Breakfast Topic: Are you a confirmed craftaholic?
by Mike W. McVey 
May 29th 2011 at 8:00AM
In my non-WoW life, I am the complete opposite of mechanically inclined. This caused my dad many problems as I was growing up, as he is a natural handyman. My mind is artistic, while my hands are not. This is probably one of the reasons I like to play WoW: I can craft. My only limit is the materials needed to craft. Outside of WoW, I have plenty of materials -- just no skill.
Though I love to collect tabards, mounts, and pets, crafting is my passion. I have maxed out all of the professions except for leatherworking and tailoring. Hopefully within the next week, those will be maxed out, too.
My favorite crafting profession is by far inscription. I love to make glyphs. I love to make Darkmoon Faire cards. I love getting my shoulder enchant at level 70 despite no rep with Hodir. My favorite thing to craft are Netherweave Bags. Honestly, this was the only reason why I wanted to have a tailor. I love making the bags and giving them away free to new players.
My least favorite crafting profession is probably jewelcrafting. I enjoy all the perks, but the grind from 500 to 525 ... ugh. It is still hard for me to do the daily quest for my jewelcrafter.
Here are my rankings of crafting professions:
- Inscription
- Engineering
- Cooking
- Alchemy
- Tailoring
- Blacksmithing
- Enchanting
- Leatherworking
- First Aid
- Jewelcrafting
What are your favorite crafting professions and why?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Aevi May 29th 2011 8:14AM
It's a little funny to me that you didn't like the 500 - 525 grind in Jewelcrafting. Only because I was a Leatherworker from the start until Cata. The end grind for leatherworking was so daunting, with nothing to really give me in the end. Sure 2 epic pieces of gear, but nothing I would continue to need. I switched to JC and leveled in a few days to 525, the only reason it took that long was the end grind. I got all the money I spent leveling back, plus I can make all the gems I need. I don't regret it.
I loved being a LW, but it was fairly useless at endgame.
Noyou May 29th 2011 3:20PM
Not sure I agree there. The bracer enchants are far better than you can get very cheap leg enchants (especially if you are a hybrid class and may change your offspec in between say damage and healing/tank). It may not be as good for a caster as it would be for melee or tank because you would still go with the tailoring leg enchants. Also if you play one toon and have no alts it is a little less useful. The grind from 500-525 is horrible given the fact that it takes so much more work grinding out leathers than it does mining- until you get to 85 and discover Tol Barad. I mean had I taken my DK/skinner there at 85 it would have helped out my poor LW a lot. Half the time you can get free skins. It makes it soooo much easier it's not even funny.
fainda May 29th 2011 8:20AM
My 4 favorites are tailoring blacksmithing enchanting and alchemy. Tailoring and enchanting because my main is a mage and these seemed like the best professions for my noobish self. Blacksmithing because I love the act of blacksmithing because if I could in real life, I would. Alchemy is strange, but I've always wanted an alchemist and the idea of "mad scientist" always intrigued me.
MusedMoose May 29th 2011 8:27AM
In theory, I love engineering. I love that you can make your own pets, it has all kinds of nifty little toys, and don't get me started on goggles. ^_^ Also, there's the chopper or mechano-hog, one of the coolest mounts in the game, and owning one is the sign of either being an engineer or giving an engineer a lot of money. Unfortunately, I haven't had as much fun with it as I thought I would, but my engineer isn't quite 80 yet. I'm hoping I'll find more to love about it with the Cataclysm recipes.
Inscription is another favorite of mine, for the reasons the OP mentioned - not only is it nifty to make the glyphs and Darkmoon cards, it's also very profitable, as people always need to buy glyphs. I haven't leveled up the character of mine who has Inscription recently, but I'm looking forward to seeing more that the profession has to offer.
Zankoku May 29th 2011 8:33AM
One word.... LOOT A RANG!!!!!!!
Blunderwear May 29th 2011 1:52PM
Seconded on the loot-a-rang. Great for looting the zombies who release poison gas when they die or that mob that died where a bunch of respawns are now located.
Zankoku May 29th 2011 8:32AM
The end grind for JC isnt too bad if you dont mind lessened profits. Buy one Meta recipe and craft til 520, then 5 Fire Prisms (once per day). The Dailys for JC are a nice/frustrating gateway for finishing it up.
Luckily for me, bought up 100 stacks of Elementium when my server's prices dropped to about 22g-23g. Made my G back almost instantly, as I had several great prospects that double procced rare gems, and a couple double Inferno Rubys.
jacksworth May 29th 2011 8:39AM
1. Engie
.
.
.
.
Everything else
blackcatj13 May 29th 2011 8:41AM
zomg Archaeology!!! ...NOT!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn't see that one on the list. It's rank on the list must be infinity.
g2g591 May 29th 2011 11:23AM
archiology is a secondary profession such as cooking or fishing, its not really in the same class as those discussed in this breakfast topic
North May 29th 2011 11:44AM
Secondary professions are on the list, he ranks Cooking as his third favorite.
Archaeology wasn't included because this is a list of crafting professions and Archaeology is considered a gathering profession.
Luke May 29th 2011 8:47AM
All of them.
What would an altaholic be... without one of every tree?
Funnest to use, Engineering.
Funnest to level, Archeology, (though the search for that darn vial is still on).
Funnest to run to the Auction House with, Inscription / Jewelcrafting / Enchanting.
Surely however the most fun to be had while gathering is with Herbalism. Swooping down as a Tauren Druid and snatching herbs right from underneath all those pesky Alliance players...
Good times.
Noyou May 29th 2011 3:34PM
Got em all. Some of them twice. When I first got WoW while I was installing everything I actually read the little booklet in the Battlechest. I was really interested in the profession thing. The two that interested me the most were Alchemy for the transmutes and Engineering. Long story short I changed my engineer/miner for skinning LW (later came to my senses and picked Engineering back up). I also got rid of alchemy on my mage and did inscription (which wasn't bad but looking back it was dumb). Trust your instincts on professions. If you read what they are and you like it you will probably be proven right. For me I would say inscription and alchemy were among the easier professions. But then I already had the herb gatherer/miner and JC for raw gems to transmute at later levels.
Lweydd May 29th 2011 9:07AM
>> My mind is artistic, while my hands are not.
Same here :( However, I recently learned to paint with stencils, so I'm making tons of horde banners for my friends.
Regarding the game, my favorite is enchanting. I just love to feel my pockets full of money :3
My second choice is... cooking. I had a great time while maxing cooking, I do Orgri/Shat/Dalaran dailies every day and still now I provide my guildies with stats food. Also, setting feasts in random bgs :P
Gendou May 29th 2011 9:09AM
Yes, yes and yes.
I have maxed or near-maxed all professions - crafting, gathering or secondary - except for Engineering (440), Skinning (385) and Leatherworking (313), and they are mostly held back by the level of the characters they are on. I'm currently leveling the engineer-hunter, and will work on the leatherworker-druid soon after.
vocenoctum May 29th 2011 9:10AM
I like Jewelcrafting, but wish it didn't rely on the tokens so much. FOr me the sucky ones were leatherworking and blacksmithing due to making stupid pvp stuff that won't sell and I won't use, just to hit cap to get some epics that won't help me in Heroics until I run enough heroics to make them...
I also dislike the boringness of the JC "bonus", being the gems with higher stats. Sockets for BS is decent, unique enchants for tailor and LW is good. I think I like enchanting best for bonus since it's something that no one else can get. Enchanting also has the most variety of cool effects. (Engineering is self-only, so limited)
Alchemy is decent, but again, boring bonus that you don't "notice" as unique. Trinkets are great, but of course I already had made the mastery ones and didn't want to spend even more mats for the newer ones... no trade in program.
My Scribbler is fun, she's also my enchanter and it's nice to see the variety of stuff you can do for folks rather than just "+this". It's irritating to have so many different inks, but the ink trader is fine, I'd say the problem there is that the ink trader and JC quest giver are located so far from the dwarven district I hang out in. :)
I'd have to say Enchanting is my favorite all around profession. Disenchanting adds an element of collecting and it's a more fair method than trying to beat someone to the skin or the bonus cloth. (No one ever asks) The profession has a wide variety of materials to use, a wide variety of enchancements to use, unique self-buffs and is very useful to all character types.
Skinning, Blacksmithing and herbalism are okay, but fighting over resources is irksome and the new Herbalism buff is not to my liking.
Darkfreak May 29th 2011 11:33AM
I disagree with you on alchemy being boring. I think it's cool to have the only flask usable in arena (if you don't pvp it probably doesn't matter to you, understandably), and mixology must be nice for raiding (I wouldnt know)
Also, it's enhancement, not enchancement (this always bothers me because I play an enhance shaman)
Noyou May 29th 2011 3:42PM
I disagree on the alchemy being boring part and the "Boringness" of the JC bonus?? Yeah those JC only gems suck and the trinkets you can make those are crappy too. /sarcasm off.
I wish there were less JC's around my server. In LK I made a good amount of gold on tips alone. I love the trinkets. Especially for a Paladin or Druid who might play all 3 specs (with a respec of course). The alchemy trinkets are not to be sneezed at either. Oh if you want the gimmicky procs that boost DPS off the charts maybe they are not for you. They might not be raid worthy I suppose but if you aren't gung-ho into raiding you might like them quite well. The fact that you can only get 1 token per day sucks to no end. Perhaps they will change something at some point.
vocenoctum May 29th 2011 4:58PM
That's my point, the gems you can make give you the same bonus (give or take a couple) that the other crafters get. Same as the ring enchantments and the flask. The flask is not a BONUS, it's the same thing you'd get with any other profession. I do like the JC trinkets though, nice way to do them now with the "quests" and they're nice trinkets.
JC gets +67 strength X 3 instead of +40 X3= +81 strength
enchanter can do +40 on each ring, so +80
Alchemist's "only arena flask!" gets them +80, same as the others...
Blacksmiths' get two extra sockets for +80 in gems, they're all comparable in that way.
I just like enchanting the rings, it feels "more" than just putting in a different gem, even if it's the same buff.
tamed.lionheart May 29th 2011 9:46AM
Right now, my favorites are just my favorites cause they helped me finally stop being poor, and now have 30k hopefully more once I sign on today *laughs* Its kinda dumb but I've been playing since vanilla and always been one of those people that a repair bill could literally be breaking the bank sometimes..well not quite as bad as some..but yeah I'd grind for repair bills on a regular basis.
Anywho, my top professions right now is Enchanting & Tailoring on my mage, had tailoring just cause I got both to 300 back in the day and hey why not its a mage, and my DK is a miner and jewel crafting, though debating on picking up another profession on my DK as I have a miner/blacksmith, that primarily only play to do some mining now an then.