My Professions

As you will know if you have read the previous posts within this blog I am a member of the Undergeared project. This means the the profession bonuses I can obtain are extremely important. I don't really have the luxury to pick these professions because I like them or I know I can make some easy gold using them. I have to pick them because of stats, pure and simple.

Whilst leveling I have the professions Mining and Jewelcrafting, which is obviously not what I intend to start raiding with. Jewelcrafting is a great choice for me and in terms of stats alone it will provide 60 Spellpower or the equivalent in whatever stats I need. The bonus from this profession is higher for me that usual because part of the Undergeared rules state that I can only use blue quality gems unless I am a Jewelcrafter in which case I can use my three Dragon Eyes within my gear. The Jewelrafting trinekts are not currently useful to me but the stat increase from the Dragon Eyes makes it possibly the 'best' profession I can take.

I am using Mining as my other profession whilst I level to help me with my Jewelcrafting and to provide some extra gold when needed. I wouldn't ever recommend starting on a new server from scratch without at least on gathering profession. However my problem at the moment is deciding what exactly I should take as my second profession once I hit level 80 and I am to ready to start taking part in the Undergeared raids. My current options are:

Alchemy

This profession provides a flat increase of 47 spellpower from Mixology (improved effect of flasks). This is not impressive when compared to the other profession but Alchemy also provides the following trinket:

Mercurial Alchemist's Stone (trinket, 59 Spellpower, 50 Haste Rating & 40% improved effect of mana/health potions)

I cannot really write this profession off until I know which trinkets I will want to use at level 80. I have not completed a 'Best in Blue Slot' gear list yet, so it will be interesting to see how it compares.

Engineering

This profession is always interesting to compare, as it doesn't provide a flat stat bonus as such. Instead it has a series of items that can be very useful in the right hands. First of all we have the epic helm (this can be used as it is engineering only) and that provides the following stats:

Visage Liquification Goggles
Once again I will need to compare these to the blue equivalent and then look a the stat differences and see just how useful they will be. Either way this will definitely be an upgrade and gives me access to an ilevel 200 epic quality item.

Hyperspeed Accelerators (340 Haste on use)
This attachment to my gloves will provide me with 350 Haste every minute with 12 seconds of uptime. This equates to:

(340 haste*12 seconds)/60 seconds = 68 passive haste (if used every cooldown)

This blows all the other glove enchants out of the water and is a great attachment. It is also worth considering that it is off the Global Cooldown and can be combined with other abilities such as Troll Berserking to become extremely useful.

I also would like to compare this to the DPS increase that the Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket (1000 Damage on use) would give. As I need to see how much the haste would effect my DPS considering my gear will not be that great.

I also need to look at my hit rating when I have geared up to see if the Nitro Boots attachment is worth obtaining (24 Critical Strike compared to the enchant that provides 12 Critical Strike and 12 Hit Rating). Not to mention the fact that I could include Saronite Bombs into my rotation to possibly increase my DPS. As you can tell I need to put a lot of work into evaluating this profession. Oh and hell, Engineering is fun!

Inscription

Finally Inscription provides a flat increase of 52 Spellpower & 5 Critical Strike Rating when comparing the Inscription shoulder enchant to the Lesser Sons of Hodir enchatn that we are allowed to make use of.

It may prove that this flat stat increase is the most useful and I look forward to grabbing a full set of gear so I can compare.

I apologize that this post may seem rather random but I just wanted to show the ideas I am having for my second profession and why it is more complicated than it may seem to decide!