MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent Robert Duckworth writes this look at getting the most out of your professions in Blizzard's World of Warcraft

Optimizing your equipment is a part of almost any MMO, and WoW follows this trend closely. So closely it could be argued that the game doesn't really start until you are level 80. There are the typical ways of increasing your equipment: raiding dungeons, grouping up for heroics, PvP rewards, and questing. Crafting has always been a possible method of gear progression, but it often falls behind as players quickly outpace what they can make. Many players do not see this as a bad thing though, at least not at the level cap. There have been crafted items before that became so powerful everybody wanted one. Probably the most notorious example would come from TBC, where the Stormherald quickly became known as the PvP weapon of choice for warriors.

Read Optimizing With Professions

Nice job. Thanks.

Well,for me, crafting is the weakness in Wow.  The economy is not affected much at all by crafting.  Except for a few of the skills most players only occasionally buy crafted items.  Granted skills like jewel crafting, etc are used by all, smithing, leatherworking, tailoring are really secondary skills that are not necessary for equipment.  That is where Wow fails.

While they attempt to improve it with each expansion, the trade skills are still mostly fluff.

Originally posted by Martie

Sorry I didnt know potions, food, enchating items, materials to make armour and stuff were all fluff.  I thought they were all there to make items.

Everything is used fo items.  So you telling me  tems used for enchanting, making potions, making food, making bandages, making bags, making armour, making gylphs is all fluff?

No what he is saying is, that with the exception of 4 skills,

Enchanting, Inscriptions, Alchemy, and Jewelcrafting, That all other professions are basically useless.

Noone really uses any of that end game armor you get from crafting.... maybe 1 or 2 items from each line are worth a crap but the rest are just useless ways to waste time.

AKA "Fluff".

Enchanting is useful by all, everyone needs weapons and armor enchants.

Inscriptions are up and coming because many glyphs are useful and most people want access to them.

Jewelcrafting was very useful in TBC, however with the new armors not really needing jewels, this profession usefulness is fading with things such as trinkets and a few other odds and ends being the only truly useful thing that is made with it anymore.

Case in point, I just took a new alt from 60-70 and I got many dungeon drops that had jewel slots. Did I go to a jewelcrafter to get some jewels... NOPE, I didn't even socket it, because within 4 days I was in WotLK and all of that socket armor was replaced with better armor without sockets.

Jewelcrafting is slowly becoming a useless profession, right along the side of LW, BS, Tailor.

What do you honestly use out of LW prof besides armor kits? That is the only thing LW related I have ever purchased in WoW.

BS same thing, I can't recall anything super needed out of that line.

Tailor.... if you want to waste time on spellthread cool, but that is about it.

Professions and crafting REALLY are WoW's weakest point.

The majority of what is made really is just time wasting "Fluff"

Originally posted by Martie

So cooking is usless? first aid is usless?  Last time i checled bandages can save u form last minute kills etc, and cooking food is bought on the ah all the time for buffs.

Those aren't primary professions, they are secondary professions, and they are class based.

I play a paladin and a druid, so no, first aid is useless for me.

Cooking, eh debatable, it is nice sometimes, but I know very few people except the major end game guilds who even waste time with it.

I have never purchased food off the AH, in 4 years of playing.

If a cook tosses me some foods, I will take them and use it IF i remember, but it isn't something most players can't live without.

Fishing, useless, just a after hours hobby for extremely bored wow players.

So no those professions aren't needed by all, and even the ones that do need it, it isn't a must.

First Aid is so easy to level it hurts, 200 gold or so on the AH and you can max out FA in about an Hour.

Cooking takes quite a bit of time and resources for minimal return, even in cooking only 4 or 5 dishes are worth the time of seeking out in end game.

Once again, crafting is weak in wow, and everyone knows it. It needs a big revamp if they want people to take it serious.

My personal preference in the game is to use two gathering professions (usually herbalism and mining) for levels 1-80.  Because crafted items are rarely an improvement over what I'm already wearing (or can get for cheap on the AH) at any given level, I prefer to have plenty of money!  I've always found that by selling herbs and minerals I can have huge amounts of money that I use to buy anything I need and make a nice profit to spare.

For example, I can always afford my riding and mount by the time I'm in my late teens.  I never have to scrimp and save for training or anything.

Once I have reached max level with epic flying, cold weather flying, most of the mounts that I want, etc. I then research exactly how much of which resources I'm going to need to fully train whatever profession(s) I now want to switch to.  I then use my harvesting skills to gather everything that I'm going to need and store that in the bank or mail it to alts.  Only after I'm fully prepared do I actually drop one or both of the harvesting skills to pick up the crafting skill(s) that I want.  This lets me train them up to max without them being a huge financial drain on me.

From that point forward, I can then enjoy the benefits of my new crafting profession at a point where I will get the maximum benefit from anything I create.  (And of course, level 80 crafted items have a much higher demand on the market than those of previous levels.)

This is the only strategy I've ever found for preventing crafting from being a money sink.

Originally posted by aurick

My personal preference in the game is to use two gathering professions (usually herbalism and mining) for levels 1-80.  Because crafted items are rarely an improvement over what I'm already wearing (or can get for cheap on the AH) at any given level, I prefer to have plenty of money!  I've always found that by selling herbs and minerals I can have huge amounts of money that I use to buy anything I need and make a nice profit to spare.

For example, I can always afford my riding and mount by the time I'm in my late teens.  I never have to scrimp and save for training or anything.

Once I have reached max level with epic flying, cold weather flying, most of the mounts that I want, etc. I then research exactly how much of which resources I'm going to need to fully train whatever profession(s) I now want to switch to.  I then use my harvesting skills to gather everything that I'm going to need and store that in the bank or mail it to alts.  Only after I'm fully prepared do I actually drop one or both of the harvesting skills to pick up the crafting skill(s) that I want.  This lets me train them up to max without them being a huge financial drain on me.

From that point forward, I can then enjoy the benefits of my new crafting profession at a point where I will get the maximum benefit from anything I create.  (And of course, level 80 crafted items have a much higher demand on the market than those of previous levels.)

This is the only strategy I've ever found for preventing crafting from being a money sink.

Yep, I do the same as you, except I never stop the gathering professions, there are so little reward from leveling up a primary craft profession, that I just stick with the money makers, Herb, Skin or Mining.

Make plenty of money, and just get my gear from raids.

I do wish crafting actually was worth something in wow though.

I have 7 level 70+ characters in wow and only 1 of them has a max profession and that is enchanting, which I use to make money.

All 6 of the others are gatherers. Never seen a point to level any craft profession.

It is so true. Professions in WoW are just a way to spend money with no return. Oh you might sell something here or there but there is no real money to make in the Major Professions outside of JC or Ench.  Cooking can be useful and so can fishing for the daily quest, I do use the food I make on my characters, I have alts that do each of the major professions along with a gathering or skinning. There is more money to be made in herbing or mining and selling them. Alchemy has its uses but with the changes a while back you have to be careful what you use and it can get costly making potions if you don't herb. Inscription is handy but don't really make a killing off it. Some of the things don't even sell for 50s and the merchant only seems to pay 1s for most.

So unless Blizz decides to make these professions useful and profitable then they are really just something to do not something to make a living off of.

There was a time when end game crafted items were some of the best gear you could hope to get, but that was because raids took 40 people, and gear was very hard to come by. A warrior could raid MC for a year just to try to get one specific piece of gear.

Now that they have made raids and gearing up so much easier, crafted gear is hard to justify, but it is all a balance. I just hope that they achieve another balance to make crafting more useful, while not making gearing up so difficult.

Of course, they could always take a page from EQ2. Put player housing in the game, along with some other things, and make crafting skills for them. Crafting would still be fluff, but at least it would be intended to be fluff, rather than just becoming that way, and it would increase game immersion by a lot, but that is a subject for another thread, I'm sure.

The sad fact of the matter, even ancient UO had a far better thought out crafting system than Wow.  Every time I see an article on crafting in Wow I cringe.  How anyone can find anything interesting in probably the most inept crafting system in a major MMO is beyond me.

The worst fact is that many of the competitors, noticing the lack of a significant crafting system in Wow have duplicated the same system in their own MMO's. 

That is why Eve's star shines so bright in this genre, crafting actually matters in that game and you don't have to be level 999 to be a master in it either.

I have to force myself to craft, most of the time. I'm in it for the killing of monsters, not as a virtual job.

I always hated the proffesion system in WoW until I started a Druid alt with Herbalism/Alchemy.

Once my druid hit 70 alchemy actually was useful, I couldn't Make potions fast enough.

The demand was so high for Flasks and elixirs I would have to pick herbs full time to meet the demand.

I just wish Blacksmithing, Tailoring were as rewarding (those were level to cap with my warrior,lock and hunter). the actual gear crafting professions are next to worthless and its a shame really.

Whenever I bash WoWs proffesion system I never bring up the consumable side of it since I actually think its pretty decent. Its just too bad I needed to level a druid to 70 just to find out about alchemy.

All my druid ever did was pick flowers and make pots, only time he went into a dungeon was to stealth solo for rare herbs.

The consumable proffesions (alc/chant/jc/ins) are the one true bright spot of WoW. those proffs kept me playing atleast six months longer then I would have.

Originally posted by Sanguinia

I have to force myself to craft, most of the time. I'm in it for the killing of monsters, not as a virtual job.

Alot of people just like to see thier wallet get fatter.

One of the things that drove me during my alchemy addiction was the amount of money i was making. I easily afforded four epic fliers for all my alliance characters through the sale of pots/elixirs and flasks.

Farming for cash doesnt make a game a job if its enjoyable to that person. Actually some people might think that grining mobs or dungeons over and over is a job

all of you are focusing too much on the negative with this. professions aren't just about getting money or gearing up, to me its about achieving to level a profession to 450 and if I make some money with it, thats just a bonus. also I don't know about you but I find it much satisfying to wear gear that I have made myself instead of just buying it off the AH. certainly the wow crafting system needs some work with regards to leveling your character and a profession at the same time, but to say the crafts are useless is rubbish.

Originally posted by midillusion

all of you are focusing too much on the negative with this. professions aren't just about getting money or gearing up, to me its about achieving to level a profession to 450 and if I make some money with it, thats just a bonus. also I don't know about you but I find it much satisfying to wear gear that I have made myself instead of just buying it off the AH. certainly the wow crafting system needs some work with regards to leveling your character and a profession at the same time, but to say the crafts are useless is rubbish.

Well whats the point of being a Armorsmith(using a random crafting proff as example) if 95% of the items you craft are worthless to 99% of the community?

While i understand you like to make your own armor and get that skill to the nice 450 number what other benefits are there?

When I leveled my Weapon smithing up with my warrior only one or two items were asked for. I made one Mace for myself and that was it.

All that time leveling and noone needed anything I could craft.

It sucks that a crafter could make all that gear and its all worthless, it isnt fun to just Disenchant all the gear you make or vendor it.