Project Lore

When patch 3.0 hit, I dropped Engineering for Herbalism to prepare for Wrath. I thought it would better complement my Alchemy, and raw materials like herbs were likely to be in high demand as people level their professions. I thought that the Lifeblood ability would far outweigh the benefits of Engineering as far as usefulness goes, as the Engineering item enhancements do not stack. Months later, I'm wondering if I made the correct choice. Lifeblood is barely useful in PvE; healers don't expect me to cast a small heal over time and the health I regenerate in that period is unlikely to save me before a healer gets to me. It doesn't provide me with any stats. It is questionably useful in PvP, and I've been eying other professions like Jewelcrafting to provide me with more usefulness in raiding and arena. Blizzard has very much begun to treat professions like they treat classes: diverse, but all useful. Hardcore raiders will spend thousands of gold to squeeze out another dozen or so DPS, and Blizzard wants players to choose the professions they enjoy, not the profession that they should choose in order to best perform in content. All the different professions have comparable buffs to each class in both PvP and PvE situations, often in the form of bonus stats. These often take the form of special item enhancements, like Enchanter's ring enchants or Scribe's shoulder inscriptions, or passive abilities like Toughness. To me, Lifeblood is not nearly on the same footing. It has its uses in some situations, but having to use another action bar slot or hotkey as opposed to doing an enchant or getting a passive enhancement for a lesser effect gives me a sour opinion of Herbalism's PvE/PvP usability. As far as money making, some professions have some ability to make money by doing things you normally do while questing and exploring and an ability to make money by spending time on just the profession. Usually, this is in the form of gathering and crafting. For example, engineers can craft epic BoE items and collect from gas clouds they encounter in the world. Miners can mine from nodes that they find while out and about and can smelt ore into bars. Tailors can craft BoE items and have the Northern Cloth Scavenging to find more cloth while killing mobs. Either way, most professions are designed to be able to be lucrative both passively while roaming in the world or by investing time into them. Professions that satisfy this are Enchanting, Engineering, Tailoring, and Mining. I consider these professions to be much more appealing than the others. With the carpets from tailoring, I just may pick up Tailoring on my main (rogue). Its interesting to note that these professions are generally considered not to have a direct "complement", like Alchemy/Herbalism or Skinning/Leatherworking. For now, if Frost Lotuses weren't selling for 30 gold or more on my server, I'd be dropping Herbalism for something else right now, because it gives few benefits compared to other professions. The only benefit I would miss is being able to track herbs, which helps immensely for some of the Cooking dailies. As far as effort required, some professions are very easy and some are very difficult. Inscription requires you to stock a lot of herbs, pigments, and inks, and also requires you to sell a wide variety of glyphs to make the same amount of money as the other professions. Enchanting can be difficult to market - many players have an enchanter in their guild or someone they know rather than check the AH or shout in trade. Inscription seems very unappealing on a main for me for this reason and that its hard to "passively" make money. I think this needs work in the long run. What professions did you choose? Do you ever switch professions, and why?

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Up until the past couple of months, I always stuck with Horde characters. Sure, I've tried out Alliance here and there, but never found them quite as intriguing. I'm sure the fact that my RL friends I play with are all Horde also plays a role. But now that I've been true to the Horde since the WotLK release, I decided to try out an Ally once again. And the fact that I wanted to roll a character on the Executus server so I could play in the Alliance Project Lore fan guild gave me a good push. I know my way around gameplay pretty well, and I expected a refreshing change of pace when I rolled a draenei hunter. But as I've been leveling with her, I've been surprised by how much it has changed my perception of the game by adding to it. Obviously, Alliance is a new faction, and draenei a new race for me. And therefore, it's a new starting area to learn my way around. Pixie is my first hunter character (but thankfully I have a little guidance on how not to be a huntard). I've tamed my first combat pet, Artemis, and started training fishing and cooking for the first time to support his dietary needs. I picked up a couple of professions I've never leveled before - herbalism and alchemy -  just to keep the excitement going. And the friendly group of players in the guild that I'm new to have done a good job of making me feel welcome. So how has all this affected gameplay? Well, there have been a couple of funny moments. Like the first few times I came back from questing and initially thought it was weird that I was walking into a group of Draenei and not getting attacked. Then, realizing I'm one of them now. Also, the first couple of quests to kill Bloodelf spies or other Hordies tore at my heart a little. My Locomomo started out just like them! And now that I've pointed out differences in how we speak in vent, I owe my guildies some props. I've gotten a lot of help learning my way around the Alliance areas that up until now, I've only ever heard of and never fully experienced. And, I learned how to cluck at a chicken until it laid an egg that I now have for a pet. That confirmed my suspicions that indeed each faction has a few surprises up their sleeves. So all this new stuff makes it almost like I'm playing for the first time again. But at least I know the basics and lingo to help get me through. And it's making clear to me just how wide the world of warcraft can be, if you choose to utilize all it has to offer. One aspect that I'm looking forward to seeing in action will come once I leave the starting area. This is my first time on a PvP server. Have mercy! Has anyone else had a similar experience when starting up a new character?  And how long did it take you to get into the groove and past the feelings of awe that come along with the unknown?

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Wrath of the Lich King sought to even out the playing field of PvE and PvP benefits that players receive from knowing a profession. It was nigh required to have a leatherworker's drums in the endgame of Burning Crusade, and Engineers found many a trick to "exploit" in battlegrounds. Many professions, like Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Tailoring, had several BoP items that were some of the best gear you could get, making these professions a huge boon to some classes that put them way ahead of characters that didn't pick the "right" profession. Blizzard evened this out with a whole host of abilities for the professions. They made sure every profession provided a benefit to both PvE and PvP gameplay in a way that was useful to every class. These changes were applied in patch 3.0.2, and many of these benefits are available to both low-level characters and high-level ones. If you are a little rusty on who gets what, take a moment to review:

Profession	Main Gameplay Benefits
Alchemy	Mixology (PvE), Endless Healing Potion (PvP)
Blacksmithing	Socket Bracer, Socket Gloves
Enchanting	Enchant Rings (Stamina, Spellpower, AP)
Engineering	Hand enhancements (Rockets, Haste)
Leatherworking	Leg Enchancements (Resists, AP, Stam)
Tailoring	Leg and Cloak Enchancements (Spellpower, Holy Damage, Melee Haste)
Jewelcrafting	Special Gems, Trinkets (Resilience, Strength, MP5)
Inscription	Shoulder Enchants (AP, Spell Power, Dodge)
Herbalism	Lifeblood
Mining	Toughness
Skinning	Master of Anatomy

Engineering didn't get as much love in terms of PvE/PvP viability. The engineering benefit was the ability to add "gadgets" to your gear that essentially enchant your gear with different abilities. Most of these did not positively effect endgame PvE or PvP gameplay. For example, you couldn't get your cloak enchanted if you wanted Flexweave Underlay. And forget about your Icewalker enchant if you plan on using Nitro Boosts. In 3.1, Engineers get a little bonus that provides them with a comparable bonus to other professions. Blue poster Zarhym recently rounded up the changes in 3.1 for engineers:

• Added a new Reticulated Armor Webbing engineering enchant that increases the armor on plate gloves.
• Added a new Springy Arachnoweave engineering enchant that grants passive spell power in addition to turning your cloak into a parachute.
• Flexweave Underlay now grants passive agility in addition to its normal effect.
• Nitro Boosts now grant passive critical strike rating in addition to their speed boost.

The list may not be conclusive and is subject to change over the course of the public testing process. Its still not enough to sell me. I'm eyeing replacing herbalism with something a little more effective (maybe skinning?) for that extra boost for my rogue DPS.

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The daily cooking quest varies from day to day. You may have seen Dr. Dorkins recently complete one for Achivementology. However, achievements are not the only benefit of doing a cooking daily quest. One of the greatest draws of the daily cooking quests are the rewards of Northern Spices. All of the best food buffs come from items that are cooked using Northern Spices. And the cooking daily quest is the only way to get them! If you are doing any serious raiding where you are required to have consumables, it can get expensive. Buying potions, elixirs or flasks, and food can really add up quickly - especially if you are progressing through new content and are subject to dying or wiping. A typical cooking daily will get you between 2 and 6 Northern Spices depending on your luck. If you have extras, you can use Dalaran Cooking Awards to buy Northern Spices in stacks of 10. However, for many players this is not enough. Thus, a market is born for Northern Spices for players who either don't bother to do the cooking dailies or who need more than they can get themselves. Depending on your server, you can get different deals on these. The typical range is 2-6g. If you can get 4 spices a day from luck and 10 more from trading in a Dalaran Cooking Award, you are looking at getting a good 40 gold. Even if you aren't raiding, there is a good profit to be made in doing your cooking dailies. Any character of level 65 and up with a cooking skill of 375 can cash in, so start early and cash in. Stock up on Chilled Meats and Rhino Meat to prepare for whatever daily might come your way - Awilo Lon'gomba and Katherine Lee await your service!

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