Get a Job You Bum!

Image by Red~Cyan via Flickr

Today I will be talking a little about professions. In the coming weeks I will go through each one in more detail, but today is just going to be an overview of all of them. Professions are a big part of WoW and they should be a big part of your character as well. Having professions can make you a lot of gold, make you armor, and give you item enhancements that will give you an edge over other players. They may cost a little bit of gold to level the skill, but it is definitely worth it long term.

First of all, you need to know that there are primary and secondary professions. The secondary professions are cooking, fishing, first-aid, and riding. You can learn every one of these trades. Primary professions, on the other hand, you can only learn two of so choose wisely. The primary professions are basically split up into two categories: gathering and productions. The gathering trades are herbalism, mining, and skinning. Gathering professions usually make the most money, but your character doesn't actually benefit from it. The production trades are alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting,engineering , leatherworking, tailoring, jewelcrafting, and inscription. A little description about each profession:

Alchemy - Make potions, elixers, flasks, and oils using herbs and vials. Can also transmute essences and metals into other essences and metals.

Blacksmithing - Forge weapons, plate and mail armor from metal bars

Enchanting - Enchant weapons and gear to increase various attributes. Uses dusts, essences, and shards extracted from armor.

Engineering - Create bomb, rifles, goggles, and other mechanical devices.

Herbalism - Harvest herbs from nodes around the world and some mobs.

Inscription - Create glyphs and scrolls from milling herbs.

Jewelcrafting - Make rings, necklaces, trinkets and cut gems that are used in special sockets.

Leatherworking - Make leather armor and armor kits from hides. Can also create mail armor after level 40.

Mining - Mine ore, minerals, gems, and stone from deposits around the world. Smelting is then used to turn the ore into bars of metal.

Tailoring - Sews cloth armor and makes bags. Can also make special thread to enhance items.

As you can see, there are quite a few choices to make. Try a few out. If you don't like it, you can always just drop it and start a new profession.