battletagoneCof5#1879

03 August 2012

Shared Topic: Professions

I discovered Blog Azeroth the other day and among all of the great resources offered, the shared topic intrigued me. This week's topic was offered by Effy who asks:
Professions are fun for some and a necessary evil for others. Some of us have farming professions. Some of us have crafting professions. Some of us have a little bit of everything! Professions are leveled because they fit our style of play, help us in raiding, allow us to outfit our alts, and make us money. What professions do you have on your main? Do his/her professions fit their personality? Why did you choose them? If you chose professions based on your character and not on gaming needs, would that change some of their professions they use? (This can include the secondary professions of archaeology, fishing, cooking, and first aid too!)

Primary Professions

My Hunter began life as a skinner and a leatherworker. They just seemed to fit, you know?  He's out, well, hunting things. The whole "waste not want not" mantra repeated for him - if you have skins, use them to make yourself cool things. Up to Wrath, I wouldn't argue that my hunter got much of a benefit game-wise from either choice. My favorite reason for  a max level leatherworker in BC was the Stylin' Hats, but that's just because they looked awesome. I forget now which expansion added the bonuses (thinking Wrath), but all of a sudden skinning offered a Master of Anatomy bonus to critical strike rating, which became a nice benefit. Leatherworking now had an amazing wrist enchant for agility and a cheap leg armor enchant, so there were gaming elements there that were nice bonuses.

Recently, I dropped skinning and learned engineering. Why? I was at 16,000 honor kills and had my sights set on reaching the 25,000 kills achievement prior to any account-wide consolidations. The combination of a Disengage and Parachute Cloak! I will never PVP again on a hunter without my disengage macro that also fires the 'chute; the next thing you know I'm flying from the ramp of the Ally stronghold in Twin Peaks to the bridge. So much fun! The other perks to engineering for me have been less of the cogwheel enhancements and more having Jeeves and Moll-E. They are great when you're out and about farming old content!

As far as alts go, I've maxed all other primary professions.  The priest has enchanting and tailoring, the paladin is a blacksmith, the shaman is an alchemist and a jewelcrafter, and the warlock is an inscriptionist. Of these, the priest was my first alt, and again I felt like tailoring would fit (being able to make my own robes was cool). Enchanting was also appealing for the bonus to spellpower on rings (more so in TBC).  The rest of my stable?  Their professions were chosen not as much for fit as for gold grubbing speculation. I love being able to craft most of the items in a profession and shoot it to an alt (or guildmate). I also like being able to craft things as suggested by TSM and make a bit of gold. It adds a nice layer to the game!

Secondary Professions

I am a completionist. I have maxed out all secondary professions: archaeology, cooking, first aid and fishing. However, no other alt has even bothered to learn secondary skills.

Archaeology has potential. You can dig up some great stuff from it (the mount and the pets). But, the downside to me is that it's only in four places on a continent at the same time. That's too much travel time to be flying all over Kalimdor to then prospect a dozen times only to mount back up and fly across the continent. I wish digsites were more plentiful and didn't include so much travel time, and my complaints would lessen.

Cooking wasn't necessarily bad. Prepared food offers nice buffs as you're leveling and the good old 'feasts' are part of the ritual of raid preparation. I actually really dig that; before you and 9 or 24 of your friends attempt to down some bosses, you engage in a communal breaking of bread. It has a bit of ritualism, doesn't it? When it came to alts, however, I just can't be bothered with leveling up cooking.

First aid has it's uses. As a hunter, the ability to heal yourself is nice. While leveling, it's a nice outlet for all that cloth that drops from humanoids. I'm running into a priority conflict; do I consume that embersilk cloth for bandages or zip it to the tailor...  And for my AH speculations tailoring is a clear winner.

Fishing has improved a bit in the base UI, but it's still a matter of spending hours doing absolutely nothing other than clicking and listening for the fish ding.  All I can say is multi-task. This is a drag!

Why did you choose them?

Back to what I interpret as Effy's central question.  Why, indeed?  For my hunter, the profession choices are about gaming. In PVE, he got a bonus to crit from skinning and he got the bonus to agility on wrists.  For PVP, he gets the mobility of the cloak plus retained the wrist enchant.
For all the other alts, it's about opportunity: the opportunity to craft most items for myself without having to pay premiums in the Auction House as well as the opportunity to craft many items and then sell them at a premium in the Auction House!

How about you?

1 comment:

  1. I applaud all you guys who are self sufficient! Though without lazy asses like me I guess you guys wouldn't make money right? That works :)

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