Professions for prot pally

[dZvlk]

Hello, I'm kinda new to this site. Been reading some topics all over the place while leveling my pally and i finally got it to lvl 90.

Yesterday i leveled my blacksmithing to 600 and I'm wondering what second prof shall I take? Mostly for tanking but I'm als o planning going retri for some fights + PVP.

I'm thinking about jawelcrafting or either engineering or alchemy. Which one you think has the most benefits? I love the fun you get from eng + nice main stat CD but I also want to have some money-making profession (Hard to earn money with only BS since i don't have the 497 recipes yet and no blood spirit since I haven't started raiding yet) so it's either JC or Alchemy.

Also, at what ilvl you think I would be able to tank the whole normal MSV raid? I'm currently at 472iLVL, trying to swap the rest of my heroics for at least 476 stuff, you think 475+ will do the job?

Greets

[Jadhzia]

Engineering is fun, but if you're looking for something optimal, it's not that great. The glove enchant gives strength, which is subpar for tanking. As you're already a blacksmith, I'd go for jewelcrafting. It's very flexible, since you can choose on which stat you want the extra bonus (Stamina or Haste in this case, I presume).

Other professions tend to give Stamina bonuses only, which can be good unless you want some choice. In 10-man normal mode, I'd go for a balance of Haste and Stamina (hence jewelcrafting) but it's a matter of taste.

As for normal MSV, the raid was made for 460-ilvl geared characters. I'm in a small 10-man guild, we often have 2-3 very casual players which have to be carried, so we usually overgear a raid before we start making real progress inside. For us that meant ilvl 465-470 in average to down some bosses.

So don't worry about your ilvl, you're already much higher than necessary for MSV.

[dZvlk]

I'll go for JC then Thanks a lot for your help <3

[DisRuptive1]

I would highly recommend you choose one profession and then choose the profession that complements it. You said you're a blacksmith. Therefore, I think you should take mining.

I've tried playing in a way where my alts handle all my gathering needs and my mains handle crafting (my prot paladin was a Jewelcrafter/Blacksmith) but it just doesn't work in the long run. You should make your character as self sufficient as possible because of all the benefits it brings to you.

[Jadhzia]

It really depends on the way you oganize your time. Mining isn't very good for a raiding character, and completely useless for a non-tank. So in the long run, it doesn't work very well to have mining on a main.

When only my main character had reached 90, I farmed ghostiron ore with a level-85 alt in Jade forest (and gained levels doing it), and it was perfectly efficient to reach 600 in blacksmithing and jewelcrafting on my main. Now that I have several high level alts (88-90), it really works fine for all professions.

This being said, the bonus given by professions isn't a big one. It's a nice help when you just dinged 90, but after that, unless you're playing in a very hardcore progression guild, it isn't vital. The best tank I know is skinning / mining, which is a horrid combination for a warrior tank, but he's doing fine in a casual guild.

[Thels]

If you are going to focus on Tanking, then Mining remains a very good option. It however won't do Retribution much good. Jewelcrafting is actually underperforming at the moment, while Blacksmithing is overperforming.

For example, for a decent geared retribution paladin, 2 haste is better than 1 strength. Since gems provide twice as much haste as strength, retribution paladins gem haste wherever they can.

Average professions provide a static 320 strength. Blacksmiths can provide this additional 320 strength, or they can gem for 640 haste, which is slightly better.

Jewelcrafters don't have it so easy. They can use 2 480 haste gems, which provides 320 more haste than regular gems, but that 320 haste is weaker than 320 strength. So to get the maximum out of their profession, they have to use two 320 strength gems, which means they're gemming strength where others would gem haste.

If you like Engineering, stick to it. Admittedly, Strength/Dodge isn't as nice for Tanks as pure stamina, but the upside is you can time it. For example, on a two tank fight, you only pop the dodge when you need it, making it twice as valuable already. Then there are the other trinkets you can put on your gear, a nice craftable helmet, an auction house in Seven Stars/Two Moons, Jeeves in the raid (you don't know how useful this is until you raid without it).

As for BS money, you're not making it off the craftable chest/gloves, but off the belt buckles.

[Vayacondios]

I roll with Eng and enchanting personally, Eng was done for the jeeves alone - when I changed mains to a prot pally at the end of Cata the person that was leaving was our only Eng so I had to take it up, glad I did though as the MoP changes for it are really nice.

The gloves enchant isn't awesome for tanking, but I like it as a DPS CD. Makes aggro off the pull and after a tank switch easier and helps with smexy numbers, DPS from tanks is really under valued by a lot of people but to me it's my most important job after staying alive. Love me some rocket boots also, there is a CHANCE that they fail and can really screw you over in a raid but the chance is fairly low. Mine only have about a 5% fail rate, only kills me maybe 1 in 10 fails and makes fights like heroic elite protecters, heroic Viz, heroic Emperess, and others a lot easier.

The fringe benefits of Eng are awesome also, way better then any other profs. The AH, bank, vender, and mail box in our little Eng pocket in Seven Stars (or Two Moons if you're horde) is really handy time saver, drives me nuts when I'm on alts now and I don't have that. The glider is amazing also, body runs are easier, world quests/pvp you can pull some nice tricks on, and having spent a lot of time on the PTR lately the 5.2 raid will have a LOT of places where my glider will be very useful.

Bigest downside to Eng is the price to level it and the fact that you will make zero gold off of it, ever. Maybe if you get lucky with some mount crafting or some such, but really there is no money to be made with it.

That's why I love my enchanting, make mad gold with it just from d/e-ing all my old gear when I get upgrades. Saves you a lot of money on self enchants also. The ring enchants are kind of meh as they only give main stats, wish I could get haste off them but oh well. I took it for the money it saves me and the money it makes me.

[fuzzygeek]

BS/JC is absurdly flexible. I don't think mining is useful at all unless you're trying to make money with your professions. Once I leveled BS I've been ignoring it except when I get new gloves and bracers.

JC is nice because you can use JC gems to reach certain plateaus while gearing up (hit/xpt/stam/whathaveyou), then adjust to fill gaps as you need (--->haste,mastery,whatever). It's particularly useful if you plan on going with multiple specs.

If we were still stam stacking I'd think Mining was marginally useful, but right now I don't think it is. Unless, again, you're trying to make money, but taking a profession where you're competing with bots is a tough road to go.

I personally don't bother with the gold making side of the game -- I buy game cards for guildies who have more gold than cash and fund my endless reforging that way

[Thels]

JC is nice because you can use JC gems to reach certain plateaus while gearing up (hit/xpt/stam/whathaveyou), then adjust to fill gaps as you need (--->haste,mastery,whatever). It's particularly useful if you plan on going with multiple specs.

Correct, but it comes as a downside that you don't get as much itemization out of your profession as other professions would.

A plus side however is that you can more or less decide in which pieces you place your profession perks. I'm running with Enchanting, so I have to place mine on rings. I have two Haste/Mastery rings that would be excellent for both prot and ret, but since I'm putting 240 stamina on them, they don't feel that good for ret anymore. One I still have equipped, because I also upgraded it, making it better than the next best rings I got even without the 160 strength.

[benebarba]

If we were still stam stacking I'd think Mining was marginally useful, but right now I don't think it is.

Erm... we're not? Or do you mean 'if there wasn't also a viable haste or mastery gemming gear strategy'?

[Jadhzia]

If we were still stam stacking I'd think Mining was marginally useful, but right now I don't think it is.

Erm... we're not? Or do you mean 'if there wasn't also a viable haste or mastery gemming gear strategy'?

Officially, yes we are. But I think Fuzzygeek was refering to the LK era, where tanks stacked Stamina and nothing, nothing else.

It also depends on what kind of raid you're working on. For example, I'm only doing 10-man normal mode, so I usually let Mr. Robot run the Control/Haste optimizer and replace all Stamina blue gems with Stamina-Haste green ones (as well as a couple of enchants). That's because damage taken isn't very high in this mode, but there's usually need to help the dps (for which Haste is great, and it also helps the healers, which never hurts).