With the advent of Wrath of the Lich King, so many things have changed that it’s hard to know where to start.  But since we’ve been talking a lot about professions lately it makes sense to start there.  There are some cool new buffs you can get from several of the professions, so let’s give you a closer look at each one.

Engineering:

This one works like the Ultrasafe Transporter: Gadgetzan, except that it can transport your entire group and not just the engineer.  However, just like the not so ultra-safe transporter, it can also leave you merely near Gadgetzan about 1000 feet in the air.  This is not such a great thing if your entire raid team wipes on the deal and has to spend 150 gold on the repair bill.

Jewelcrafting:

The Grand Master Jewelcrafter gets a nice ability to get gem cut procs from green quality gems.  These perfect cuts have slightly higher stats than the regular versions and should fetch a much higher price at the AH.  It’s hard to tell right now what the proc rate is for this, but reasonable reports suggest it’s between 25% all the way up to 45% of every cut you do will be perfect.  This ability is learned from a quest, and only applies to green quality gems and not rare or epic cuts.

Tailoring:

Can be trained at the tailoring trainers for 5g.  It is pretty straightforward – extra cloth appears for the tailor.  Even if someone else loots the mob and gets a piece or two of cloth, the tailor will be able to loot an extra piece from time to time.  Not a huge help, but can get you a few extra bolts during your run to 80.

Alchemy:

Alchemists can train this skill at level 50, which is very nice.  This skill doubles the duration of all potions, flasks and elixirs; and that’s not all.   This skill also increases the effects of alchemy items when you use them.  For instance; Flask of Relentless Assault normally gives +120 attack power, but a mixologist recieves +180 ap for the same flask – a 50% increase.  These effect increases range from 10% to 50%, and every little bit helps in raids.  This can give alchemists a big boost.

Skinning:

Even though skinning may not make you much cash, it will certainly help you get more critical strikes.  This is especially handy for those classes which would normally take the skinning/leatherworking combo such as druids and rogues.  You can see that at rank 6 it improves cs by 25 points.  Depending on how people interpret the formulas for translating rating points into crit chance this is somewhere between .6% and 1% cs chance at level 80.  This will be an even bigger boost at lower levels, but since it also applies to spell power, it’s just another little buff for every class.  It may be better for leveling than an end-game benefit like mixology could be.

Herbalism:

For those with a green thumb, you also get a cool heal over time spell in lifeblood.  2000 health ticks in just 5 seconds is a save-your-bacon kind of thing that actually works really well.  Warriors especially dig this one when going solo, and it can make the difference in a tough or close fight.  Since herbalism can be a great gold-maker as well, lifeblood is well worth taking this profession.

Mining:

Our last entry; the miner gets a great buff for prot classes.  Mining is a cash cow, and toughness is a nice lift to hp – warriors take notice.  Any prot spec can make great use of toughness, but almost anyone could benefit from it as well.  For our money, mixology, lifeblood and toughness are simply awesome.

So if you have been on the fence about professions at all, these might help you choose a side.  We’ve been hyping mining and herbalism for making more gold, and the buffs you will get from them are no slouch either.  So get out there, get to mixing, get to digging, just get to work and get to Dominating!