Professions in WoW

There is a variety of professions that your characters can learn in WoW, and each profession has unique tasks that you have to complete

In World of Warcraft, you can take up several professions that allow you to gather items from the world and use them to create items and gear.

Professions are learned and improved through a trainer for a fee, however, the professions can also be advanced with special recipes.

You can learn any profession, regardless of your character’s class, race or faction. That being said, some racial traits provide bonuses to a specific profession.

For instance, gnomes have an Engineering Specialization, which will help them if they take up the Engineering profession.

Professions in WoW
© Blizzard

Some trade skills in a profession allow players to do specific things, including crafting or equipping certain items.

The making of these items is learned directly from professional trainers, from recipes or it is occasionally taught as quest rewards.

To level up a profession, players have to partake in the associated activity of their chosen profession. For example, to level up your Leatherworking, you need to craft gear, while the Skinning profession requires that you skin corpses.

As your profession’s level increases, the rate at which you can level up changes, however, it depends on the profession that you selected.

Some professions in WoW use recipes, which will be displayed in the profession window with a color that corresponds with your skill level.

As you increase your skill level, lower-level recipes will change color. The recipes will change from Orange to Yellow, then to Green and eventually to gray.

The colors will also change as you craft items and thus, we recommend that you be wary of crafting large amounts of the same recipe to level up your profession.

Ranks

When you first learn a new profession, you will become an Apprentice, which allows you to level up the skill to level 75.

However, to level it up further, you will have to learn higher profession skill ranks from your trainer:

Rank Skill level required Maximum skill level Character level required
Apprentice Not applicable 75 5
Journeyman 50 150 10
Expert 125 225 20
Artisan 200 300 35

How many professions can you learn?

It is worth noting that there are 2 different profession categories, namely Primary and Secondary. As its name implies, Primary professions take up the ‘primary’ slot and therefore, you can only learn 2 progressions from this category.

However, you can learn as many Secondary professions as you want to, as each of them have their own unique slot. Some of the professions that you can learn are:

Primary professions Secondary professions
  • Herbalism
  • Mining
  • Skinning
  • Alchemy
  • Blacksmithing
  • Enchanting
  • Engineering
  • Inscription
  • Jewelcrafting
  • Leatherworking
  • Tailoring
  • Archaeology
  • Cooking
  • Fishing
  • First Aid

In addition to the primary and secondary professions, there are other class-specific professions that you can learn. For instance, Rogues can use the Lockpicking progression to unlock doors, chests and lockboxes to loot the treasures within.

To level up a class-specific profession, you have to complete the corresponding activities. Rogues, for example, increase their Lockpicking levels by opening locks.

Best gold-making professions

Some professions in the WoW‘s Dragonflight expansion will provide you with an excellent opportunity to make a lot of gold. The table below lists the best gold-making professions:

Profession Description
Alchemy Patch 10.1 introduced Transmutes, which are selling upwards of 25 000 gold each.
Enchanting Enchanters can provide players with Enchanted Crests, which are required to increase the item level of crafted gear in Season 2.
Herbalism If you are looking for some side gold, you can simply pick up a few herbs while completing quests and sell them on the Auction House.
Cooking Gamers who want to start experimenting with crafting and want to make some decent gold, we recommend that you take on Cooking. You can sell food and consumables to raiders, mythic+ players and PvPers.

Best professions for PvE and PvP

If you are not interested in only making gold from professions, there are a few professions that you can learn which will help you progress in player-versus-environment (PvE) and player-versus-player (PvP):

Game mode Professions
PvE
  • Alchemy: Provides great perks, especially because of professional specializations. If you choose the Potion Mastery route, you can get additional effects when you consume Dragon Isle Potions.
  • Engineering: You can craft handy items like Goggles with tinkers such as Battle Resurrection and a friendly robot, which can perform team-wide resurrection.
PvP
  • Leatherworking or Blacksmithing: Players can choose one of these professions to craft PvP-specific gear which will help you in the PvP game mode.

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