Proffesion Pondering

[Bulletdance]

I'm looking for advice. I have leather working on my hunter,but there is a small problem. I hate leather working. He's been 80 a very long time and I still don't have the skill lvld up completely. I can't seem to make money with it either. My lvl 69 rogue makes more gold then him
But I love skinning with my hunter. Its relaxing to me for some reason I remember killing endlessly in Nagrand with my ape and skinning at lvl 70 for fun. So I'm thinking of unlearning leather working and keeping skinning,but I'm not sure if its wise with cataclysm right around the corner. And the cost of learning a new skill worries me as well.

My rogue has mining though and could always provide mats for a new profession in that way so its tempting. Any advice on the matter?

[VelkynKarma]

In my experience there are two types of professions. Ones that are practically impossible to level, but pay off REALLY WELL in the endgame, and the ones that are fairly easy to level but don't make that much cash.

Jewelcrafting and Enchanting fall into the former. Leatherworking, I feel, is the latter. Since you get your mats easily while leveling your character, it's easy to level Leatherworking, but it really doesn't pay off a hella lot.

That said, some of the endgame stuff DOES sell fairly well. Things like the cloaks are pretty nice, and some of the level 80 epic leather/mail stuff can sell well as people start gearing up for heroics before they have their tier gear.

If you REALLY want a profession that brings in the cash, jewelcrafting in my experience is excellent for it (especially if you already have a fully leveled miner). However keep in mind that it is VERY EXPENSIVE to level, and won't pay off until the endgame when you can start making epic-level pieces and cut gems. Once you get that far though, you can sell cut gems for 200-400g a pop depending on the server and it's a fairly reliable way to get money.

Ultimately it's all about how much effort and money you want to pour into a profession. Most of them won't start giving back until the endgame; some just do it more than others is all.

~VelkynKarma

[Arwyn]

Tough call.
From this small blip on MMO-Champion a couple of weeks ago there are planned changes to the leatherworking, blacksmithing, and tailoring professions:

•Many of the green (and possibly some blue) items made during the process of leveling these professions will contain random stats. In most examples, two stats on these items will be set, and two will be random. The idea with these items is to mix up the skill leveling items so you're not just, for example, creating 10 pairs of boots that are all exactly the same.
•Superior-quality items that require more materials than other recipes in the same skill range provide multiple skill-ups. For example, if a recipe takes three times the reagents, it will give you three skill-ups.
•We didn't feel like we were getting much flexibility from specializations, so they have been removed for all three of these professions. The intent was to help people diversify their profession to feel different from that of other players, but through other professions we've found systems that work better to this end, such as simply making recipes available that you can earn over time.
•To follow up the previous change, all items that required a specialization are now useable by anyone.
•Tailoring the high-end Cataclysm items will center around a single cloth type that can be crafted through five different recipes -- each with their own material components and a long cooldown.
•All three professions will create their starter sets of PVP gear, which will be upgraded with new recipes every season. In general, these are meant to keep pace as an entry-level PvP set below whatever the current Hero Point set is.

Might want to see what people report back from Beta to see which step to take.

[Slickrock]

Frankly, with Cata on the horizon, if you were going to drop LW, and there really isn't a great reason to keep it if you never got the end-game recipies, I would level another gathering profession to go along with skinning in preparation for Cata.

So I would go Skinning/Mining or Skinning/Herbing, and be ready to cash in on the early rush for mats when people level their professions. (Remember when Cobalt ore was 10G each at the beginning of Cata?)

Once the dust settles and we see what the Cata professions have in store, then pick up JC or Enchanting or something like that.

But if you want the "safest" crafting profession, I'd go JC.

[Sigrah]

If you wanna make money:
Enchanting: Enchants sell pretty well, and if you can get your hands on Crusader, Spell Power, or Healing Power (the best weapon enchants that can be placed on Heirloom weapons), you can bring in a lot of money. Just be ready to spend 4k to 8k to get it from 0 to 450 (I spent 5k myself), and don't become one of those whiny enchanters that screams about how everyone can get mats from your skill.

Jewelcraft: This is a pretty lucrative trade skill with everyone constantly needing cuts anytime they upgrade their armor. The only trouble is lots of people take this (because of the dragons eye cuts), and it's also a pain to level. Still, it can pay well.

Herbalism: This gathering skill has become very profitable since the introduction of Inscription. Low level herbs especially sell pretty well.


If you wanna have fun:
Engineering: Let's face it, your products are mostly limited to yourself (except the vanity pets), but the items and enchants can be very entertaining and useful. Rocket boots can be useful in movement fights if you get screwed up somehow (think Sindragosa pulling you in and you getting turned the wrong way for whatever reason), parachute cloaks (for those times you accidentally click a buff in mid-air), flying machines (who doesn't like more power?), and of course, robotic servants like Jeeves, MOLL-E, etc. With Cata coming out, it should be even more fun being able to make crossbows and bows, and who knows what fun things will be in there as well (maybe they'll finally get it right and give us an epic ranged weapon recipe for raiding like they do for tailoring, leatherworking, and blacksmithing).