Alch vs LWFollow

Why not smithing? Just curious as I have a 61 Alchemist Druid and my 20 Shammy is a leather worker, but as I think about it, isn't it more beneficial to have your Shammy make items it can wear for max protection (ie Smithing to make mail)?

I've made some good money with leather working, but will be shifting it to my rogue. Anyway, I think Alchemist is nice to make pots on the run, but that is assuming you have the regs in your bags.

If money was no issue for me I would probably go with something other than Alchemy and just buy my pots on the AH or hook up with an Alcy guild mate. As it is now I pretty much just make pots to support my lower non healing class alts.

There is a lot of competition when it comes to selling pots, where I have found much less on most Leather goods. Sometimes there might be 10 Deviate Scale Belts and other times none, if I don't want to sell at market price that day I wait 2 days and then it changes. At low levels there are a lot of easily made items that sell good for twinks. I regularly sell Deviate Scale Belts, Fletchers gloves, dark leather pants, and so on and make good money from it. As a 20 my gold was up to 284 before my main needed his epic mount :), not too bad imo.

I know nothing about Smithing, but will be transitioning to it so I can wear the items I make when I hit 40. Currently most of the better stuff I can make is better than the quest drops I get. If you are set between leather and alchemy, decide why you want it, for you and your group (to make pots for raids or whatever for your group buff) or to sell stuff. I might be wrong, but I can't imagine many Shammys are wearing leather past 40...

Blacksmithing makes very few Mail items. The tradeskills make the same transitions classes do (ie, vaguely around the level your shaman begins wearing mail, leatherworking will begin crafting mail armor for you)

Basically my summary:

Leatherworking: Drums are badass for endgame, and the epic Elemental and Enhancement sets are quite competant.

Alchemy: Provides easy access to pots/flasks/elixirs, and an awesome endgame trinket which is particularly excellent for Resto/Ele specs. Transmutes are an okay side benefit too, although you sort of have to Discover new ones to get the useful ones.

Blacksmithing: I know a lot less about this one than the others, but my impressions are (a) unlike the previous two professions it'll be almost entirely worthless (for a shaman) until the very last items you can craft and (b) those very last items will include a few sparse epic Mail items and some kickass weapons.

I love both alchemy and leather working, both help out immensely but as enhancement, i am leaning towards leather workin simply FOR the drums <3 I am planning to become a raider in long run, and have fun with it. I have never taken alchemy though past the 300 mark on my paladin, so i know how useful it CAN be, heck mana pots can be replaced by some darn good cooked meals, i kinda of wish to be self-sifficent in both grind and the levels, so i am not really worried about the buffing of myself as what i can contribute to teams. Thanks in advance i think both paths are lovely, but i think my decision is gonna be leather workin.