The Crafting Tree

A Review of Professions

2009-10-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

So you started a new character, quested out a few levels, and now you're starting to look at some things you can do to make your cute little gnome even MORE awesome. While trotting around Ironforge, you pass by this chubby dwarf that wants to teach you Mining. What the blazes does that mean? What should you do?

Now, don't you worry your little pink pigtailed head. Just read a bit further, and I'll have some yummy information for you. After all, what brilliant gnome doesn't want to know more?

Professions

To quote our dear World of Warcraft official site:

In the World of Warcraft, there are two types of professions, primary and secondary. Every player may have as many Secondary Professions as he or she desires but will only be able to choose two Primary Professions. All professions also fall into three categories: gathering, production, and service.

For the purpose of this blog however, I will only be dividing the primary professions into two subgroups: Gathering and Crafting.

Secondary Skills

The secondary professions (Cooking, Fishing, and First Aid) can be learned by any character even at level 1. These are all very good skills to level as your character levels, since the materials available in an area tend to increase in skill level at about the same rate you'll level through the zone. For example, a druid leveling through Mulgore should get most of the meat she needs to level her cooking to 75 before she levels out of the zone.

First aid will be easily leveled from the cloth that drops from monsters, fishing points can be gained from any body of water, and cooking materials are available from monsters that you slay or from fish that you catch.

Primary Skills

While a character may have all 3 secondary skills, once it comes to the primary professions a decision must be made. For many leveling characters, one gathering skill and a crafting skill are popular choices. Common combinations for these include:

Skinning and Leatherworking
Herbalism and Alchemy
Herbalism and Inscription
Mining and Jewelcrafting
Mining and Blacksmithing
Mining and Engineering

Most primary professions are easiest to level as your character does, but gathering professions will take the most time to go back and skill up if you wait until 80 to begin. Before beginning to really level your character, you should consider which professions you'd like to have, and attempt to keep those caught up with your character.

Training Skills

Profession trainers are scattered across the World of Warcraft, but the easiest place to locate trainers will often be a capital city. The Azeroth capitals (Ironforge, Orgrimmar, etc) will train your character up to a skill of 300. To train the next bracket of skill (to 375) your character can travel to Outland. Some trainers are located in the starting cities in Hellfire Peninsula but all professions can be trained in the city of Shattrath. While some vendors and trainers in Shatt can be located around the town, in the library on the Scryer tier you'll find a set of bookshelves training each profession. The trainers on the Aldor tier are located in buildings just north and south of the elevator. However, you may find it easier to instead journey by boat or zeppelin to the beginning Northrend cities where you will be able to train not only Master but also Grand Master, reaching a maximum skill of 450. Make it easy on yourself: Use the Profession Trainer tracking option on your minimap.

Leveling Skills

With only one notable exception (which will be explained when I cover Skinning), profession skill points are gained in a set way.

Orange recipes and nodes will give a skill point.
Yellow are likely to give a point, but not guaranteed.
Green may give a point, but often will not.
Grey recipes will not grant skill points.

While all professions can help your character, for each class there are specific professions that will be best. In the next few weeks I'll be going over each profession individually, and including what classes may find it the most helpful.

Professions were created to better your character. You, however, are given the choice on how and when to use them. Do you create amazing jewels to place into your gear? Do you mix together mysterious flowers and herbs to craft elixirs that can bring life... or death? Do you forge together ores to result in metal bars that you then sell to that night elf on the other end of the Auction House?

Whatever your end goal is, my hope is to teach you how to select, level, and use the professions that your character has in order to benefit you.

List Linky List!
Secondary

Primary
Gathering

Crafting

Blacksmithing

2009-10-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

Blacksmithing Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Engineering

2009-10-20T21:38:00.001-07:00

Engineering Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Jewelcrafting

2009-10-20T21:37:00.003-07:00

Jewelcrafting Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Tailoring

2009-10-20T21:37:00.001-07:00

Tailoring Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Enchanting

2009-10-20T21:36:00.004-07:00

Enchanting Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Leatherworking

2009-10-20T21:36:00.002-07:00

Leatherworking Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Inscription

2009-10-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

Inscription Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Alchemy

2009-10-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

Alchemy Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Don't Tell D.E.H.T.A.

2009-10-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

Skinning Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work We Go...

2009-10-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

Mining Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Flower Picking for Dummies

2009-10-20T21:25:00.001-07:00

Herbalism Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

MEDIC! I can fix that... or, maybe not! Sheesh, what a mess...

2009-10-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

First Aid Overview

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy....

2009-10-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

By fishing in various waters throughout the game, your character will be able to find various items, including fun things like mounts and pets, but most importantly FISH! You'll have the best luck of fishing up a specific fish by locating a school of that type of fish.

El wrote up an amazing guide to fishing from start to finish, check it out at El's Extreme Anglin' Guide

***Incomplete post. Will be finished at a later date***

Om Nom Nom... So You Want to be a Cook?

2009-10-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

From Herb Baked Eggs to Fish Feasts, the cooking profession gives your character the ability to create delicious cuisine for you and your party members.

The materials your character will need to create food will come from various places. Some monsters that you kill may drop items that can be turned into food, most fish that you catch through Fishing can be cooked, and some of the materials can be purchased from vendors around the world. In order to actually cook something, you'll need to first locate a fire. While many fires around the world will work, you can create a Basic Campfire, which is a basic skill taught when you first learn the cooking profession. Check the General tab of your spellbook =)

Some foods that you create will give your character a buff after you spend a certain amount of time eating. For lower levels, the most common buff gives you a bonus to Stamina and Spirit.

Want another reason to level cooking? It's needed for some achievements, including several of the holiday achievements throughout the year!

Once you reach higher skill levels, there are cooking daily quests available in Shattrath and Dala ran. Check with the quest givers to see what they have for you today!

Primary Materials

Cooking in WoW is very similar to cooking in the real world. You'll use spices, oil, milk, meat, apples, and so on to create the foods. Check with your General, Trade, or Cooking Supplies vendor to see what they have available. To find any other materials that you need, check your specific recipe and search WoWHead for any items that you are missing. Find out where the best sources to farm those are and check the AH for any mats within your budget, and get cooking.

Complimentary Professions

While Cooking can fairly easily be leveled on its own, most fish caught with the Fishing profession can be used to create various foods. A character leveling both (or that has previously leveled fishing and saved the results) will have an easy time turning those fish into delicious cuisine.

Leveling Guides

*Not written or necessarily used by Khi. These guides may not be up to date, so think before you use*

Cooking 1 to 300
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=13121383&pageNo=1&sid=1#4
Fishing & Cooking 1 to 300
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=13121383&pageNo=1&sid=1#5
Cooking 300 to 375
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=13121383&pageNo=2&sid=1#28
Fishing and Cooking 300 to 375
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=13121383&pageNo=2&sid=1#32

Welcome!

2009-10-09T19:29:00.001-07:00

It's new, and even the planning is still in the works, but keep an eye out over the next several days =)