Welcome to an overview of Classic WoW Professions! This guide is aimed at players unfamiliar with Classic WoW professions that are interested in learning more about the benefits for each profession and good professions for each class.

We will be creating a series of comprehensive profession guides that will go into more detail on leveling and recipes.

Classic WoW Profession System

There are several types of professions in Classic WoW:

• Production Professions - Players collect recipes, granting them the ability to craft powerful gear which can be equipped or traded. Some professions offer additional perks in the form of powerful BoP crafted items. Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Cooking, Engineering, Leatherworking, and Tailoring are Production Professions.
• Service Professions - These professions do not generate trade goods that are equiabble, but allow the player to still create items that benefit players. Enchanting and First Aid are Service Professions.
• Gathering Professions - These professione supplement Production professions, allowing players to acquire materials that are required to create the powerful trade goods. Herbalism, Mining, Skinning, and Fishing are Gathering Professions.
• Other - These skills are ones we do not think of as traditional crafting or gathering ones, like Riding, Poisons, and Pickpocketing.

Players must also choose between two Primary Professions - Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Herbalism, Leatherworking, Mining, Skinning, and Tailoring. The other professions are classified as Secondary Professions (Cooking, Fishing, First Aid) and all can be learned.

Some professions have additional subclasses, with unique recipes:

• Engineering - Goblin, Gnomish
• Leatherworking - Dragonscale, Elemental, Tribal

Profession Skillups

To level up your profession, you simply craft or gather items until the game determines that is too easy for you, and you are sent to create more-complex recipes and gather items in more dangerous zones for skillups.

• Orange: 100% chance to get a skillup
• Yellow: Frequently
• Green: Infrequently
• Grey: Never

Profession pages on classicdb will show you at what skill levels a recipes will change color. Similar to BFA, when a recipe does not guarantee a skillup, it is best to analyze all Yellow recipes and see which is the cheapest to craft.

Some professions have special exceptions:

• Orange mobs will not always grant a Skinning skillup.
• All fish can contribute to skillups. As your skill increases, it will take more catches to reach the next skill point.

Profession Ranks

You must return to a profession trainer in order to learn the next rank to keep getting skillups:

• Apprentice - up to 75
• Journeyman - up to 150
• Expert - up to 225
• Artisan - up to 300

If you swap a profession, all ranks are lost and you must start over again at skill level 1.

You must obtain a certain player level to train the next rank

• Apprentice - Level 5 for Production/Fishing and no req for Gathering
• Journeyman - Level 10 for Production/Fishing and no req for Gathering
• Expert - Level 20 for Production, Level 10 for Gathering and Fishing
• Artisan - Level 35 for Production, Level 25 for Gathering, Level 10 for Fishing

Profession Bonuses

Two races offer Profession bonuses:

• Cultivation: Tauren racial, increases herbalism by 15.
• Engineering Specialization: Gnome racial, increases engineering by 15.

Some items provide buffs to certain professions:

• Mining: Formula: Enchant Gloves - Advanced Mining, Goblin Mining Helmet
• Skinning: Zulian Slicer, Finkle's Skinner, Formula: Enchant Gloves - Skinning

Fishing is a completely unique profession, with many items (lures) increasing your duration for a temporary period of time. More details in our upcoming fishing guide.

Primary Professions

Alchemy

Alchemy is popular among players needing to raid, as one can craft many essential consumables. It is commonly paired with Herbalism for a steady supply of the herbs needed for flasks, elixirs, and potions. Leveling up Fishing will also help provide the fish needed for Alchemy Oils.

• Flasks such as Flask of Supreme Power last for 2 hours and provide tanks, magic users, and healers with useful benefits, as well as options like Flask of Chromatic Resistance if you need more resistance.
• Elixirs are split into Battle, which provides DPS benefits, and Guardian, which provides defensive benefits. Elixir of the Mongoose was a quite popular elixir among melee users.
• Potions provide powerful benefits for a short period of time, such as Dreamless Sleep Potion or Nature Protection Potion.

Alchemists can also create one Transmute per day, with Transmute: Arcanite as a powerful option.

Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing is most used by plate-wearers, and is commonly paired with Mining for Ore. It provides useful weapons and armor for Warriors and Paladins.

Blacksmiths must use a Blacksmith Hammer to craft their wares, and all items must be crafted at an Anvil. Some special Dark Iron items require players to be near the Black Anvil in Blackrock Depths.

Some notable weapons and armor Blacksmiths can craft include Arcanite Reaper, Invulnerable Mail, and Sulfuron Hammer.

At level 40 and Skill level 200, Blacksmiths can choose to specialize as an Armorsmith or Weaponsmith. With a specialization, you have access to a handful of new recipes, but you cannot learn recipes unique to other specializations. An example item is Blazing Rapier from the Sword Weaponsmith.

• Weaponsmiths can further specialize as an Axesmith, Hammersmith, or Swordsmith at level 50 with skill level 250.

In addition to equitable gear, Blacksmiths can make useful items for non-plate wearers. Stones such as Elemental Sharpening Stone enhance damage for melee, and Arcanite Skeleton Key is handy for opening doors without rogues present.

Enchanting

Enchanting allows players to enhance several gear slots (weapons, boots, bracers, chest, cloak, gloves, shield) permanently, as well as disenchant gear into dust to be used for Enchants. This profession is most commonly paired with Tailoring and taken by casters.

You will need Rods, such as Runed Arcanite Rod, to Enchant gear. Higher-quality rods are needed for Enchants requiring a higher skill.

Higher-quality gear disenchants into the best dust. At max level, the dusts most-frequently used are Nexus Crystal, Large Brilliant Shard, Greater Eternal Essence, Illusion Dust.

Some enchants provide a passive stat gain, such as Enchant Weapon - Spell Power, while others had powerful procs like Enchant Weapon - Crusader.

Enchanters can also craft wands, Weapon Oils like Brilliant Wizard Oil which are useful in raids, the powerful Guardian tank trinket Smoking Heart of the Mountain, and the useful reagents Enchanted Leather and Enchanted Thorium Bar.

Engineering

Engineering is the most-fun profession, with a number of gadgets and gizmos providing unique utility. Engineering is a strong profession for DPS classes, especially Hunters, and the go-to profession for PvP, with special value for low-level PvP twinks.

Players can get extra DPS and utility benefits by using explosives such as Arcane Bomb which drains mana and silences, and Hi-Explosive Bomb which deals AOE Fire damage.

Hunters have several engineering benefits:

• Scopes such as Biznicks 247x128 Accurascope enhance ranged weapons.
• The best ammo is the crafted Thorium Shells, which can be converted into Thorium Headed Arrow

Here are some of the fun gadgets Engineers can craft:

• Field Repair Bot 74A - repair bot for the group
• Voice Amplification Modulator - resistance to silence
• Parachute Cloak - reduce fall speed
• Discombobulator Ray - damage and movement decrease

Engineers can also craft a series equipment exclusively worn by engineers, including Rose Colored Goggles and Deepdive Helmet for helms and trinkets like Major Recombobulator and Arcanite Dragonling.

Engineering has a light-hearted silly component as well, with items like Fireworks including Snake Burst Firework, pets including Lifelike Mechanical Toad, and the toy Steam Tonk Controller.

Goblin and Gnomish Engineering

Players can further specialize in Goblin or Gnomish Engineering at level 30 and 200 skill. Each option provides you with a set of teleports (that can backfire!) and a pet schematic, as well as gadgets with different utility.

Notable Gnomish Engineering items:

• Gnomish Rocket Boots - run speed increase
• Gnomish Mind Control Cap - mind control an enemy
• Ultrasafe Transporter: Gadgetzan - teleport to Gadgetzan
• Gnomish Harm Prevention Belt - Force Shield
• Lil' Smoky - companion pet
• Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector - snare
• Inlaid Mithril Cylinder Plans - recipe needed for Blacksmiths

Notable Goblin Engineering items:

• Goblin Rocket Boots - run speed increase, on a shorter cooldown
• Goblin Rocket Helmet - charge and stun helmet
• Dimensional Ripper - Everlook - teleport to Everlook
• Goblin Jumper Cables - sometimes resurrects a target
• Goblin Sapper Charge - massive AoE explosion
• Goblin Rocket Fuel Recipe - recipe needed for Alchemists
• Pet Bombling - companion pet

Herbalism

Herbalism is popular among all players interested in making gold, as the herbs are required by Alchemy to create consumables required for raiding, such as flasks. These two professions are commonly paired together.

At 300 skill level, you can pick the elusive Black Lotus--if you can find it! This rare herb is used in all Classic flasks and Gurubashi Mojo Madness to summon bosses in Zul'Gurub.

Through the use of the Blood Scythe, Herbalists can also harvest Bloodvine, useful for crafted Resistance Gear.

Rogues may also be interested in Herbalism as Fadeleaf is required to craft Blinding Powder, needed to Blind enemies, and Swiftthistle is used for the Rogue-specific consumable Thistle Tea.

Leatherworking

Leatherworking is used by Leather and Mail users for the crafted gear. It is commonly paired with Skinning for the leather and scales required for the gear.

At max level, Leatherworking gear can be used in PvE situations and many recipes offer resistance stats. Some notable Leatherworking armor sets among various specializations include Primal Batskin, Green Dragon Mail, Black Dragon Mail, Blood Tiger Harness, Stormshroud Armor, and Devilsaur Armor. Leatherworkers can also further specialize into one of three armor types at level 40 and 225 skill:

• Elemental Leatherworking is generally considered best for Leather Agility users and has a lot of resistance gear.
• Dragonscale Leatherworking is best for Mail users.
• Tribal Leatherworking is considered good for Agility Intellect users, but also has resistance gear and the powerful Devilsaur Armor set for melee DPS.

Leatherworkers can also make armor kits, which usually provide a defensive value to helm, legs, chest, or feet, such as Core Armor Kit.

Additional notable items:

• Onyxia Scale Cloak is an essential item your raid will need for Onyxia's Lair.
• Hunters will want ammo pouches or quivers to improve Ranged Attack Speed, such as Thick Leather Ammo Pouch.
• Some novelty items can also be crafted like Heavy Leather Ball.
• Every 3 days, Leatherworkers can transmute Salt Shaker, needed for Cured Rugged Hide.

Mining

Mining goes well with Engineering and Blacksmithing, as the ore is required to craft useful items for those two professions. In order to Mine a node, you must have a Mining Pick.

In addition to mining raw ore, the Miner must smelt it at an anvil, turning the ore into bars which can be used for crafted recipes.

• One notable type of Ore to smelt is Dark Iron Ore, only found in Molten Core and Blackrock Depths. To smelt Smelt Dark Iron, you must go to the Black Forge in Blackrock Depths. To learn the ability to Smelt Dark Iron at the Forge, first you must complete The Spectral Chalice, turning in metal and gems, in Blackrock Depths. The Dark Iron Bar are needed for top items like Biznicks 247x128 Accurascope and Sulfuron Hammer.

When you mine raw ore, you will also comes across gems and stones used in other recipes. Some notable ones include:

• Arcane Crystal, needed for Arcanite Transmutes
• Azerothian Diamond, needed for some top crafting recipes

Skinning

Skinning goes well with Leatherworkers, providing players with leather, herbs, and scales for crafted gear. In order to skin a mob, you must have a Skinning Knife. Below are some interesting types of crafting reagents you can acquire from skinning:

• Core Leather. Loot the hounds! This special leather requires 310 skinning and is acquired from the Core Hound puppies in Molten Core.
• Pristine Hide of the Beast requires 310 skinning and is needed for three epic armor quests.
• Dreamscale is needed for Nature Resistance gear
• Scale of Onyxia requires 315 skinning and is needed for the Onyxia Scale Cloak
• Devilsaur Leather is needed for the Devilsaur Armor set which offered an OP amount of hit.
• Primal Bat Leather and Primal Tiger Leather are needed for special ZG sets.

Tailoring

Tailoring is frequently chosen by casters, paired with Enchanting to dust unneeded crafted gear. Cloth looted from mobs around the world can be transformed into bolts of cloth, and then Cloth Armor with this skill.

Tailors primarily create cloth armor and cloaks. At max level, these items either offer resistance or are part of a set with a powerful proc.

• Resistance Armor - Stygian for Shadow, Sylvan for Nature, Flarecore for Fire, Glacial for Frost
• Interesting Bonuses - Truefaith Vestments, Robe of the Void, Robe of the Archmage, Bloodvine Garb

Everyone needs more bag space, and Tailors craft a variety of bags including the ubiquitous Runecloth Bag, but also specialty bags like Big Bag of Enchantment for Enchanters, Satchel of Cenarius for Herbalists, and Core Felcloth Bag for Warlocks.

Tailors can also make RP gear, including shirts, which has no combat value but looks very pretty, such as White Wedding Dress and Black Swashbuckler's Shirt.

Secondary Professions

Cooking

Cooking provides a steady supply of food players can eat to restore health and mana. Cooking is also useful for raiders, providing "Well Fed" stat buffs. You will need a Cooking Fire in order to Cook.

Here are some notable food consumables with buffs:

• Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops: 25 Stamina
• Runn Tum Tuber Surprise: Intellect
• Smoked Desert Dumplings: Strength
• Grilled Squid: Agility
• Spiced Chili Crab: Spirit
• Nightfin Soup: Mana Regen

Some other fun recipes include Savory Deviate Delight, Dragonbreath Chili, Thistle Tea, and Egg Nog.

First Aid

First Aid's biggest perk is allowing anyone to bandage, healing yourself and other players in and out of combat. They are most in demand by Warriors and Rogues, as those classes have no healing capabilities. They are also useful in PvP, after CCing an opponent.

First Aid also has several anti-venom recipes, although the ones from Alchemy are stronger.

To learn Artisan First Aid, you must complete a short triage quest at skill level 225.

Fishing

Fishing is a time-consuming profession, but rewarding if you want to cook certain recipes, or need specific ingredients for other professions, such as Oily Blackmouth for Alchemy. Fishing also has many intricate mechanics and fun flavor items!

Fishing basics:

• You will need a Fishing Pole equipped in order to catch fish.
• Your success chance at catching the fish is reliant on your Fishing skill. Higher level zones will have a higher skill threshold.
• Fishing in a specific pool will yield a specific type of catch, as opposed to open waters.
• Some fish are seasonal, while others only appear during the night or day.

Just like real-life, there are fun quirky aspects to Fishing:

• You can catch oversized trophy fish, such as 42 Pound Redgill.
• You can acquire Floating Wreckage, which can contain alcohol such as Rumsey Rum Black Label.
• Deviate Fish can turn you into funny things.
• The best part of fishing is the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza, a fishing competition! Fish up 40 Speckled Tastyfish quickly and you may win a prize like Hook of the Master Angler or Arcanite Fishing Pole.

Fishing up Zulian Mudskunk is required to summon the Zul Gurub boss Gahz'ranka.

Professions That Pair Well Together

• Alchemy pairs well with Herbalism and Fishing, as reagents from those professions are needed for potions, flasks, and elixirs. At higher levels, Mining ore is needed for transmutes.
• Blacksmithing pairs well with Mining, as you will need lots of ore.
• Cooking pairs well with fishing, as you will need raw fish to cook many recipes. If you are interested in maxing out cooking, you will need to cook recipes requiring Fish.
• Enchanting pairs well with Tailoring, Leatherworking, or Blacksmithing, as those professions generate gear that can be disenchanted. Tailoring is generally most common as you can loot cloth needed for Tailored items without having to learn a gathering profession (such as Skinning for Leatherworking).
• Engineering pairs well with Mining, as it requires lots of ore.
• Fishing pairs well with Alchemy and Herbalism, as raw fish are reagents for both those professions.
• Leatherworking pairs well with Skinning as you will need those reagents for crafted gear.
• Mining pairs well with either Engineering or Blacksmithing, production professions that require ore.
• Skinning pairs well with Leatherworking, as it is required to craft many recipes.
• Tailoring pairs well with Enchanting, as players can convert cloth into Tailored items and then disenchant them. Items from Skinning are also required for Tailoring, to a lesser extent than cloth.

If you are incredibly rich, or have lots of time and alts to farm, you can of course pair two Production professions, such as Engineering and Blacksmithing on a Warrior, and either buy tons of Ore or have an alt farm it.

If you are hurting for cash, you may want to grab two Gathering professions, or Alchemy + Herbalism to maximize your Auction House gains.

Best Professions For Each Class and Role

DPS Role

Engineering is a powerful profession for many DPS classes in PvE content, including Hunters, Paladins, Rogues, Shaman, Warriors. This profession is commonly paired with Mining to generate the Ore needed to craft the Engineering items, as this profession can be extremely expensive to maintain.

Hunters have some additional Engineering benefits in PvE situations:

• The profession provides the best ammunition, Thorium Shells
• Hunters can Feign Death and then use Jumper Cables in the hopes of quickly resurrecting a healer between wipes.
• They can use scopes such as Biznicks 247x128 Accurascope on their ranged weapons.

Paladins, lacking ranged attacks, can also use some bombs for ranged damage when needed.

PvP

Engineering is incredibly powerful for everyone in PvP situations, with items that mind control, reduce enemy DPS, slow down targets, detect stealth, provide speed boosts, invulnerability...the list goes on.

For players interested in low-level PvP, aka twinking, some Engineering items are extremely powerful--the equivalent items from quests or dungeons do not have the same stats and procs.

Cloth

Tailoring is a common profession among Mages, Priests, and Warlocks as there are crafted BoP robes, as well as some powerful Tailoring-only set bonuses. This profession is commonly paired with Enchanting to dust all the unneeded crafted Tailoring gear.

Tailors can also create many bags, including Warlock-specific Soul Shard bags.

Druids

Herbalism is popular among Druids due to Travel Form allowing them to Herb without having to dismount. Tauren Druids also have the added bonus of the Cultivation racial, providing +15 herbalism. Herbalism is also popular among all players needing money, as it can be paired with Alchemy to create consumables.

For Druids interested in Tanking, Enchanting is essential to craft the Smoking Heart of the Mountain trinket, but it can be dropped after crafting.

Leather + Mail

Druids, Rogues, Shaman, and Hunter may be interested in pairing Leatherworking and Skinning to craft their own gear.

Plate

Paladins and Warriors may be interested in pairing Blacksmithing and Mining to craft their own gear and sharpening stones.

Changes from BFA

• Inscription, Jewelcrafting, and Archaeology are not present in Classic WoW.
• First Aid, retired in Battle for Azeroth, is alive and well.
• Alchemy requires players to go to specific laboratories in instances to create the best flasks.
• There are no ways to automatically relearn recipes when discarding and retraining a profession.
• There is no Reagent tab in the bank.
• Profession recipes do not have ranks.
• There is no Scrapper system from BFA to acquire more reagents, or Blood of Sargeras system in Legion to trade for preferred reagents.
• The Darkmoon Faire does not provide profession skillup quests.
• Enchanters can only enchant others' equipment via the trade window. There are no vellums that can be placed on the AH.
• Gathering notes are not shared-tap among players.
• The best gear can only be crafted at high profession skill levels.