Professions and in-game money
First, let's take a quick look at WoW's in-game money system. Up until now, you've only seen in-game money in its smallest denomination (Copper coins) and its mid-range denomination (Silver coins, which you may have noticed in your Backpack after you'd been playing for a while). Eventually, you'll start seeing the highest denomination of basic currency in WoW: Gold coins, or simply Gold. As you continue playing the game, you'll see most players use the word "gold" to refer to in-game money as a whole (much like Americans mainly refer to dollars when talking about their money, even though they also use quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies). For future reference, the breakdown of basic in-game money goes like this:
Pretty simple, right? You'll eventually encounter other forms of special "currency" used to buy specialized higher-level items, but for the time being, this is all you need to worry about.
IMPORTANT: While we're on the subject of money, you may see mention--both inside the game and in advertisements on the Internet--of third-party "gold-buying" services for WoW, in which you can pay someone real-world money for in-game gold that you can use. Other services offer to quickly play a Character up to a particular Level for you, so that you have faster access to a high-level Character (also for a real-world fee); these are referred to as "power-leveling" services.
NEVER MAKE USE OF THESE THIRD-PARTY SERVICES! Doing so is cheating, and is a major violation of the WoW Terms of Use. If you're caught, your game account can be permanently closed by Blizzard! Furthermore, you have to provide "gold-selling" and "power-leveling" companies your WoW account information in order to use their services. This can open your account to being compromised (with all of your own gear and gold being stolen), as well as put you at risk of identity theft. Please, don't risk it! Besides, Blizzard now directly provides legitimate means for players to use real-world money to purchase both in-game gold (through the WoW Token) and rapid leveling-up of characters (through the Character Boost, which currently increases a character to Level 100).
So, what does this have to do with Professions? Well, even though you gain money from completing Quests, by looting it from certain types of enemies, and by selling unwanted loot and gear to Vendors, you won't earn money very quickly if you only rely on these means. Furthermore, you'll find that buying the in-game items and services you'll need can get expensive fast. That's where Professions come in.
Professions are trade Skills that you can develop for your Character in order to gather and/or make useful items that you can use yourself, or sell to other Players for in-game money. Professions are divided into two main categories--Primary and Secondary, with the Primary Professions being further divided into Gathering Professions (collecting useful materials) and Crafting (or Production) Professions (creating useful items).
The Gathering Profession Skills are:
The Crafting Profession Skills are:
The Secondary Profession Skills are:
You are limited to learning no more than two Primary Professions (two Gathering, two Crafting, or one Gathering and one Crafting) at any one time. However, you can learn all four Secondary Professions if you want to (and you should, whenever you get a chance). Any Race or Class can learn any Profession, but certain Races have innate bonuses to certain Professions (ex: Tauren have a Racial bonus to Herbalism, Worgen have a Racial bonus to Skinning, etc).
So, which Primary Professions should you learn? That's entirely up to you in the long run, but since this is your first character, you might have quite a challenge developing Crafting Professions, since they require a sizable investment of gold before you can get to the point where you're earning any significant income from them. For this reason, it is highly recommended that you choose Gathering Professions for both Primary slots on this Character, at least for the foreseeable future. You'll have a much easier time earning steady income from selling leather, ore, and/or herbs to other Players, so they can use them for their Crafting Professions.
- 1 Gold coin=100 Silver coins
- 1 Silver coin=100 Copper coins
Pretty simple, right? You'll eventually encounter other forms of special "currency" used to buy specialized higher-level items, but for the time being, this is all you need to worry about.
IMPORTANT: While we're on the subject of money, you may see mention--both inside the game and in advertisements on the Internet--of third-party "gold-buying" services for WoW, in which you can pay someone real-world money for in-game gold that you can use. Other services offer to quickly play a Character up to a particular Level for you, so that you have faster access to a high-level Character (also for a real-world fee); these are referred to as "power-leveling" services.
NEVER MAKE USE OF THESE THIRD-PARTY SERVICES! Doing so is cheating, and is a major violation of the WoW Terms of Use. If you're caught, your game account can be permanently closed by Blizzard! Furthermore, you have to provide "gold-selling" and "power-leveling" companies your WoW account information in order to use their services. This can open your account to being compromised (with all of your own gear and gold being stolen), as well as put you at risk of identity theft. Please, don't risk it! Besides, Blizzard now directly provides legitimate means for players to use real-world money to purchase both in-game gold (through the WoW Token) and rapid leveling-up of characters (through the Character Boost, which currently increases a character to Level 100).
So, what does this have to do with Professions? Well, even though you gain money from completing Quests, by looting it from certain types of enemies, and by selling unwanted loot and gear to Vendors, you won't earn money very quickly if you only rely on these means. Furthermore, you'll find that buying the in-game items and services you'll need can get expensive fast. That's where Professions come in.
Professions are trade Skills that you can develop for your Character in order to gather and/or make useful items that you can use yourself, or sell to other Players for in-game money. Professions are divided into two main categories--Primary and Secondary, with the Primary Professions being further divided into Gathering Professions (collecting useful materials) and Crafting (or Production) Professions (creating useful items).
The Gathering Profession Skills are:
- Skinning (removing leather and hides from the corpses of animals and some monsters)
- Mining (collecting ore and minerals from ore nodes found scattered across the world; also allows the smelting of ore into metal bars)
- Herbalism (harvesting herbs from plant nodes found scattered across the world)
The Crafting Profession Skills are:
- Alchemy (using herbs and oils to create beneficial potions and elixirs)
- Blacksmithing (using metal bars and other materials to craft weapons, Plate armor, and Mail armor)
- Enchanting (using magical ingredients gathered by Disenchanting certain items in order to create beneficial Enchantments, which can then be placed on armor and weapons)
- Engineering (using metal bars, stones, and other materials to craft useful & fun mechanical devices such as goggles, explosives, scopes for ranged weapons, and mechanical "pets")
- Inscription (using inks made from herbs to create glyphs and scrolls that enhance Character abilities, as well as cards & other paper and book items)
- Jewelcrafting (using uncut gems that are looted from enemies and Prospected from ore to craft refined gems that enhance certain weapons and armor)
- Leatherworking (using hides and skins to craft Leather armor)
- Tailoring (using cloth looted from enemies to craft Cloth armor, inventory bags, and other items)
The Secondary Profession Skills are:
- Cooking (using meat, fish, and other ingredients to make food items that Players can eat to replenish Health, and to gain temporary bonuses to Attributes and combat statistics)
- Fishing (harvesting fish from bodies of water)
- First Aid (using cloth looted from enemies to create Bandages for restoring Health, and using various other ingredients to create Antidotes against poisons)
- Archaeology (searching the world for various cultural and natural Artifact fragments which can eventually be assembled into unique items)
You are limited to learning no more than two Primary Professions (two Gathering, two Crafting, or one Gathering and one Crafting) at any one time. However, you can learn all four Secondary Professions if you want to (and you should, whenever you get a chance). Any Race or Class can learn any Profession, but certain Races have innate bonuses to certain Professions (ex: Tauren have a Racial bonus to Herbalism, Worgen have a Racial bonus to Skinning, etc).
So, which Primary Professions should you learn? That's entirely up to you in the long run, but since this is your first character, you might have quite a challenge developing Crafting Professions, since they require a sizable investment of gold before you can get to the point where you're earning any significant income from them. For this reason, it is highly recommended that you choose Gathering Professions for both Primary slots on this Character, at least for the foreseeable future. You'll have a much easier time earning steady income from selling leather, ore, and/or herbs to other Players, so they can use them for their Crafting Professions.
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World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, and Legion are registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
World of Warcraft, its associated expansions, all content described by this guide, and all images contained in this guide are the sole intellectual property of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. No copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Any questions, comments, or concerns about this guide? E-mail: [email protected]
World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, and Legion are registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
World of Warcraft, its associated expansions, all content described by this guide, and all images contained in this guide are the sole intellectual property of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. No copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Any questions, comments, or concerns about this guide? E-mail: [email protected]