Using Professions
After you have trained or purchased a Profession, hit "P" to bring up
your abilities book. Then, look for a new icon that has been placed in
there for that skill. You can drag this icon over to your action bar to
make it easier to find and use. If you can't fit it on the first row of
your action bar, place it on a different row by left-clicking on the
scroll arrows to the right of your action bar (it's ok if the icon is
still selected on your cursor).
Profession Limit
You can learn all of the secondary skills, but can only choose two
professions.
Character Level Limits
In order to prevent low level characters from mastering high level
skills, a certain character level limit is required for each level of
profession. You will need a minimum character level to learn a new level
of professions. Apprentice requires level 5, Journeyman level 10, Expert
level 20 and Artisan requires level 35.
Professions
If you go Mining there are two recommended paths. Decide which one
you want to take.
Mining - Mining is used to collect items for engineering and
blacksmithing.
Blacksmithing - Create armor and weapons.
or
Mining - Mining is used to collect items for engineering and
blacksmithing.
Engineering - Engineering is used to assemble cloth, leather, metal, and
stones into parts needed to make explosives, guns, scopes, bullets,
mechanical dragons, aquatic helmets, and more.
Herbalism/Herb Gathering - Collect herbs that can be used with
alchemy.
Alchemy - The alchemist mixes herbs to generate potions with a variety
of effects.
Skinning - Gather leather and hides for leatherworking, blacksmithing
and tailoring (mostly leatherworking).
Leatherworking - Create leather armor and armor patches.
Tailoring - Create cloth items and bags.
Enchanting - Improve existing items.
Secondary Skills
First Aid - Healing.
Fishing - Collect food. Good for cooking.
Cooking - Food is used in the game to heal players out of combat so that
they can return to the fighting as quickly as possible.
Skill Increases
Gray - You cannot increase your skill by making these items or
harvesting these items.
Green - These items give you a fairly poor chance to increase your
skill. You can still do it, but its going to take a lot of
gathering/creation to up your skill with these items.
Yellow - These items give you a reduced chance of increasing your skill.
It's still pretty reasonable to try to increase your skills with these
items.
Orange - These items give you your best chance of increasing your skill.
For many of the Professions, making an orange item will always increase
your skill.
Red - Your skill is not high enough.
Secondary Skill Training
Expert and above skill tiers for secondary skills require you to find
the books to teach you them. Artisan level requires a quest to be
completed.
Other Information
Some Professions allow you to use the trade screen to interact with
other people's items. For example, enchanters can enchant items directly
in the trade screen. Lockpicking and some other Professions can also be
used via the trade screen.
If you attempt to learn a recipe you already know, you will now see a
message that says you already know it.
Some recipes are intended to increase your skills in that Profession
rather than to create an item to sell to another player.
Some Epic player crafted items can be created that require raiding.
Generally, recipes with white names are store-bought and ones with green
or blue (or purple) names are drops from monsters. So if you see some
white recipes for sale, a person just bought the item from a vendor and
is trying to re-sell it for a profit.
When gathering Herbs or Mining, if you see gray dots on your mini-map
those are items found below you or in a nearby cave.
Creating Multiple Items
In the bottom left corner of the trade interface, there is an area where
you can select how many of a specific item you want to create. This is
very helpful when you're creating the same item repeatedly. There is
also a "Create All" button that will create as many copies of the item
as you can.
Tips
Buy stacks of Profession components from other players. That is faster
than collecting them on your own! Have your friends save up components
too.
Devote a certain bag to carrying your Profession items. You can even pick a different-colored bag if you have one, to make it easier to find.
Know which classes will need the products that you can create with
your Professions:
Mail: Warriors, Paladins (Hunters and Shaman can start wearing mail at
level 40)
Leather: Rogues, Hunters, Druids, Shamans
Cloth: Mages, Priests, Warlocks
Know which Profession components to save while you are fighting. You
can sell them to other players or give them to friends, rather than
selling them to the merchants:
Blacksmithing: jewels, metal bars, linen, wool, leather...
Engineering: jewels, cloth, leather, mechanical items, metal bars...
Leatherworking: leather, ruined pelts, hides...
Tailoring: linen, cloth, wool, silk...
Cooking: meat, various monster parts...