World of Warcraft: Best Professions in WotLK Classic

Choosing the best profession to level in WotLK can be tough, especially if you’re new to the game. Otherwise, it comes as no surprise to you that some of them are more useful than others. Whether it’s in terms of making gold, or min-maxing your character to be as optimal as possible, professions certainly play an important role in WotLK Classic.
If you are new to World of Warcraft, check out our Wrath of the Lich King Beginner’s Guide.

In order to balance things out, professions received quite a lot of changes in WotLK. Additionally, a brand-new profession has been introduced – Inscription. Although most of the professions are now competitive and provide us with unique bonuses during combat, this leaves us with a new list of preferred ones to focus on.

So what are the Best-in-Slot profession combinations in WotLK?
In short, our recommendations for the end-game content are as follows:

ENGINEERING

Firstly, let’s start off with the bonuses you can attach to your gear if you level this profession. The following enchants provide you with great stats, but keep in mind that they can’t stack with normal enchants:

What stands out here the most is the amazing glove enchant:

• Reticulated Armor Webbing is an excellent and obvious choice for tanks, as it provides a massive +885 armor.
• Hyperspeed Accelerators is the main reason why most damage dealers should take engineering in PvE. It immediately provides you with a +340 haste rating, it’s on a 1-minute cooldown, and since you will be using this together with your other cooldowns, it is evidently a big DPS (or heal) increase when used correctly.
• Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket deals 1654 to 2020 Fire damage to your target and is on a 45-second cooldown. While this enchant isn’t as good as Hyperspeed Accelerators in PvE, it excels in PvP. Therefore, you will want to opt for this enchant if you’re playing PvP.

To point out a few other things on the list worth considering:

• Mind Amplification Dish is a helm enchant that grants +45 stamina passively, and it has an on-use effect that gives you a chance to mind control your enemy. This effect is on a 10-minute cooldown. It can’t be used in the arena and its importance in raids is rather insignificant. What makes this enchant great is its passive stat increase, which offers 8 more stamina than the regular helm enchant used by tanks. Tanks will want to choose this enchant unless they need defense rating instead. 
• Nitro Boosts is a boot enchant that grants a passive +24 critical strike rating, as well as an on-use movement speed increase boost, which is on a 3 minute cooldown. Although the movement speed boost is unusable in the arena, in PvE it’s powerful enough to make most raiders want this enchant. 
• Springy Arachnoweave is a cloak enchant that passively grants +27 spell power, hence why it’s a great stat for casters. It also comes with an on-use ability that grants the user slow fall for 30 seconds, and it’s on a 1-minute cooldown. This could potentially be useful for classes that don’t have any ability similar to this.

The following enchants are either situational or not worth using:

• Flexweave Underlay similarly is also a cloak enchant, it grants +23 agility passively and has the same on-use ability as the previously mentioned Springy Arachnoweave. However, since agility isn’t really a desirable stat for anyone, melee DPS won’t be using this as their main cloak enchant. 
• Frag Belt is a belt enchant that allows you to throw a Cobalt Frag Bomb every 6 minutes, dealing 750 – 1000 fire damage. It’s not usable in the arena, nor is the damage worth much in PvE either, except for some AoE situations. 
• Personal Electromagnetic Pulse Generator is another belt enchant that allows you to stun all nearby mechanical enemies for 3 seconds, and it’s on a 1-minute cooldown. This only works on mechanical enemies, hence why this enchant is useless anywhere else. 

Aside from enchants, engineering also gives you the opportunity to make your own 200-item level goggles. These helmets will lose their importance once you get the significantly stronger raid gear. Nevertheless, they are definitely worth mentioning, as they are a good alternative until then (besides looking cool!).

Engineers can, of course, make some gold by crafting different tools like:

• Ammo (Saronite Razorheads, Iceblade Arrow, Shatter Rounds)
• Guns (Armor Plated Combat Shotgun, Nesingwary 4000)

These are likely to be in demand in pre-raid preparation. But most importantly, 2 new ground mounts have been introduced in WotLK engineering: Mekgineer’s Chopper (for Alliance) and Mechano-hog (for Horde).

Unlike Flying Machine Control and Turbo-Charged Flying Machine Control (which you can craft for yourself), neither Mekgineer’s Chopper nor Mechano-hog are engineer-exclusive. In other words, both mounts are BoE, so you will be able to trade them in the auction house to players interested in buying them. 

When it comes to out-of-combat gadgets, you can even make a portable mailbox (MOLL–E). Not only it can be summoned anywhere in the world, but it also allows anyone nearby to use it. MOLL-E lasts for 10 minutes and it’s on a 2-hour cooldown.

What’s more, you also get the ability to summon Jeeves. This is an NPC that allows you to vendor or repair your gear as well as giving you access to your bank, saving you a lot of time meanwhile. Jeeves lasts for 10 minutes after being summoned, is on a 1-hour cooldown, and can be accessed even in combat.

Lastly, engineers can make explosives such as Saronite Bomb, Cobalt Frag Bomb, Global Thermal Sapper Charge and Explosive Decoy, which can be useful in AoE scenarios. These do not work in the arena though.

JEWELCRAFTING

Jewelcrafting is, for the most part, the profession of choice amongst tanks and melee DPS, although it can be a very strong pick for healers and casters too. By socketing 3 unique Dragon’s Eye gems into their gear, Jewelcrafters are able to massively boost their stats.

Here are some examples of Dragon’s Eye gems you can craft (note that you can only equip 3):

• Bold Dragon’s Eye  (+34 Strength) 
• Bright Dragon’s Eye  (+68 Attack Power) 
• Delicate Dragon’s Eye  (+34 Agility) 
• Flashing Dragon’s Eye (+42 Parry Rating)
• Fractured Dragon’s Eye  (+34 Armor Penetration Rating) 
• Precise Dragon’s Eye (+42 Expertise Rating)
• Runed Dragon’s Eye  (+39 Spell Power)
• Subtle Dragon’s Eye (+42 Dodge Rating)
• Brilliant Dragon’s Eye (+42 Intellect)
• Mystic Dragon’s Eye (+42 Resilience Rating)
• Quick Dragon’s Eye (+42 Haste Rating)
• Rigid Dragon’s Eye  (+34 Hit Rating) 
• Smooth Dragon’s Eye  (+42 Critical Strike Rating)
• Thick Dragon’s Eye (+42 Defense Rating)
• Lustrous Dragon’s Eye (+21 Mana every 5 seconds)
• Solid Dragon’s Eye (+63 Stamina)
• Sparkling Dragon’s Eye (+42 Spirit)
• Stormy Dragon’s Eye (+54 Spell Penetration)

As players get better gear and epic gems become available, the Jewelcrafting value will slightly decrease. This is of no concern however, as it evidently remains the best-in-slot profession for many classes and even more important for the end-game. 

Jewelcrafting can absolutely be useful in the early game as well. For example, crafting one of the following 200 item level rare trinkets can give your fresh level 80 character a head start before you get your hands on raid gear:

If you chose to level Jewelcrafting and you are short on gold, try pairing it with Mining and use Prospecting skill to gather gems from raw ore that you previously mined. That way you won’t have to buy all the materials needed to level it. 

Last but not least, by completing dailies and getting Dalaran Jewelcrafting Tokens, you will be able to purchase Design: Nightmare Tear. For instance, Nightmare Tear can be used to add +10 to all stats to any socket. So even if you aren’t interested in optimizing your character, this is without a doubt a decent way to make gold.

TAILORING

Tailoring allows players the making of spell power cloth gear, as well as some very powerful enchants. Therefore, it’s the most rewarding profession in WotLK for any class that uses cloth armor type (typically healers and casters). Players have the opportunity to add tailor-exclusive enchants to their cloak, called embroideries. 

These embroideries offer the following bonuses (but can’t be stacked with regular cloak enchants):

• Darkglow Embroidery – Gives you a chance to restore 400 mana when you cast a spell. This proc has a 45 second cooldown. If you were to proc exactly every 45 seconds, you could possibly restore +44 mana per 5 bonus on average. Whereas if you proc every 1 minute, then you could restore +33 mana per 5 bonus on average.
• Lightweave Embroidery – Gives your spells a chance to increase spell power by +295 for 15 seconds, with a 45 second cooldown. Comparatively, if you’re lucky and proc this effect every 45 seconds, you would have +98 spell power bonus on average. Otherwise, if you proc for example every 1 minute, that would translate into an average of +74 spell power increase.
• Swordguard Embroidery – Gives your melee or ranged damaging spells a chance to sometimes increase your attack power by +400 for 15 seconds, with the cooldown of 45 seconds. In other words, if the cloak procs this effect exactly every 45 seconds, you would end up with +133 attack power on average, compared to the average of +100 attack power if it happens every 1 minute. 

Given the fact that embroidery bonuses do not stack with the regular cloak enchant, meaning you would have to pick one over the other, the attack power (Swordguard Embroidery) and mana regeneration (Darkglow Embroidery) enchants are sadly not worth the trade. 

However, the spell power enchant (Lightweave Embroidery) undeniably is. The benefit that this cloak enchant offers is almost double the benefit that you would normally get with Jewelcrafting in the patch phases 3 and 4. Because of this alone, most casters and healers will opt for Tailoring as one of their two primary professions. 

As for collectors, Tailors can craft two unique flying mounts in WotLK: Magnificent Flying Carpet and Frosty Flying Carpet. These mounts are an upgraded version of the Flying Carpet mount. 

Unfortunately, you can only use these mounts if you are a tailor.

Besides the embroideries and cool-looking mounts, another useful thing about this profession is the fact that you can create powerful cloth gear. 

For example, Spellslinger’s Slippers and Royal Moonshroud Robe (for Horde)/ Royal Moonshroud Robe (for Alliance) are BoE items, meaning you are able to sell your crafted gear in the auction house for gold. 

Finally, remember where all your bags are coming from? Yes, auction house. But tailors are the ones making them. All the bags you craft as a tailor are BoE, and since they are likely to always be in demand, this is yet another good way to make some gold with this profession. 

BLACKSMITHING

Like tailors, blacksmiths are able to craft gear, specifically plate armor-type gear. While Blacksmithing may not have a great start and is overpowered by Jewelcrafting, it indeed becomes one of the best professions later on. 

It might be a good idea to pair this profession with Mining until you level it, because that way you can provide yourself with the materials you’ll need, instead of spending gold in the auction house. Leveling blacksmithing can end up being extremely expensive due to the amount of bars used to craft items. 
You can read more on how to make gold in Classic in our Gold Farming guide.

Although it may be a hustle to level, especially since it starts off weaker, it pays off in the long run, and here’s why. 

First off, Blacksmithing allows the players to add a socket to their gloves (Socket Gloves) and a socket to their bracers (Socket Bracer). This means that you can use 2 extra gems to give your primary or secondary stats a boost.

As an example, you would get one of the following bonuses if you socket 2 epic gems:

• +40 Strength, Agility, or Intellect
• +80 Attack Power
• +46 Spell Power
• +60 Stamina
• +40 any secondary stat (critical strike rating, hit rating, etc..)

Keep in mind that you can only add these sockets to your own gear, and if you unlearn blacksmithing, you will also lose the ability to use those sockets you created. 

When it comes to armor and weapons, most of the items crafted through blacksmithing will quickly be replaced in early raids. Hence why this profession is much better for crafting early PvP items than PvE.
In Phase 3 however, and with the addition of epic gems, blacksmithing receives a huge boost and overshadows many other professions which were better at start. 
For comparison, here’s a list of some crafted items in both early and later phases:

All of the items above can be traded and sold in the auction house. 

Apart from the BoEs, blacksmiths can craft useful enchantments like Eternal Belt Buckle, Titanium Weapon Chain, and Titanium Plating, not just for themselves, but for other players too. In fact, Eternal Belt Buckle is likely to be in demand by high-end players, as it adds a gem socket to belts.

Furthermore, another cool thing about blacksmithing is the ability to create Titanium Skeleton Keys. These keys are used to open lock boxes as well as locked doors, which means you no longer need to look for a rogue to do this for you. 

In conclusion, blacksmithing leveling can seem costly considering how unrewarding it is at start, but given these points we can see how it evens out. Moreover, with all the BoEs through which you can easily make all the gold you spent.

We hope you found our recommendations useful. We will be covering more in-depth guides related to World of Warcraft. If you liked this guide and wish to read more, make sure to check out our World of Warcraft news section for even more tips and future updates!