Thursday, March 17, 2011

Multiple Profession Coverage in WoW

Multiple Profession Coverage

I'd like to take some time to discuss having multiple professions on your alternate characters along with covering the same professions on multiple characters.  We had a listener comment on the Auction House Junkies Gold Making Podcast page that I will be addressing as well.
"I heard you guys talking about leveling the same profession on multiple characers.  Do you guys have EVERY profession covered?  I feel like I'm wasting time having alts with the same profession..."        -Rinbair
Some players like to have multiple characters with the same profession, while others like to cover all professions with their characters on the same World of Warcraft server.  A third type of player likes to cover all professions AND have multiples of the same profession on various characters, often at the expense of gathering professions.

What type of player are you?
  1. Don't Have All Professions Covered.
  2. Have All Professions Covered.
  3. Have Multiples of the Same Profession.
  4. Have All Professions Covered and Multiples of the Same Crafting Profession.
  5. Have All Crafting Professions Covered with Multiples of Only Gathering Professions.
Multiple Professions

Myself, I have all professions covered with multiples of each gathering profession and an extra tailor for more dreamcloth cooldowns.  Although neither tailor is yet high enough to craft dreamcloth, that was the original plan upon set-up.  Originally one was shadowcloth specialization and the other was spellfire spec.

I would take a guess that the most common profession that players have on multiple alternate characters is the Alchemist.  I myself have 2 alchemists.  The main alchemist is transmute spec, and the other was intended to be either potion or flask spec, but it just hasn't been profitable to switch away from a 2nd transmutation spec alchemist yet.  The main benefits of having multiple alchemists is that their daily cooldowns are some of the easiest and most profitable cooldowns to use to make an easy profit.  I have heard of players with 5-6 alchemists on the same server due to this.

Diversity & Flexibility

While it is still possible to make plenty of gold with only 1 character and 2 professions on that single character, having multiple professions covered opens up so many more possibilities for profiting through the auction houses in World of Warcraft. 

By having multiple professions you are diversifying your ability to make gold.  Having just a few professions covered is viable, but not as secure of an option as having all professions covered.  If you can easily move out of one market and into another you are protecting yourself should an auction house camper invade into your sales and profits. 

You also are more flexible and can profit from various methods by crafting different poducts.  Should Blizzard patch / hotfix / nerf something that is very profitable for you, if you have multiple characters with multiple profession coverage, then you won't be as affected by the changes.  Just image if you were a single character with Alchemy and Enchanting making tons of profit off of disenchanting your epic alchemist trinkets for maelstrom crystals.  Then blizzard nerfs you by making those same trinkets not able to be disenchanted.  If this was your only source of income, then your would be screwed.  If you have multiple professions covered, then you can just move onto a different method.

Unique Playstyles

There is no perfect set-up or solution when it comes to setting up your characters and your professions.  Everyone has a unique playstyle, so you set up is going to be different from mine.  Some players like to have specific combinations on specific races.  Others cover all professions.  Some like to find the easiest and most profitable profession and then have multiples of that single profession.  Some like myself, like to have each character self supportive and tend to give each character 1 crafting and 1 gathering profession.  Others pick 2 gathering professions up until they hit max level, then immediately power level 2 crafting professions.

What it all boils down to when picking your profession set-up is what your playstyle is, how much time you want to devote to crafting and gathering, how much total playtime ou have, and just plain personal preference.  There is no right or wrong set-up when it comes to making gold off the auction house in World of Warcraft.

Check out what my Auction House Junkies podcast partner, Wes, has to say on this same topic.
Multiple Professions Don't Get Overwhelmed over at Capped by Cata

What are your thoughts or preferences when setting up your alternate characters?

8 comments:

  1. I'm more inclined on the daily/weekly CD professions like Alchemy/Tailoring. I don't want to spend the bulk of my time farming for materials and I just want some quick gold for the 15-30 minutes I spend per day using these CDs.

    Inscription/JC require a lot of time on the AH to monitor your sales and such so I'd much rather make multiple Tailors/Alchemists, even if it is not maximum profit.

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  2. Why multiples of your gatherers? It seems like at most you would want a druid herbalist who may also be a miner, and a miner + engineer on another character. What possible benefit could you get from more than one miner, herbalist, or skinner?

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  3. Scrolls, Glyphs, and Gems require a lot of AH micro to maximize profit wise, but the income from those professions is massive.

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  4. Being diverse largely can also center around the gold value of the personal benefits of professions. For me I play a druid and warlock, so I have Leatherworking and Tailoring along with Enchanting and Jewelcrafting as the professions I focus my sales upon. I made a DK to be my miner/skinner. I have two alchemists and a scribe at various levels all with herbalism so if I decide to play them a bit I can farm herbs wherever Im at and send them where needed. I have an engineer, but I rarely do much with that and having not really seriously played a plate class, I'm in no hurry to make a blacksmith. Either way, I have more than enough to make solid profits and keep me busy.

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  5. With the relatively recent addition of experience points for gathering through mining and herbing, there's now very little incentive for any new characters to look at any of the crafting professions until they hit at ~least~ level 75 (ideally 80-85).

    I've always said that crafting professions cost you money to level while gathering professions make you money while you level. The extra exp is icing on the cake.

    If you eventually want a bs or lw or jc or alchemist, save all the mats and non-greys you find along the way and you'll greatly reduce the amount of gold you'll need to spend to level these professions once you get to your target character level.

    That being said, I currently have almost all the professions covered with some strategic duplication of some to take advantage of both factions. I lack skinning at the moment....(my old skinner/lw became an alchie/lw back in wrath when the gem transmute made it worthwhile)...and I've yet to convince myself its worthwhile picking it up on a new alt when my need for both ore and herbs seems to far outpace my need for leather.

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  6. I tend to choose herbalism/mining as long as I'm leveling and then switching professions once everything is done (including quests).

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  7. Cool post, Cold - I'm interested in your thoughts on JC tokens - stockpile, buy more rare cuts, or sell Chimera's Eyes on the AH.

    Chimera's Eyes go for ~300g on my AH. You figure - that's 2100g / week right there. A rare cut is 3 tokens, so that's essentially 900g for a cut - seems like you'd burn through at least a full stack of a cut before you'd actually see a return on that opportunity cost.

    I know I sound like a one-trick pony when it comes to JC - it's kinda my thing - like MFCs are yours. I just feel like JCs are in this unique position to either immediately sell off their CD, or invest it in gem cuts, or stockpile them as a speculation play for epic cuts.

    Hit me back and let me know if you want to run that - I probably won't get to it for ahwile.

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  8. @Stede

    Thanks man. I am going to run a post on JC Tokens soon. What I have been doing:

    1) Got rare cuts that I will cut for my own use (+Str, Int, Sta, etc.)
    2) Bought some of the jewelry patterns.
    3) Stockpiling all of my tokens in hopes of rare cut patterns costing JC tokens again.

    @anon
    Why multiple gatherers?
    1) Not all my characters are max level.
    2) I like to have a gathering profession on most characters as I commonly play 8 of my 10 alts. So these characters are out and about in the world and don't just stand in major cities wheeling and dealing.

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