Generally in the World of Warcrack certain aspects of the game get all the glory. Everyone talks about leveling, questing, raiding, or pPvP. (Player versus Player- when you kill other players as opposed to computer generated elements. I might make a short post later about PvP since I have few things to say.) These are all very important, don’t get me wrong, but very few people really extol the joys of professions in WoW.
Professions are split into two types: primary and secondary.
Secondary professions are professions that everyone can do after they reach the right level. They are generally handy skills that make the game easier in general.
First Aid teaches players to make bandages from cloth found from killing mobs to use to heal themselves. This is useful when a non-healing class is soloing or if the player cares enough about their own survivability to fill their green bar when running with groups. It is a great profession to have and is very easy to level. Sadly, some players don’t have this profession because they believe the healer will heal them… Suckers!
Fishing is pretty much what it sounds like. It allows players to pull fish out of bodies of water. This is useful in conjunction with cooking. Most people HATE leveling fishing. Some people find it relaxing to stand on a shore for hours throwing a fake bobber into water and wait to catch a fake fish. For this reason, fishing can make pretty decent gold.
Cooking allows the player to cook fake food from fake materials. This an incredibly useful skill since often the food often provides bonuses for the players that eat them. Leveling cooking can be a bit of a pain in the ass since you need various meat for different animals and the meat doesn’t always drop and sometimes the only creatures who drop meat are in East Jesus Nowhere. Cooking also provides feasts which are platters of food that an entire party can eat and get the bonuses which help the group win.
Archeology is a new profession with Cataclysm. I haven’t gotten to play with it much but I get the general idea. Basically, you go to various special places in the world and dig up things. After you get enough of these things you combine them into an item. These items vary in levels of awesome from crappy dice to pets and mounts. Most people bad mouth archeology but I think its fun.
The primary professions differ from secondary professions in that you can only pick two. There are two different types of primary professions, crafting and gathering, and you can pick any combination of professions. Since there are so many and I like to make my stupid drawings I am only going to cover five professions today.
Crafting professions:
Blacksmithing: Blacksmithing uses metals and a bunch of other random crap to make plate (think jousting) armor or weapons. There are several classes that use plate armor and some blacksmiths can make some pretty great gear. It seems like a noble profession, I just don’t have any characters that wear plate so it is one of the few professions I have never leveled. I know it is a huge pain to level and very expensive. It also seems that you level the profession for hope of getting three things that are awesome while ignoring the rest of it.
Leatherworking: Leatherworkers use the skins skinners produce and turn them into gear and items that add bonuses to gear. Leatherworkers make both leather gear and mail gear. I don’t quite understand how leather becomes mail but I have never asked. It is easier to level up than blacksmithing with about the same rewards.
Tailoring: Tailors make cloth armor. They use the cloth that mobs drop to turn into pretty pretty dresses and bags to carry your crap. This sounds like an easy profession to level but the materials need to create some of these items are hard to get or expensive to buy.
Engineering: One of my favorite profession is engineering. Engineering uses metals and a ton of other crap to make gizmos. Some of these thingies are useful items like goggles or teleporters. You can use engineering to make vehicles. My favorite, though, is engineers make explosives. When you level this profession you can make exploding sheep. Also, when you use the items you make with engineering, there is always a terrible chance of something going horribly wrong. Many things carry the caveat of “or it could explode” in their item description. What is not to love?
Jewelcrafting: Jewelcrafters make jewelry and cut gems found in mining nodes into items that add bonuses into gear. Jewelcrafting has the potiential for making a ton of money. Different gem cuts do different things and therefore are desired by different people. Certain cuts are also worth more than others. It is a very useful profession to have and can save a lot of gold.
There are a few more crafting professions and all the gathering professions yet to cover but I think this ramble has gone on entirely long enough. I will return Saturday with further discussions and terrible drawings!
Oh yeah… HI CAL
Geeks a Geeking