Time for a Career Change
Bastosa on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - 32 Comments Tags: dropping professions, enchanting, engineering, jewelcrafting 
Ever feel like your career choice is going nowhere? You’ve put in your time, and invested a lot in your job, but in the end you are just not getting enough out of it to make it worthwhile? You feel like you should stay out of loyalty, but in the end you just know you would be far happier doing something else?
Well I am at that point in life. While I have certainly served my tenure, I just see no reason to stay an engineer. Yes I’m talking about my WoW profession, what did you think I was talking about?
I have been an enchanter/engineer for as long as I can remember. I have been a perfectly happy enchanter, I get a nice boost from the ring enchants, and I feel like I am providing a valuable service to my guild (although I wish I could get a few more shards). Engineering on the other hand, has always been about one thing for me. The goggles. In TBC they were the first epic I acquired at 70 and I wore it all the way until I was leveling again. I loved the goggles, and they were worth the entire profession. Now things have been a bit different. I excitedly leveled my engineering again in Wrath, and crafted the goggles as soon as I could.
Then I ran Naxx 10, and found that that T7 helm would replace them for me. That’s right - the item that lasted me all the way into the Black Temple in TBC was replaced by an item from the first 10 man dungeon in Wrath.
So after spending thousands of gold and tons of time leveling engineering in Wrath I am seriously considering just dropping it all together. I’ve never been one to change my professions, and I’ve taken pride in the fact that I’ve had the ones I do for so long, but I just don’t really see the point anymore.
My thought is it may be time to pick up jewelcrafting. The stat bonuses seem much greater, as does the money making potential. I understand this will be an expensive prospect, but I think in the long run it will be worth it. I could really use a more profitable profession, and those special gems and trinkets look just awesome to me.
So what do you think loyal readers? I am asking for some advice here. Should I stick with engineering until 3.1 with hopes of some new patterns? Or should I drop it right away and stat my new career as a JC? Perhaps there is even another career choice I should consider? What do you think? I am in need of career counseling.
Reader Comments (32)
There are certain things that, for me, make engineering worthwhile. (I am a hunter, however).
No 1: The guns. TWO Level 80 BoE epic guns. Nice!
No 2: The scopes. As I have said, I am a hunter. Being able to make my own gun and scope it is nice.
No 3: The ammunition. Not really a great seller, but definitely nice for me to be able to make my own bullets that are better than vendor stuff.
Also, some of the random assorted stuff is nice: Goblin Jumper Cables variants: Very nice wipe-recovery for hunters, since they can feign death/goblin jumper cable a person who can rez the rest of the party.
MOLL-E: portable mailbox. How cool/useful is that?
And of course, the infamous motorcycles, which are just cool.
I would say wait for 3.1, and don't consider re-speccing until then. At that point if we don't get new schematics... well... Do what you like.
Owenharper/Eitrigg
I would go with the enchanting for the enchants on ring and take up BS. there r some great socket bonus which will boost ur hp by loads i saw some1 with +41 stam sockets. It is also great because on Haomarush server lots of ppl r looking for a BS to make them some gd gear and u can charge a fee. not the best for profits but u get some gd things for urself
JC is a great profession. You get tons of gold (everyone needs sockets). For me "engi" was all about that head and the Jumper Cables and after that patch, the Helicopter, but that's all for me.
Now about JC, advice from someone that made this profession at max lvl. It's a pain in the ass. The hardest part is the preBC, the mats are hard to find, and you need a mountain of mats to get to 300 skill. From there is not very hard. If you stick to it you might get to 375 in 1 day. But since you have Enchanting it will be hard. I grew up mining with JC at the same time. If you have only JC you will spend tons after tons of cash for mats.
In the end, it's your call you do what you believe it's best for you.
i would go take JC and keep enchanting so u can sell the rings u make or DE them and then sell the enchanting mats either way u will be making money
I just want to say, great job with PL guys. I can't wait to be able to do things that you guys do. I have even had a few wishes to work for PL ^_^ I have been mining on my main since I first made him, but my secondary proff I have changed so much. I was first engineering, then JC, then now I"m back to engineering. I think I will switch back to JC after 3.1 if I don't see anything better for engineering.
Reason for me not keeping JC was that I was not having enough income to supply leveling my JC level, and my mining wasn't high enough to go and gather the sources myself.
Illidan
80 NE BM Hunter
I am having the same problem...I started out a LW and Skinner on my rogue but after a few levels it just wasn't satisfying...so i switched to Enchanting and Tailoring...i knew Tailoring was not gonna help me at all as a rogue but i figured it would be good for easy DEs it helped for quite a while until i got to the point where just haveing some cloth and thread in my bags wasn't enough. so i dropped it like a bad habit and decided to pick up herbalism because i had heard about Lifeblood and figured that would be worth something as a PvE rogue...but again i am starting to question my decision...sure the ablity is nice and the herbs are good to sell thanks to inscriptions but i just can't make as much money as i had hoped...as every enchanter knows enchanting can be painfully expensive...sure you can DE those loot greens and useless qest rewards...but you are not guranteed the mat you need and therefore can get alot of one but not alot of the other so you may have to hit the AH...and there goes your savings...i am keeping Enchanting Regardless because of how useful it can be for meand the guild...shards from raids and enchants for a cheaper price...plus ring enchants but since i am probably just gonna unlearn Herbalism i am thinking of what i should do...i am probably gonna go with JC as well seeing as the statues will do the same thing Lifeblood will do and it should make me some cash...Mats shouldn't be a problem because my hunter and Death Knight are both miners and many of my guildees are a well...hopefully it will serve me better and bring in some cash...goodness knows i need it seeing as i have a Hunter who needs his flight training and my DK will need it soon as well...and soon i will need to get them cold weather and eventually epic (i can only stand 60% for so long...)
Well from one Tankadin to another if I got to recomend a prof to drop Engi for. I'd say Leatherworking. And yes its only becouse of those Furlinings. And while atm you do gain more stamina with the JC only gems. But if the epic gems stays as they are on Wowhead. You'd gain 33 stamina more with 3 solid jc only gems compaird to the solid epic. While the furlining gives 40 more stamina then the best bracer stamina enchant.
Ofcourse thats if I counted it all right... Not to sure about it so feel free to make your own calculation.