Having profession alts has always been very powerful in Wow, and classic is no different. In this post I’ll highlight some professions and recipe that are particularly good on a crafting alt.
Max level or not
Optimally you will want to level your profession alt to 60 to get access to all the recipes as some are locked behind quest lines or reputation grinds. Some recipes can be learned regardless of level though, with just a requirement for your profession skill. Profession skill is of course limited by your level, but there’s no level requirement outside of that.
Best professions at 35
At 35 you can level your profession skill to the maximum of 300. For alts in this range it’s important that you can get recipes that are tradeable, as you won’t be getting any that drop in raids or that are from max level quests or reputations.
My personal favorite is alchemy. There are a HUGE number of recipes that can be sold on the AH including arcanite transmutes, elixir of the Mongoose, Elixir of Brute Force, Greater Arcane Elixir, all the greater protection potions etc. Of course you will be missing out on some recipes, but you can make a lot of gold with the recipes you do get.
Engineering is my second choice here, primarily for the Sapper Charges. Sapper Charges are selling extremely well at the moment and they are one of the best goldmaking recipes in classic right now. You can also craft thorium grenades, thorium shells and sniper scopes that all are profitable.
A third option would be blacksmithing for mithril spurs, dense sharpening stones and items for logistics badges, but it pales in comparison to alchemy/engineering.
You can also have a tailor for the mooncloth cooldown, which is a very nice low effort way to make gold on the alt.
Best professions at 60
At 60 options open up, but the top candidates are honestly the same unless you have them. Alchemy at 60 gets access to even more recipes including flasks, mageblood elixir and some others.
Engineering doesnt offer much at max level that it does not already offer at 35. There are two recipes you cna get at 60, which you can’t get before: The accurascope from MC and the field repair Bot from BRD.
Armor crafting opens up when you hit level 60, at this point you can get the reputation for items like Bloodvine from tailoring, or the dark iron set for blacksmiths. Most of the armor crafting professions will have items that are relevant as either pre-raid BiS or upgrades early on and these recipes are great if you can get them.
Blacksmiths can also potentially get the Elemental Sharpening Stone recipe from MC, which is extremely powerful.
Summary
For a 35 profession alt the best choice will always be alchemy/engineering unless you already have one or both on your main. They offer strong consumables with low requirements for the recipes.
At 60 the field opens up, and you can consider all the crafting professions. I would personally strongly favor alchemy however, as it is extremely strong in classic. Enchanting and the armor professions rely more on BoP recipes from raids and reputations and can only make sense on a max level character.
Having access to multiple professions is extremely profitable and in general one of the best ways to increase your goldmaking potential!
Alchemy is great if you have transmute undeath to water. I have it on 2 level 35 toons.