------------------------------------------------------------------------
c. Choosing Your Professions
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your profession will be a major helping hand to you in this game and
choosing the right ones will benefit you a lot. Here are your choices:

-------------------------
Leatherworking + Skinning
-------------------------

Making Armor
As a Leatherworker, you skin the creatures you kill to gather leather
as materials to make your own leather armor. The only piece of equipment
you carry with you is a Skinning Knife, which can be bought from
vendors. Some of the creatures that can be skinned are boars, bears,
cats, yetis, raptors, crocolisks, and dragons. You’ll usually find
Light, Medium, Heavy, and Rugged Leathers and you’ll use them in
conjunction with vendor-bought threads.

Armor Kits
A common trade item that you can make is the Armor Kits, which
increases the armor count on equipment worn on the Chest, Hands, Legs,
and Feet. Light Armor Kits add +8 each, while the fourth-level Rugged
Armor Kits add +40 each. If you’re lucky, there is the Core Armor Kit,
which adds +3 Defense to one slot. These can be sold in the auction
house for a good price.

When your skill reaches 225, you’ll also have a choice of branching off
into three kinds of Leatherworking: Tribal, Elemental, and Dragonscale.
There are NPC’s that offer quests in which completing them gives you
specialization in one of the branches as well as two new recipes towards
that branch. Here is the rundown on the three:

Tribal
This can be considered a continuation of your basic leatherworking
skill. The leather armor that you make will include pieces of special
leather that can be found in the later parts of the game, including
Devilsaur and Frostsaber Leathers. Rogues may commonly invest in this
but since you’ll be wearing Mail past level 40, you probably won’t want
to invest in this.

Elemental
This branch allows you to create armors that add to your elemental
damages and resists, perhaps meant for Druids. Like Tribal, you’ll be
wearing Mail after you reach level 40 so this wouldn’t be a worthy
investment.

Dragonscale
This branch specializes in Mail armor and is the most ideal path to
take as a Hunter. One of the major components to this skill is
dragonscales, which can be found by skinning dragons but that’s often a
very difficult task since many of the good sources of these scales are
from elite dragonkin. Sadly, the majority of the gear caters to Shamans
but there are some good pieces of gear that will serve you well until
endgame.

Overall
Being able to make your own armor gives you a major advantage in
survival for a good duration of the game, especially when you don’t
really have much money on you early on. However, you’ll find that as you
progress, the armor you continue to make becomes increasingly worse than
the armor you find from drops. Since you may wear Mail at level 40,
you’d want to branch into Dragonscale Leatherworking but the problem is
that new recipes are extremely rare and the majority of the recipes
don’t offer some much-needed agility bonuses. By the time you complete
the quest for that branch (Lv.55), the two new recipes will be useless
at your level and you’ll be soon on your way to obtaining your
Beaststalker set armor pieces. That’s not to say that it’s useless;
Black Dragonscale Armor will do you a lot of good later on, especially
if you’re given the opportunity to go to Molten Core.

--------------------
Engineering + Mining
--------------------

Clockwork Tinkering
Engineering allows you create a variety of gizmos and gadgets,
including Targeting Dummies, explosives, mechanical creatures, and it
gets more bizarre as you progress. What makes Engineering such a great
profession is the fact that any class can use the goods created. The
major highlight here for Hunters is the ability to create your own guns
and bullets and the bullets you make are usually stronger than the
bullets sold by vendors.

Engineering requires materials of all kinds but the majority of its
recipes require minerals and that’s where the Mining skill comes in
handy. With Mining, you’ll be carrying the Mining Pick in your inventory
at all times. Since you’re also an Engineer, you’ll also be carrying a
Blacksmith’s Hammer and eventually the Arclite Spanner wrench.

At 225, your skill will branch off into one of two specializations. One
is Gnome while the other is Goblin. Gnome Engineering generally focuses
on funky Gnomish gadgets while Goblins Engineering point towards
explosives.

Overall
Engineering is an excellent investment from beginning to end,
especially if you happen to be a Dwarf or Tauren. Eventually the guns
you make will become obsolete but most of the contraptions you make will
be priceless, especially Thorium Shells. The only problem is that with
Mining, minerals tend to be well hidden in your surroundings and your
much-needed Mineral Tracker will often be left inactive in place of mob
trackers and because of that, finding fresh sources of minerals tends to
be a difficult task. However, if materials is not a problem, then this
skill is well worth the investment.

-------------------
Alchemy + Herbalism
-------------------

Making Potions
Alchemists can create their own potions, including health and mana
potions. They can also create a variety of buffing potions that’ll give
you an edge in combat for a short while. Some of these potions are much-
needed reagents to other professions so you’ll also make quite a bit of
money selling your goods.

As an Alchemist, the majority of your reagents are vendor-bought vials
and a variety of herbs that can be found all over the world, which can
be tracked using an Herb Tracker.

Transmuting
Not only are you able to make your own potions but you are also able to
transmute essences from one element to another as well as one kind of
mineral to another. Transmuting has a terribly long cooldown time so if
you want to transmute thorium into arcanite, you’ll end up waiting for
an entire 48 hours for it to cool down. On the other hand, transmutes
are often in high demand and as a result, people will often pay good
money to have their goods transmuted.

Overall
Alchemy is a major helping hand from beginning to end and it’s also a
moneymaker. Of course, bear in mind that with this profession, the goods
you make are one-time consumptions so whatever you make often doesn’t
stay with you for very often. Also, remember that even if you give
yourself many buffs from alchemy potions, a single death will strip you
of most of those bonuses so be very careful.

----------
Enchanting
----------

Stat Boosts
Enchanters can enchant their weapons and armor with stat bonuses using
a variety of dusts, shards, and essences found only by disenchanting
items. At first, the enchants start out nice and simple, as in +50
Health, but late in the game, you can do enchants that can enhance
weapons with fire and ice or the amazing Crusader enchant. It’s also a
great moneymaker, especially if you find some of the higher end enchants
such as +4 Stats to Chest or +25 Agility to 2H Weapon.

Overall
Enchanting is a slow and expensive profession to take because you need
to constantly find new items to disenchant in order to get materials.
However, there are many good enchants that will become important to you
late in the game and the payoff is that rather than paying high amounts
of money for someone else to do it for you, you have the option of
gathering all of the materials and doing it yourself, which can save you
a lot of money in the long run. It’s a great payoff but if you’re
interested in becoming an Enchanter, I recommend that you wait until
you’re at a high level so that you can farm low-level instances for fast
armor and weapon drops.

-------------------
Useless Professions
-------------------

The following professions are good but just not well suited for you:

Blacksmithing
The major highlight here is the Mail armor you can create using
minerals. Other items include sharpening stones, reagents for other
professions, and an array of goods. Sadly, the armor you make becomes
atrociously obsolete by the time you reach level 40 and the melee
weapons you make just aren’t worth the time and effort. Not worth it.

Tailoring
Tailoring allows you to create Cloth armor from the cloths dropped by
Humanoid mobs. This is pointless since the cloths you find will usually
go to your First Aid skill and you’d rather wear Leather than Cloth.
This means that your goods will become disenchanting fodder for your
Enchanting skill.


---------------------
Secondary Professions
---------------------

First Aid
Since you’ll be fighting from a distance most of the time, you’ll be
taking minimal damage but sometimes you’ll take a beating and when that
happens, you’ll have some downtime towards health recovery. Fortunately,
with First Aid, you may create bandages that quickly heal you over time,
which reduces your downtime. During those moments where the going gets
rough, let your pet take the aggro while you bandage yourself in combat.
Since the Heal Pet skill can quickly drain your mana pool, bandages help
to alleviate that problem. The only reagent needed is cloths dropped by
Humanoid mobs, including Linen Cloth and Wool. Don’t leave home without
this one, especially in PvP.

Cooking
Sometimes mobs will drop meat, which can be cooked and consumed.
Certain recipes may even give you temporary stat buffs. It’s a nice
profession but since most of the meats dropped will probably end up as
pet food, don’t expect your Cooking skill to grow very quickly.
Side reagents include vendor-bought spices such as Mild Spices and
Hot Spices.

Fishing
Fishing will yield raw fish, which can be cooked or used as reagents
for Alchemy recipes. Occasionally, you’ll find something funky like a
fish that can be held in your off-hand. If you find little whirlpools
or floating wreckage, you can fish those areas to get some loot. It’s
also something to do while you’re waiting for a friend or a boat. The
only problem with Fishing is that it’s incredibly boring and it takes
a lot of time to raise your skill. Still, if you’re an Alchemist, this
is a must-have profession and if you’re not, it’s something to do when
you’re bored.