Profession Advice

Hello,

My main is a draenei pally, with tank spec as main and ret as off. My main profession for it is enchanting, simply because mats have always been ridiculously expensive on my server and I prefer to be able to enchant stuff on the fly as well as disenchant whatever greens I get, and blues/epics I don't need. That said, I'm looking for a second profession, something that can definitely be of use to both my specs. i.e. not mining since it only gives passive stam buff. Currently I have inscription at wrath level (I didn't know what I was thinking when I leveled insc) but I have 0 interest in it now, and it does nothing for me.

What I'm looking at as candidates to replace inscription are JC, Alch, BS, or ENG. I already have a miner and herbalism alt. What do you think would complement the most with enchanting for both my specs?

My thoughts are:

JC = Uber gems! Can be used for both specs! Expensive to level though.
BS = More slots = more reforging choices = more potential mastery

Alch = Mixology. Useful as tank. (since I sometimes have mana prob. But its nothing serious) Useful flasks for both tank and dps. Trinket be nice too.

Eng = Crafted helm, cogwheels, situational use but fun gadgets. Eng mounts. Belt enchants for stealthing/shield purposes. but nothing major in terms of performance. Not sure if cogwheels or crafted helm is worth it.

Additional Note: Also decent in making gold.

Okay. Disclosure here. I have two pallies one horde and one alliance. Both are Tank/Ret. The main one is a engineer/miner. Mostly because I like the two professions a lot. Engineering endlessly amsues me and I like the utility of having a mailbox/repairbot/portal/etc. Even if the stuff occasinoalyl tries to kill me. The other is mining/BS - mostly because ore is insanely expensive on that server (and I like mining). I have found that the benefits for BS are very good and occasionally profitable. If you want to get into something more profitable, JC is probably better but requires more 'hands on' time to cut and repost gems. You do get some nice gear though - the trinket is pretty good. Alchemy doesn't directly benefit you as much if you raid, particularly as flasks don't benefit from Mixology, but again the Trinket is amazing.

Mining's passive stamina buff is pretty useful but, again, I just like mining. If you are going to keep Enchanting, get something that synergizes with it to some extent. There's some cheap BS gear you can make that DEs nicely (Cobalt Shield). JC has some very good potential for DE - very good indeed if you can do the Elementium Shuffle.

what i dont understand is how being a scribe isnt doing anything for you....

unless you raid with a priest in every run, just the fact you can make Runscrolls yourself is enough

plus you have the master inscriptions
there is one for each spec

if you are dead set with losing inscrip, then i would go with Njall's advice

P.S. Engineering is not decent in making gold. There are only so many pets you can buy and much of your other clients are engineers too lazy to make their own parts. For cash - and plenty of it! - you want JC or Alchemy or...

Wait for it!


...Inscription.

Njall wrote:P.S. Engineering is not decent in making gold. There are only so many pets you can buy and much of your other clients are engineers too lazy to make their own parts. For cash - and plenty of it! - you want JC or Alchemy or...

Wait for it!


...Inscription.

/snicker

If you want a profession for making gold, you probably heard this many times before: Jewel-Crafting is the way to go. Crafted BS and Engineering items only pertains to certain classes, but everyone needs Gems regardless of what class they play. There will always be a demand for gems and if you can understand the AH well enough, you will have no problem with gold.

Alchemy gives you the right to print money every 24 hours with Transmute: Living Elements, but I just think Jewel-Crafting is better.

I switched from a Miner/BS to Alchemy/JC at the beginning of Cataclysm and I never looked back ever since.

Gaxby wrote:If you want a profession for making gold, you probably heard this many times before: Jewel-Crafting is the way to go. Crafted BS and Engineering items only pertains to certain classes, but everyone needs Gems regardless of what class they play. There will always be a demand for gems and if you can understand the AH well enough, you will have no problem with gold.

Alchemy gives you the right to print money every 24 hours with Transmute: Living Elements, but I just think Jewel-Crafting is better.

I switched from a Miner/BS to Alchemy/JC at the beginning of Cataclysm and I never looked back ever since.

The synergy between JC/Alchemy is difficult to beat and I shan't be re-tooling my DK any time soon. However, JC can be very time consuming with the constant problems with reposting undercutting. Or you can just find a good price, put the items up at that level and hope they sell. Alchemy has been equally profitable for me with less hassle. Inscription is, apparently, highly lucrative but the amount of attention required for it is prohibitive.

Engineering has been surprisingly profitable but selling engineering parts (bolts mostly) is a pain. Pets are a one-time sale and most people don't stock up on them on anything but their main. It is more of a quality of life skill... You haven't paid your dues as an Engie until your own work has tried to kill you at least one.

P.S. WTB WoW version of Engie-tan

Njall wrote:

Gaxby wrote:If you want a profession for making gold, you probably heard this many times before: Jewel-Crafting is the way to go. Crafted BS and Engineering items only pertains to certain classes, but everyone needs Gems regardless of what class they play. There will always be a demand for gems and if you can understand the AH well enough, you will have no problem with gold.

Alchemy gives you the right to print money every 24 hours with Transmute: Living Elements, but I just think Jewel-Crafting is better.

I switched from a Miner/BS to Alchemy/JC at the beginning of Cataclysm and I never looked back ever since.

The synergy between JC/Alchemy is difficult to beat and I shan't be re-tooling my DK any time soon. However, JC can be very time consuming with the constant problems with reposting undercutting. Or you can just find a good price, put the items up at that level and hope they sell. Alchemy has been equally profitable for me with less hassle. Inscription is, apparently, highly lucrative but the amount of attention required for it is prohibitive.

Engineering has been surprisingly profitable but selling engineering parts (bolts mostly) is a pain. Pets are a one-time sale and most people don't stock up on them on anything but their main. It is more of a quality of life skill... You haven't paid your dues as an Engie until your own work has tried to kill you at least one.

P.S. WTB WoW version of Engie-tan

Thanks everyone for your inputs

Gold making, is not a high priority for this specific toon. At this point I'm just looking for something that can benefit both specs performance wise (either in heroics or raids or heroic raids: survivability and damage capability however nominal). I just felt that inscription was more oriented toward the gold making than it was performance-wise (except for tank spec because of the runescrolls).

I'm sort of leaning now towards BS or Alchemy though. Trinks are niiiice. But on the other hand, I wonder how fast those trinks will be replaced. Afterall, even if I do raid, it's not a regular thing for me atm due to an erratic schedule. I don't know yet if there's something like Flask of the North. +Str or +Sta is good, pending on spec. But whatever the case. I am so keeping enchanting. Very satisfied with it due to its convenience.

Caelios wrote:
I'm sort of leaning now towards BS or Alchemy though. Trinks are niiiice. But on the other hand, I wonder how fast those trinks will be replaced. Afterall, even if I do raid, it's not a regular thing for me atm due to an erratic schedule. I don't know yet if there's something like Flask of the North. +Str or +Sta is good, pending on spec. But whatever the case. I am so keeping enchanting. Very satisfied with it due to its convenience.

The Alchemy trinkets probably won't be replaced until you start raiding. Even then, they will probably stick around for a long while as they are nicely itemized. I don't see my DK replacing her JC or Alchemy trinkets in the near future. There is a Flask of the North equivalent that gives a +60 stat - Flask of Enhancement.

And Enchanting should be your main money maker ANYWAY. If done right, it can be very lucrative. Since you can solo instances as a tank and plate-wearer, you shouldn't have any trouble with getting Classic/BC mats at all.

I suppose, given your comments, I'd go with Alchemy though you can get some very good synergy (and cheap mats) for your Enchanting if you with with Jewelcrafting.

Njall wrote:

Caelios wrote:
I'm sort of leaning now towards BS or Alchemy though. Trinks are niiiice. But on the other hand, I wonder how fast those trinks will be replaced. Afterall, even if I do raid, it's not a regular thing for me atm due to an erratic schedule. I don't know yet if there's something like Flask of the North. +Str or +Sta is good, pending on spec. But whatever the case. I am so keeping enchanting. Very satisfied with it due to its convenience.

The Alchemy trinkets probably won't be replaced until you start raiding. Even then, they will probably stick around for a long while as they are nicely itemized. I don't see my DK replacing her JC or Alchemy trinkets in the near future. There is a Flask of the North equivalent that gives a +60 stat - Flask of Enhancement.

And Enchanting should be your main money maker ANYWAY. If done right, it can be very lucrative. Since you can solo instances as a tank and plate-wearer, you shouldn't have any trouble with getting Classic/BC mats at all.

I suppose, given your comments, I'd go with Alchemy though you can get some very good synergy (and cheap mats) for your Enchanting if you with with Jewelcrafting.

So...JC has better synergy with Enchanting compared to Alchemy? How big is the difference would you say?

Caelios wrote:So...JC has better synergy with Enchanting compared to Alchemy? How big is the difference would you say?

Until recently, Alchemy had a huge advantage in that you could DE the Alchemy trinkets into Maelstrom Crystals. This is no longer the case. I know several enchanters who dropped whatever they had to level Alchemy just so that they could make and DE the trinkets. Now, that this little loophole has been fixed, there isn't really anything Alchemy does that DEs for a real profit.

Conversely, JC has many, many items that DE, some of them very economically. I have gotten considerable profit from making Aquamarine Signets and sending them off to my enchanter to create Small Radiant Shards (and Fiery Weapon scrolls). Numerous other examples exist. Blacksmithing has similar synergies but with the high cost of most BS items, they are usually not as economic.

I see. So that narrows it then to JC or Alch for me. Thanks for the info

Caelios wrote:I see. So that narrows it then to JC or Alch for me. Thanks for the info

between those, alch will make you more money, but i think jc would be better in the long run, esp combined with enchanting

Both JC and BS are really nice in that they are flexible with regards to the stats bonus - e.g. do you want mastery or stamina? They also tend to keep pace with the new tiers of gear, e.g. if/when new epic gems are released.

I have BS on my main and JC on my alt. My impression was that BS was a real pain to level whereas JC was painless. I did level BS in TBC and JC in Wrath though, so maybe things changed significantly between those expansions. Both characters were miners which helped in both cases.

Enchanting/JC for me.
But BS would work as well.

Other skills (such as mining) are good for your primary spec (stamina for tanking) but are arguably pretty pointless if you have a secondary ret/holy spec.

JC won over BS for me due to ease of leveling, and usefulness once maxxed.
Being able to cut your own gems and do your own enchants makes life much simpler.

Oh and JC in Cata has the random drop fixable trinket quests.
Did I enjoy getting this at level 83?

Figurine - Earthen Guardian
Binds when picked up Trinket
+427 Stamina
Requires Level 81
Requires Jewelcrafting (475)
Item Level 346
Use: Increases your dodge rating by 1425 (23.98% @ L81) for 20 sec. (2 Min Cooldown)

Yes, yes I did