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Within the video game World of Warcraft there are numerous professions players can choose from. Each character can choose up to two primary professions, and any or all of the secondary professions. Primary professions can be abandoned later so that the character can start on a different one, but the secondary professions cannot be abandoned.
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The various gathering professions are all means to an end, never an end in themselves. A player may take a gathering profession to supplement his crafting profession, or simply to sell the items he gathers, but the products of these professions are never beneficial in and of themselves.
Mining is a skill used to harvest and process raw ores from various deposits found on Azeroth.
All miners automatically gain the ability to track minerals, which causes nearby metal deposits to be marked on the game's mini-map. This ability directly feeds the primary use for the mining profession: the harvesting of ore from mineral veins scattered around the game world. The types of metal have a definite sequence to them; a miner must have a certain level of mining skill to attempt to harvest a vein of a particular type. The types of veins are, in order of difficulty:
In addition, there are a handful of other vein types whose ore is not used by any professions, but rather fulfils certain quest requirements; ex. lesser bloodstone veins, indurium veins, and incendicite veins.
The veins for precious metals (silver, gold, truesilver) are unpredictable in their appearance. Certain tin veins have a chance to respawn as silver veins; likewise certain iron veins may be gold and certain mithril veins may be truesilver. Dark iron veins may spawn unpredictably. Apart from these exceptions, metal veins spawn in predictable locations at predictable intervals.
Harvesting from a vein requires a miner's pick, and takes about 3 seconds. Each harvesting action yields one piece of the relevant type of ore, with a chance for a related type of stone and a small chance for a gemstone. All veins can drop gems of different varieties, but the silver, gold, truesilver, and dark iron veins never drop stones of any type. Each type of vein can be mined between two and four times before it is exhausted. The exceptions to this rule are the small thorium veins, which are exhausted after one or two harvests. Veins are located in zones whose average level range coincides with the metal's usefulness; for example, copper veins are plentiful in the low-level starting areas such as Kharanos and Durotar, but a miner in search of rich thorium veins will need to venture into the most dangerous areas - Winterspring, the Eastern Plaguelands, and the like. Dark iron veins are particularly rare, found only within the instanced dungeons of Blackrock Depths and Molten Core, and now in the Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes.
The secondary purpose for the mining profession is the smelting of ore. Nearly all applications for metal require that the ore be processed into bars. Miners can accomplish this at any forge, converting ore into bars at a one-to-one ratio. Exception: dark iron ore can only be smelted at the black forge (located within Blackrock Depths) and converts into bars at an eight-to-one ratio - that is, eight pieces of ore are required to produce each dark iron bar. Some types of metal can be further processed after their conversion into bars. Specifically, one copper and one tin bar can be combined to produce two bronze bars, and one iron bar can be combined with one piece of coal to produce one bar of steel.
Both engineering and blacksmithing require large amounts of metal, and small amounts of other materials; any such tradesman who does not also take mining will need to purchase the metal for his trade from other players or at auction. In fact, some players take mining as a profession simply to profit from the needs of engineers and blacksmiths, selling all that they harvest.
Most of the gems which can be acquired from mining can also be acquired other ways - killing enemies, opening chests, and using the Rogue's pick pockets ability. However, a couple of rare gems are acquired primarily, or exclusively, through mining.
Skinning is a skill used to harvest hides from dead animals. Skinning is somewhat unique as a gathering profession; it has no tracking ability associated with it, it does not harvest from predictable locations, and the results of each harvest are more unpredictable.
Skinning requires a skinning knife, and requires a level of skill which depends on the level of the creature to be skinned. Skinning can only be used on the carcass of beast-type, serveral types of furry humanoid, dragonkin-type creatures or an extremely small number of demons (Darkhounds, for example), and only after the creature has been looted. Skinning a corpse takes about 3 seconds.
When complete, the skinning action destroys the corpse, preventing other corpse-related abilities from operating. It produces one or more leather or hide items, whose value is typically dependant upon the level of creature which was skinned. However, it is common for skinning to produce a larger number of slightly lower value leather types. More rarely, and especially at higher levels, skinning will produce a piece of special hide or skin; for example, skinning any bear between level 51 and 60 will usually produce thick or rugged leather, but may instead produce a piece of "warbear leather," which is used to create high-level leather armor. These special skinning results are always related to the creature being skinned. As another example, skinning dragonkin often results in scales that correspond to their color (red, blue, etc).
The types of leather are: ruined leather scraps, light leather, medium leather, heavy leather, thick leather, and rugged leather. The hides are light hide, medium hide, heavy hide, thick hide, and rugged hide. Hides can be cured by leatherworkers. There are numerous types of special hides.
Skinning does not provide any way to process its products; those actions are the realm of leatherworking, and to a lesser extent, tailoring. In addition, a minority of the recipes in other professions require leather. For example, a number of weapons made by blacksmithing require leather, presumably for hilts and the like, also some of the engineering schematics.
Herbalism is a skill which allows the player to gather raw plant matter from certain types of plants which grow in Azeroth. It provides an herb-tracking ability, and requires no special tools.
Herbs are typically found in otherwise vegetative areas, although specific herbs have specific habitats. Silverleaf, Khadgar's Whisker, and Briarthorn are virtually always found adjacent to large trees. Swiftthistle is looted occasionally also when you collect Briarthorn and Mageroyal. Peacebloom tends to grow in open spaces, as does Kingsblood, and Golden Sansam. Herbs such as Earthroot, Bruiseweed, Wild Steelbloom, Goldthorn and Mountain Silversage are usually found on rocky outcroppings. Purple Lotus is only found in the shade of buildings, and Liferoot tends to grow near water, especially along riverbanks. Grave Moss is found predominantly in graveyards. Blindweed is found most commonly in the Swamp of Sorrows, Mageroyal in Silverpine Forest and the Barrens, Sungrass in The Hinterlands and Feralas, and Firebloom grows only in hot, sandy, or geothermically active areas such as Tanaris or Searing Gorge. Wintersbite and Icecap are mostly found in snowy areas, although Wintersbite has been seen rarely in some forests. Fadeleaf is found somewhat inconsistently; it has been found growing out in the open, near other plants, and on the tops of grassy knolls (see geography). The most advanced herbs, such as Icecap, Plaguebloom, Mountain Silversage, Ghost Mushroom and Dreamfoil, are found only in zones for characters level 45 and above. The rarest plant is the coveted Black Lotus, which is used in the most powerful Alchemist formulas, Flasks.
While some herbs are very dependant on the environment of the location you are in, there is considerable weight based upon the level of zone as well. Meaning simply, the herbs that process into the "better" potions via Alchemy are found in higher level areas.
A single herb "node" can be harvested only once, and usually provides one to three pieces of its type of herb.
Herbs are almost exclusively used by the Alchemy profession; herbs without the Alchemy profession are, for the most part, useless (unless you sell them to other player characters).
Alchemy allows a character to create a large variety of potions and elixirs. These include healing potions; mana potions; potions that increase a character's statistics, damage output, or resistances; potions that mitigate damage; potions that increase a character's running or swimming speed; and even potions that cause damage to enemy targets. At high levels, alchemists can transmute certain substances, for example changing iron into gold, or turning Essence of Air into Essence of Fire. Such transmutations require the Alchemist to first create a Philosopher's Stone -- an item somewhat involved and tedious to make (See: Thottbot's Philosopher's Stone Page). It is notable that the metal Arcanite, used in almost all high-level blacksmithing and engineering recipes, can only be made by transmuting thorium with the Stone and an Arcane Crystal.
Alchemists can also make use of certain kinds of fish, turning them into valuable oils that are used in the preparation of certain potions. Such oils include Stonescale Oil, which is used for among the highest level potions, Fire Oil used to create fire attack/defense potions as well as to manufacture some cloth armor (See "Tailoring" profession below), and Blackmouth Oil -- used to create potions for breathing underwater, swimming faster, walking on water, and the vaunted Free Action Potion, which protects the imbiber from stun effects temporarily. (Source: Thottbot)
Blacksmithing allows players to create armor, weapons, and trinkets, using the stones and metals mined and smelted by miners. Once a blacksmith reaches level 40, and a skill of 200, they can choose to specialize in armorsmithing or weaponsmithing. Weaponsmiths can specialize further in the crafting of either swords, axes, or hammers. Blacksmiths can also create certain metal rods that enchanters require, keys to unlock chests or doors, and sharpening stones or weightstones to temporarily add damage to a weapon.
Engineering is the main tradeskill for those who enjoy PvP (Player-versus-player) combat. Engineering allows characters to assemble metal, stone, gems, and other components into explosives (both throwable, like grenades, and plantable, like shaped charges used to blow open doors or locks), guns, scopes, bullets, mechanical dragons, aquatic helmets, and many other useful and arcane devices. Engineering recipes typically require components that themselves have other sub-components, more so than any other profession. In-game engineers can create many useful gadgets that are fun to use and often entertain and amaze other players. Many higher-level engineering devices are very powerful, but also have the potential to backfire, with either humorous or disastrous results.
The majority of engineering schematics require metal of one type or another, and all explosives require blasting powder created from the stone often found in metal deposits. As such, mining is considered the ideal complement to the engineering profession. Engineering also has the widest variety of components required for its schematics. Almost every other crafting profession can create at least one item that an engineering schematic requires.
A major downside of engineering is that the overwhelming majority of the items it can create can only be used by a character who has an appropriate level of engineering skill. This means that most engineering devices are not marketable to other players. Engineering is usually considered one of the biggest overall money-drainers among professions (Enchanting is the biggest), but it also is one of the most powerful.
The engineering profession offers a specialization choice: Gnomish or Goblin engineering. Gnomish engineering focuses on devices such as a shrink ray, a death ray, and a belt that generates a force field that protects the user. Goblin engineering specializes in advanced explosives and more weapon-like devices such as the goblin dragon gun (essentially a flamethrower). Both branches include many parallel designs, such as teleportation mechanisms (teleporting to different cities based on which branch) and rocket boots, among other things.
Each path has downsides: Gnomish devices regularly backfire, the effect of which differs from item to item. Usually the backfiring item casts its intended effect on the user, or user's party, instead of the target. For example, the gnomish shrink ray most often works as intended (Shrinks the targeted enemy), but slightly less frequently, it backfires and shrinks the user and his entire party, still less likely is the user and their entire group growing, and, rarest of all, is the device completely backfiring and causing the intended target to grow in size. Goblin devices, when they fail, tend to simply blow up. Several devices are more likely to blow up than to function properly. Gnomish Engineering is often perferred however, due to the popularity of the "Gnomish Death Ray".
Jewelcrafting is set to appear in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, it will allow players to create stones that can be placed in socketed items to augment the items stats. This will allow for a whole range of customizable weapons and items. Also available, players will be able to craft rings and necklaces to wear and sell.
Leatherworking allows players to create leather armor. This skill uses Skinning to provide most of the materials needed. Leatherworking is commonly taken up by classes who initially wear leather armor: the Druid, Hunter, Rogue, and Shaman.
At higher levels, leatherworkers can specialize into three different schools: Elemental leatherworking, which creates leather armor based on elemental items (earth, air, fire, water, etc.); Tribal, which uses plant- and animal-based components; and Dragonscale, which is designed for Hunters and Shamans, as it allows them to create mail armor using skinnable dragon scales.
Tailoring allows players to create cloth armor. Humanoids all over Azeroth can drop various kinds of cloth. The types of cloth (in ascending order of level):
Linen through runecloth drop from humanoid mobs the world over (linen at the lowest levels, runecloth at the highest). Felcloth only drops from high-level demons, such as those found in Felwood or Azshara. Mooncloth is created by tailors, by taking two pieces of felcloth to any moonwell and transforming it into mooncloth. Each tailor can only do this once every four days, so items made from mooncloth are very expensive.
Characters who can only wear cloth armor (mages, priests, and warlocks) choose tailoring, as the skill allows them to make armor that they can themselves wear (as well as armor to sell to other cloth-wearers). Because there is no specific gathering skill associated with tailoring (anyone can gather cloth, since you only have to kill humanoids to get it) enchanting is commonly chosen as a secondary profession by those who choose tailoring.
The Enchanting profession allows a character to apply bonuses to armor and weapons worn by other players. Most enchantments require special metal rods created by blacksmiths, but the primary components in most enchantments are bits of magical material that can only be acquired by disenchanting armor and weapons of uncommon or higher rarity. Disenchanting these items utterly destroys them, but also provides the enchanter with one to several handfuls of magic dust, magical shards, or other components.
Because the disenchanted items are valuable, powerful enchanting recipes are very expensive to perform and as such demand a high premium. Popular high-level enchantments include Icy Chill, Crusader, and Demonslaying. Enchanted weapons typically glow bright colors, and players frequently choose weapon enchantments as much for how they look as for what they do.
Enchanting is, so far, the only crafting profession that does not result in the creation of an item which can then be sold via the auction house; an enchanter must be physically present in order to enchant an item. The exceptions to this are the wands which can be created with enchanting, but these are a minority compared to the number of actual enchantments in the profession. If you plan on taking enchanting to the top, be forewarned it is VERY expensive
Unlike the primary professions, the secondary professions are not exclusive. In fact, a player may have skill in all three secondary professions, in addition to his two primaries.
The secondary professions also differ from the primaries in their methods of advancement. The trainer NPCs for secondary professions can only train a player up to the journeyman level. To reach expert level in a secondary profession requires a training manual, which can be purchased from vendors in one or two places in the world. Once the player has advanced to the top of expert level skill, he can advance to artisan level via a quest. Each such quest is available only one place in the world, but the basic trainers for secondary professions also have starter quests to lead the character to the proper questgiver.
Fishing requires a fishing pole, and allows a player to fish the innumerable streams, lakes, and coasts of Azeroth. Fishing is a very passive, zen-like pursuit; when a player fishes, the line is cast, and a fishing bobber appears in the water. At some point in the next 30 seconds, the bobber will move violently and splash; at that point, the player can click on it, and if their fishing skill is high enough (and with a little luck), they will catch a fish.
Fish are used in the cooking profession and by the alchemy profession. Fishermen can also (rarely) fish up lockboxes, armor, weapons, and other interesting items. High-level zones tend to have more valuable fish in their streams, and require higher levels of skill to fish in.
Fishing skill begins at 1 and increases from successful catches, up to a maximum of 300. As fishing skill increases, an area becomes "too easy" and fishing skill will not increase until the player moves to a higher level area. As a rough "rule of thumb" multiply the level of mobs in the area by 5. So, an area with mobs from 10 to 20 is compatible with fishing skill from 50 to 100.
There are several ways to increase your fishing skill. You can find items such as a fishing hat or bobbles that gives you a plus to your fishing skill. So it is possible to get a fishing skill higher than 300.
Cooking allows players to create food. You will need to find cooking recipes to cook the raw material. Such recipes are found from certain vendors in cities/villages, or are dropped by some monsters on rare occasion.
The food created is usually better-quality than the food available at NPC vendors, and frequently gives short-term stat bonuses if the raw food is processed along with another ingredient -- such as various spices, milk, or even water. Eating food quickly regenerates a character's health, so a character who knows how to cook can often make all his own food from found items (animal meats, usually) without having to buy food from vendors. This profession ties in very closely to the Fishing skill as most all fish can be cooked to enhance their health regenerating power. In addition, certain fish can be cooked to provide statistical bonuses that "stack" with almost any other bonus.
In order to cook their raw items, player characters need to find a fire that announces itself as such (via tooltip) when the user moves their cursor over them. In addition, characters can cheaply purchase "Simple Wood" along with "Flint and Tinder" from vendors to create their own cooking fires at will. Such a fire, when created, will also give a small status bonus to nearby friendly units.
First aid is a non-magical healing skill that any class can pursue. It consists of primarily making and using bandages and making antidotes to poisons. Bandaging requires three steps: obtaining cloth to make bandages, creating bandages, and applying them. Bandages are made from cloth: linen, wool, silk, mageweave, and runecloth (although runecloth is so relatively rare, difficult to collect, and valuable for the Tailoring profession, there are those who say it is a waste to make, albeit excellent, bandaids from runecloth when it sells to other player characters for substantial game cash). Each kind of bandage comes in a regular and heavy variety; regular bandages require one piece of cloth, and heavy bandages require two. Applying a bandage requires almost the same level of First Aid skill as creating it.
First Aid can make an important strategic difference because it can be used during combat. This is especially significant for non-healer classes which have very limited options for healing during combat. Even healer classes can benefit from First Aid as a last ditch healing mechanism, usable when they are out of mana.
When a player bandages himself or another player, it acts as a channelled spell that lasts 8 seconds. Higher-level bandages heal more damage in that 8-second period. If the bandaging player or the target attack or are attacked during the bandage application, it is immediately interrupted. In addition, starting to bandage a character applies a 60-second debuff to that character that prevents them from being bandaged again in that time period. If a player is poisoned or otherwise afflicted by a spell that causes periodic damage, applying a bandage will be almost instantly interrupted, wasting the bandage and still applying the 60-second debuff. As such, bandages are best applied when the player is certain that the application will not be interrupted.
Making an antidote is much harder than bandaging, primarily due to the scarcity of venom sacs. A player can take a venom sac and use the toxins inside to make an antidote. Small venom sacs produce low level antidotes while large ones produce high level antidotes.