This is of course the crowning point of writing the profession previews. And what you have all been waiting for. My views on which professions you should choose.
Why a tier list?
This post will be written in the style of a tier list. For anyone familiar with fighting games or MOBAs this will likely be a familiar term. Heroes are typically ranked in tiers depending on their strength. Trying to rate professions 1-10 is a bit too specific.
The long term: get them all
Over a slightly longer time frame my suggestion will always be to get as many professions as possible. They are ALL profitable and having access to more professions means you can use more materials, have more items posted and generally make a ton more gold.
Short term: Pick the right ones for launch
Since we want to get them all eventually the choice of launch professions will be based on what you want to prioritize. I strongly believe that crafting professions are much superior to gathering professions unless you really like farming. As such I will not be recommending any of the gathering professions, even though they are all obviously profitable.
The actual list:
I am rating the professions based on their gold making potential. I will be assuming that you do not farm any materials that can be purchased on the AH, as that is your opportunity cost. This means that the level of BoP materials needed will impact the ratings, as they require you to spend your time generating them.
S – tier: Consumables galore
Alchemy
Jewelcrafting
Enchanting
I have not ranked them internally, but these are typically the three strongest professions by far. Consumables have the highest demand out of any item, and getting the right recipes early is a literal gold mine. They all function very similarly to legion, with the main changes being additions of some cool utility items and crafted weapons to Jewelcrafting.
JC might be the top dog, just because of the weapons in addition to gems, but time will tell.
In addition to the strong demand, these professions do not rely on expulsom or other BoP materials for their most profitable crafts meaning they have a very low time requirement for crafting as well!
A – Tier: Great gear
I put Inscription and Blacksmithing in the next tier. For Blacksmithing it is primarily the weapon crafts that help drag it’s ranking up. For Inscription this ranking is pretty much completely based on Darkmoon Decks. If you are not planning on entering that market it is a MUCH less interesting profession.
B – Tier: Armor galore
Leatherworking is by itself on the next level. It can craft two types of armor, which gives you access to a wide variety of classes to sell to. You may also get access to some shuffles that can be very profitable, including the enchanting and expulsom shuffles.
C – Tier: the rest
Tailoring got by far the least interesting consumables of any profession. There are some markets that can make it better than expected. Bags can be great, and due to the Hydrocore requirement will be much better to have on your main than on alts, as Hydrocores have very limited uses outside of bags. I don’t think this impacts the overall desireability of tailoring, but it does make it slightly better on your main than on alts.
Engineering got some cool new stuff, but have some issues as well. Weapons are mostly geared to hunters, and the consumables can be either very good or very bad. If youc ombine it with blacksmithing it gets better due to the ATV mount. The Mecha-Mogul is a wild card and depends completely on how you obtain the materials, and it can propel the profession up.
Synergies
Based on the current information there are very few outright synergies. You can move gear around to any alt to create Expulsom if needed, and nothing else really warrants being on the same character. Several professions make each other better however, but they don’t need to be on the same character. I will list some of the combinations below.
Enchanting + Jewelcrafting – shuffle uncommon gems to enchanting materials
Enchanting + LW/Tailoring – Classic enchanting shuffles
Blacksmithing + Engineering – The mounts
What do you pick?
I will not advise against picking any specific profession. Keeping what you have will likely be a good choice, especially if you have a lot of old world recipes. Going for one of the less popular professions will also likely put you in a situation with way less competition.
That being said I believe the gold making potential of the consumable professions is in a tier of it’s own and you should work to get access to them as soon as possible.
Overall I think Blizzard has done a good job of giving all professions more items that are actually useful. Professions are looking very good overall in BfA and I expect them to be very profitable!
As for me personally, I will be leveling my Enchanter/JC first. Then I’ll focus heavily on leveling alts and getting profession recipes unlocked during the early part of Legion. I hope to hit level 120 on all three of my current 110 characters as soon as possible on my challenge realm to really hit the ground running.