I get questions all the time regarding which professions a player should take based on class, based on other professions they have or any other countless deviations and permutations of variables. The second most common question on this topic I get is when to drop a profession.
If you are considering dropping a profession and no other toon in your army of alts has that profession, the answer is simple: don't drop it.
A lot of people ask me about the validity of dropping professions, especially farming professions since they are the easiest to get back up to speed (maybe 5 hours of work tops to level with 100% ground and 310% flying speed). My advice is twofold: If you have the profession on another toon, drop it and get a crafitng one. If, however, you do not have the profession on another toon then you don't drop it. You're better off leveling another character instead of spending time switching professions. More professions means more options and more options means access to diversification and more diversificaiton means a healthy 401k for your main character and his offspring.
If you are considering dropping a crafting profession it is not as simple as the gathering professions. If your profession (this includes mining btw) has a cooldown then it is worth it to keep multiple toons with the same profession on your account. The only crafting professions you should consider dropping when you have more than one toon possessing them would be leatherworking, engineering or enchanting since they don't have cooldowns. Obviously there are reasons to keep them if you have rare patterns like spell power to weapon or lifelike mechanical toad on different toons.
Diversification is the greatest weapon and defense any auctioneer has at their disposal. Without it, the auctioneer is left without options when markets dive and is incapable of playing all aspects of a market (target the source of supply, other professions which interact or are affected, etc). I highly advise leveling new toons instead of dropping and restarting professions.
The main lesson from this is that you shouldn't be so hasty to drop professions and since it takes a long time to achieve max level with a profession it should not be a spur of the moment decision. Take some time, plan ahead and then drop it like it's hawt.
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7 comments: on "Level Your Toons - Don't Drop Professions"
DVL said... October 24, 2010 at 11:03 AM
I totally agree dropping professions is serious business as they say. I have only dropped a maxed profession once on a shadow priest from Skinning to Blacksmithing it was more of a raiding thing and it certainly cost enough money. At the moment I have at least all professions covered except Herbalism on one realm because it is just too damn tedious for me.
Cold said... October 24, 2010 at 11:21 AM
Agree Completely! I had this topic in my list of posts to write about. Well said Markco.
The real issue begins when you have all 10 characters slots on your server filled with high level crafters and gatherers. Some profession it was nice to have multiples of like tailoring due to the specializations, but since the removal of tailoring specialty procs it's less of an issue now.
Faid said... October 24, 2010 at 12:38 PM
Indeed! I've wanted to drop mining on my main for Blacksmithing for quite some time but I'm refusing to do so till my druid is 80 (Currently 71) as she's coming up the ranks with Mining/Herbalism. (Priest will probably drop herbalism and pick up . . . no idea, yet, actually.)
Also, I'm not going to drop my main's gathering profession till a few months into the 'Clysm, as it is both a method of leveling now that gathering gives xp but also a great way to make good gold while pushing my first 85.
Evlyxx said... October 24, 2010 at 3:42 PM
This!
Only time I've dropped professions is gathering. Heck, in TBC I changed my raiding main from a alchemist/enchanter holy priest to a tailor/herbing shadow priest simply cos the guild wanted me to go shadow and that meant a tailor as the crafted items were BiS until Black Temple.
Levelling a toon IS the way to go, it has really never been easier and besides this you'll gather many items that sell well as you level. You know all those weird ass random drops that many professions need to level up like Spider Silks, Pearls and such.
Also a tip for levelling alts now when you get to 40, go farm some Golden Pearls on teh Isle of Dread. Best farm spot ingame and its going in 4.0.3.... (http://www.evlyxx.co.uk/2010/10/golden-balls.html)
Hagu said... October 25, 2010 at 3:06 AM
Daily quests are a type of cooldown.
Depending on how you count the jc daily, alchemy is the only profession still with a real cooldown. ( Abyssal bags obviate glacial bags.)
The crucial information we don't have yet is how suitable a profession is for non-raiding alts and is it scaleable.
E.g. if your main will raid, then you pick the appropriate EJ minmax profs. The question is for alts: Say you have a level 65 DK that won't get to 85 in 2011 and maybe not in 2012. Using WotLK examples, a profession where the main profit is from patterns that drop from instances (JC patterns that drop in heroics) or require raiding (BoP drops in raids or requiring AV revered to buy) are poor fits for profession alts.
Scaleability: currently, having 5 tailors is not much better than 1; but 5 transmute alchemists are better than 1.
Rick... said... October 27, 2010 at 12:23 AM
Have a druid thats a alchemist herbalist, just lvled an alt dk and lvled alch so i could drop it on the druid and pick up mining so I could have a robo farmer. Now that you can track two nodes it makes perfect sense to have one toon to farm with doesn't it?
Vince said... November 9, 2010 at 4:09 PM
This is quite an interesting post, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Right now, I am considering dropping eng on my main to pick up enchanting. My reason being, I should still be able to make some money before the end of cataclysm (especially if I can get some BoA enchants), and then I should be able to make more money during Cata by being able to DE all the greens I get while leveling, and by selling enchants at max level.
But as it is now, I can't really see how I'll make money with eng now, or during cata, and especially not during leveling. I'm still looking around to see if eng will be profitable, and I would certainly appreciate any insight anyone here could give me.
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