Grind while you grind

Since I started the trip to the gold cap, I hadn't leveled an alt. But I'm leveling up a frost mage (it'll also help me kite better on my tank) which is giving me a whole new perspective on the leveling process, namely gathering professions. Because of this, I'm going to have a few posts on leveling up and a few small things you can take advantage of, even at the level cap. Firstly, we all know the value of having a gathering profession for any new toon because of the sheer amount of things you'll be passing by while you level. Also the mid level materials such as mithril or rugged leather fetch a nice price with little extra effort on your part. Of course there's also the profession bonuses, but if you're planning to raid with your new alt, then dual crafting professions offer the best benefit.

However that doesn't mean you should short yourself the chance at making some nice cash to offset your leveling costs. Some are great money, others have great use to a leveling character so use your own judgment on the benefits of each and your personal needs. Here's how I look at each profession:

Mining:
Pro: Possibly the best gathering profession to make money with while you level. Adds some stamina which allows you to fight longer before needing to eat or heal yourself, thus giving you fake mana regen since you're not casting heals as often.

Con: A pain to actually skill up and you may end up having to spend money on ore (like silver or gold) in order to mine where you happen to be questing at since it may take forever to find a certain node that's yellow/orange difficulty. Has zero effect on damage done.

Herbalism:
Pro: Great profession bonus for non healing classes with lifeblood. I leveled my rogue and warrior with this and loved the free hot it gives you.

Con: Any class that has mana won't get much out of this since you'll be stopping to drink at some point and can just eat while you do. Only difference is that you can use this while in combat and can move while your hot ticks. Also not the best money making profession for any means unless you can leech somebody power leveling inscription or alchemy. Has zero effect on damage done.

Skinning:
Pro: Requires zero side tracking since you'll always be right where your "node" is at, also takes no effort to level up and you'll be able to skin mobs you can't even kill. Also the added crit rating will improve your damage significantly while leveling since lower levels have a much higher rating to % conversions.

Con: You have to actually loot the useless grey items from a mob before you can skin them (personally, I rarely loot mobs when leveling). Also can delay you a bit (depending on latency) after you loot a mob before you get the skinning cursor to show up. Skinning also won't start making any real money at all until heavy/thick leather becomes common (but you do get a ton of it).

Enchanting?
One can argue that enchanting acts as a sort of gathering profession due to the greens you can DE while you level and quest rewards. Only the problem is that you won't get nearly enough mats from this in order to skill up. You'll end up spending far more time (and therefore gold) looking for greens to DE or the mats themselves. It also won't be making much money at all until you're at least around 300. All the old world recipes that are worth selling require a lot of rep that you won't be getting while questing (aside from maybe timbermaw) or are rare world drops. So because of all of that I don't count it as a gathering profession.

All that being said, I think that skinning is the best profession for leveling up. It's fast, effortless, makes money, and ups your damage. What more can you ask for?



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