Breakfast Topic: Professions and Leveling
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 20th 2008 at 8:00AM
The debate over whether Death Knights should get a free hand up on their primary professions continues to rage, but what actually interests me most are some of the arguments put forth by those opposed to Death Knights getting "free" tradeskills. Some of them are saying that it doesn't matter that Death Knights have to wait, because people should wait until max level to deal with professions anyway.
This is a completely alien concept to me. On any new character, the first thing I do upon hitting level 6 is run to the nearest profession trainers to learn my chosen professions. I like being able to doing something about those herbs and mineral nodes I see while I'm leveling. I can go do some tradeskilling if I start getting bored of leveling, and I can use the final product for my own leveling process, or sell the raw materials on the AH for a nice chunk of change.
I can't really fathom waiting for maximum level before I started a profession in earnest. Why go back to Elwynn forest to harvest bushels of Peacebloom at level 70 when you could have done it from level 1-11 while you were there?
So here's something that may be considered somewhat of a companion question to yesterday's profession question: Do you level your professions while you level up, or do you leave them until after you've leveled up?
Filed under: Herbalism, Making money, Leveling, Jewelcrafting, Breakfast Topics, Analysis / Opinion, First Aid, Enchanting, Tailoring, Leatherworking, Engineering, Cooking, Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Skinning, Mining, Fishing, Inscription
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Nick Aug 20th 2008 8:06AM
I mean, might as well level them while your on their way, more than often its not like you need to really go out of your way to get some stuff if your a gatherer/crafter.
Wpipes Aug 20th 2008 10:51AM
It's a simple fix really. If they start all DK's at 0 for their professions, just know which profession you're going to take before WoTLK releases and farm some mats. Going Inscription? Go farm a few stacks of each herb or buy stacks from the AH. Send them to your DK when you start him and hopefully (if you farmed/bought the right mats) you'll level it enough to catch up to your level.
I've seen this work once before when a few of my guildies rolled JC and farmed all the ore before BC's release, they did just fine with it.
Buck up Sally's, very few things in this game don't take excessive amounts of time.
ejunk Aug 20th 2008 8:17AM
I level them as I go. I also don't really buy into this "only gathering professions earn you gold" bunk. I always take the pair most useful for my class - for a rogue, for instance, I take skinning and leatherworking. I've found that its not uncommon for your best leveling gear to be the gear you can craft for yourself. and BOE crafted gear sells just fine on the AH.
DKs should definitely have to start from scratch as "level 55" doesn't imply anything about professions, as the varied responses to this thread will surely show.
yrs-
Ejunk!
Zanathos Aug 20th 2008 7:59PM
You may be able to sell BOE crafted items on the AH, but I think in general you'll find the raw mats can be sold at more profit and in greater quantities.
jbodar Aug 20th 2008 10:56PM
I agree with Zanathos. I've often found that the sell price of the mats far exceed the sell price of the gear itself, due to simple supply and demand.
howellgerald Aug 20th 2008 8:12AM
I say start with the gathering professions as early as possible. There is gold to be made in those hills, grass, dead animals! :) As for the other professions, you can wait till 70. Hopefully you will have enough gold to actually powerlevel them.
Lios Aug 20th 2008 8:13AM
On my first character I leveled my professions while leveling, but on my alts I do not. Mostly because it takes time, as you usually outlevel the quests in your area before you have enough skill in your profession and need to stick around to level up, but also because I often abandon alts at 30-40 and it would be a waste if I leveled (crafting) professions then. So I now just have the rule, level to 70 and then pick professions. Leveling them is also a piece of cake by that time.
dotorion Aug 20th 2008 8:17AM
On a new character on a new server, I take gathering professions until I'm high level and then powerlevel the real profession(s) I want.
Crafting professions take too many (and sometimes too high level) mats to be really useful while leveling, and you'll outlevel them soon anyway, so it's better to have gathering professions to bring in some cash.
obarthelemy Aug 20th 2008 8:23AM
I think that's the point: to level with gathering professions (or enchanting), stockpile the mats on an alt and sell the surplus off, then level up the crafting (as opposed to gathering) professions at 70
Dwarfbane Aug 20th 2008 8:28AM
On all of my characters I took one gathering profession plus enchanting. I found I made alot more by disenchanting rather than vendering. Then at 70 took the best 2 crafter skills for that class. I did ditch blacksmithing and retrained skinning on my shammy main. still dont know if it was a mistake.
Boven Aug 20th 2008 8:26AM
I usually have at least one gathering profession on my characters and level that up as I level. The exception was when I switched one of my 70's over to herbalism and spent what seemed like forever riding around lowbie zones picking stuff.
I suppose there are arguments for waiting until reaching 70 before taking up something like engineering. Having the income from daily quests would put far less strain on one's pocket than trying to do that while leveling a character.
Linkage Aug 20th 2008 8:28AM
When I was leveling my priest, I used engineering because not dying helps a lot when you're leveling up. Also I was enjoying the content and not in a mad rush to hit 70 to get the "good" stuff
Simon Aug 20th 2008 8:40AM
How about "because it's fun"? Not everything we do in-game has to have a point, or be the "optimal" way to play. Some people enjoy making things.
It seems rather rude to complain that the article was written by somebody who "doesn't know what they're doing" because they happen to enjoy different aspects of the game to you.
Promethus Aug 20th 2008 8:41AM
It just seems to be counterproductive to wait till your max level to level a profession.
Foxtir Aug 20th 2008 9:35AM
I usually start with the best intentions, I grab my professions and start working on them while I level. Time after time however, I end up getting bored or need the bag space for quest and just don't bother levelling my proffs until I reach max level.
Balasan Aug 20th 2008 8:43AM
Like everyone else said, a gathering profession needs to be obtained ASAP. There's plenty money to be made and time to be saved, considering the gabajillion herbs/mines/leathers obtainable while levelling up.
Though when I started my hunter, she had enchanting and engineering starting from scratch... not the wisest choice.
Wither Aug 20th 2008 8:45AM
I initially leveled my professions (for alts) as I leveled up, the main benefits being the low level items you produce can actually be used by your character rather than sold or d/e'd, the resources can be gathered between quests and well, it's often the most fun.
However after I while I learnt that:
1) Decent equipment for your level is obtained by raising your skill level to your level + (5-10). At this skill level, you do not have access to the gathering ingredients from your quests.
2) For many skill-ups you have to grind and it's easier / less boring to buy the mats. Once you start doing this, you usually end up boosting the skill to the level skill cap.
3) It's far more efficient to gather with your main as the local critters won't be aggroed and you can use your epic mount to get around quickly.
Anaughtybear Aug 20th 2008 8:46AM
I always work on my professions as I'm leveling, because it's fun and there are items you can use. That's why I play WoW in the first place, to have fun. I also found that enchanting can be a nice boost while leveling. It's nice having those stat bonuses while grinding out levels. I don't worry about whether a combination of professions is going to make me a lot of money. I just take whatever I think will be good for that character. On one, I took enchanting and engineering, no gathering. Since that combination happened to boost him quite a bit, I just bought the materials on the AH and maxed them both out at lvl 70. Being able to craft goggles and a gun saved me lots of time in the boring battlegrounds trying to farm honor for similar items. There's nothing wrong with powering up your professions, but I think that many people believe that anything under lvl 70 isn't worth playing and they miss out on a few things. Blizzard should try to make people see that lower level content is still worth doing.
Tinwhisker Aug 20th 2008 8:50AM
On my first character I leveled herbalism/alchemy together; looking back that was probably a poor choice. Since then I've only taken gathering professions until max level (or near it).
The one exception being tailoring. Cloth drops everywhere.
Smurk Aug 20th 2008 11:53AM
It probably wasn't the same back in the day, but I'm levelling herb/alch now and can sell even vendor potions for 2G each sometimes, like the Strong Troll's Blood which people need for a quest. Free Action and Swiftness Potions are also always desirable.