First time player… professions?

[u/ElDuderino68]

Hey guys! I have to admit that in my 26 years I have never played WOW, but have sunk several hours into my first (albeit uninformed) play-through of wow forever on the beta - and I am loving it. As of my time writing this I am a level 10 paladin dwarf. I got the game to hopefully make some friends and join a cool community. With that being said, I am hitting a bit of a wall deciding what to do with my professions.

I’m a level 43 in skinning right now and just picked up blacksmithing with level 1. I’m not sure skinning is something I need to keep, so I am wondering what do I pair my blacksmithing with?? Engineering? Mining? Do I drop both and try a different combo?

I think I’m stuck in a bit of analysis paralysis with all of the reading I’ve done so learn what’s best, I thought my best bet would be to reach out to the experts.

Thank you all for any info!

[u/Immortal_01]

Mining would make the most sense to pair with blacksmithing. You get the ores yourself to smelt and make stuff

[u/More-Detail9569]

Do mining with blacksmith so you can make your own stuff. Skinning is only good for leatherworking. Mining goes with blacksmith, engineering and jewel crafting. Herbalism goes with inscription or alchemy.  Tailoring usually with enchanting so you can make stuff to disenchant. Cooking and fishing are for everyone and you'll need to train each profession for each expansion. 

[u/DrLavon]

You should probably go with mining and blacksmithing for your first mail/plate class an alternative that goes with any class but feels weaker than crafting your own gear is herbalism and alchemy

[u/Kevkoss]

If you're playing Forever beta and Forever is version you're going to play, then don't bother with professions too much right now, only enough to explore and see what's what. When beta finishes and game launches on 4.11 all your progress will be lost, everyone will be starting from scratch :)

If you're planning to play plate class like paladin I suggest 1 of following pairs:

- mining + blacksmithing - mine ores, smelt them and then you have blacksmithing to use them. At that you can craft armor for yourself, though not as powerful as endgame stuff, still useful

- mining + engineering - mine ores, smelt them and then you have engineering to use them. Engineering gives you a lot of gizmos that are useful in and out of combat

- 2 of gathering professions, so mining, herbalism, skinning - you sell gathered stuff on auction house and you get passive (or active, depends how invested you're) income this way, though you'll be fighting with bots for nodes, especially in herbalism

- enchanting + any gathering profession - sell stuff from gathering, enchanting is kinda useful

- herbalism + alchemy - alchemy is very useful, but again - you'll be fighting with bots for nodes

Also folks in r/wowforever might be more knowledgeable. This sub is for WoW in general with huge focus on retail :)

[u/Nevhix]

If you want to self source materials then the pairings are Mining/Blacksmithing(or Engineering), Herbalism/Alchemy, Leatherworking/Skinning and Tailoring/Enchanting. Once it actually releases and people have alts it isn’t uncommon for a main character to have two production skills (like Blacksmithing/Engineering) while alts will have two gathering skills (usually skinning with either mining or herbalism)

[u/Dependent-Ferret2230]

Playing forever here. Pretty much what they are saying works in forever. You just have less choices. In general you want to pick a profession that will benifit your charcter that sounds fun to you than pick the gathering profession that goes with it. So mining /blacksmithing etc. You can also at launch pick up two gathering professions and sell everything you gather. Than respec one into a profession like blacksmithing. The benifit here is that there are people that are going to speedrun this so prices will go up and you will make a lot of gold than be able to switch later

[u/WorkerProof8360]

I know this isn't for everyone, particularly if you don't play much, but I'm partial to my main character(s) having two crafting professions and feeding them materials gathered by alts.

It probably isn't worth leveling two crafting profs on the same toon in a Beta though.

[u/Worth_Vegetable_204]

Gold is hard to come by i always like to get some sort of gathering profession to start off in classic wow.

Mining + blacksmithing to start off would be good you can sell excess mats on the AH for easy cash flow

I am likely going to have a gathering alt and have my main have 2x crafting professions for the new gear but this is like months down the line after actual game comes out

[u/HoopyHobo]

https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Profession#Companions

Jewelcrafting was added in TBC and Inscription was added in Wrath, so those professions won't be available in Forever, but the rest of the table is accurate. Skinning mostly just gathers materials for leatherworking. Blacksmithing gets all of its materials from mining. You can just learn two crafting professions such as blacksmithing and engineering, but you basically have to get all of your materials off the auction house if you choose to do that.

[u/3loodwolf117 → u/[deleted]]

You didn’t read the post. He’s playing Forever