The Lowdown on Professions in World of Warcraft

Professions are crafting skills, used to create various items, which are able to be used by player characters. Sometimes referred to as tradeskills, they are done a variety of different ways in different games, but tend to follow a few guidelines. You learn different recipes from trainers, or from recipes dropped by monsters. You then collect the supplies needed, and combine them using the correct tools. Some of these supplies and tools can be bought from merchants, found as treasure from monsters and chests, or collected from natural resources.

World of Warcraft follows these guidelines, in regards to professions. There are thirteen professions. In Everquest 2 and Everquest, professions are called "tradeskills", although they serve the same purpose. Three of these professions, everyone can learn (First Aid, Fishing, and Cooking). Of the other ten you may choose only two. Three of these are called "gathering skills", because although they take up one of the two available profession slots, you do very little actual crafting. Instead, you gain the ability to get supplies from the natural resources scattered around the world.

Warcraft's three gathering skills are Mining, Herbalism, and Skinning. Skinning gives you the ability to get the skin off of dead animals, which can be used for many types of armor. Mining helps you find and mine ore and gems from the various metal veins around the world, with rarer and more valuable types of metal being found in higher level areas. Herbalism lets you find and pick the many types of plants and herbs, for potions and enchantments.

After the gathering skills, World of Warcraft has seven crafting skills. These are Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, Tailoring, Enchanting, Alchemy, Engineering, and the new Jewelcrafting.