Professions Review - Alchemy

Well, it took me almost two months, but I finally got around to getting all my toons' fishing to 100. This means most of them would have made good headway into getting to 150 for Cooking. So, time to level Vis's fishing some more to get what I need... Well, maybe after I've gotten her mount...

While on the subject of Professions, just which profession is suitable for your toon?

Most long time players will tell you that to make money, double gathering professions (I prefer to pair either Mining or Herbalism with Skinning so that the node tracking doesn't clash, but if you're ok with that, Mining/Herbalism is cool as well) are the way to go. However, if you have sugar daddies (or mommies) to sponsor your leveling than money making isn't really all that pertinent.

Now, unless you are like me, who is endeavouring to have a toon with at least one of each profession, which ones are actually useful in terms of leveling and end-game?

One thing to keep in mind is to look at what each profession can offer the particular toon with that profession? What are the BOP items that each can offer, that makes it special and desirable?

I had originally wanted to write a whole monster article reviewing all the professions, but I realised that is just not going to work. So, we'll start slow and work our way through the rest...

Alchemy
While leveling, alchemy provides you with a variety of pots to make leveling easier, but doesn't actually do anything for you that money does not solve. Pots (especially Healing and Mana Pots) drop in fairly large numbers from mobs around the world and unless you are a melee class, you'll generally do alright with bandages and food.

The BOP items starts off with the Philisopher's Stone. What used to be a rock taking up space in your backpack is now a trinket with +5 to all stats. At a level where there is a distinct lack of available trinkets, this isn't too bad. Not game breaking, but a useful thing to have around.

At 350 Alchemy, you get to upgrade that to Alchemist's Stone. Depending on how much pots you consume, this could be decent or a bit of a waste, as you should have quite a number of more useful trinkets around, even if you are just looking at quest rewards.

Now, if you keep at your Shattered Suns Offensive reputation, at Exalted, you get to upgrade the Alchemist's Stone (with 375 Alchemy) to one of four versions, depending on which is beneficial to your toon (Assassin's, Guardian's, Redeemer's or Sorceror's). Now, these are quite nice, and might be worth grinding the rep for it, depending on the market for Nether Vortex on your server. Now, take into consideration that these trinkets are rivalling Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau drops, it's certainly worth getting them made.

The one thing is that for Druids, the trinkets are a bit more of a question mark. Part of their great utility is the boost to pots that it gives. Not being able to use pots (because you are in Bear/Cat/Tree/Bird form) means that utility is lost on you. However, the trinkets are still worth considering since the mats are really not that hard to farm/buy and outclass most of what you are able to get at this time.

Unfortunately, that's all the BOP goodness you are going to get.

Finally, Alchemy is also consistently one of the few crafting professions that can generate a healthy income. Even cutting edge raiders need pots and the AH is just so convenient some times. Transmutation of Primal Might is always good for a few gold as it is generally constantly in demand for other crafted goods. If you are lucky enough to 'discover' some of the more eagerly seeked receipes, then your cash reserves should be set.

While it does not offer as many BOP items as the rest, Alchemy is certainly worthwhile as a money-spinner, if nothing else than to save some time doing dailies.

Fishing

Not the most impressive of professions, and something I'm generally too lazy to do...

But, I do try to get each of my toon's fishing to 100, if nothing else than to use this lovely thing. Previously, fishing was just something to do to waste time as there weren't really much use to it besides being a source of cheap pet food and easy way to level cooking, but now, with the addition of receipes for Grilled Mudfish and Poached Bluefish, the cooked fish are actually becoming an important part to high end 5-mans and raiding. Of course, not forgetting the daily cooking quests as well as fishing quest makes things interesting (the goodies in Bag of Fishing Treasures look amazing!).

Ideally, the completionist in me would like all my toons to be 375 fishing, but realistically, I expect one, at most two to achieve that. So far, I've been VERY slack in getting this done, with all 6 still at 1/75 Fishing. But, I'm hoping that by end of the weekend or so, I can get all their fishing to 100. If nothing else, to get all the fish to train all my toons' cooking up so I clear out all those reward receipes clogging up the bank.

Craft Away...

Last night was mainly about professions as Tris used up some of her store of herbs to level Alchemy and Elainith dropped her Skinning for Jewelcrafting. Shean also used up all the Wool gathered to get her Tailoring to Silk range.

For those who are looking for the cheapest/most efficient means of leveling their professions, this guide will get you there.

It also means that I've moved out from needing the low level mats, like Rough Stones, Copper Bars, and Linen Cloth. All Wool Cloth now will be dedicated to bandages, of which I'm not using up the linen variety fast enough... It also means poor Auk will be listing all the excess stuff in the AH for sale (including her huge backlog of Strange Dust). Well, except for Linen Cloth. Those don't really sell so might as well just vendor them.

The next goal is to get my Blacksmithing up to 150, for crafting a Golden Rod for my Enchanter. These rods are also decent sellers. I made 5 Silver Rods which sold out almost as quick as I could list them in the AH. Not too tough. Just need 150 Heavy Stone...

Wailing Caverns Loot

WoW is such a wonderful game. If you've always wanted to look like the purple teletubby, you can in WoW...

All you need is the Embrace of the Viper set, from Wailing Caverns.

As all the chicks are in the level range, we've been running them with other low level alts of the guild a lot... So much that we are all officially sick of the place. The result though is that N's shammy alt is sporting four pieces of the set (he's missing the belt) but I doubt we'll be farming for that one... But he really does look like the silly purple teletubby... All he needs is a purple hood....

Vis did get the Robes of the Moccasin which is a much nicer (especially in terms of aesthetics) than the ugly Apron.



Kell has also dropped Mining to take up Blacksmithing. Thankfully we had a rather large store of copper bars and rough stone as we managed to just about exhaust it. Of course, we're hoping the Shea will have a nice spot of luck in mining as she tries to get out of Ghostlands. :)

Mix & Match

Disclaimer: No... I don't have Frostmourne (although I wouldn't mind having one). Neither do any of my characters. But since the replica was just announced, and I'm talking about weapons, it sort of fits...

Almost everyone (well, except for Sheanne... She's not quite there yet at lvl 15) managed to hop onto a 'Guided Tour' of an instance over the weekend with everyone sporting some blue or another.

It's also when I hit a little snag in terms of item selection... Elainith now has three blue weapons at her disposal. Firstly, is Dawnblade, from a Ghostlands quest. Then, last night in SFK, she picked up Butcher's Slicer, and Meteor Shard.

First, I considered Meteor Shard in the main hand and Dawnblade in the off-hand, with Butcher's Slicer too slow in the OH, but Meteor Shard seems too fast for the main hand. Butcher's Slicer seems most suited for main hand usage (even if it means the loss of some of those sneaky stab in the back moves). Since their speed is similar but Meteor Shard has a higher DPS, that gave it the edge over Dawnblade for the off-hand. I'll work with this combo for awhile, I suppose.

But the nice thing is that I don't really need Wingblade so Elainith can give Wailing Caverns a miss.

One other thing concerns professions.

Elainith is currently a Skinning/Leatherworker who will drop the Skinning for Blacksmithing. Kellarn (the pally) is to drop Mining from the Mining/Engineering combo for Jewelcrafting.

However, the new patterns in the Shattered Suns Offensive previewed have some nice BOP blacksmithing plate. Also, it looks like Kell would be better able to use more of the BOP gear as compared to Elainith. There are also BOP trinkets that aid stealth which are more useful to the Rogue. So, I've decided that after dropping Skinning (soon), Elainith will take up Jewelcrafter. Similarly, Kell will take up Blacksmithing when she drops Mining.