Shadowlands Profession Goldmaking tier list

Tier lists are all the rage across the internet, so let’s go through my thoughts on the state of Shadowlands professions.

This is not the truth

This list will not be the whole truth of course. The true potential will vary a lot across different realms and different playstyles. What works for someone might not be the best for someone else.

S-Tier

Alchemy (if you like cancel-scanning)

Alchemy is one of the professions with the largest amount of potential gold, but the competition is extremely high. If you like and want to cancel scan alchemy is perfect, otherwise, it is much worse, even if you can make a good chunk of gold.

Leatherworking

Leatherworking is by far the most expensive profession to level, assuming you want to level base legendaries, which you do. Base legendaries in general is the best raw profit margin by a fairly significant margin and leatherworking has the largest number of recipes, as well as the lowest competition as it is the most expensive one. The long term profit is really high, but there is a large entry-level cost, once you get past that you can pull it in. Crafter’s mark 2 gear is also quite profitable and with 2 armor classes and tons of classes covered leatherworking takes the top spot here as well.

Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing is the second best base legendary profession in my experience, just slightly behind leatherworking. It is still on the top tier and it is primarily of course due to base legendaries. In addition to these you can make a good chunk of gold with the crafter’s mark 2 gear if you have those recipes.

A-Tier

Tailoring

Tailoring has a lower raw profit potential from base legendaries compared to blacksmithing and leatherworking as the materials are quite a bit cheaper. Tailoring still has really strong profit margins relative to the other base legendaries. The crafter’s mark 2 gear is also quite good and tailoring gets access to crafting a very cheap version of the crafter’s mark so it is great to pair with leatherworking.

Inscription

Inscription is another profession where cancel scanning is the name of the game. Darkmoon decks and missives are the main recipes to focus on and they are both quite good, but very competitive. You can make a lot of gold here, particularly with missives around reset days.

B-Tier

Jewelcrafting

Jewelcrafing has base legendaries, but just two of them. This makes it the lowest value base legendary profession. The crafter’s mark 2 gear is quite good as rings with a guaranteed socket are really good for initial gearing, and every character uses rings. Overall this is a rung below the other three, but still a solid profession. Gems are sadly completely useless currently.

Enchanting (if you craft base legendaries)

Enchanting is another profession with two different ranks. It is OK if you have base legendaries, then you can craft cheap enchanting materials for yourself. Outside of that it is extremely lackluster sadly, and you can read the entry in the E-tier on why it is not really worth it outside of the enchanted materials.

C-Tier

D-Tier

E-Tier

Enchanting (if you don’t craft base legendaries)

If you do not craft base legendaries then Enchanting is very lackluster. Materials are cheap and abundant and the profit margin is not particularly high for the most part. I would generally not bother with enchanting outside of a level 50 alt for enchanted materials for base legendaries.

F-Tier

Engineering

Engineering is by far the worst goldmaking profession in the Shadowlands. They only have one recipe that is even remotely relevant in the Wormhole Generator. Everything else has zero sale rate. Shadowlands brought nothing interesting and it brings up the rear by a significant margin.

Suggested combinations

Long term you should always work towards getting all professions maxed as things always change, and being ready to take advantage of them will put you in a much better position.

My personal suggestions for combinations are:

BS/JC for base legendaries and to keep all your shadowghast ingots on one character and optimal crafter’s mark 2 overlap.

LW/Tailoring for more base legendaries and optimal crafter’s mark 2 overlap.

Alchemy/Inscription to keep all your herbs in one spot and for the cancel scanners. If you have two accounts this is perfect on the second account, particularly milling which takes a huge amount of time.

Lastly Enchanting/Engineering, which are the worst two in a vacuum, even if enchanting is really good if you craft base legendaries.

If you want to level up your gold making come join me on Patreon and get access to awesome rewards like my full TSM setups.