Get A Job! (Professions)

I apologize for bothering you but I religiously read your blog and since you are the main reason I leveled a tanking pally I am looking to you for some guidance.  I am really stuck between which professions to choose to best benefit me as a tank.  Making money does not matter to me in the least since I have plenty of gathering and crafting alts for that.  I have pretty much narrowed my choices down to 3 but i can still not decide what 2 are the best.  Engineering, Enchanting, and Jewelcrafting.

I have enough money right now to powerlevel whichever 2 I choose and since I am not looking at being a high end raider but more of a heroic, Kara, and Gruul kind of tank I am thinking that engineering is an easy choice for the head piece but I am really stuck on the other 2.  The ring enchants look good but on the other hand so do the 2 jewelcrafting BoP piece's (the defense one and the spell damage with stamina on it I was thinking would be good for threat boost)

Any assistance you could provide would be very appreciated.

Keep up the great blog.

Durik

Let me start off by saying, you are never bothering me when you send me an email. Part of why I do my blog (mostly) every day is to help the community. It's why I actively post on Maintankadin, and Tankspot. I like to help people. So don't hesitate to send me an email, I read and respond to each one, though sometimes my response will be in a Blog post.

So let's talk about Professions for a Tankadin. I'm going to go over several choices.

Mining/Skinning

This would actually be my first choice for a new Tankadin. Now if you have 2 or 3 (or more!) level 70 alts with gathering professions, ignore this. The one constant in this game is gold. You need it regardless of what class, spec, role or level you may choose. Gold gives you options. There is no better way to make tons of gold than by going dual gathering. Mining because no less than 3 professions use materials from mining (Engineering, Blacksmithing, and Jewelcrafting), and Skinning because it doesn't interfer with mining. You don't need two different tracking modules going.

The other reason I would choose Mining/Skinning is that you can stockpile gold to buy mats to power level a crafting profession at a later point. As I write this, Wrath of the Lich King is in Alpha. We simply don't know what is in store for profession in the Expansion. By having a nice stockpile of gold, you will be ready to power level whatever profession suits your needs.

I am not Mining/Skinning on Honorshammer because I am Mining/Skinning on my hunter, Honorshummer.

Jewelcrafting/Enchanting

So if you have a gathering alt, my next choice would be Jewlecrafting and Enchanting. The reality of the game is that people are always trying to improve their gear. The crafting professions generally net you some saleable items, and a couple of really nice BoP epics that can only be worn by the crafter who makes them. Eventually, you hit a point in the life cycle of the game where the gear available surpasses the crafted item. It happened in vanilla WoW and it's happened in Wrath. Basically, unless Blizzard wants to basically require people to take a certain profession, there will always have to be alterante ways to get gear comparable to what a crafter can make.

But regardless of how people get the gear or how good the gear is, they want two things: Gems and Enchants. I will tell you that right now there are a glut of Jewelcrafters out there, and it's rough to be a Jewelcrafter without a mining alt to supply the raw gems, but it's generally cheaper to buy the uncut raw gem and then cut it yourself, and it's definitely cheaper to get enchants when you can make the mats yourself by disenchanting stuff.

Both professions also provide perks to the crafter like the BoP trinkets from Jewelcrafting and the Ring enchants from Enchanting.

Herbalism/Alchemy

Any endgame raider is familiar with the costs associated with the Consumables we need for raiding, especially when it comes to Flask, Elixirs and Potions. As a Tankadin, I find I use both Mana Pots, as well as Health Pots and Ironshields.

Blizzard did add some ways to get Flasks without having a pay an Alchemist, but it's no guarantee that this model will carry over to Wrath.

Engineering

Engineering is good choice. Most people are going to pursue it for the Epic Helm. If you have the gold to get the Sunwell Plateau pattern (Hard Khorium Goggles), you will be set and overpowered for a long time. It might even last you until the late 70s in Wrath. It's that good. You also get a trainer taught pattern which will last you until you get your T6 helm. It's as good (if not better) than the T5 helm.

In addition to that one item, you get a quasi gathering skill in that you can farm Primals with your Mote Extractor. Honors has trouble effeciently killing Elementals so to be able to fly around on an Epic Mount with Crusader Aura harvesting Primals is a nice perk. I generally trade my Air or Water for Fire as Fire and Life are only two Primals I can't farm this way.

You also get a teleporter which you can use to get either Toshley Station or Area 52. Both are useful and time savers.

The clincher for me was the Gyrocopter. I love the thing. Blizzard's sound and animation team put a ton of work on it and it's really cool.

Mining makes a great choice to go along with Engineering.

 

Whatever you choose, keep an eye on news for the Expansion. My gut tells me that the BoP crafting professions (Blacksmithing, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, etc) will be quite strong when Wrath first comes out. As it ages though the enhancement professions (Jewelcrafting, Enchanting) will become stronger. Of course they could add enhancements to other professions like they did in tBC with the Leatherworking patches and the Tailoring thread.

After an honest evaulation, it looks like Professions are fairly well balanced. I think you could make any choice work for you and your toons.