Travel on the road to professions (part 2)

Yesterday, I wrote about my thoughts toward professions and how I chose the professions I would like SneekyPeach to participate in. For those who skipped yesterdays post, I chose mining and jewel crafting. Of course, like anything else in World of Warcraft, it was not as easy as it sounds. Especially when you have little money and even less in the way of directions.

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When I left SneekyPeach in Kharanos, she had just reached level 6. I woke her up with almost 2 full levels of rested experience - a side perk of signing out inside the inn for almost a week - and decided I wanted to train her up in professions and mage levels before I start my questing in the zone. Mage levels always come first for me, but unfortunately there is an extortionist pretending to be a class trainer here in Kharanos and the training is more than I have available in my pockets. At this point, the only way to make extra cash is from quests or selling items found on animals killed. I should have looked at the quests before I set off to kill and gather. If I had, I would have found one of the quests available would pay me to kill and gather from the boars and bears I was killing for free. Long story short, I could have saved myself a lot of time by accepting the quests first. In my defense, I was trying to avoid leveling until after I trained. It backfired, I had a lot of experience points from all the boars and bears I killed. I passed into level 7, and then some, in this way.

Once I had some more cash in my pocket I was able to speak to the mage trainer again. At level 6 we get fireball, level 2, conjure food, and a new instant cast spell, fire blast. I found that I still use my Frost bolt and Fireballs, only using fire blast in emergencies. It's a mana guzzler.

I had previously chosen to learn all of the secondary professions. Really, why would you not. Two of the secondary professions can be learned here; A cooking trainer can be found at the inn, so can the trainer for first aid (though he's called Physician here for some reason). It's inexpensive to train and level a secondary profession and most of the time you can cook or craft with items you find in your travels.

My mining trainer was also near by. I wish there was a forge here. The closest one is in Ironforge. Looks like I'll be saving my crafting until I hit Ironforge... or I'll be running back and forth - A lot.

I knew that I was setting off on a long journey for my jewel crafting. I could have waited until a later level to make the run, but I am a strong believer in leveling your crafts as you go. Any way I sliced it, I would have to run, now or later; the only jewel crafting trainer was found in The Exodar of Azuremyst Isle, home of the Draenei.

Reading up on travel options for the alliance, I found that the voyage would be safe for anyone of any level, which fit into my plans of training up as quickly as possible.

Breadcrumbs of my trip: Kharanos > Ironforge > Stormwind City >Auberdine > Azuremyst Isle.

Kharanos to Ironforge was not difficult. In fact the entire trip was pretty smooth sailing (no pun intended, as most of the trip was by ship). The segment from Ironforge to Stormewind was quite fun actually -- riding the deeprun tram.

I really like that you can get clear across the country as a level 7 and not get smashed to bits. This has just been rectified on the Horde side with the addition of the Zeppelin from Thunder Bluff to Orgrimmar. Here on the Alliance side of things, it has been so for a long time. I took the above picture while waiting for my third vessel of transportation, yet another boat - this time Darkshore to Azuremyst Isle. I believe I shot this when I took the dock straight across and ended up waiting, unknowingly, for the boat to Teldrassil by mistake. It could be the dock to Azuremyste Island though, I could be wrong. I just love how little SneekyPeach looks when she's sitting alone.

When I got back to Dun Morogh it was l-a-t-e! I decided rather than level much more that evening, I would learn and level up my fishing. It's convenient that the fishing trainer is right beside the only fresh water in the whole zone, the forlorn caves. Fishing requires no thought or skill, and is an excellent way to make money at a low level. I felt safe in fishing, where as in questing I would have died several times from lack of concentration. Once I hit my first cap of 75, and found I was too low for my next level training, I called it a night.

Day two this week (I know, I've already broke my own rule), I was able to reach two more level ranks as I completed my area questing, which, at this level, centers around the frosty trolls, local wildlife and angry leper gnomes of the area. At level 8, ah level 8, a second level of frostbolt and 2 new spells. A new Damage Over Time (DOT) conjure spell, Arcane Missiles and Polymorph sheep, a lifesaver of a crowd control spell that allows you to turn enemies into sheep for a set time. Lifesaver when a second mob comes into play.

At level 10, a second level of conjure water, a stronger level of frost armor and level one of frost nova, my first All Around Attack (AOE), which will also be helpful for crowd control because it roots those effected to the ground.

It's also mage quest time, directing me to talk to Blink in Ironforge, so this is a good stopping point for this week. Next week, mage quest and talent points.

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Thoughts on the road to professions

First things first, yes, I know it's not yet Saturday. I couldn't help myself. I'll try to be more restrained in the future. ;-) NO Promises. (In my defense, I have an action-packed weekend ahead of me and may not find time to play. So I had to come and progress SneekyPeach a bit further while I could.)

Plus, this weeks post will be a two parter. The first part today, the second tomorrow.

Now, onto the meat of the first post. In my opening blog, I mentioned the consideration of Engineering for SneekyPeach's profession. I did a lot of reading on Professions in the past week - Learned a lot in the process - and made my choice; though it wasn't was I originally believed I'd be interested in.

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I always knew I wanted to dive into mining. That was always going to occupy one of my two profession slots.

Mining is the single most useful gathering profession in the game. It fuels Engineering, Blacksmiths and Jewel Crafting, and, as a gathering profession, can fuel both your own crafting profession as well as your bankroll through the Auction House, I find having at least one gathering profession a very wise idea. The only consideration left was what to pair with it.

Right off the bat I crossed Herbalism and skinning from my list.

Many people advocate taking two gathering professions, especially as a youngster. It is an excellent idea if you are interested in acquiring items from many different crafted professions. After all, when you have no crafting profession to use up your finds, the money from Auctioning your raw minerals, herbs and skins is great and you can use your payment to buy what you like. Crafting players are rewarded with many bind on pick up items and special perks of leveling their professions. It is a toss up. For me, I knew I wanted the diversity of a crafting profession.

I crossed leather work and blacksmith off the list straight away as well. A mage cannot wear leather and has no need for the mail armor or bullets made through the blacksmith profession. If I was going to craft (and I am!) I was going to choose something that would benefit me directly.

I looked into Alchemy. Having my own healing potions, especially for a squishy mage, would be very helpful. In the end I decided it was not a viable option, especially without herbalism to fund it. The same was true of Inscription. The opportunity to produce your own glyphs was an appealing prospect, but would be very expensive without herbalism.

I looked into enchanting, but it seemed very expensive. Perhaps I am not understanding the profession correctly, but I believe you have to enchant and disenchant items around the world. It might have been a good idea, seeing I would be finding lots of leather and mail armor and many weapons I would not be permitted to use. In the end, I determined I would rather sell those unusable items to gather money for things like mounts, pets, training and flight paths.

I strongly considered tailoring. As a mage, this was one of the few crafting professions that would have impacted my life in a direct manor. It seems that tailoring is tailor-made for a mage. (har har har, how many people are closing their browser windows now?) I can only wear cloth and tailors, for the most part, make cloth armor. A big plus in the tailoring side was the idea, If I chose tailoring with my mining, I would be free to sell all of my mineral finds. I decided, after a lot of though, to cross tailoring off my list. Its downfall -- you need to either farm for your cloth or buy it from the auction house. That could get mighty pricey, especially since I am also going to level my first aid. With a crafting profession and a secondary profession both using the same cloth, I worried I would be outgrowing the area's where the cloth needed is naturally found, leaving me to purchase more than I'd like.

Which leaves me with engineering and jewel crafting. Interestingly enough, and not at all planed this way, both are both fueled by mining, which is both convenient -- Both of my options will be fueled with my chosen gathering profession, and unhelpful-- neither option has a clear pro or con in the gathering department, making my choice harder.

Reading into Engineering, I found you can make all sorts of fun items -- robot chickens as pets being my favorite, many useful ranged attack bombs, and your own mounts. The item I found would benefit me most would be the goggles, head armor available to me much sooner than I would organically find. Jewel crafting would give me the opportunity to craft my own rings, necklaces and trinkets, again, much sooner than I would organically find. I did a lot of reading up on how long it would take me to reach a level where my crafts would help me, as well as what my end goal crafts would provide me. In the end, Jewel crafting won out.

So SneeyPeach is now a Miner/Jewel Crafter, with a secondary skills in cooking, fishing and first aid, or would be after I got her trained up. Tune in tomorrow (Saturday, my original blogging day) for my write up on the experience in receiving my crafting training. Trust me, it was quite the trip!

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