Herbalism/Alchemy or Skinning/Leatherworking for a *NEW* DruFollow

Greetings all!

My apologies if this has been discussed before, but I'm curious to know what you all think? I have a relatively high-level tailor/enchanter on a level 42 Priest and I have a pretty decent amount of gold. I just can't decide on what professions to choose for my new Druid. I was leaning towards Herb/Alchemy, but am having some doubts. Any thoughts?

This is my first character in about 9 months so I'm pretty darn rusty.

Thanks!


Edited, Dec 6th 2007 4:45pm by Baelwer

Thanks ;)

For this character I'm actually looking for a combo that helps more helpful than lucrative

Edited, Dec 6th 2007 5:02pm by Baelwer

I was having the same dilemma, so for now I've taken Herbs/Skinning, until I make my mind up. Much easier to level up your crafting than to spend ages running around newbie areas levelling up a new harvesting profession if you change your mind.

In terms of how useful LW is, here's another recent thread I'm sure you've already read (but maybe useful for anyone else finding this one at a later date):
Is LW good for Druids?

One other thing. Once you hit 70 and clear out all the solo quests, you really won't have that many opportunities to skin things, except when you're grinding mats for a specific item. No XP and pitiful loot off skinnable mobs, makes it a very unprofitable way to spend your time. You can, however, whizz around on your epic mount, hoovering up herbs on your way to other places. Skinning/LW may turn out to be a bit of a dead-end once you have all your items, at least until the next expansion...

Edited a couple of times, because I'm an idiot and don't read all the way through threads that I link :p

Edited, Dec 6th 2007 7:20pm by zhaharik

Well, I am going alchemy when I'm done being herb/skin greedy, so clearly that's what all the cool kids are doing.

With my druid, I too am having real problems deciding which professions to take (us druids probably benefit the most, out of all classes, from the various professions I think and so choosing ones for you cn be tricky) ;)

I am an Alchemist/Enchanter at the moment (dropped my herb/skinning around lvl 25 when I wanted to stay in catform and use my track-humanoids tracking constantly). I'm certainly planning on keeping enchanting to get the SHOTM trinket (Smoking Heart Of The Mountain) for a nice tank/armor trinket i can keep forever, just in case ;) and alchemy for the BOP trinket and the pots/elixirs.. I'll likely keep alchemy all the way through the lower end-game raids perhaps or until I find a better trinket to replace my alchemist stone and then possibly switch it out (hmmm... possibly ;))

Not sure whether i'll keep Enchanting after the SHOTM trinket to disenchant and enchant my gear and the self-only ring enchants at the end might be nice.. but LeatherWorking is indeed appealing as well for the armor kits, clefthide stuff etc and ofc the DRUMS ;)

Grrr... decisions, decisions.. the choices for us are hard..

I'll could possibly switch enchanting back to herbalism even for my final levels and make gold foraging in the outlands for my gold... grrr.. grr...

;)

PS. for gold - the statement that 2 gathering professions (Herb, skin, Mine, and possibly Disenchanting) are the ways to make gold... crafting professions are (almost) always ways to spend money but they can be fun to explore.

The two options you're interested in are both useful to druids in some ways. As a leatherworker, there were plenty of nice items to be made as I levelled. However decent patterns stop at around the mid 40s-50s and in the 60s you will generally get better items as rewards from outland quests. Apart from some very nice top end patterns, and some potentially quite saleable items, it's not really great at max level, considering how many of those you might actually use. There are some nice BoP items but many others are BoE so you could just buy them from a friend who can make 'em.

With alchemy however, I can imagine it being more of use were it my profession but perhaps because I'm feral, I find I use very little in the way of potions myself. I always keep a few mana/health potions, but otherwise rely on healing myself/innervate. I imagine that it's a good money-maker tho as there'd likely be an onoing need for such items. On the whole, I can't see alchemy being the most useful profession for any class capable of healing themselves, but it's far from a bad choice.

I wouldn't waste my time, personally. There are far too many easily obtained tanking trinkets in outland that are worlds better.

And if you really want a 2nd armor trinket, go back and complete the UBRS chain for Mark of Tyranny; has armor and a bit of dodge rating.

Edited, Dec 14th 2007 8:05am by Norellicus

I'd go Skinning/LW personally. I have herbal/alch on my rogue, and I'm pretty disappointed with it. Yeah, you can make pots, elixirs, flasks, and do transmutes, but you can buy and use all of these things without being an alchemist. On the other hand, crafting professions all have some pretty sweet BoP items, or items that have great set bonuses for having that profession.

I definitely regret my decision.