Guide to Choosing Your WoW Primary Professions: Part 2

Following our previous discussion on gathering professions, we now explore the transformative process of turning raw materials into powerful gear and consumables through WoW’s crafting system.

The eight primary crafting disciplines—Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Jewelcrafting, and Inscription—each provide distinct advantages that can dramatically enhance your gameplay experience.

Strategic profession selection is crucial, as your choices impact everything from combat effectiveness to economic opportunities throughout your journey from leveling to end-game content.

Alchemy

Alchemy specializes in creating consumable items that provide temporary power boosts, making it essential for raiding, PvP, and challenging content where every advantage matters.

Potions deliver immediate effects like health restoration or mana recovery during critical combat moments.

Elixirs grant sustained buffs that persist through multiple encounters, perfect for dungeon runs and extended gameplay sessions.

Flasks provide persistent enhancements that survive character death, making them mandatory for serious raiders and competitive players.

Herbs serve as the foundational materials for alchemical creations, primarily sourced through Herbalism. Without this complementary gathering skill, alchemists must acquire materials through auction house purchases, trading with other players, or alternative sourcing methods.

Advanced alchemists can specialize in Transmutation Mastery for valuable cooldown-based recipes or Potion Mastery for enhanced consumable effects.

Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing focuses on crafting heavy Plate armor specifically designed for Paladins, Death Knights, and Warriors.

Even non-plate wearing classes can profit from blacksmithing by creating and selling armor on the auction house, though they cannot personally equip these creations.

Mining provides the essential ore and mineral resources that blacksmiths transform into durable armor and weapons.

For plate-wearing classes, blacksmithing offers a reliable gear progression path, with crafted items providing solid foundations for entering raid content.

Players who don’t utilize plate armor gain minimal direct benefits from blacksmithing, making it primarily valuable for specific class archetypes.

Enchanting

Enchanting applies permanent magical enhancements to equipment pieces, boosting stats like strength, intellect, or critical strike chance.

Enchanters utilize Shards and Dust—obtained through disenchanting unwanted gear—as their primary crafting components.

While enchanting doesn’t require a specific gathering profession, many players synergize it with Tailoring, disenchanting the items they create for material recycling.

Crafting a Runed Copper Rod serves as the foundational tool requirement before undertaking any enchanting work.

Both application services and disenchanting become highly sought-after at maximum levels, as players seek to optimize their gear or convert unwanted items into valuable materials.

Disenchanted materials maintain consistent auction house value, providing enchanters with reliable income streams beyond personal gear enhancement.

Engineering

Engineering stands out as the most versatile and entertaining profession, offering unique gadgets and devices unavailable through other crafting disciplines.

It produces innovative items including portable mailboxes, automated repair bots, and personal teleportation devices. Engineers can also modify equipment with special enhancements like temporary speed increases or brief invisibility effects.

Mining supplies the essential ore and stone components that engineers transform into their remarkable creations.

Without access to mining, engineers must source their primary materials through market purchases or trading arrangements with other players.

Leatherworking

Leatherworking

Leatherworking specializes in creating leather and mail armor from animal hides, primarily serving Druids, Monks, Rogues, Shamans, and Hunters who rely on these armor types.

For characters wearing leather or mail armor, this profession provides an excellent method for crafting personalized gear throughout the leveling process.

Crafted items can provide substantial advantages when beginning dungeon content and raid progression at higher character levels.

Leather serves as the core material for leatherworkers, obtained through the Skinning profession. Without skinning capabilities, leatherworkers must acquire materials through external sources.

Tailoring

Tailoring creates cloth armor specifically for Mages, Warlocks, and Priests, along with practical items like bags, magical carpets, and various cloth-based accessories.

Cloth-wearing characters find tailoring exceptionally valuable for gearing themselves during advancement through content tiers.

While pairing with a gathering profession can generate additional income, tailoring uniquely operates independently without requiring specific companion professions.

Cloth materials primarily come from defeating various enemy types throughout Azeroth, making it accessible to all players regardless of their other profession choices.

Jewelcrafting

Jewelcrafting focuses on creating precious gems, elegant necklaces, and powerful rings. Many weapons and armor pieces contain special gem sockets designed specifically for these crafted enhancements.

Professionally cut gems not only enhance your own equipment but also represent valuable trade commodities for selling or gifting to allies.

Beyond socket enhancements, jewelcrafters create trinkets and special gems that provide significant character buffs and combat advantages.

Mining provides the essential ore and stone resources that jewelcrafters transform into their valuable creations.

Jewelcrafters without mining capabilities must acquire their primary materials through auction house transactions or player-to-player trading networks.

Inscription

Inscription specializes in creating glyphs that modify character abilities, either providing entirely new skills or enhancing existing ones for improved performance.

While any character can utilize glyphs, only trained scribes possess the knowledge to create these powerful magical enhancements.

Scribes transform collected herbs into magical inks, which then become the foundation for crafting scrolls, glyphs, Darkmoon cards, and various epic-level items.

Herbalism provides the essential plant materials that scribes process into their magical creations.

Critical Factors for Choosing Your Professions

First, verify whether your character’s race includes natural Profession Bonuses. Access your spellbook (default key: P) to review available abilities, including any racial profession advantages.

Eligible races automatically receive these bonuses without requiring activation or special configuration.

The following races possess specific profession advantages:

Draenei – Jewelcrafting

Gnome – Engineering

Worgen – Skinning

Blood Elf – Enchanting

Goblin – Alchemy

Tauren – Herbalism

Pandaren – Cooking

Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Trolls and Undead do not possess racial profession bonuses.

All racial bonuses apply to primary professions except for Pandaren, whose bonus relates to the secondary cooking skill.

Armor Type Considerations for Class Optimization While most professions benefit all classes equally, armor-crafting disciplines provide maximum value when aligned with your character’s equipment specialization.

World of Warcraft features four armor classifications: Cloth, Leather, Mail, and Plate. Each character class possesses preferred armor types that determine which crafting professions offer the greatest personal benefits.

When selecting professions primarily for self-gearing purposes, choose those that support your character’s specific class requirements and equipment preferences.

No reproduction without permission：OnLineGames Guides » Guide to Choosing Your WoW Primary Professions: Part 2 Master World of Warcraft crafting professions with expert strategies, material guides, and class optimization tips