In World of Warcraft there are a total of ten primary professions and four secondary professions. These professions play a key role in taking various trade goods and turning them into useful items, either in the form of equipment or consumables. They are available to all races and classes, although any one character is limited to only two primary professions (with the ability to learn all secondary professions at the same time).

Professions in WoW are somewhat unique compared to the majority of older MMORPGs. Items created through crafting have no chance of failing, so you’ll never outright loose any materials unless something is created. While there is a chance to fail at gathering materials (in skinning, herbalism, and mining), you simply just have to try again (nothing is lost). This makes the actual process of crafting (once you have the materials) very easy.

There are three  types of professions: Production (creating items from trade goods),  Gathering (collecting trade goods), and Service (offers a service). Gathering professions work together with production professions in order to create items. For instance, Blacksmithing requires metal gathered with Mining in order to create something and Alchemy needs herbs gathered with Herbalism in order to brew potions. You don’t have to take an accompanying profession, of course, as you can simply buy the materials on the Auction House. However, it’s a lot easier on your gold supply to gather the materials yourself.

There are five different ranks for each profession. They range from Apprentice (the start) to Journeyman (50 skill) to Expert (125 skill) to Artisan (200 skill (225 for secondary professions)) to Master (300 skill and The Burning Crusade expansion). You increase your skill level by crafting or gathering items. There is more detail about this in each of our profession guides as there is usually a level requirement (or in the case of some secondary professions a quest involved) to advance past certain ranks.

Professions can be unlearned by going to your “Skills” tab (default “k” hotkey) and selecting the circle with a line through it next to your professions name. You’ll be asked for confirmation, because as soon as you do this you will forever loose any skill points and recipes you’ve gained for that profession.

Trainers are required to increase to both learn and increase your professions rank. Whenever you get to a point in which you need to advance your rank then you will have to seek out a trainer for your profession. Secondary professions like Cooking and First Aid sometimes require a book to advance further.

Using a Profession

Each of our profession guides attempts to give a detailed walkthrough of using each profession. Some professions, like Mining, have both a production aspect (smelting), a gathering aspect (mining nodes), and a unique aspect (prospecting). There is, however, one single interface for crafting items.

To create an item with a profession simply open your skillbook. On the first page (the general tab) you will see your various racial skills. Somewhere you will see your profession with an icon nearby (for instance, Jewelcrafting will have a gem). You click on that icon to bring up the crafting interface. As a quick note, you can drag that icon to your skillbar for easy access.

From you simply browse through what you can create. When you find something that you want to create simply select it, find out what is required to make it, collect the materials and then select the “create” button. To create multiples (assuming you have enough materials) then place a number beside the box. To make as many as possible select “create all”.

From there your character will go into the creation animation (unique for each race) until the item is completed. If you selected multiples then it will create one, then another, and another until it is finished. The items are placed directly into your inventory. If you gained a skill point from an item, after it is crafted you’ll be notified (orange = nearly guaranteed a skill point, yellow = skill point probable, green = skill point not likely, grey = no skill points). If you don’t have the inventory space or you move around then the process will be canceled and none of your materials will be used.

Remember, you can not fail in creating something!

As for gathering, simply seek out the material node (there will be a skill in your skillbook for Mining and Herbalism that shows mineral veins and herbs on the mini-map) and right click it once you have found it. If you have the skill then you’ll begin gathering. If you don’t have enough skill (but enough to gather it) then you’ll likely fail often. If you fail, just try again, no resources are wasted. Remember Mining requires a Mining Pick while Herbalism requires nothing.

As for skinning, you simply kill and loot a skinnable enemy then right click the corpse. You’ll need a skinning dagger of course.

Riding is a secondary profession that is unrelated to creating things and only allows you to ride a mount.

Gathering Professions

Gathering professions do exactly what their name implies: gather. They gather various materials that require some skill to obtain, such as herbs. These materials are then either sold to other players or used directly with another profession to create an item. Many players choose to pick nothing but gathering professions to supply either your friends or the auction house (to make money for themselves).

Herbalism Fishing
  • PRIMARY Profession
  • Supports: Alchemy
  • Racial Skill Bonus : Tauren (+15)
  • Ten Ton Hammer Comments:Herbalism allows you to gather herbs scattered throughout Azeroth and the Outlands. Herbs are used for a lot of things, ranging from recipes to reputation, however their primary use is in creating potions for Alchemy.
  • Ten Ton Hammer Guide to Herbalism
  • Ten Ton Hammer Gathering Guide: Herbalism
Mining Skinning
  • PRIMARY Profession
  • Supports: Blacksmithing, Engineering, Jewelcrafting
  • Ten Ton Hammer Comments:Mining is a primary gathering profession that allows you to mine various mineral veins for ore, stone and gems in rocky areas, smelt the raw minerals into bars, and even prospect if you have Jewelcrafting. The metals are a major component for Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Jewelcrafting.
  • Ten Ton Hammer Guide to Mining
  • Ten Ton Hammer Gathering Guide: Mining
  • PRIMARY Profession
  • Supports: Leatherworking
  • Ten Ton Hammer Comments:Skinning allows you to skin various beasts (and other creatures) for leather. The leather is then used in Leatherworking to create leather armor. It’s a very good skill to take along with Mining or Herbalism to make some easy money.
  • Ten Ton Hammer Guide to Skinning
  • Ten Ton Hammer Gathering Guide: Skinning

Production Professions

Production professions allow players to create equipment, consumables, or other sought after items. These items can then either be used by whoever creates them or sold away (if they are not bind on pickup). Most production professions do not really produce any extremely useful (and sought after) items until later levels, although Alchemy and Jewelcrafting are rather big exceptions.

Alchemy Blacksmithing
  • PRIMARY Profession
  • Supported by: Herbalism, Fishing
  • Suggested for: All Classes
  • Ten Ton Hammer Comments:Alchemy is the creation of potions that do many marvelous things, ranging from healing health and mana to applying temporary buffs. Alchemy can also transmute metals into various other types. It mostly relies on herbs from Hearblism to create most of the potions.
  • Ten Ton Hammer guide to Alchemy
  • Ten Ton Hammer's COMPLETE list of Alchemical Recipes
  • PRIMARY Profession
  • Supported by: Mining
  • Suggested for: Warriors, Paladins
  • Ten Ton Hammer Comments:Blacksmithing allows you to create various mail and plate armor along with melee weapons. The items created can be very powerful and are either used by yourself or sold to the other players. Blacksmiths also get a range of self-only trinkets and weapons that are very powerful.
  • Ten Ton Hammer Guide to Blacksmithing
  • Ten Ton Hammer's COMPLETE list of Blacksmithing Recipes
Cooking Engineering
Leatherworking Tailoring
Jewlcrafting
 
  • PRIMARY Profession
  • Supported by: Mining (and Prospecting)
  • Suggested for: Anyone
  • Racial Bonus: Draenei (+5)
  • Requires: The Burning Crusade
  • Ten Ton Hammer Comments:Jewelcrafting allows you to take various metals, stones, and gems to create jewelry and at later levels gems that go into socketed gear. This profession requires The Burning Crusade expansion.
  • Ten Ton Hammer Guide to Jewelcrafting
 

Service Professions

Service professions is pretty much the miscellaneous category of professions that produce useful items that generally aim to either improve players’ health or give them additional stats to aid them in their adventures.

Enchanting First Aid
  • PRIMARY Profession
  • Supported by: Disenchanting Items
  • Suggested for: All Classes
  • Racial Bonus: Blood Elves (+10)
  • Ten Ton Hammer Comments:Enchanting allows you to enchant equipment with magical properties. It also allows you to disenchant green quality or above items (destroying them in the process) for magical essences that can be used to enchant other gear.
  • Ten Ton Hammer Guide to Enchanting
  • Ten Ton Hammer's COMPLETE List of Enchanting Recipes
  • Secondary Profession
  • Supported by: Killing Humanoids
  • Suggested for: All Classes
  • Ten Ton Hammer Comments:First Aid is a great skill that ANYONE should take as it really helps decrease downtime after fights and is very useful if you can create some distance between you and the enemy. With First Aid you can create bandages that can be used to heal yourself or others as long as they are not being attacked.
  • Ten Ton Hammer Guide to First Aid

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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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