with the difficulty of the zone. A basic formula is the skill divided by the number of levels, that is 300 divided by 60 gives you 5 points per level. If you break that down and compare it to the difficulty of various zones, say every 10 levels, it is easy to find the areas in which you need to fish in order to progress. The following chart breaks down the level ranges of the zone versus the fishing skill level at which the zone becomes trivial.
 
Zone Level    Ranges 
1-10          to 50 
11-20         to 100 
21-30         to 150 
31-40         to 200 
41-50         to 250 
51-60         to 300

Q. Whoa, hold up a second! I tried fishing in the Eastern Plaguelands with 300 skill, and it said I wasn't skilled enough. Do I have to boost my stats somehow? (Tamisch)

A. Yup. Despite the general rule of thumb I listed above, you actually need a higher skill sometimes... even higher than 300. In Azshara, as I mentioned, you need 400 or so skill to fish reliably! This also will hold true when you enter the Outlands. So, here's some links to helping you boost your skill.

Rods:
- A [wowitem=6256]fishing pole[/wowitem] is the basic. It has no skill added to it, and is sold by general vendors in lowbie areas.
- A [wowitem=6365]Strong Fishing Pole[/wowitem] is a limited sale from many vendors. It has +5 fishing skill. The easiest vendors to think of are Old Man Heming in Booty Bay (he sells the 150-225 book as well), or random vendors in all the main cities.
- A [wowitem=6367]Big Iron Fishing Pole[/wowitem] is a great item that can be maddeningly frustrating to get. It has a 1% chance to be looted from shellfish traps off the coast of Desolace, near Shadowprey Village (Horde town).
- The [wowitem=12225]Blump Family Fishing Pole[/wowitem] (Alliance only) is from a Darkshore quest. It has +3 fishing skill... worthless, especially compared to the Horde's...
- [wowitem=19022]Nat Pagle's Extreme Angler FC-5000[/wowitem] (Horde only)... an awesome fishing pole with +25 skill. This is quested, and used to be the best rod until the fishing tournament brought around the...
- [wowitem=19970]Arcanite Fishing Pole[/wowitem]. With +35 skill, this baby tops the list. It is won from fishing tournament.

Gear:
- [wowitem=19969]Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots[/wowitem]. These are from a rare fish caught during the fishing tournament, and they have +5 fishing skill.
- [wowitem=19972]Lucky Fishing Hat[/wowitem] is another rare-fish find. Trade it in to get the hat ^_^ +5 skill on this too.

Others:
- [wowitem=19971]High Test Eternium Line[/wowitem] replaces the line on your rod with a +5 fishing skill line (a permanent buff, like an enchant, only for fishing lines). This stacks with lures, and is from yet another rare fish.
- [wowitem=11152]Formula: Enchant Gloves - Fishing[/wowitem] enchants your gloves for a whopping +2 fishing skill!... woo-hoo...?

Lures:
These are temporary buffs that last for either 5 or 10 minutes and increase your fishing skill. Right-click the lure, then right-click onto your fishing rod. It is placed on it much like oil/grinding stones are:
- Bright Baubles: Increases fishing skill by 75 for 10 minutes. Most fishing vendors (outside of newbie areas) have these.
- Nightcrawlers: Increases your fishing skill by 50 for 10 minutes. Drops off all sorts of undead with flesh. Also sold by vendors.
- Flesh-Eating Worms: Increases fishing skill by 75 for 10 minutes. Drops off Rotted Ones (23-26) in Duskwood.
- Aquadynamic Fish Attractor: Increases fishing skill by 100 for 5 minutes. Most higher fishing vendors sell these at limited quantities, and engineers can make them.
- Aquadynamic Fish Lens (Alliance only): Increases fishing skill by 50 for 10 minutes. Quested for the Alliance in Auberdine.

Those are most of them. With these items, you can (somewhat) easily boost your skill into the necessary level range for WPL/EPL/Azshara fishing. I believe the highest amount of fishing skill you can get is 452 (Arcanite Rod + Eternium Line + hat + boots + enchant + Aquadynamic). Also, did you know there is a vendor who sells fishing supplies in Silithus? Fun facts.
#15 Feb 23 2007 at 10:03 AM Rating: Decent
well done on a really nice guide, but on cooking and fishing you've missed a bit, the "crawdad" recipe and fish, but other wise this is a really nice read
#16 Feb 23 2007 at 1:38 PM Rating: Decent
30 posts
Just a correction, Heavy Mageweave is at 240 skill, Runecloth is 260, and I'm just assuming Heavy Runecloth is off by 10 levels as well, but I'm not making such an assumption.
#17 Feb 23 2007 at 11:25 PM Rating: Decent
Thx for the info so far.I am a lvl 46 druid and i just started as an enchanter(lvl 1) I can't find anything that i am able to disenchant.How can i get to lvl 2?Any suggestions for sure fire disenchantable items for newbs? Thanks.
#18 Feb 26 2007 at 1:49 AM Rating: Decent
30 posts
Try running Deadmines a few times, most stuff there is disenchantable at level 1, and since you're a 46 Druid, you should be able to solo it.
#19 Mar 01 2007 at 12:23 AM Rating: Decent
well composed , great guide
#20 Mar 05 2007 at 7:55 PM Rating: Default
The website that you linked for the JC guide is freaking AMAZING!!!

Thank you so much for making this guide.
#21 Mar 07 2007 at 3:13 AM Rating: Decent
Quote:
Q. What are the requirements for trade skills?

A. You can start getting trade skills at level 5. If you need to find a trainer, ask a guard (they'll put a flag on your mini-map if you ask under "Professions"). There are tiers for skills:
Level 5 - maximum skill is 75 (Apprentice - need to be at least 50 to raise).
Level 10 - maximum skill is 150 (Journeyman - need to be at least 125 to raise).
Level 20 - maximum skill is 225 (Expert - need to be at least 200 to raise).
Level 35 - maximum skill is 300 (Artisan - need to be at least 275 to raise).
Level 45 - maximum skill is 375 (Master) - Primary professions can only train in the Outlands so the account must be Burning Crusade enabled.


A question to the more game-knowing than me.

If the lvl req for max skill 375, is lvl 45, can you enter Outlands, by fx. Teleport, Summon, or the like, even though the req. to enter the Dark Portal is 58th lvl?

It seems odd that they would put the lvl req. at 45, if you dont actually have the possibility to visit the 300-375 trainer, before 58th lvl :S

-Any info on the matter?
#22 Mar 08 2007 at 5:36 AM Rating: Decent
HighMarshal wrote:
A question to the more game-knowing than me.

If the lvl req for max skill 375, is lvl 45, can you enter Outlands, by fx. Teleport, Summon, or the like, even though the req. to enter the Dark Portal is 58th lvl?

It seems odd that they would put the lvl req. at 45, if you dont actually have the possibility to visit the 300-375 trainer, before 58th lvl :S

-Any info on the matter?


The Dark Portal is restricted to level 58+.

That is the only restriction on entering the Outlands. You should be able to deduce that there are alternatives to the Dark Portal =) In fact, I mention this in the Enchanting section regarding Master Enchanting training.
#23 Mar 30 2007 at 12:00 AM Rating: Decent
41 posts
What about smelting? This is a side of mining that is often overlooked.
When can you learn how to smelt the various ores & where can you learn.

I need to know where to learn to smelt Thorium??
I can mine it at my level of profency, so I should me able to learn. But where?

Cavorite
#24 Mar 30 2007 at 5:27 AM Rating: Decent
Cavorite wrote:
What about smelting? This is a side of mining that is often overlooked.
When can you learn how to smelt the various ores & where can you learn.

I need to know where to learn to smelt Thorium??
I can mine it at my level of profency, so I should me able to learn. But where?

Cavorite


Any mining trainer in Azeroth can teach Smelt Thorium. Use the Search feature and type in "Mining Trainer" to find the locations. This information is also available in the mining guide linked in the Mining section.

Edited, Mar 30th 2007 10:19am by thermalnoise
#25 Apr 04 2007 at 11:55 PM Rating: Decent
One thing you forgot to mention about cooking and fishing is if you are a hunter they are inexpensive ways to feed your pet and keep it happy. An example I have a lvl 41 cat who loves fish. Yellowtail is her favorate. It's a lvl 35 food and cost 18 silver to by 5. I can fish for 30 min and cook as required for less than a silver for 5.
#26 Apr 07 2007 at 5:14 PM Rating: Decent
I have alchemy and i like it but i can find some of the regents for the elixers. For instance i cant find Firefin snapper,i can find it in AH but people tend to sell stacks of 20 for 1g thinking that alchemists will accualy buy them. So my question is where do u find the more common regents and what potions/elixers make the most money? I would like if someone could give me this information,just send me an e-mail and post it on the forum<if u really feel like it> if u post it on the forums i will rate the post for anyone who cares.

Please i need this information


AND THX TO ANYONE WHO HELPS ME.
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