professions for the pallyFollow

Folks;

My main is a mage (though I'm loving my pally a ton!) and with a mage, you're an idiot if you don't have tailoring at 375 as there are some dead-easy epic mage cloth gear. I picked up blacksmithing and mining on my pally as he can wear plate and the like, so I figured it'd be a good fit. I was looking at some of the epic plate that can be crafted (some breastplates and such) and they look good, but are they better than, say, T4 and Kara gear? Now, my pally is only lvl 51 now, but leveling quickly and I want to choose the right specialization for him. Is there an obvious choice for pallies? I have looked in the tradecraft forum and get 2 answers... 1) Pally should do armorsmith because it rocks. 2) Pally should go weaponsmith because armor sux. Not sure which one is true there, so I figured I'd ask the Pally experts themselves.

Oh, end-game I expect I'll be either holy or prot, so that would be the kind of gear I'm looking at. I have noticed that already I have 2 sets of gear, tanking and healing (the tanking gear actually looks good, but the healing gear makes me look like I'm trick-or-treating as a priest/druid/pally).

I cannot offer a lot of advice, but I have heard too many times that Blacksmithing isn't very useful for tanks in end-game. It's nice to get started but after that it quickly becomes obsolete.

Maybe things have changed since then, but I think you'd be better off with Alchemy, Enchanting, etc. While not directly related to your trade, you'll need them just as much, if not more, than you could need Blacksmith, in my opinion. (Enchant your own gear, make your own +Health potions, etc.)

i use alchemy for my prot pally. my favorite combo is

Elixer of Brute Force, battle elixor, with 18 str and 18 stam and
Elixor of Major Fort, Guardian elixor, with 250 HP and 10 HP5.

Brute Force is the only battle elixor with stam on it. so i love it over the
Greater Arcane Elixor which does 35 spell damage.

But i always have both on me at all times just incase i need either or.

Actually i have an entire bag dedicated to just pots. thats in adition to my herb bag. i keep five of the following at all times.

Super Healing Pot
Major Mana Pot
Elixer of Brute Force, Battle, 18str and sta
Greater Arcane Elixor, Battle, 35 SD
Elixor of Major Fort, Guardian, 250 hp and 10 HP5
Elixor of Major Int, Guardian, 25 int(could upgrade to Dreanic Wisdom but Meh)
Lesser Invis pot
Swiftness Pot
Frost Oil
20 of every Vial

and my roomate has a Mage who can make me the superior wizard oils also. which add 42 spell damage to weapon for 1 hour that last through death.

and that takes my whole bag save for 2 slots which i toss extra HP or MP pots in of random quality.

Thing about Alchemy is that it can always help you even if you in epic gear. so you never reget it.

Edited, Nov 26th 2007 8:58am by RuenBahamut

I've already covered what professions you should think about when you are holy in my sticky, if you're curious, go read it!

As far as protection, there are some REALLY good blacksmithing plans from SSC/TK, heck I even have the belt myself, but the boots are BoP and its actually fairly hard to find decent protection boots. Alchemy isn't a bad choice, neither is engineering. Enchanting your rings would also nicely boost your ease in tanking.

To answer your question, there is no obvious choice as a paladin.

Jewelcrafting is my pick. Reason being is there are several easy to obtain BOP crafted jewels you wouldn't be able to put into your equipment otherwise.