WoW has evolved heavily over the years, and one of the gradual changes has been a reduction in the importance of choosing your profession carefully. In Vanilla WoW, tailoring was almost a necessity for any priest gearing up for endgame, and TBC brought us the stunheralding warrior blacksmiths (I still have nightmares). WotLK has killed a lot of the variation with professions as there are pretty much no BoP craftable items worth bothering with.
Despite the lack of variety that professions once gave, they still still make a difference to your game. Their bonuses come in the form of gear enhancements for the crafting professions, and passive bonuses/skills for the gathering professions. For anyone considering levelling a rogue, here’s a quick breakdown of the available professions and the bonuses they give in a PVP environment.
Crafting Professions
| Profession | Stat Bonus | Details |
| Alchemy | +80ap | Flask of the North |
| Black Smithing | +80ap | Socket Bracer + Socket Gloves* |
| Enchanting | +80ap | Two 40ap ring enchants |
| Engineering | -44ap, 1654-2020 dmg | Pyro Rockets |
| Inscription | +80ap | Inscription of the Axe |
| Jewel Crafting | +84ap | Three 68ap gems |
| Leather Working | +80ap | wrist lining |
| Tailoring | 400ap proc | Swordguard Embroidery |
* Stacks with other enchants
Gathering Professions
| Profession | Bonus | Details |
| Herbalism | 3600 heal | 3min CD |
| Mining | +60 Stamina | Toughness |
| Skinning | +0.54% Crit | Master of Anatomy |
None of the professions are terrible (you might want to avoid Mining) but it’s worth considering Engineering. The glove enchant comes at the cost of 44ap, but hits reasonably hard and is great for keeping enemy players in combat if they’re trying to escape (as well as hitting through Hand of Protection. Hypervision Goggles are worth considering as well if you’re struggling vs other rogue teams (more on that here).
If you’re just after raw stats, Jewel Crafting still comes out on top even though it lost a lot of its initial appeal (BoP prismatic gems no longer count as blue/red/yellow). The proc from the Tailoring ‘enchant’ is worth a look as well (think of it as another Berserking proc), but it does mean losing Shadow Armor.
Really good post
Can the rockets crit?
Yes they can
I played 9 games tonight and saw them crit 12% of the time, with their highest crit being 2326.
Makes me even happier that I’m leveling engineering.
Now if only they’d release race changes…
I’ve dropped skinning for Engineering, and I’ve never been happier with this profession.
Not only is it useful in arena with that burst. But outside of arena, you have the frag belt enchant which has a 40yard range that will stun a target for 3sec within 3yards… Awesome against casters in bg/duels. (0.5sec cast)
Then you have nitro boost which gives you 24crit rating, and 150% speed for 5 secs when used, a very fun and useful tool in bg
In pve you have the hyperspeed gloves enchant that adds 340haste for 12sec when used, it can be activated every minute.
Just need to macro with your mut or whichever skill. These will beat the +44ap enchant.
There are many fun things you can do with Engineering. Repair bots.. wormhole to port around Northrend.. ressing with gnomish army knife… I can go on and on about it, but I think its best if you guys check it out yourself.
http://www.wowhead.com/?spells=11.202
All in all, I think Engineering is one of the best profession if not the best.
It’s definitely been the most fun for me as well
From a PVP perspective it’s good, but looking more at the game as a whole there’s so much that it gives.
I still teleport to BEM for no good reason other than to hope it malfunctions – raiding TK as a Tauren rogue was always a laugh
Hmm I should really put boosts/frag belt on some old gear for use in BGs, keep meaning to but always forget :/
Tauren rogue? :O
Sounds like I missed out since I only started playing in wrath.
Why do you want to put it on old gears though?
Just wanted to point out that you Can have the Eternal Belt Buckle and the Frag Belt tinker on the same belt simultaneously.
That is all.
@Flair, hehe yeah give the BEM transporter a try out, the persist-through-death race change it gives is cool for BGs
Quick question lads,
I power leveled my engineering yesterday from 130-410~ (3.5K gold down the drain…) but do you have your use on gloves (pvp) macro’d? If so what do you have it macro’d to?
I macro’d it to my mutilate but then again if I do that it isnt that good of a tool to prevent ppl from getting away etc.
I used to at first, but I’ve now taken it off the macro. It’s really nice for keeping sprinting rogues in combat, just annoying that it ties up another button.
Hmm I gotta start thinking of a button to bind it to then …
i had mine on mutilate and deadly throw but i dropped engi for jc now as i jc is better for gold and in arena i think personaly xD
thanks