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This sticky was originally compiled by LockeColeMA. This FAQ is it's successor. It has been updated to reflect changes introduced with the Burning Crusade expansion. Comments, suggestions, additions, subtractions, and all that jazz are WELCOME. Please use the Email User or Send PM link at the top of each post or discuss here on the thread.
Questions such as "How do I make money with Leatherworking?" have not been touched to much extent. The WoW economy is in flux post-BC and I am inclined to think it will stay this way for another few weeks. However, I welcome any thoughts on the new economy and how certain trade skills will fare.
--thermalnoise
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Table of Contents
1) General Trade Questions
Primary Trade skills
2) Alchemy
3) Blacksmithing
4) Enchanting
5) Engineering
6) Jewelcrafting
7) Leatherworking
8) Tailoring
9) Herbalism
10) Mining
11) Skinning
Secondary Trade skills
12) Cooking
13) First Aid
14) Fishing
1) General Trade Questions
Q. What are trade skills?
A. Trade skills are the crafts of World of Warcraft. You take items you have found off of enemies, bought from vendors, or gathered in the wild, and turn them into something that is hopefully more useful. Many times you can sell these items; sometimes you'll use them immediately.
Q. What are the requirements for trade skills?
A. You can start getting trade skills at level 5. If you need to find a trainer, ask a guard (they'll put a flag on your mini-map if you ask under "Professions"). There are tiers for skills:
Level 5 - maximum skill is 75 (Apprentice - need to be at least 50 to raise).
Level 10 - maximum skill is 150 (Journeyman - need to be at least 125 to raise).
Level 20 - maximum skill is 225 (Expert - need to be at least 200 to raise).
Level 35 - maximum skill is 300 (Artisan - need to be at least 275 to raise).
Level 50* - maximum skill is 375 (Master) - Primary professions can only train in the Outlands so the account must be Burning Crusade enabled.
* Level 45 minimum required for Fishing, and level 35 required for Cooking/First Aid.
These apply to the primary production skills: Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Engineering, Alchemy, Jewelcrafting, and Enchanting. There are also three primary gathering skills: Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning. With mining and herbalism, you will get a "track resource" button. Clicking this will show resources nearby on your mini-map as yellow dots. If the dot is gray, the resource is under the ground.
Only accounts that are Burning Crusade expansion-enabled can learn Jewelcrafting. Non-expansion accounts may use items made by Jewelcrafting, though.
You can ONLY have 2 of these 10 primary trade skills. You can drop one to make room for another, but if you take it back up later, you will have lost all of your recipes and all of your skill levels.
In addition, there are three secondary trade skills: fishing, cooking, and first aid. You can have all three of these in addition to your primary trade skills.
Q. I am level 50 and need to train to 375? How do I get to the Outlands?
A. Only players who have reached level 58 may enter the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. But there are other ways to reach far-reaching places, and that includes mages' portals, warlocks' summons, and meeting stones. A player of any level may use those means to reach the Outlands and visit a trainer. (See more about this in the Enchanting section.)
You may return to Azeroth using the portals located in the center of Shattrath City or your hearthstone.
Q. How do I craft something?
A. Push "P" to open your skills/spells window. Under the General tab, if you have the skill (say, tailoring), click the tailoring button. You'll see a list of recipes that you have learned and can make. If you have the materials for the item, next to its name you will see a number: this is the maximum amount of the item you can create with the materials you currently have on hand.
You will never fail to craft something in World of Warcraft. You can fail to gather (pick, mine, or skin) something, but you can try again without penalty. You will never fail more than three times (providing you can mine it).
Q. What's with the colors on my recipes/resource nodes?
A. The color system is how likely you are to get a skill-up when you gather/craft something. Orange means always (100%), yellow means usually (50-100%), green means rarely (0-50%), and grey means never (0%). Red means you need to raise your skill to gather/craft the item (A message will display on-screen that will say how high your skill needs to be).
Q. How can I make money in WoW? (Torux)
A. The best way is to take two gathering professions (mining, skinning and/or herbalism) and sell the items you get in the auction house to crafters. Some people learn enchanting, then disenchant items they no longer want (as well as soulbound items from quests), and sell the dust, essence and shards to enchanters. Shards sell for alot more than dusts and essences.
A1. This holds true for the first forty levels or so, usually up until you get your mount. With a mount, your money-making abilities increase ten-fold. You can move faster, gather more per hour, and increase your profits (and this is just with gathering). However, even later in the game, the easiest way to get money is to get some rare recipes and make items no one else can. Charge a base line and have people bring you materials; it's free for you and good for them!
Another good way to make money is to play the AH; buy low and sell high. I won't go into this daytrading technique; this is stuff for people with a lot of time and good market skills ^_^ Keep in mind a lot of people are upset by morals here: when you overstep the line and buyout everything to resell it at a higher price, it tends to become a pain. If you can do it, hey, it's all good! But odds are that a lot of people will scoff at your price and make you eat the deposit fees. A better idea: look for underpriced items and sell them at the current price. This is easy and effective.
WondrousTremor took some time to put together some great tips for money making. Check them out here:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/journal2.html?user=399528;mid=1144949044223327607;num=0;page=1
Q. How do I unlearn a skill? (Torux)
A. Open your list of skills ('K') and click on the trade skill you wish to unlearn. At the bottom will be a description of the skill. Next to that is an icon that you can click to unlearn the skill. Be warned, this will completely remove any knowledge you have of that skill, and therefore if you wish to relearn it in the future, you will have to start from the very beginning.
REPUTATION
A VERY comprehensive link to reputation, including what patterns you can get and how to get reputation levels for the factions. I will link this for any reputation questions in the future. One problem... it links to thottbot instead of allakhazam >_>
http://www.wowwiki.com/Reputation
Edited, Feb 7th 2007 7:33pm by Darqflame
Edited, Feb 8th 2007 1:13pm by thermalnoise
Edited, Mar 15th 2007 3:10pm by thermalnoise
Edited, Mar 16th 2007 4:31pm by thermalnoise
Edited, Apr 10th 2007 9:59am by thermalnoise
Updated min level for Master professions from 50 to 45 based on player experience feedback
Edited, May 11th 2007 9:47am by thermalnoise
Updated to correct master professions min levels
Edited, May 18th 2007 11:26am by thermalnoise