Boosting For Professions

With the preorder for warlords coming up soon and the free level 90 that comes attached with it a lot of people need to think about what character they want to boost.  There will also be an additional service that would allow people to purchases 90s as well.  There is no reason for us to debate if the selling of 90s is good or bad for the game, we have no say in the matter.  It is happening and it is the way of life now in the game, like it or not.

So when we accept that people will all be getting free 90s and can purchase additional ones it is time to move on.  Most people are debating about which class or race or faction they will go with but while it would be nice to get a specific class up I am looking at it completely different.  The reason for that is if the character you are boosting, free or paid, is level 60 or above you will also get both of your primary professions boosted with them.  Yes, all the way to skill level 600.

While I have said here before I do not think I would buy a free 90 I did say I would buy a free 90 with professions boosted.  To me the professions are more worth a boost than the leveling is.  So the question for myself, and many like me, is what professions to boost?

Word of advice to those looking at the free 90 and only the free 90.  Level it to 60 first so you get the profession boost as well.  It is too good of a deal to not take advantage of it.

Which professions would you power level with this system?

It depends on what type of player you are.  If you are like me on my main server where I have at least one of each profession maxed, therefore I am completely able to take advantage of all the benefits of making everything for myself and save gold, the idea of another profession being leveled is actually kind of easy.

What do you take when you have everything already?

A transmutation alchemist.  That is not a suggestion, it is a great option, that is the flat out truth.  If you do not need a particular profession the best profession to level for free is alchemy.  You will need to do the transmutation quest once you do get your instant 90 but it is worth it.

Why do I rank that as the highest value for the person that has everything?

It is simple.  It can be used to maximum effect to create required materials that are always needed throughout the entirety of the expansion.  The materials alchemy produces are not bound unlike leather workers and their bound leather, tailors and their bound cloth, blacksmiths and their bound ingots, etc.

Why is not being bound so important?  Lets say you want to make something that is added that requires 20 of "something".  If it requires a bound item it will take your 20 days to make it if you can only make one per day.  But if it is not a bound item then you can make it as fast as you are cable of making, or buying, 20 of those items.  This means with 2 alchemists you could make it in 10 days, with 4 you can make it in 5 days, and being it is a transmute master if you get lucky and get a proc you can make it even faster.   

Not only can you make it faster, you can make more to sell them so other people that want that gear faster can make it and they always sell for a much higher price whenever something new comes out that requires them because many people are willing to pay as much as is required to get something faster.

A transmute master can proc 2 or 3 or 4 or even 5 of the item you are using the materials to make one of.  This means you can make what you want to make for yourself faster.  You can make extras to sell when everyone else needs it faster.  You will occasionally get 5 items for the materials used to make one.  It makes sense to make them all the time.  As long as the materials to make one are less, or even equal, to the cost of one of those items, even buying them off the auction house to make one per day is worth it.  Each time you proc it is money in the bank.

If you have never felt the joy of having a give proc on something that sells for 1000 gold and only cost you 50 gold to make you do not know what you are missing.  5000 gold effectively from 50 gold.  Yes, that is a huge reason having additional transmutation alchemists is a good idea.

So now that we know what is the ideal profession to boost for the person that has everything, what is the second profession for them.

This answer is not as clear cut but can be broken down into one of three categories.  What are your intentions for that character will decide that.

If you plan to actively play that character:

Choose enchanting as your second profession.  With the personal loot system being all the rage and most likely being added to more things as it is being added to actual raiding and might end up being added to dungeons as well, it has almost made enchanting a required profession of any active player.

Why do I say this?  Because if things go directly into your bag and you are not an enchanter, you can not get those wonderful free enchanting materials.  When you do a scenario and get something in your baggie, it becomes vendor trash.  When you win something in LFR that you do not need, it becomes vendor trash.  Now, with the roll system, when something drops and everyone can roll on it then usually you can snag a few enchanting materials here and there which are helpful.  But once those items do not pop up for roll there will never be an option to disenchant it again.  So if you want to disenchant it you need to be an enchanter yourself.

I specially switched the professions on two of my characters I like to rare hunt with for fun and baggies to enchanting.  If I am going to be killing all those rare, might as well get some enchanting materials out of it.  With the personal loot system being an enchanter will be even more important for the flow of materials.

If you plan to occasional play that character:

If part of your occasional play is going to be dungeons and raids and such then enchanting remains a good idea.  If it is just going to be a character you do stuff with but nothing serious you could consider a gathering profession.  However, if they keep the design they added in mists, picking mining or herbalism is a complete waste being you can level them from 1 to max in the current top area but skinning is without a doubt a good idea.  At least until blizzard gets off their ass and fixes it like they did for mining and herbalism.

For the occasionally played character, that already has alchemy of course, there really is not a bright and shining example of what you should take.  However, even if mining is easy to level now, it still goes nicely with a transmute master as odd as that combination might sound.  But this only works if the way you occasionally play that character is to be outside doing things.  Being a gatherer when you do not go out to gather is a wasted profession slot.

Otherwise, consider a tailor, more bags and bags are always good.  Even more so if they make bound cloth again so instead of making one bag every 12 days you could make two.  And once you get yourself all decked out in the newest bags they will always sell.

If the character will only be a profession mule:

Well it already has alchemy the ultimate mule profession and exactly the reason I wrote this post to suggest adding it, the second profession really depends on you.  When it comes to mules you do not want anything that is a gathering profession, it will not be going anywhere.

For a character that is a mule it makes the most sense to have it making some other daily cooldown.  This means the three main crafting professions are the perfect match for a mule.  I suggest leather working over tailoring and blacksmith however.  Why?  Have you tried leveling a leather worker?  'nuff said.

Now, for the person without the support staff like I have on my main server where I can make everything on my own.  I too have a few of those characters so I can speak from experience there as well.  I have a level 90 hunter that I leveled with herbalism and skinning.  While it was great for leveling up and I made a fair deal of gold in the process at max level it really does not cut it when herbs and skins rarely go for over 40 gold a stack after the beginning of an expansion.  Sure they can be huge money makers at the get go, but late in the expansion they are near useless from a old making perspective.

When you have a character without a support staff the most important thing is building one.  No matter what the intention of your second character is.  When I go out on my hunter on the rare occasion I log into it and do some LFRs or what have you I dread getting a new piece of gear some times.  If you have a good day and win a few pieces getting all those gems and enchants can be quite pricy.

With that said, for support, the best professions to have are an enchanter and a jewel crafter.  This way you can take care of yourself which will save a fair deal of gold over the course of an expansion.  When you think that it could cost up to thousands of gold to fix your gems and enchants and you do not have a huge collection of characters to draw from and are not extremely active on that character so making gold does not really happen all that often being able to take care of yourself matters.  It matters a lot.

So while the conversation about the boost will continue, I look at it as boosting from 60 to 90, not from 1 to 90.  1 to 90 means nothing to me but 60 to 90 means professions to me and professions are important.  Even with the changes coming where there will be fewer gem slots and fewer enchants and maybe even removing the profession bonuses to raiding completely.  All that remains to be seen.

In the end however, there is one profession worth having multiples of and on that boosted character if you have everything already that is a transmute master.  And there is one profession that is always worth having no matter what, enchanting.

Maybe you could use your boost on an alchemist and enchanter.  If you ask me, there are worse ways to go.  So get leveling, stop at 60, and use your free boost on a profession enhanced character instead of just using it from level 1 to 90.  That would seem like such a waste when you can get some nice professions to go with it.