Hi everyone,

I need an opinion about professions.
I'm currently level 25, I skin (170) and mine (140) basically to bring in some extra cash.

I usually play 2-4 times a week, usually working on my quests or helping my friends out.
I run instances but not frequently enough to make a shit load of money from.

So my dilemma is this. I don't want to lose much of my cash flow but I'd like to drop
skinning for engineering. This is to compensate for my lack of range attacks, my character's
a Pali.

Is it worth it, heard it backfires half of the time?
Should I pick up my fishing rod maybe?

Any comments appreciated :)

My rogue is skinning/mining. Skinning really only brings in the fat cash if you're skinning dragons (so at your level, you're not getting much benefit from it). I'll probably be dropping skinning for jewelcrafting as soon as BC hits.

My paladin is mining/blacksmithing, and frankly, I do think blacksmithing is a waste of a profession...we'll see what happens when BC comes out, though.

However, if the only reason you're looking at engineering is for ranged attacks, take a good look at your paladin's powers. Judgement of Righteousness and Judgement of Command both do damage from range. It's not much range, but it's enough to pull a stubborn mob. Holy Shock is the top of the Holy tree, and it's fantastic for pulling -- it's got a good range and does a nice amount of damage. Exorcism is great for pulling undead or demon mobs, and really, as a paladin, you ought to be trying to fight nothing but undead or demons while levelling (Duskwood, I love you).

There are plenty of ways a paladin can pull without using engineering. That's not to say you shouldn't get it -- engineering is a massively fun profession. You get to blow stuff up, how cool is that? All I'm saying is, if that's the only thing you want, take a long look at your character's talents before you change professions.

Once you complete the Un'Goro chain, you can also pull with Linken's Boomerang.

Fun note: my very first experience in-game was Jamisia's horde character beating me down with said boomerang. (He did it out of LOVE.)

This is a large portion of the reason I fell in love with the game.

My priest is an engineer, and honestly I did it entirely for the goggles. I went gnomish because I enjoy hilarious gadgets more than exploding things, and I almost never use it, although now that I can make repair bots I expect I'll trot those out upon occasion.

Honestly I'm with Stranger, engineering really isn't going to help you pull any more than holy shock or the various judgements. The awkward fly-time of dynamite tends to make you miss sometimes, as the mob will wander away while you target and throw, and goblin stuff does indeed often backfire. It's a fun skill if you love the goggles or just enjoy making hilarious trinkets or blowing shit up, but I don't think it can really be a serious factor in improving palading pulling/ranged damage, so as Stranger said, if that's all you're looking for, maybe check out your talents first. <3

Thanks Stranger, you've got some good points there.
I'll try the glasses on for size and see how it goes, I'll dust off the ol fishing rod too ;)

Yeah Duskwood is great... something about the gloominess and undead everywhere.
It's like a permanent Halloween!

Blacksmithing a waste of profession? Compared to Alchemy/Enchanting ?

At least alchemists have transmute to arcanite. Blacksmithing pretty much has nothing bankable, except maybe armorsmith. There are some nice crafted weapons, but they aren't really profitable because the mats are usually a pita to get, or drop in MC, which also drops comparable weapons. So by the time someone who wants the weapon farms MC for the mats, something better has dropped.

I make a ton of money off enchanting, and pretty much everyone in the guild needs enchants when they gear up. And potions are in constant demand. I'd say those two are my most used professions.

It's a fun skill if you love the goggles or just enjoy making hilarious trinkets or blowing shit up

I defenitly do ;) that and I heard of the Death Ray... Mouahahahaha

I make a ton of money off enchanting, and pretty much everyone in the guild needs enchants when they gear up. And potions are in constant demand. I'd say those two are my most used professions.


I actually thought of starting an alt with enchanting. I could send my greens/blues that don't sell instead of going to the vendors, which is more worth it if you ask me.

I make a ton of money off enchanting, and pretty much everyone in the guild needs enchants when they gear up. And potions are in constant demand. I'd say those two are my most used professions.


I actually thought of starting an alt with enchanting. I could send my greens/blues that don't sell instead of going to the vendors, which is more worth it if you ask me.


That'll only work until the next patch. After that point, items will have a minimum enchanting skill required to DE them. So any level 60 items will need a 300 enchanter to DE. No more DE mules.

No more DE mules.

Hummm would this have any chance of getting rid of the Twinks?

I don't think it's in the next patch, but I believe they are adding in minimum levels for enchants. So you won't be able to put Crusader on a weapon that's not level 60 or above.

Alchemy and herbalism keep food on Eulalia's table and arrows in her quiver!

Herbalism and Alchemy were my very first professions... I tried other professions, never came back to it though.

The more I think about it, picking herbs and making potions and making money out of it sounds pretty damn good right now... All comes down to, do I want those Oakleys that much? :-\

I've never used Herbalism to actually make money, but if you need the cash, check out the prices at the AH...they're usually outrageous! Add alchemy on top of that, make the higher end potions, and you've got an even larger cash flow. But I prefer to just make a few potions, use them over time, and then suddenly realize "Oh shit, I have no potions left! How the eff did that happen?"

Some people really like enchanting. I'm ho-hum on it. Valmarriz is a high-level enchanter, and is the brokest character I've ever had; I'm just hoping he'll have enough money to buy all his skills when he hits 60, and that's after I've sent him money from one of my other characters.

Practically the only way you can make money from enchanting, other than selling the materials, is by sitting on your rear end in Ironforge for hours shouting in the trade channel offering to sell enchants. So...if you can do some of the desirable enchants, you can make money, but only if you're willing to sit around in a city doing nothing all day.

I've got better things to do with my time, so I don't make any money at all off of it. Thus...broke.

Some people really like enchanting. I'm ho-hum on it. Valmarriz is a high-level enchanter, and is the brokest character I've ever had; I'm just hoping he'll have enough money to buy all his skills when he hits 60, and that's after I've sent him money from one of my other characters.

Practically the only way you can make money from enchanting, other than selling the materials, is by sitting on your rear end in Ironforge for hours shouting in the trade channel offering to sell enchants. So...if you can do some of the desirable enchants, you can make money, but only if you're willing to sit around in a city doing nothing all day.

I've got better things to do with my time, so I don't make any money at all off of it. Thus...broke.



Not entirely true. At least not for me. I've found 2 decent ways to make money at enchanting and I never stand around and yell.

Method 1:

Find a cheap craftable item that you can make in bulk. Make a ton. DE them. Sell the mats.

Method 2:

Get your enchanting to 300, run ZG a bunch, sell Brilliant Mana Oil and Brilliant Wizard Oil on the AH.

Now, Method 2 obviously has some drawbacks. But Method 1 works nicely. My epic mount is at least half financed by White Bandit Masks.

I don't think that enchanting is a great skill for when you're leveling up a toon. But once you hit 60, it can be quite useful.

Find a cheap craftable item that you can make in bulk. Make a ton. DE them. Sell the mats.

Well, yeah, runecloth belts. But that's what I was getting at when I said 'other than selling the materials.' Selling the materials is a good way to make money, absolutely...but on the other hand, level for level, you can probably get wealthier with selling herbs.

The big money's supposed to be in selling the enchants themselves...and that means sitting around Ironforge all day. Nnnngh.

I hadn't tried selling the high-powered mana oils and wizard oils. I used to sell the lesser oils back when I used those to raise my enchanting...I'll have to look into that.

The regular oils sell ok. But the ZG oils sell for quite a bit more, obviously.

Oh, I took some screenshots of the new enchanting menu in the upcoming patch. I'll have to upload those.

So here are 2 shots of changes to enchanting.

In shot 1, you can see the new enchanting window. It lets you filter the list by gear type (hand, feet, etc). And you can also filter out all enchants for which you don't have mats.

In shot 2, you can see the new DE limits. If I wanted to DE my Belt of the Archmage, I'd have to have an enchanting skill of 225.

In any case, correct me if I'm wrong, but I find enchanting to be a very late professions to take. You can't make decent money off of it as an initial profession.

Unless you have a high end character supplying the items, as gleja states.

That's my experience. The best strategy I've found, if you're looking for a good amount of gold, is to take 2 gathering professions while leveling. I leveled Malai with Skin/Herb. I AH'd everything white or above. And I never hurt for cash.

Once at 60 it's easier to drop a gathering profession for a crafting one.

Talking about money pits (enchanting as early profession), dunno if you guys read Penny-arcade.com, it's funny as hell.

Last year they made a comic strip about WoW CCG, it's awsome.
Check it out. (sorry if it's a bit off-topic but I have to share this)


P.S. - Twistle this is the comic strip I was talking about!

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/08/26

I love that strip.