Professions for Leveling: Crafting
A few days ago I spoke about which gathering professions to take to level up faster.
Today I’m going to continue this series with the crafting professions, and whether I think any of them are worth your time from a leveling perspective.
Let me cut to the chase.
Don’t Choose Crafting For Leveling
Here’s why.
- The recipes you can craft are rarely better than what drops from mobs
- The time each crafted item is useful for is minimal because the level that gear is effective at passes quickly
- You spend lots of time farming the materials and running back and forth to learn new recipes
- You waste tons of gold because most crafting professions need a gathering profession to level up
With this in mind, I’m going to generally speak about a few professions I think are worth your while, and talk about why you might still want to take a crafting profession early on.
Blacksmithing:
Being a blacksmith is good if you’re a warrior or melee dps class, because you can make some simple but effective dps increasing items early in the game to help you chew through mobs a little quicker.
From time to time the gear you can make might be worth making, but as I’ve already said, you really want to avoid actually using most of this stuff because you’ll only have it for a level or 2 before something way better drops.
Tailoring:
Pretty much completely useless. Much like blacksmithing, the items you make will become useless quickly. But on the PLUS side… you can use linen you loot from mobs to level this profession, freeing up a gathering profession which means you can keep selling mats on the AH to save up gold.
Enchanting:
Also a bit like blacksmithing in that low level enchants can help you level faster by applying small buffs to various items of equipment. However, if you choose to go enchanting while you level up, understand that if you aren’t bankrolled by another toon, affording level ups and new gear will be difficult.
This is because you won’t be able to auction greens you find, they’ll all get disenchanted, and you’ll end up relatively broke if this is one of your first toons.
If you’re gung-ho on enchanting, level it up when you hit 80 – you’ll find it much easier to farm greens in low level dungeons than to grind it up while being broke.
Jewelcrafting:
Jewelcrafting is more similar to blacksmithing in that you’ll be eating your materials up to level it, but unlike enchanting/blacksmithing you won’t get buffs that can be applied to every weapon or piece of armor you can get.
Skip Jewelcrafting for leveling faster.
Leatherworking:
Another item crafting profession that doesn’t give you anything unique or useful for leveling faster. You’ll eat up mats too so skip this one too.
Engineering:
One of the more entertaining professions to level, with lots of amusing tricks up its sleeve (especially as you reach higher levels), but still of little use to leveling faster.
If you’re a hunter – maybe you’ll consider engineering for the small dps increase scopes gives you, but any other class should stay away. Again, you’ll be consuming mined mats (and more) for this profession.
Inscription:
Maybe the worst crafting profession for leveling of them all.
Glyphs can be bought cheaply on the AH with the mats you sell, and you get no personal benefit from going inscription.
Even worse, when you hit high levels of inscription the only thing that makes it worthwhile is the shoulder enchants – and even those can be had grinding Hodir reputation (roughly the same time investment).
Take a pass on inscription and save your herbalism mats for the AH.
Alchemy:
Not a bad leveling profession at all – you can make healing & mana potions to keep your up time higher… but if you take a gathering profession like herbalism, this probably won’t be a big problem.
If your class is known for chewing mana, then it might be a good idea to pair up alchemy with herbalism and keep yourself stocked with mana/health potions.
Otherwise, Blizzard is making the leveling curve easier and easier these days, which will likely mean all you’ll need is water and food for most of the time.
When should I pick a crafting profession then?
I personally think unless you’re happy to level a little slower, you should wait until 70 or 80 to start.
By the time you’re that level, you’ll have a) gold, or b) lots of mats to use for the profession you want to train up.
Doing dailies every day and completing all the quests in Northrend will net you thousands of gold a week, so there’s no reason to get a gathering skill to go with your crafting professions.
The only reason you should be choosing a crafting profession while leveling fast is if you really aren’t that gung-ho about leveling fast.
You want to level quicker, but you would rather have your crafting skills at 400 rather than 0 when you hit 80.
I personally took the hit to leveling and leveled up inscription while I leveled my last toon. It did take a bit longer, but it kept my days in WoW more varied and interesting.
Want to level your professions as fast as possible?
My friend Dave Farrel has made an awesome profession leveling guide that I highly recommend you check out. I've personally used this guide to level up 2 toons that I ended up changing gathering & crafting professions on.
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