Professions in Forever: start here (Horde)

Live = Blizzard confirmed for launch · Beta = beta client, datamine or beta notes, recheck at launch

The basics

• 9 primaries: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Herbalism, Mining, Skinning Live
• 3 secondaries: Cooking, Fishing, First Aid Live
• No Jewelcrafting or Inscription in Blizzard's list Live
• You can learn 2 primaries and all 3 secondaries Live
• Ranks: Apprentice 75, Journeyman 150, Expert 225, Artisan 300 Beta
• Higher ranks need both character level and skill Live. Crafting: skill 50 / 125 / 200 and level 10 / 20 / 35 (Icy Veins, ForeverDB) Beta
• ! Gathering levels: guides disagree (see the Herbalism post) Beta
• Unlearn: open Professions (K), click the X Live
• Beta capped at 30: Artisan (level 35) was never tested Beta

What's new

• New 600+ new recipes across professions and level ranges Live
• New Blueprint recipes drop from dungeon bosses Live
• New Crafted food gives stats plus a small XP bonus Live (+5% kill XP on the beta tooltips Beta)
• New Healing potions moved from Alchemy to First Aid Beta
• New Some BS and LW recipes are random dungeon drops Beta
• New Merchant's Favor: crafting reputation with Durotar Supply and Logistics, just west of the Crossroads (Barrens) Beta
• New Legacy perks for professions, see below Live
• Many crafted items had their vendor sell price cut in beta: vendoring crafts is not a gold plan Beta

Camping: how it works

• Cooking 1 lets you build a Basic Campfire Live. The kit costs 1 Simple Wood with Flint and Tinder in your bags Beta
• A basic fire holds 3 camp features, one per player Live
• New Cooks get bigger fires: Journeyman Campfire holds 5 (use at Cooking 140), Expert Campfire holds 10 (use at 220) Live
• Sit or craft near the fire for 1 min, then the buffs last 1 h Live
• Sitting, a chair, sleeping, lying down or kneeling all count; you can cast, craft and buff while you wait Beta
• Every feature needs a campfire nearby Live
• All camp features share a 1 h cooldown; campfire kits have a 5 min cooldown Beta
• Camp buffs are mutually exclusive with the matching class buff (Fish Bowl vs Kings and so on) Live
• First features unlock at skill 20, from starter-zone quests or your profession trainer Live
• Skill 140+ features come from Blueprints that drop in dungeons and raids Live
• A higher-tier feature can be placed over its tier-1 version and keeps that buff Beta
• Feature items and Blueprints are not bound: you can trade or AH them, but placing one needs the skill Beta
• ! No camps in major cities, and fires need spacing (Icy Veins only) Beta
• On PvP rulesets enemy players may find your camp Live
• The fire burns: no damage below level 5, less below 90% health. Don't stand in it Beta

Tier 1 features (skill 20)

• Values scale with level; Blizzard gives the ranges Live (Lodestone Beta)
• Lute: 28-260 armour, 0-13 all stats, 0-22 resists Live
• Clashes: Mana Well/Wisdom, Wheel/Strength of Earth Totem, Lute/Mark of the Wild, Candle/Arcane Intellect, Chair/Moonkin Aura, Banner/Divine Spirit, Kit/Power Word: Fortitude, Bowl/Kings Live, Lodestone/Might Beta
• Faction Banner buffs your own faction only, so ours buffs Horde players only Live
• Camp Tent does nothing if your rested XP is already above 5% of a level; it leaves a Boosted Rest debuff Beta
• Reagent Bot sells reagents to you and anyone nearby Live

Camp line-ups for a trio (our suggestion)

• Casters: Mana Well (Alch) + Incense Candle (Herb) + Faction Banner (Tail)
• Melee: Sharpening Wheel (BS) + Lodestone (Mine) + Camp Chair (Skin)
• Any group: Camp Tent (LW) tops up rested XP
• Skip a feature whose class buff your group already brings Live

Tier 2 (skill 140) and tier 3 (skill 300)

All Beta (client and Wowhead tooltips):

• Stations for recipes that need them: Alchemy Laboratory, Master Forge, Arcane Forge, Anarchist's Workbench, Sewing Machine, Molten Foundry, Loom, Iron Oven
• Make certain reagents: Fermenter, Tanning Rack, Spinning Wheel
• Anvil: a field anvil. Repair Bot: repairs plus reagents
• Arcane Salvager: more efficient disenchanting
• Greenhouse grows herbs from planted seeds; Seed Hybridizer multiplies seeds or combines them into rarer tiers
• Rock Garden spawns a common mining node over time
• Field Guide: read it to gain Track Beasts. Trapper's Workbench: holds 1 trap
• Toxin Study: healing potions and anti-venom. Plague Doctor's Lab: healing potions and poultices
• Fishing Rack / Hut: catch uncommon / rare fish for 1 h, plus Fishing lures
• Cookie's Feast lays out Stamina food; Iron Oven is needed for the top Cooking recipes. Both need a cooking fire
• Every one except Anarchist's Workbench, Cookie's Feast and Iron Oven also gives its tier-1 buff

Blueprints: where they drop

Boss and drop rate: Wowhead beta data, small samples, rates will move. Dungeon: Icy Veins and ForeverDB Beta

• Wailing Caverns: Journeyman Campfire (Lord Serpentis, 0.39%), Field Guide (Lady Anacondra, 0.32%)
• New Ruins of Lordaeron (Tirisfal): Fermenter (Rath'mael, 7.72%)
• Shadowfang Keep: Tanning Rack (Razorclaw the Butcher, 0.34%), Toxin Study (Commander Springvale, 0.32%)
• Deadmines (Westfall): Anvil (Gilnid, 0.20%), Repair Bot (Sneed, 0.20%), Cookie's Feast (Cookie, 0.26%)
• Blackfathom Deeps: Fishing Rack (Gelihast, 1.09%)
• New Excavation Site: Wetlands: Rock Garden (Relic Guardian, 7.00%), Greenhouse (Shadetooth, 7.83%)
• New City of Dalaran (Silverpine): Spinning Wheel (Unstable Sentinel, 10.45%). Horde are now attacked on sight in open-world Dalaran, but the dungeon stays open to us Beta
• Scarlet Monastery: Trapper's Workbench (Houndmaster Loksey, 0.02%, skill 300)
• ! Arcane Salvager: Icy Veins says Rath'mael (Ruins of Lordaeron); Wowhead lists no source
• Learn at skill 140 (Journeyman Campfire 90, Expert Campfire 200, tier 3 at 300) Beta
• No known source yet: Expert Campfire and every other skill-300 Blueprint. Our guess: raids, so check after 9 Dec
• Blueprints are tradeable, so the AH is a second route Beta

New Merchant's Favor (crafting rep)

• Two supply factions, "a major source of new tradeskill activities". Ours is Durotar Supply and Logistics Live
• The hub sits just outside the Crossroads' west gate (Wowhead: around 49.7, 29.5). Hand crates to Dokimi Beta
• Mobs anywhere drop Waylaid Crates (low rate, also on the AH). Read the label, fill it with ONE listed bundle (herbs, bars, bolts, dust and so on), hand the sealed crate in for Merchant's Favor Beta
• Green crates want crafted goods and pay double a white crate of the same rank Beta
• First crate carries a Shipping Label: one-off 2,000 rep + 50 Favor Beta
• After that, rep comes from Craftsman's Writs: daily crafting orders worth 75 / 125 / 200 rep Beta
• ! Favor is per character (one guide only) Beta
• Spend it on 300+ profession recipes from seven hub vendors (Alchemy, BS, Cooking, Enchanting, Eng, LW, Tailoring) Beta
• ! Wowhead shows Friendly or Honored on many of those recipes; the client shows none. Not settled Beta
• Gear from those recipes is bind on pickup: made for yourself, not the AH Beta
• Also sold: Reins of the Pack Kodo (6,000 Favor, level 60; two guides add Exalted and Journeyman Riding), Packmule Treat pet (Revered), tabard (Exalted) Beta
• Certifications: 1,000 Favor each, need skill 300, unlock that profession's title for your whole account Beta
• Legacy perk Performance Bonus: chance of extra Merchant's Favor Live

Legacy perks that touch professions

All Live (Blizzard), exact ranks on the Legacy page

• Working Overtime: better skill-up chance in every tradeskill, Lockpicking included
• Bountiful Harvest: extra Scarce resources when mining, herbing or skinning
• Bartering: cheaper vendor prices
• Performance Bonus: sometimes extra Merchant's Favor
• Master Chef: chance of extra results from Cooking
• Luremaster: chance to fish up extra fish
• Dedicated Study: daily cooldown to skill up faster, or free Elemental Essences once all your tradeskills are 300
• Field Guide: shorter 1 h camp feature cooldown
• Field Medicine: shorter Recently Bandaged, not in dungeons, raids or battlegrounds
• Gourmand: longer food buffs
• Permanence: longer party, raid and camping buffs
• Reagent Economy: tier-1 camp features cost no materials
• You can spend up to 16 Legacy points per character at launch

Best pairs by goal (our opinion)

Based on what the recipes use; there are no launch prices yet.

• Raid consumables: Herbalism + Alchemy. New Flasks need Death Lotus, Demonsage or Marefoil and an Alchemy Lab Beta
• Plate and mail gear: Mining + Blacksmithing. New Skill-300 BS uses Heavy Thorium, Legionite and Azerothium Bars Beta
• Leather and mail gear: Skinning + Leatherworking. New Fel Leather, Fel Hide, Pristine Leather/Hide/Scale Beta
• Cloth casters: Tailoring + Enchanting. Arcane Salvager improves disenchanting; some Tailoring 300 recipes take Brilliant Shards Beta
• Gadgets, ammo, travel: Mining + Engineering (Thorium, Azerothium, Heavy Thorium in the top recipes) Beta
• Gold while crafting markets settle: two gathering professions; Bountiful Harvest adds Scarce materials Live
• Levelling: all three secondaries. Cooking for Well Fed +5% XP and bigger fires, First Aid for healing potions and bandages Beta

Sources Blizzard Camping · Blizzard Deep Dive · Blizzard Starter Guide · Blizzard Legacy · Blizzard beta notes · Wowhead · Icy Veins · ForeverDB · endgametools