I've always enjoyed leveling up professions while leveling my character. Sometimes to the dismay of a friend I'm leveling with because I'll get side tracked and delay us while I'm churning through a bag of cloth, hah. Classic seems to be all about incremental and steady growth, so it just makes sense to me to also include the growth of in-game professions.

My favorite combo is Tailoring and Enchanting, currently planning on rolling a Mage with that profession combination.

Oh I'm kind of nuts for professions too. I find deep satisfaction in farming ores, herbs and cloth and then selling on the AH. There's no better site than a bag full of silk cloth.

When Classic comes out I will go out of my way to get Timbermaw Revered for the enchanting recipe so I can make big bucks in the cities by selling it on to twinks. In fact I'm building as a little side project, a sort of list of valuable and in-demand enchantments, crafting materials etc. so that I have something to aim to have in stock for auction house. Plan on making most of my gold by buying up competition and relisting, supported by farming and crafting the most in-demand items.

Oh, remember you can still 'fail' to pick a herb in Classic! That means it might take a while longer. Sparkles aren't there either if I remember correctly so will be harder to spot out of minimap.

Sparkles aren't there either if I remember correctly so will be harder to spot out of minimap.

Yep, no sparkles for any game object in the world :D It makes many quests harder but "realistic" in my opinion :-)

Full time auctioneer here. I know its not a real ‘profession’ but it gives me kicks and gold too.

My strategy is this - everyone is going to be gathering and selling raw mats onto the AH at beginning of Classic. I’m talking lots of copper ore, silver, peacebloom etc. So camp the AH in org, strike deals in trade/barrens chat and build up a big stock of those low level resources.

Sure enough a lot of people will forget about levelling professions when they are 15-20 lvl and will carry on. When they remember ‘oh shit i forgot about engineering!’ and come back to the AH to buy those low level mats again, my overpriced stuff will be there and people will be lazy and buy it, because not many will be supplying those resources (as the first wave have reached higher level already) and I can buy up competiton and control.

hehehe

I love how professions were done in the past, not so much now, since they are almost non-existent except for a chosen few (like Alchemy for elixir buffs.)

Back in the days, I had Enchanting, and Skinning (which later turned to Engineer in Wrath of the Lich King.)

Every profession was needed in their own way. As an Enchanter, I had a disenchanting service, which was around 10 silver per disenchant. It was lucrative, to say the least, but sadly, in Wrath of the Lich King, people were given the convenience to roll for disenchants in dungeons for loot that no one needed, and the service I provided faded out.

I have always been a bit annoyed about that, but it will feel good to go back to the old times again.

The best part about the professions in my opinion, was how they were cross-profession necessary to do certain formulas. To do Icy Chill, you needed your own dust and shards, drops from elementals, and as well as a herb from a Herbalist.

Crusader (my longtime favourite) needed your own shards, and Righteous Orbs that dropped from Stratholme, a dungeon. A good adventure, and a moneymaker even at level 70, farming those orbs.

I'm most likely gonna roll a Priest and I stil haven't decided on that subject yet. I like to level a profession alongside levelling my character but at the same time I have to take into consideration how much I can benefit from it at given time. Most ideally I would like to go skinning and tailoring till 60. Skinning for profit for mounts etc, Tailoring for Truefaith Vestments. Once I got both of these, I reroll to Alchemy/Hebalism for raiding purposes.

Skinning is very popular for every class while levelling. The profit from it is substantial.

Skinning is very popular for every class while levelling. The profit from it is substantial.

For real it's used in so many professions. There's always a bit of medium leather poking around in engineering and blacksmithing. Also as you level up the resources are right there in front of you - no detours!

Every profession was needed in their own way. As an Enchanter, I had a disenchanting service, which was around 10 silver per disenchant. It was lucrative, to say the least, but sadly, in Wrath of the Lich King, people were given the convenience to roll for disenchants in dungeons for loot that no one needed, and the service I provided faded out.

This, so much this. People aren’t dependent on each other any more. I remember guilds that would recruit basis of profession skill level to boost their self reliance.

I also miss trade chat lighting up with people in need of mage portals, crafting, enchanting etc. It made the world seem so alive.

From my experience there is always a presence of these in trade/world chat (at least on p/servers)

I used to do that but I'm never going to attempt to do that with Enchanting ever again.That 225 trainer in Uldaman is terrible to get to, not to mention the fact that you should have a lot of mats farmed beforehand so you won't have to go there again. The low level enchants are very underwhelming. Leveling 270-300 is real pain. The only good profit margins tend to come from rare recipes. Ugh, never again.

As for Tailoring, I can pretty much get all of my BiS items with the exception of the one BoP epic chest with just any Tailor. Once Bloodvine set comes up, it becomes a viable thing to take.

I'll do Mining and Engineering at start for some fun, PVP action. Drop Mining for Tailoring in time to get all my Mooncloth procs.

As a Warlock player, I'll be going this route: Tailor+Enchant > @60 Enchant+Engineering.

Only reason I won't be dropping Enchant is because I'll be the main Enchanter for my guild. Otherwise, my endgame preference would be Tailor+Engineering for both PvE and PvP min/max.

Do you usually level up profession alongside your character? Or you boost them up at level 60?

Actually come to think of it I never really levelled the basics (fishing/cooking/first aid) until I reached max level in WOTLK. This is because it was so easy to self-heal and I never really needed to drink, eat, or bandage.

I think Classic will change this entirely - eating and drinking are v important to levelling speed and will also give me that ‘time out’ that I crave to soak up the game at my own pace.

As for primaries well.. I’d of course love to have fully trained each profession over lots of alts but now I have children so I can’t really dedicate that much time :)

Will probably strike out with a simple combo like BS/LW/TG coupled with Enchanting. Not imaginitive I know but it will do for good loot (like Nymis mentions) and maybe some gold.

I think Classic will change this entirely - eating and drinking are v important to levelling speed and will also give me that ‘time out’ that I crave to soak up the game at my own pace.

If you are not a healing class, first aid will be mandatory :-) Also cooking is really useful for the food buff you get from it. Fishing is quite slow, but you can make a lot of money just selling the one needed for alchemy (stonescale eel etc.)

I think Classic will change this entirely - eating and drinking are v important to levelling speed and will also give me that ‘time out’ that I crave to soak up the game at my own pace.

If you are not a healing class, first aid will be mandatory :-) Also cooking is really useful for the food buff you get from it. Fishing is quite slow, but you can make a lot of money just selling the one needed for alchemy (stonescale eel etc.)

Hey Fend, what kind of fish are the best to catch for other professions? I've heard that https://classic.wowhead.com/item=6522/ are good for later buffs. What is https://classic.wowhead.com/item=13422 used for?

teebling Oily Blackmouth is used in the water based flasks/potion (the standard Vanilla guide quest route takes you through some underwater objectives) and it’s also used for Free Action Potion.

If I had to pick, Engineering is by far the most entertaining for its special use items.

Hey Fend, what kind of fish are the best to catch for other professions? I've heard that https://classic.wowhead.com/item=6522/ are good for later buffs. What is https://classic.wowhead.com/item=13422 used for?

https://classic.wowhead.com/item=13422 are mainly used for https://classic.wowhead.com/item=13423 , and this is used for https://classic.wowhead.com/item=13455 and, mainly, https://classic.wowhead.com/item=13510

I remember my gf was doing a shitton of money justs fishing the eels and selling them to random raiders in guilds, was very profitable if fishing doesn't bore you too much :-)

How difficult is it to raise professions level only buying the mats in the AH in vanilla? Having two main professions and no secondary, for example "Engineering and Alchemy".

Regularly I only manage to raise a character to the maximum level in all the mmorpgs that I play, psychologically I feel that I am losing my time with the secondary and I give up.

How difficult is it to raise professions level only buying the mats in the AH in vanilla? Having two main professions and no secondary, for example "Engineering and Alchemy".

Regularly I only manage to raise a character to the maximum level in all the mmorpgs that I play, psychologically I feel that I am losing my time with the secondary and I give up.

Hey Nostra,

There are plenty of other avenues to making gold (with which to purchase raw mats off the AH) which don’t involve harvesting such as dungeon farming, auctioneering (buy low sell high), raiding etc.

You may find that this will actually be more time efficient depending on the amount you play! I can’t tell you for sure how efficient it could be but it’s a thought I’ve had from time to time.

I suppose it depends on the state of the market at the time also - for example see QB’s post about low level mat prices dipping once the crowd have passed a level threshold. If you pay attention to these fluctuatios they would benefit your strategy.

I suppose it depends on the state of the market at the time also - for example see QB’s post about low level mat prices dipping once the crowd have passed a level threshold. If you pay attention to these fluctuatios they would benefit your strategy.

Excellent, thank you very much.