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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Are you leveling your Professions?
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Nov 20th 2008 at 8:00AM
I admit, I'm not, which is new. When BC came along, while I leveled to 70, I always stopped to mine the Fel Iron nodes. Even on my initial tramp from 1-60 on my characters, I usually stop every few levels to make sure their chosen tradeskill is up to date. But this time, on my Death Knight, I'm not stopping for a thing. It's a weird feeling. I'm conscientious about making sure my characters are well-rounded, making sure they have the skills to pay the bills, so to speak, first aid and cooking in addition to a set of well maintained trade skills, but on my Death Knight, I just can't bring myself to let up on the questing and grinding for professions, even if it means leaving piles of dead, unskinned Bog Lords in my wake.
Admittedly, this may have something to do with the fact that his trade skills start at level 1 while he's level 55. In the end, I'd rather level in Hellfire Peninsula instead of picking daisies in Elwynn. Can you blame me? Still, I promise at level 80 that I will make time to level up his Inscription.
While I have asked about this before, I thought I'd see if the responses were any different now that Wrath is underway. Are you taking breaks on the road to 80 to level your tradeskills? Why or why not?
Filed under: Herbalism, Fishing, Mining, Skinning, Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Cooking, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Enchanting, First Aid, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Jewelcrafting, Leveling, Wrath of the Lich King, Inscription
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 6)
lalkin Nov 20th 2008 3:15PM
I leveled mining to 300 on my DK before I stepped foot in outlands so I could continue leveling it as I level.
Blacksmithing, on the other hand, is at 80 or so. I don't have that much money so I can't afford to level off of AH purchases and I ran out of mats at 80. I'll come back and level BS but with a warlock, death knight, and druid to level I'm plenty busy. (with trade skills for all)
imtraum Nov 20th 2008 3:16PM
Most definitely leveling my professions before I level my DK. As soon as I got out of the starting areas I trained Herbalism/Inscription and have been spending a bit of time every day leveling it in rotation with leveling my Priest to 80. I'd hate to get to Outlands and then Northrend and have tasty herbs that I couldn't pick all because I was too impatient.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Nov 20th 2008 3:21PM
I tend to level professions of alts as I level them so it saves me from doing the work level. The only profession that usually gets overlooked is fishing, but I tend to wait till I max out a level so that I can simply ride and fly quickly to spots that I need to fish at. (And now that they nubbed it even further down - fishing is so easy to level you don't even need to leave your home city.)
pongo_3931 Nov 20th 2008 3:44PM
My skinning has been leveled by default but I'm selling all my cloth and leather for now.
50g a stack for cloth? The prices won't stay this high so I'm gouging a profit now whilst I can.
Jido Nov 20th 2008 4:01PM
I also hate not being able to pick up whatever collectable goodies are around while questing, so I was kind of frustrated when I couldn't mine cobalt or get those lilies in BT. My mining was around 350 and my herbalism was BC maxed out at 375.
So I ended up paying the good ol' Isle of Quel'Danas a visit... and jackpot! It was so empty (/who = me + 2-3 people at any time on the ally side) that I could just circle around and claim every herb and mining spot for myself (other than having a brief lapsus of cursing over khorium because I couldn't mine it yet and it was taking up a node spawning spot).
3 or 4 hours later, my mining is over 400, my herbalism over 420 (mana thistle remains yellow for a long time), not to mention the rested xp from grinding, and the ton of stuff, particularly netherweave (between 15 and 20 stacks easily) I collected from all the kills, plus, as a bonus, did all the isle dailies - peacefully - twice while I was there (not as much money these days, but at least an extra ~10k xp from each).
Polecat Nov 20th 2008 4:27PM
With my main, a Paladin, yes I am levelling my tradeskill.
With my DK, I haven't even picked up any tradeskills yet, and am considering letting it set until 80 (when I plan to circle back and do the old world quests for rep with my Horde factions).
- Polecat
Valfreya Nov 20th 2008 4:49PM
Fishing and cooking yummy stuff for my guildies and I:)
Cupcakes FTW,lol.
Maul Nov 20th 2008 8:48PM
I'm not, i'm tailor/enchanting and I'm not touching them until 80 (except to level my enchanting just enough to DE). Mats are too expensive right now, I rather sell them. Then when I'm leveling my professions they will probably be back down to a regular price. I don't reckon cloth with be 25g a stack in a month.
Nakama Nov 21st 2008 2:05AM
I'm grinding up BS/Mining now so that I can just do it as I level my DK in my off-time from my pally. That and I really could use the mats for JCing on my Paladin once I get my DK to Northrend...
--Jed
Bob Nov 21st 2008 8:28AM
I generally don't work on my professions while leveling. It's a distraction for me. When i'm in town for a while to repair, stock up on reagents, get new abilities, etc. I sometimes take a look at the AH if there are some new patterns for my profession.
Also, when I'm online for only a brief moment I tend to prepare my trade skill, so that when I log in next time, I can do a whole batch of skilling up in one go.
Now herbing is quite easy now, while leveling in Northrend. It was at max in TBC, so I just upgraded and started leveling. Herbs are king. There's no need to kill stuff for it. You can, and as a bonus herb them, but it's not the main source. Like with skinning.