Will I regret ONLY gathering?

[teacake]

My main is a lvl 44 gnome mage, an alchemist currently at 245. This has been fun BUT.. it kills me having to make soooo many potions and elixirs that are both useless to me and sell for zilch in order to get my alchemy levels up. So often the materials used for these things are worth FAR more than the creations themselves.. my particular hate is Catseye Elixir which no one wants and doesn't seem to work at all. How much more I would have made selling the materials.

Now that I have my mount <looks fondly at the tin bird> I am working on my other to-be-serious toon, a Blood Elf Warlock. I'm thinking this time I will only do skinning and mining (I need a break from herbs). I seriously think with the money I could have made selling materials used for alchemy I could have bought the handful of potions I actually use and twinked myself out happily with my profits if I so wished. So I'm thinking I will forgo all that and just gather and sell, gather and sell with my warlock.

Will I regret this later? Will I be handicapped at lvl 60 by not being at the pinnacle of a crafting profession? Please give me your feedback on this one folks!

[Pin]

You can always powerlevel the profession you want once you hit 70. There's not too much worth having until then anyway. It's what I did with tailoring and didn't regret it.

If you're going to do it with tailoring you can always save enough cloth on another character then use it when you get to 70.

[Aerath]

Tailoring does have a few nice items along the way.

Same with Jewelcrafting.

It's not needed to have a crafting profession - far from. Pure gathering probably makes more money even. But personally, I liked having a crafting profession and wearing items I made myself.

[Pisken]

as a mage pick up tailoring speciality as early you can (if you want to be a tailor that is) to start make the cloth you will need at 70 , think its lvl 62 you can choose speciality.
And for me that went tailring from the start....the netherweave set is quiet nice between 60-70

[Twoflower]

generaly speaking, all crafting professions just cost you. pick up tiloring when you hit outlands and power level it.

[kapolani]

My first ever toon (druid) is skinning/mining.

My second toon (hunter) engineering/enchanter.

My druid farms ore for my hunter to make all the bullets I use.

I've paid for my epic flight on the druid and almost there for my hunter.

I think it's imperative that you have one toon that can farm money for your other toons.

Repair bills, consumables, and other items for raiding add up.

I just started a lock that is herb/alchy.

[Beruen]

Other than Jewelcrafting, very few crafting professions have things that you can only craft for yourself prior to lvl 70. There are, what, two tailoring recipes that make bind-on-pickup items. On the other hand, there's a lot of stuff in most professions that are BoP when you hit lvl 70, so I strongly recommend looking into what you get from them at about lvl 65 then starting to work on them so you can make yourself some nice goodies when you hit lvl 70.

[mesonm]

Will I regret this later? Will I be handicapped at lvl 60 by not being at the pinnacle of a crafting profession? Please give me your feedback on this one folks!

You will NOT regret this....and, think about it as 70, not 60.

You will occasionally need money for things (mainly mounts), and that money is gotten through mining and other things...(herbs is likely the best second choice).

Drops and quest rewards will provide you plenty of equipment and armor...so you won't need money for those.

Leveling up ANYTHING is easier as a 70....Do gathering while you are lower levels, since you run into the items as you level up.

If you want to provide herbs to a guild alchemist to make you some things along the way, that will cost you nothing, and you won't have to be the alch yourself.

[teacake]

Thanks, this and the thread about gold and gathering professions was very helpful. As people pointed out, you can change. I will have my second toon a gatherer only, she will aim for wealth.

[zodiac66]

generaly speaking, all crafting professions just cost you. pick up tiloring when you hit outlands and power level it.

Totally agree with that one. Gather, gather, sell, sell.

Tailoring is a gold sink..a huge one until you get to Outlands.

[Aerath]

Totally agree with that one. Gather, gather, sell, sell.

Tailoring is a gold sink..a huge one until you get to Outlands.

Only if you don't know what you're doing. My warlock made earned enough money from bags to have afforded a regular mount, should she have had to buy one. Similarly, a couple lowby recipes sell very well. Star Belt and White Bandit Mask to name two.

Look, I understand that not everyone is looking at making money, but saying that a profession is a money sink when, in fact, you can earn money through every single profession is grating.

[Pisken]

Only if you don't know what you're doing. My warlock made earned enough money from bags to have afforded a regular mount, should she have had to buy one. Similarly, a couple lowby recipes sell very well. Star Belt and White Bandit Mask to name two.

Look, I understand that not everyone is looking at making money, but saying that a profession is a money sink when, in fact, you can earn money through every single profession is grating.


get your hands on Robes of Arcana pattern....sells for about 25g/robe at my server...cheap mats too :) and low tailorskill req

[snowieken]

Only if you don't know what you're doing. My warlock made earned enough money from bags to have afforded a regular mount, should she have had to buy one. Similarly, a couple lowby recipes sell very well. Star Belt and White Bandit Mask to name two.

Look, I understand that not everyone is looking at making money, but saying that a profession is a money sink when, in fact, you can earn money through every single profession is grating.I couldn't agree more. When you are taking the appropriate gathering skill to go with it, and when you know what you are doing, crafting professions don't come even close to the money sink most people believe they are.

When you powerlevel it, yes, then it costs you a ton.

[irogue]

get your hands on Robes of Arcana pattern....sells for about 25g/robe at my server...cheap mats too :) and low tailorskill req

LOL, the robe is a quest item for warlocks. I went to duskwood and spent 10 hours grinding to get it. I did make some decent money (200g) off those robes I made but I have not made any since I hit 50.

The robe is around 8g - 16g and the pattern is about 50g on my server.

[zodiac66]

Only if you don't know what you're doing. My warlock made earned enough money from bags to have afforded a regular mount, should she have had to buy one. Similarly, a couple lowby recipes sell very well. Star Belt and White Bandit Mask to name two.

Look, I understand that not everyone is looking at making money, but saying that a profession is a money sink when, in fact, you can earn money through every single profession is grating.

What bags did you earn gold from? On my server the only bags to make a slight profit are netherweave and I do believe I said "until you get to the Outlands". You made your gold on runecloth bags?

If you haven't got to that level yet, wait until your tailoring is in the 360+ level and tell me it is not a gold sink. I am at 375 so I know.

[Aerath]

What bags did you earn gold from? On my server the only bags to make a slight profit are netherweave and I do believe I said "until you get to the Outlands". You made your gold on runecloth bags?

If you haven't got to that level yet, wait until your tailoring is in the 360+ level and tell me it is not a gold sink. I am at 375 so I know.

Silk. Mageweave. Runecloth. Mooncloth. Netherweave.

I haven't bothered with Imbued Netherweave Bags.

[caldepen]

Everybody has answered this question from an economical standpoint. I find having two gathering professions boring. Sure you can make lots of money but the reason you play this game is to have fun (I think?) and having a crafting profession is fun so in answer to "Will I regret ONLY gathering?"

Yes you will, as you will be missing a large part of this game.

[elsegundo]

in terms of making money from tailoring... you can. you just wont make as much as if you just sold the cloth, which doesnt require a profession to collect. you just need to kill humanoids.

so with that said, take two gathering professions if you just want to make more money while you level up. you can still make money as a tailor, or leatheroworker, but it takes some planning and resource management. sell the cloth/skins/ores/herbs and you'll be much better off than if you sold the finished products: cloth for bags and gear, skins for gear, armor kits, and quivers, ores for engineering products, jewelery, weapons, armor, trade materials, etc. and herbs for potions, which is sometimes used for tailoring, leatherworking, and blacksmithing too.

in short, they'll all make you money. its just with crafting professions, they'll earn you less than if you just sold the raw materials.


ps. in my server, the only bag that has made me some decent money are the enchanted mageweave pouches. and those sell for more than the materials used to make them, which is rare. woot!
pps. and even though i know that gathering professions make more money.... i still have tailoring, leatherworking, and alchemy for the several mains i have. i find that gaining levels in something that doesnt make as much money still pays off in the achievement category. it gives a a good feeling to know i've leveled this or that, as opposed to simply having a large bank balance.

[jschild]

Depends HIGHLY on class.

As a Retadin, for example, I don't want to spend the massive work just to be able to make one weapon to use. There simply isn't enough to make it worth it.

I'd rather have the money to easily buy the mats (if i cannot gather them myself) and have someone make it for me.

If they would make more gear recipes that are competitive I would probably make it instead.

[piscene]

To the OP, I generally recommend 2 gathering professions until you've got a pretty good bankroll going, then think about a crafting profession. When you're newer, focus on making the money through gathering and selling, then move up from there.

[dwarfenhelm]

my first char a warrior was b/s and mining and i think it has cost me at least 3k gold to get to 375 so i could actually make use of my skills. my second char a hunter was skinner and herb all the way to 70 made about 3k gold leveling up and then at 70 i brought mats i needed to all the felstalker set and my mount then spent about 600g leveling alchemy to 375 in an afternoon. my 3rd char a priest is tailor and enchanter and i struggle to make money on it. enchanting is a huge money sink as i can only seem to charge the same price for an enchant as the mats sell in ah.
from experience i would say leveling up a char with 2 gathering profs is an advantage as you will always have money to afford the new gear in the ah or buy your pots with. to get the best out of any crafting prof as you lvl you need to spend so much time on your profession to make sure that the gear you can make is of use to your level.
on a side note the only crafting prof i actually make good money out of is alchemy. if a primal might or metagem procs then it can be 80g+ a day pure profit but this is rare and mainly i make pots for all my chars and my mates

[Findariel]

For a lock at lvl70 being a tailor really can give your gear a nice start with Shadowweave.

And although all crafting professions can give you some nice profit (especially quest items) things like mining are pure money making professions that can easily afford you 1000s of gold before lvl70 and it doesn't cost you a lot of time either.

In your case I'd level 2 gathering professions and you may want to make a bank character to store cloth so you can discared one of your gathering proffs at lvl70 (or a little before so you can make enough Shadowcloth before lvl70 to craft a set) and become tailor.
But then again, when the expansion comes there's always a lot of money to get from gathering.

Another thing that makes having 2 gathering professions a blessing is that you don't need to grind reputation and instances again and again for recipes.
What that's concerned it's very handy to have 1 character with 2 gathering professions and 1 with 2 crafting professions - the crafter can be used for gathering all the recipes while the other one just can gather stuff. That way you only have to grind rep once in stead of 2 times if you have a LW/skinner and herb/alch for instance.