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A booming voice resonates in your ears, and a dazzling landscape
appears before your eyes. As you zoom across the world, the voice tells
you of your race’s noble history, and you vaguely wonder
where it could be coming from, but the thought only lasts an instant as
the images, and the voice fade. Standing and peering around yourself
you see others milling about, and you realize that it is time to start
your adventure.
You may be wondering at this point if you are in some fantastic dream,
if you had just a little bit too much fun last night, or if someone
slipped something into your food at lunch today. Don’t panic,
you are perfectly sane, you are just paying witness to the opening
scenes that every player experiences after creating a new character in
World of Warcraft.
After braving the first few challenges sent your way, by rather lazy
NPCs, if I may say so, you are ordered to visit a major city, the first
one your toon has ever seen. Whether it be Darnassas, Ironforge,
Thunder Bluff, or Silvermoon; each city is unique and impressive in
it’s own way. When the initial awe wears off, you make your
way across the city to where the profession trainers reside and you
realize you are about to make the first big choice in your WoW career,
picking your two primary professions.
While you can change your professions later on down the line with a
little hard work, getting it right the first time will save you a lot
of money and headaches. This guide hopes to help you with that by
offering a quick reference to what the bonuses of each primary
profession are and to allow you to easily choose the professions that
bests suits your hunter needs.
[protip]There are five different ranks for each profession. Apprentice (starting), Journeyman (skill level 50), Expert (skill level 125), Artisan (skill level 200), Master (skill level 300), and Grand Master (skill level 350).[/protip]
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Enchants
Scrolls of Recall
Enchants
Only Trinkets
Better Epic Gems (3 Max)
Spellthread Leg Enchants
Better Cloak Enchants
Flying Carpets
Extra Cloth from humanoids
Leg Reinforcements
Better Bracer Enchants with Fur Lining
Only Googles
Various Engineering Only Item Enhancements
Bracer
Socket Gloves
- Receive an increased effect and duration when you drink any elixir or
flask you are able to make
Alchemist’s Stones
of Anatomy - Skinning all those dead animals has broadened your
atomically
- All your hard work spent mining has made you exceptionally tough,
increasing your Stamina by X
- Uses your skill in Herbalism to absorb energy and nutrients from the
earth, healing you for X over 5 sec
Low
Inscription is the profession of choice for those of us who dread the
thought of doing the long reputation grind for Sons of Hodir
reputation. While the grind is probably quite a bit less than when
WotLK was released, it still takes a significant amount of time and
dedication to reach exalted. The enchant only requires you to
have an Inscription skill level of 400, and requires only one Snowfall
Ink to allow you to apply it to the shoulders of your choice. The
Master’s Inscription of the Axe also provides us hunters with
an added 64 attack power compared to the enchant available from the
Sons of Hodir.
Those pursuing the Inscription profession also are able to use Scrolls
of Recall which are basically a second hearthstone. While not
a DPS
boost of any sort, having a second hearthstone is never a bad thing.
Just remember to use only the scrolls recommended for your level,
otherwise you may find yourself stranded in The Barrens listening to
all sorts of Chuck Norris jokes.
Choosing to follow the path of Enchanting eventually will lead
the
hunter to be able to enchant his or her rings. Once you
reach Enchanting level 400 you will have access to Enchant
Ring - Assault
which can be used to place 32 attack power on each ring. Besides the
obvious Enchanting and Disenchanting, ring enchants are really the
only DPS perk the Enchanting profession
offers., However, selling
certain Enchanting materials, and enchanting gear for tips can make
this a very profitable profession.
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Jewelcrafters are blessed with access to powerful epic quality gems
such as the Delicate Dragon’s Eye which
requires Jewelcrafting 350 and gives the user +27 Agility.
Only three of these
gems can be socketed into your equipment at any given time.
Jewelcrafting also allows you to use various Jewelcrafting
only
trinkets that may be the best you can get, or at least can fill your
trinket slot until you get the one you really want. Jewelcrafting can
also be a very profitable profession, prospecting ore for tips, or
prospecting your own and cutting and selling the gems can turn out
quite a large sum on money.
Tailoring is one of the poorest choices for a hunter. The leg enchants
and cloak enchants are literally useless for the hunter class. Flying
Carpets and extra cloth are just not good enough reason to spend the
time and money to bother to level this profession.
Probably one of the best professions for the hunter,
leatherworking not only allows you make epic quality gear to sell in
the auction house for profit, use yourself, or make for people and
collect tips, but it also gives you access to Leatherworking only
bracer enchants. Fur Lining is available to Leatherworking skill 400
and only takes a single Arctic Fur to use. The Fur Lining of choice for
Hunters gives 114 attack power compared to the 50 attack power
Enchanters can place on your bracers for you.
While engineering does offer a haste buff to gloves that may be fairly
decent I would personally prefer agility on my gloves.
While teleporters, mailboxes,
and repair bots (which are virtually not
needed thanks to the addition of the Mammoth mount, and the repair Ogre
located at the front of Ulduar) might be lots of fun, they just
aren’t worth the time and money it takes to level
Engineering. Engineering has been broken for awhile and will honestly
take a huge overhaul to fix. With talk of not having to purchase
bullets, Blizzard seems to have plans to further hurt
engineering and with that in mind I would recommend most to stay away
from this profession unless you really feel you *need* to have it.
Hunters only being able to wear mail leaves out all of the armor items
Blacksmiths are able to make, but the second
bonus available to Blacksmiths may turn your head. At
blacksmithing skill 400, Blacksmiths are able to socket their bracers
and gloves. More sockets equals more gems, more gems equals more
DPS for you. Blacksmithing is rated Medium/Low only because I
feel you could get the same effect taking up
leatherworking or enchanting and you would be able to use
the other bonuses unlike blacksmithing.
Tired of constantly buying flasks? Then alchemy may be
the profession for you! Mixology allows for your flasks and elixirs to
last longer, allowing you save more and farm less. Alchemy also
provides a great starter trinket for the raiding hunter in the form of
the Mighty Alchemist’s Stone. While not a trinket that will
make it to end game, it is a very good slot filler, and you
don’t have to wait for it to drop! Finally, as an Alchemist,
you will be able to make and use Crazy Alchemist’s potions
which restore both mana and health (sometimes with the effect of an
additional random potion), and at a significantly cheaper cost than
normal Rejuvination potions.
In my humble opinion this is one of the must have professions for any
hunter. Skinning gives player Master of Anatomy which at max skill
level gives an extra 32 critical strike rating, which no hunter should
pass by. Not to mention you can now skin those pesky animals you
recently killed, and then turn around and pull a profit off of their
hides.
Coupled with jewelcrafting, Mining could be your one way
ticket to becoming rich, however it won’t help you boost
your DPS. Mining grants the player Toughness, which at max
skill level
gives 50 stamina. I don’t think any hunter would take stamina
over attack power, critical strike or agility at any time. Pass up this
profession unless you are strictly looking at money making.
Another useless profession from a DPS standpoint. Herbalists
are
able to use Lifeblood which at max level heals the player when
activated for 2000 over 5 seconds. 2000 health is a mere pittance
compared to the 15000 and up health that any hunter should have, and
will probably not have a chance to save your life, as even a
healthstone heals for more when used. So once again, unless you are
looking for a profession that is merely for profit Herbalism can be
skipped over without a second glance.
Don’t agree with my assessment of the professions? Care to
share which ones you have chosen and why? Come and join us on the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=152"
target="_blank">hunter forums!
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