As many of you will already be aware of the initial month of an expansion is usually a gold rush both for farmers and crafters. Deciding which professions to focus on and whether to focus on leveling your character or your professions is an import choice, even more so in SL.
Beta Disclaimer
As the recent Relic debacle showed, nothing is live until it is live. Everything in this post is based on the current state of the beta and is liable to change. Pay attention to the changes and be ready to change your approach up all the way until launch.
Leveling professions is usually preferable
Professions is one of the main ways to make gold in WoW. So if you want to maximize your gold you want to maximize the value of your professions. This usually means focusing more on those rather than on other gameplay optimization avenues.
High value recipes are the main goldmakers
The main reason to focus on leveling early is to get specific high value recipes that are locked behind hitting max level. Some high value recipes can generate literally millions of gold during the first month, and the earlier you are to market, the more outrageous profits you can get.
Darkmoon cards in early BfA was one example where being first to market was key.
What’s currently locked behind 60 in Shadowlands
There are some items that are locked behind max level in SL. Currently this is mainly recipes from reputation, particularly the Awoved in Revendreth and recipes that are unlocked in Torghast.
Legendary crafting
In the latest beta builds the Legendary base items have been moved from the Oribos profession trainers. You now have to have access to Torghast to learn them. The initial unlock is locked behind level 60, and I believe you need to be level 60 on your alts as well to access it.
This means that you will need level 60 on all of the legendary crafting professions to be fully functional.
Crafter’s mark 2 and the Awoved
The Awoved reputation in Revendreth has two very important recipes available at Revered. The Crafter’s mark rank 2 as well as Enchanted Elethium Bars. The Bars are needed to craft Blacksmithing legendaries, so until someone gets this recipe no plate armor legendaries will be available.
For this reputation you can just go straight to Revendreth and unlock the questline at level 50 on your alts by choosing treads of fate leveling. As such it does not matter which character you level, but having one at 60 fast will still be an advantage.
What’s the best approach in Shadowlands?
To me it seems extremely desireable to level quickly to max in Shadowlands. The recipes you unlock will be very significant, as some crafted armor is essentially useless until crafter’s mark 2. The same holds true for all of the legendary professions. For Inscription there is less value as all of the really strong recipes are learned from the trainer, so you do not have to level your scribe. Alchemy as well has mostly trainer learned recipes.
For all of the other professions level 60 or treads of fate will give access to stronger recipes and should be a priority. I will personally most likely level as many alts as possible as fast as possible. Crafter’s mark 2 is huge, as is access to legendaries. If you want to optimize your goldmaking you will absolutely want to optimize for fast leveling.
Im not sure if it was a typo or. But did You mean that inscription was mostly trainer taught?