Are some professions really better than others?

[Rudyraccoon]

I've been thinking lately, in terms of primary professions in Classic Vanilla that Engineering and Alchemy appear to be the most popular picks, and I can see why, like Engineering is great for the utility and gives you a better edge in PvP, while Alchemy is without a doubt the best money making profession due to the higher demand for potions, which makes sense, and of course you would combine Engineering with Mining, and Alchemy for Herbalism.

So, does that mean all the other professions are not that great? I mean the problem with Turtle WoW now is that it's an older server that already has a full majority of level 60s that are already in epics, and there's probably not really much demand for the gear that you make from Tailoring, Leatherworking, and Blacksmithing, and are probably better use if on a newer server. And I don't know about Enchanting, it doesn't seem to be that popular in Vanilla.

I mean I really don't know what to think to be honest but should it really matter what professions you pick?

[Elesion]

My takes:

• Skinning - simple, basically just additional money for stuff you kill anyway
• Leatherworking - relatively simple to level, great money-making cooldown, very few and only high-end recipies that sell
• Herbalism - decent money and utility, somewhat diminished by people farming lashers
• Alchemy - great utility, mediocre cooldown, I don't really think of it as a big money maker (the money is mostly in the ingredients) but your mileage may vary
• Mining - very competitive at the top and bottom end, decent money
• Blacksmithing - mediocre utility, mostly a money sink apart from very few hard-to-get recipes
• Engineering - amazing utility, doesn't really make money as far as I can tell
• Tailoring - easy to level, fairly bad cooldown, some utility and money-making opportunities
• Enchanting - gigantic money sink to level and get good endgame recipes, great utility, can make decent money but you have to aggressively advertise and hang out in capital cities for a long time
• Fishing - easily the biggest and simplest money-making profession
• First Aid - mandatory, doesn't make money
• Cooking - some limited utility, mostly flavor, not really a money-maker

I think Blacksmithing is actually not that great (ingredients too costly compared to Tailoring and Leatherworking, no cooldown) though it's handy to have on 1 alt just for making gear. Everything else has its place depending on your playstyle and preferences.
And don't make the mistake of looking at the mature population of 60s and go "nobody needs low-level gear". There's a ton of new players, but even more importantly pretty much everyone has 1 or more alts they are leveling. And that means someone with the money of a lvl 60 character is buying everything that makes it faster and more fun to play a low-level character. Huge opportunity for crafters if you can find your niche (which is admittedly hard).

Most people tend to recommend gathering professions if you are just after the money, though there's something to be said about having a few lvl 35 alts just generating cooldowns. To make money with crafting professions (outside of cooldowns) you usually need some effort, some market research and AH babysitting, a lot of advertising, all for mediocre profit margins. You have to be quite persistent and it gets annoying over time.

[Geojak]

i would add to the prevois paoster that disechanting by itself is a big money maker even without spamming trade chat

engie come with personal player power aquirred most significantly grenades with extra cc in pvp and sappers for aoe high dmg.

otter proffesions arent useless, but rly you just need 1 guy with the recipe that you can geta hold on, no personall power.

in my opinino introudcing something to survival that allows to use some engenieer grenades would allevaite the personall power issue ALOT and it would be way better solution than the alternative blizaard tbc style of adding personal power to everthing where you had to min max your proffesion accordingly. currently you min max by just picking engie, but waht if we made everyone sappers. this would even allows engies that lost their personal power edge to instead sell grenades to all these new users and non engie playrers wouldnt be forced into a proffesions they dont rly want.

alchemie is second best "personal power" proffesions because it allows you to buy cheaper herbs and make into exlirs yourself. meaning you can use more consumables with the same amount of gold resuilting in more personal power. this can be allevaited once dreamfoil and gromsblood arent botternecking everything as hard anymore and some high end recipes changed to use useless herbs like arthas tears.

[Rudyraccoon]

Wow! This still doesn't help...

[Bayanni]

It's a bit of a mixed bag. Crafting professions are definitely not money makers, but there are multiple BoP recipes for BoP items that are quite good, look good, or are just plain fun. I have a master swordsmith entirely because I looted the untempered runeblade recipe from strat live. I've made zero cash from the prof, but I love that questline and the runeblade I got from it. I'll never change it.

Value of a profession isn't the same as the amount of gold it makes. Some have value for genuinely cool or fun gear. There's no way to balance crafting professions around min-maxers since there isn't a way for gear, something that lasts forever, to match consumables for profits. Instead, I prefer their current approach of making more cool gear you'd want to craft for yourself.

[Rudyraccoon]

So, basically I should just pick whichever I find most fun and ideal for my character instead of worrying about minmaxing?

[Zzerty]

Do you want to minmax? Then there's two professions that are the best for a spec (engineering and whatever) and there's not much wiggle room.

Else, pick whatever you want.

[Geojak]

So, basically I should just pick whichever I find most fun and ideal for my character instead of worrying about minmaxing?

mixmax: alchemie (cheaper raid consumables) + engies (grenades+sapper+pvp trinkets)
gold making: mining good, ench good, herb+alechmie good, leatherwoork best passive gold cd every 3 days otherwise bad
no minmax: whatever you feel like

[Elesion]

So, basically I should just pick whichever I find most fun and ideal for my character instead of worrying about minmaxing?

Yes, always. It's a game, you're supposed to have fun and if it adds some flavor to your character all the better.

If you want to play casually you shouldn't worry about long-term ramifications - just pick what makes the journey enjoyable for you. If you want to invest serious time into playing on Turtle you will end up with several alts covering every profession anyway and eventually it's even feasible to switch professions just for some tiny advantage (especially if you have all the gathering covered by alts already you can powerlevel and fuel any crafting profession).