Poor planning
This is frustrating to admit, but it has to be done. I’m embarassed of my professions.
There, I said it. Now I feel a little better.
Somewhere in my late 20’s, it was suggested to me that I change from skinning/leatherworking to herb/alchemy. “No one else in the guild is an alchemist! You can make us all potions!” Sure, sounded like the right thing to do. Well, it wasn’t. I leveled quickly, and the idea of going back to lowbie areas to farm flowers wasn’t at all appealing in the fast-paced lifestyle I was living.
Now I’m almost 50, and I have my herbalism at 149 and my alchemy at 117. Basically, I’m useless.
I’ve tried to make dates for myself, little plans that I formulate to get the job done. “Today,” I say as I log on, “I will spend the entire afternoon picking briarthorn in Silverpine Forest!” Yeah. That lasted about 20 minutes.
So, have any of you ever made a profession change you’ve regretted later? How did you get yourself through the long, boring stretches of learning your skill?
I did it with my main on skinning and leatherworking. I’d picked up leatherworking too late, which meant going back and killing very low-level beasties; I tried that for a while, and then decided to switch to tailoring (since my toon is a warlock, and could wear the gear). I was at a high enough level where I could afford the cash to buy a lot of the cloth to level, and then once I got to the stage where I was using silk and mageweave, I was ok. It’s expensive to do that final levelling on most professions, though. (That’s one of the reasons I’ll never try enchanting – much too expensive to level.)
I regret going Enchanting “for the good of the guild”. 50+ levels of abject poverty as ebery green and blue got sacrificed to the disenchanting machine was horrible.
I’m an Engineer, and I absolutely love it, but I was well aware the engineering is kind of a “selfish” profession in scope of guild development. Unlike the alchemists, leatherworkers, and enchanters in our party, I can’t continually supply my guildies with objects that will help them out.
The only objects that I can really craft for my guildies are Discombobulator Rays and Thorium Widgets for the Darkmoon Faire.
Yeah but, the amount of money you make off herbalism is hax. I started skinning/leatherworking.. once I started raiding I switched to skinning/engineering for bullets & jumper cables. Thennnnnnnn I dropped skinning because I was tired of trying to get Finkle’s. Finkle’s dropped 2 days later, so I got skinning back up to 300.
Then I had a bank full of things I needed to DE, so I dropped skinning & picked up disenchanting. Then came Naxxramas, and I was constantly broke… so this past weekend I picked up herbalism and powerlevelled it to 300 in one day (it wasn’t that bad.. Elwynn Forest > Westfall > Wetlands > Badlands > Hinterlands > Plaguelands). I spend time that I’d normally spend standing around IF plinking around in Winterspring looking for Icecap or Felwood looking for whatever and end up with gobs of gold.
So, to wrap up: your choice is not bad. You’ll never be broke if you can force yourself to pick flowers at least one day a week for a couple of hours. :)
On my server, the queues for BG are so long, that’s when I do all my farming. Queue up, pick flowers for an hour, play a game of WSG. Rinse and repeat. Didn’t take long that way, and it helps break up the farming, plus gives you something to do while in queue.
I’ve dropped and picked up professions so often, I can’t remember what my first one was. Power leveling professions isn’t hard, if you don’t mind spending gold or time. I prefer time. Herbalism is the easiest for a Tauren Druid, because we already start out with the +15 bonus and on top of that, I can change to Cheetah and run all over the map at high speed, without having to stop to mount/dismount, and I don’t have to change out of the form.
It doesn’t sound like you have the patience that’s required for a builder profession like alchemy, blacksmithing, leatherworking or engineering, so maybe you should stick to gathering professions. Skinning/Herbalism is a good money combo. So is Skinning/Mining. Enchanting still has its uses, because the mats sell in the bank. If you don’t want to work up your enchanting, you don’t have to. Try selling that piece of gear in the AH, and if it doesn’t sell, disenchant and sell the mat. Mats sell easier anyway.
I have keep my Leatherworking (tribal) and skilling.
I find for DE’s I lvl’ed a toon to 5 and have him DE’s and green and blue that do not sell. I mail it to him, he de’s it and mails it back to me. Nice cash!