Choosing Professions in Wrath
Seems you're new here! If you like this site and don't want to refresh it like a madman, consider subscribing to the RSS feed to get updates delivered to you. Learn more...
We’re all aware how some professions were nearly necessary, and some were left behind in Burning Crusade. If you’re raiding, leatherworking was your (raid leaders) prime choice due to various drums. Frozen Shadoweave and Spellstrike sets are still good for those just starting with raids, Skillherald is the best friend to every warrior interested in PvP even to this day, and we all know everyone serious about arenas had enchanting and jewelcrafting at some point.
Blizzard’s new philosophy tends to go make each profession have its unique benefit usable only if you decided to train it, meaning you should find each profession useful in one way or the other. A brief overview of what’s coming in Wrath would be nice, don’t you agree?
Alchemy
- Mixology is a passive bonus to every elixir you drink (about 20% - 25% increased effectiveness)
- Endless Healing and Mana potions are as far as I know the only potions so far usable in arenas. They do of course require alchemy as a profession, which will most likely make it the obvious choice for PvP healers. I said it once and I’ll say it again, I loathe the idea of prolonging arena matches further, and I don’t see how this can benefit it.
Blacksmithing
- Gear socketing - blacksmiths will be able to add sockets to their own gear: belt, gloves, bracers and one-handed weapons. Belt and weapon “enchants” will not require having blacksmithing. It does stack with various other enchants on your items, and it will add an extra socket to an item even if it already has sockets.
- There’s of course plenty of weapons and armor, but Titansteel Destroyer caught my attention. Thank Elune it does not have a stun proc! For comparison, here’s the Brutal Gladiator mace.
Enchanting
- Ring enchants - there are four different ring enchants with attack power, healing, spellpower and haste rating. So far, there’s no enchants giving all stats, but no harm done there. I’m also presuming the healing enchant will be removed due to spellpower change. The tooltips are inconsistent with the information found on Wrath wiki, but you’re probably getting either 64 attack power, 38 spell power or 32 haste.
- Enchanting is overall a very profitable profession, and don’t forget the new enchantment scrolls which will enable you to sell enchants on the auction house
- BoP wands - Wotlkwiki has a few screenshots if you want to compare stats, but I’m not too impressed. For those who prefer PvP, Gladiator wands will almost always come first due to resilience bonuses, and I doubt any raider is looking to squeeze a few more DPS from a wand.
Engineering
- Hand-mounted Pyro Rocket - I doubt it will scale with spellpower, but nevertheless a bonus 1,035 - 1265 damage once every minute is nothing to laugh at. In PvE, spellpower or assault will still most likely be preferred, but in arenas burst damage is the king, especially if you pair it with the next gadget
- Gnomish Lightning Generator - for a one-minute cooldown trinket, this baby is bound to have a lot of fans. The damage it deals is absolutely amazing and probably a lot more useful than Battlemaster’s trinkets. There’s also the Noise Machine and Sonic Booster, but they are far from impressive.
- Gnomish Army Knife - the new and improved Jumper Cables also include other tools required for crafting items which should save a few bag slots. Although the cables rarely work, it’s nice being able to resurrect your healer with this.
- Gnomish X-Ray Specs - I’m not sure how I feel about this one, but if you’re into tauren porn go right ahead.
- MOLL-E & Steam Powered Auctioneer - having a on-demand auctioneer and a personal mailbox is probably high on every players wish list, including my own. You can start selling Tier 7 as soon as you ninja it without having to even leave the instance!
- Mechano-hog is truly badass (image). If you’re looking for something to stand out from the crowd, having a motorcycle in a fantasy game should do the trick.
- Nitro Boosts - it does not specifically say the item will become soulbound upon enchanting, but does say only “skilled engineers” can use it. It’s the Wrath version of the infamous Rocket Boots. Whether it will work in arenas or not is unknown to me at this time, but if it does I’m seeing lots of possible uses - even if not, you will still be able to use it in Lake Wintergrasp, battlegrounds and world PvP. The beauty is you can enchant any boots with this.
- Hyperspeed Accelerators - I believe it should be a 10% attack/cast speed increase at level 80. Since it lasts only for eight seconds with a two minute cooldown, Pyro Rocket looks like a better choice.
- Goggles - epic ones are not yet available, but if they’ll be as useful as in TBC, yet another reason to take engineering
Inscription
- Glyph Mastery is supposed to give an additional major glyph slot at a cost of one minor slot. Little is known about this and inscription in general at this point.
- Runewords - there is only one implemented so far, but it looks like we will be able to put temporary enchants on chest, similar to how oils made by enchanters work. Does not appear to be inscriber-bound, but you never know.
- Scroll of Recall - a Hearthstone with a 15-minute cooldown? Yes please. Shaman and magi obviously won’t find much use in this, but for everyone else it should be very useful.
Jewelcrafting
- Dragon’s Eye gems are BoP gems with increased stats, which also match all socket colors (example). There’s a full list available here; the Dragon’s Eye attack power gem has only 14 more attack power than Bright Cardinal Ruby. You can have a maximum of three of these gems in your gear, which means either an extra 42 attack power, 33 stamina, 21 resilience, 27 spell power, et cetera.
- Trinkets are absolutely insane: Emerald Boar and Twilight Serpent not so much, but Sapphire Owl looks promising for raid healers. Ruby Hare however looks like the next best thing along with the usual PvP trinket, and it will probably become standard equipment for all warlocks and priests.
Leatherworking
- Drums - similar to those that exist now, but with a twist. In Wrath, they will be a raid-wide buff, but also give a two minute debuff preventing you from being affected by another drums while it lasts. Meaning, one leatherworker per raid will be enough.
- Fur Lining - Fur Lining is the new leatherworker-only bracer enchants, including 90 stamina, 70 spellpower, 120 attack power or 60 resistance to a particular spell school.
Tailoring
Tailoring in Wrath was discussed previously in Romil’s post, but I guess I should do my own summary here.
- Frostweave Net - I presume the nets won’t be usable in arenas, but everywhere else Smatter will still own rogues.
- Cloak enchants - Darkglow, Lightweave and Swordguard Embroidery should be equally useful for PvP and PvE, enabling you to do a bit of additional damage or cast a few more spells. I don’t get one thing though, why would cloth-wearing classes need armor penetration - I can’t imagine a warrior leveling failoring just for this. Will we witness a huge comeback of melee warlocks? In that case, I want the old Firestone back!
- Leg enchants - tailors will receive an additional 15 spellpower along with other stats via Master’s and Sanctified Spellthreads (to clear up possible confusion, there are still spellthreads which can be used by non-tailors, but with lower stats).
- Magnificent Flying Carpet - flying on a very fast rug with Northrend’s chilling breeze rushing through your hair: what else could you possibly ask for?
I didn’t think I’ll be writing anything about gathering profession, but I was wrong.
Herbalism
- Wild Growth is a herbalist-only spell which heals 2,000 hit points over 15 seconds, with a three minute cooldown. It might appear to be useful today, but when Wrath hits and our stamina again skyrockets, it will not be so appealing. However, for a gathering profession it’s still a nice buff.
- Fire Leef and Fire Seed - since it does not share cooldowns with any other spells or items except for drums, this should prove to be very useful for raiding.
Mining
- Miner’s Revenge - unconfirmed if this is a miner specific spell or not, but appears to be. I can’t see how it could be useful, unless you’re a paladin and need to pull some mob (or perhaps interrupt drinking in arena, but that’s far fetched).
- Toughness - Your tank needs more health? Tell him to grab mining and go fetch some ore and you’re good. Horrible.
Skinning
- Master of Anatomy - increases your critical strike rating by 25 (0,54% at level 80). Nearly worthless.
Even cooking received some love!
Cooking
- Platters are similar to mages Ritual of Refreshment, master chefs will be able to make feasts from which party members can take food
We still have a long way until the release of Wrath, and things can change. Every profession received attention and it will be a hard choice to choose which one is the best for your adventures, PvP or raiding. Engineering used to be the holy grail for world PvP before TBC, but despite some interesting additions it was always outshined by other professions. Judging by the number of cool additions it might again be the first choice when it comes to fighting players. Jewelcrafting will give you more stats overall and awesome trinkets, so I’d take it rather than enchanting, but adding two more sockets with blacksmithing adds even more stats. Leatherworking does have interesting bracer enchants, but it doesn’t appear to be enough to make it popular. Alchemy definitely got the boot as far as raiders are concerned (no alchemist stones yet though), but if arena pots are for real I’m expecting a massive surge of players taking it.
Again, Wrath is far from being finished and things can and will change, but if you’re looking for a preview of what awaits this should give you some insight. All I can say for sure is this: engineering will rock!
If you do decide to unlearn one profession and level up some other to prepare for Wrath, be sure to double check everything on Wowhead and Wotlkwiki.
Related posts:
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Looks great! Enchanting, Mining, For Locks is the best deal!
There is actually a reason for tailoring to give armor pen. There are alot of people who grab tailoring when leveling enchanting, just for the items to DE.
I think Wild Growth looks pretty bad even at level 70. In a raid setting I’ll be healed up or dead before 15 seconds is done. In which case most of it is wasted. I would much prefer that it provided a static stat buff like Mining or Skinning.
At this point the only thing it is good for is to give you a little healt while you farm or are leveling.
Graylo, Wild Growth is listed as 5 sec not 15 and does not require mana. I could see it especially useful for healers who are taking AoE damage in a fight and dont want to waste mana healing themselves….