New player – what’s the best tradeskill for my race/class?
Old player – just take two gathering skills because tradeskills are a gold sink!
Stop saying that darn it!
Tradeskills are only a gold sink if you skill them up off of the AH or look at lost opportunity costs.
For those who aren’t business majors, the concept of lost opportunity costs is that if you use your raw materials to skill up a tradeskill then you are losing whatever gold you could have made by selling those mats on the AH.
In other words – I skin enough mobs to get my leather working to 375 – we’ll say that the raw mats, had I sold them on the AH instead, would have netted me 2000 gold profit (made up number – don’t care what the real cost is). As such, leveling up my LW to 375 has cost me 2000 gold (even though I didn’t actually spend a single gold out of pocket) due to the lost opportunity of selling those mats on the AH.
However, not everyone is looking to maximize their gold to play time ratio so for those looking to just play the game, here’re the deal.
Some tradeskills are good for character development only while others you can make money off of too.
Alchemy – the potions and transmutes you make are useful not only for your main, but also all of your alts, friends and guildies, plus, you can sell the potions themselves on the AH or the raw materials that you don’t need.
Blacksmithing – mainly useful only for plate classes but there’s some nice weapons you can make for your alts, friends and guildies – some stuff will sell on the AH for profit but for the most part you’ll be only earning gold by selling excess ore, gems and motes you get from mining.
Enchanting – the toon with enchanting will get more use out of it then your alts since you can only enchant BOE items for them. You can enchant for all of your friends and guildies though and the raw materials that you don’t need from disenchanting items fetch a good price on the AH. As an added bonus enchanting is a stand alone skill which means that you can either take tailoring or a gathering skill (mining, skinning, herbalism) to supplement your income by selling raw materials.
Engineering – useful for every class, this is a very self specific skill since non-engineers really can’t use 95% of what you can make and other engineers can also make anything you can make – you will earn very little gold selling finished goods on the AH but like blacksmithing, you can easily sell the extra stuff you get from mining. Engineering is almost no help to anyone but the character that has it.
Jewelcrafting – cut gems sell nicely and there is some demand for certain pieces of finished jewelry on the AH. The majority of stuff you can make will be useful to your other characters, friends and guildies and like the previous skills that require mining, the excess raw materials from mining can be sold for profit.
Leatherworking – excellent skill for leather and chain wearing classes, it will provide you with some income from selling armor patches on the AH at all levels, some specific pieces of gear and specialty bags at the higher levels (plus quivers and ammo pouches). Since you can only make leather and chain, this skill won’t be as helpful to alts, friends and guildies as some other skills, but will still be useful. Like other skills, you can still make some nice gold selling excess product from skinning on the AH.
Tailoring – another stand alone skill, this skill is usually taken with enchanting since the two compliment each other nicely. Like LW, tailoring has limited benefits for any character that isn’t a cloth wearing class, however, it is used to make bags and being able to equip alts, friends and guildies with all the bags you want is certainly nice. Like LW, only some of the finished goods have any real demand on the AH, but the bags always sell quite nicely. Since tailoring doesn’t require a gathering skill that means that you can take mining, skinning or herbalism to help augment your income selling raw mats on the AH or pick up enchanting (which is nice since you can disenchant anything you skill up on with tailoring and then use that to improve your enchanting, essentially getting two skill points for the price of one).
So what skills are best for what classes?
Alchemy – good for any class – everyone can use healing potions, about half the classes use mana potions and everyone can use attack and defense buff potions.
Blacksmithing – as noted, mainly only good for plate classes – there’s not much to offer for anyone else.
Enchanting – good for any class – everyone can use stat buffs on their gear and there are weapon buffs for every class out there.
Engineering – good for any class – the offensive and defensive gear can make up for different weaknesses of the various classes and the post-60 engineering hats are on par with T5.
Jewelcrafting – good for any class as everyone needs cut gems post 60, although the finished jewelry seems to lean a bit more heavily towards casters.
Leatherworking – only good for leather and chain wearing classes and even then, kind of weak for chain wearing classes during the 40-68 levels.
Tailoring – mostly good for cloth wearing classes as the bags really don’t make it worth while for someone who’s not going to wear the finished products.
As you can see, every tradeskill has a good use to the right class and every tradeskill can still earn you some gold, if only by selling un-needed raw materials from the gathering half of said skill.
So ignore the peeps saying “don’t take a trade, just do two gathering skills†and have fun being a professional tradeskiller!