Profession Switching

I'm currently Blacksmith/Miner.  It isn't the worst, but it generally sucks.  I get two extra gem slots.  I got no craftable weapons for a hunter and no craftable mail (unlike in Vanilla and Burning Crusade).  I hardly ever mine.  I don't ever have my detect mining up because I've left my improved tracking off once or twice before.  So, Blacksmithing really just gets me some stamina. Cataclysm's Blacksmithing weapons are all BoE.  The same with Leatherworking.  Engineering however looks to have some fabulous ranged weapons and of course the helm.  They also have some gem-like stuff.  Engineering items are listed as Bind on Pickup.  But World of Raids refers to them as BoE.   If they are BoP, it will suck big time and might push me over to doing BS/Engineering.  Reminds me a little of college.

Work Makes Play Sometimes Less Playful

Just want to do a little work plug here. My video transcoding system processed over 1,300 outputs (various different formats and bitrates) for one day in one day for http://e3.gamespot.com. Their video coverage of E3 is extreme.

I remember a little story about how some people wanted to recruit heavy-duty Star Trek fans for participating in actually making the Star Trek world. The result was that the fans didn't want any part of it. They had normal jobs and wanted to do their own thing. That always struck me as odd, because I always thought it would be great to publish a story or contribute to the science lore.

I love my job. But working somewhat on the other side of it now, it's easier to enjoy something that is not directly related to my work. So I think those Trekkies made the right move.

Getting Uber Skillz

The next big consideration for Kheldul is if he will drop his mining profession in favor of a more dps-oriented profession.

Here's the thing. I hardly ever bother to put up my ore tracking anymore. I strongly suspect that if I do, I'll forget to flip it back to a "dps" tracking type. I don't want to accidentally take a -5% dps hit.

I'm also not in love with my "main" tradeskill, Blacksmithing. Back in the day, I could choose to create epic mail. And as a Master Axesmith, I could and did make nice BoP epic two handed stat-axes. Click on this link and see them all. Kinda pathetic these days eh?

So I leveled my Blacksmithing skill up so I could add slots to my gloves and bracers. And I only mine if I stumble over an ore pop.

Skinning would make a lot of sense given the slaughter-fests I sometimes do for farming meat. But that's not really fun. And the skinning minor buff isn't going to do much compared with the mining buff.

Jewelcrafting would be very nice to have 3 special gems. But that's pretty much all it would be for me. I already have an advanced JC alt that makes decent cash "creating value" for people via the AH. The alt has about half the epic and most of the blue patterns. It would be a very long and expensive haul for just 42 agility.

Is there a more fun route? One that has decent buffs too?

Super Cheap Ammo

The Ultrasafe Bullet Machine and Saronite Arrow Maker schematics have been simplified to create a full stack of the appropriate ammunition. No longer requires an anvil. Reduced the materials required to make this ammunition.

My read on this is that less materials are required and it produces 5x the amount of ammo. So say instead of 25g in mats for a machine, it's only 20g in mats. Then it produces 5x the amount, so it's really 5g? It sounds like these will be cheaper to use than filling up stacks of rep vendor Timeless Shells. That would really help reduce one of the consumable costs of raiding. Ahh, but I'm probably misinterpreting it. I bet instead of ten by 200, it just makes two by 1000. ...As if that's helpful.

Rant: Blacksmithing for the Lose

Four years ago, I was trying to figure out what professions would go well with a Dwarf Hunter. I thought mining and either blacksmithing or engineering. Then I thought, naw.. engineering isn't dwarvish enough. So knowing that I could make some decent weapons and some mail in the future, I rolled with it. And blacksmithing could make some decent melee weapons and some decent mail. It was quickly out-classed by drops, but that was the way it was with all professions.

Then along came the run to level 70. Well, I swapped my "sword-smithing" out for "axe-smithing" as I saw the new tastey first, second, and third tier axes I could craft. I did this even though there was decent smithing and armor-smithing mail there too. But sadly, the somewhat elusive first drop in Kara out-classed those craftables. So, I at least felt good as resident blacksmither for guild BoEs, and made some decent coin from sharpening stones.

Now level 80 comes around. Yes, I do like having the ability to add slots to my gloves and bracers. That's pretty cool. But there is hardly any reason for me to go beyond a skill of 400. There is zero mail craftable. There are dozens of plate items. There are very very few weapons.

Should I re-roll blacksmithing as something else?