Leveling Professions Past 350 - WotLK Classic

If you have a new character going into WotLK Classic, either during the pre-patch or later, you have the option to stop leveling up your professions at 350 or to push toward 375 using TBC Classic recipes. In WotLK Classic new professional recipes start at 350, so it makes sense to skip what could be more expensive end-game recipes in Outland for more leveling-friendly recipes in Northrend. But you may want to double-check costs before you ignore leveling professions past 350 using TBC Classic recipes.

Fishing | Inscription | Jewelcrafting | Leatherworking | Tailoring

Check Your Numbers

The numbers for leveling professions past 350 listed below are based on pricing on Pagle-Alliance before the WotLK Classic pre-patch started. I suggest checking your numbers, especially if your server has a much different economy than most or you are going over this decision after the launch of WotLK Classic.

Professions.gg

Professions.gg showing the best skill ups for engineering

Visit the website Professions.gg. Select your server, and then select your profession and set the skill to 350 (or whatever it is currently). They will give you a list of skill-up options, clicking on each one will give you total expected costs based on your server’s auction house data.

I used this same tool for much of the data put together below. Once WotLK Classic is released I expect the site will allow you to directly compare using TBC Classic and WotLK Classic recipes.

Before and After WotLK Classic

Before WotLK Classic fully launches (September 26, 2022) we can only guess at the cost of skilling up professions 350-375 using Northrend materials. During the initial weeks, many items are expected to be expensive, due to initial low supply and high demand, some from wealthy players. This is where going with Outland recipes ahead of time may pay off.

After WotLK Classic has been out for a few weeks and the economy stabilizes then we’ll likely see more professions being cheaper to skill up with Northrend mats than with Outland mats. Costs will be down in Northrend, while supplies will be down in Outland.

How Quickly Do You Need To Reach 450?

Do you need to get a particular profession skilled up quickly? If so know the reason why before you commit to leveling professions past 350. Here are some common professional goals for early WotLK Classic end-game use:

Alchemy 400 = Northrend Alchemy Research
Alchemy 435 = Flasks
Blacksmithing 415 = Eternal Belt Buckle
Blacksmithing 440 = Epic armor
Cooking 450 = Fish Feast
Fishing 380 = Two out of three Fish Feast fish
Fishing 430 = Third Fish Feast fish
Enchanting 350 = Disenchant any Northrend item
Enchanting 400 = Ring enchants
Engineering 380 = Flexweave Underlay
Engineering 400 = Hyperspeed Accelerators
Engineering 405 = Nitro Boosts
Engineering 425 = MOLL-E (portable mailbox), new sappers
First Aid 400 = Heavy Frostweave Bandage
Inscription 385 = Northrend Inscription Research
Inscription 400 = Darkmoon Card of the North
Jewelcrafting 390 = Rare gem recipes
Jewelcrafting 400 = Prospecting Saronite Ore
Jewelcrafting 420 = Meta gem recipes
Leatherworking 400 = Fur Lining
Leatherworking 440 = Epic armor
Tailoring 415 = Ebonweave, Moonshroud, and Spellweave
Tailoring 440 = Epic armor

Alchemy – Worth Leveling Past 350

Alchemy is worth doing with TBC Classic materials, especially if you are honored with Honor Hold/Thrallmar and/or Cenarion Expedition.

Alchemy Lab, Shattrath

Professions.gg cost estimate:

350-360 = 12 gold
360-375 = 60 gold

If you can pick up either the Transmute: Earthstorm Diamond or Transmute: Skyfire Diamond recipes then do those, especially during pre-patch. Either will skill you up to 375, but during pre-patch, the 20-hour cooldown goes away. You can go from 350 to 375 within minutes. Both meta gems should also sell for a decent amount, and if you partner with a jewelcrafter in your guild you may even make a small profit.

Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing is probably worth doing up to 360 with TBC Classic materials, but the cost ramps up after that. Most blacksmiths won’t be in a rush to skill up, so I would consider waiting for Wrath mats to settle down and focus on the new recipes.

Professions.gg cost estimate:

350-360 = 51 gold
360-365 = 220 gold
365-375 = 522 gold

Eternium Rods Approach

Eternium Rod becomes trainable at 360 after pre-patch and offers skill points up to 375. The best part is this is a profitable skill-up approach. Currently, Eternium Bars cost ~70 silver and the rods sell for 4 gold to a vendor. On my server, one can make as many of these as you need and you’ll pocket 80 silver profit each.

Thanks to Cleavis_BIS from the Death Knight Discord for this hot tip.

Cooking – Worth Leveling Past 350

Cooking is worth doing with TBC Classic materials, for everyone. The cooking daily in Dalaran will be a nice source of income in the early days, so show up prepared.

Katherine Lee, the Alliance cooking trainer and daily quest giver

Professions.gg cost estimate:

350-376 = 6 gold

Enchanting

Enchanting right now probably isn’t worth doing before WotLK Classic mats. There is the chance TBC Classic enchanting mats crash in price during the pre-patch, so watch for that. But there should be an excess of new Infinite Dust with all the leveling and unwanted green items in Northrend.

Professions.gg cost estimate:

350-360 = 196 gold
360-375 = 252 gold

Engineering

Engineering may be worth doing with TBC Classic materials, but check your server’s market first. The estimates below assume you can sell the Khorium Power Cores and repair bots you’ll be making. Probably not for a profit, but you’ll be able to recoup a lot of your cost. The repair bots will have some demand during the week of WotLK Classic raiding, but after that, I expect the new Scrapbot Construction Kits will take over.

Professional Mats for engineering and jewelcrafting

Professions.gg cost estimate:

350-360 = 103 gold
360-375 = 204 gold

First Aid – Worth Leveling Past 350

First Aid is worth doing with TBC Classic materials. It is stupid cheap right now and will remain cheap through the pre-patch. Save the new Frostweave cloth for bag upgrades later.

Professions.gg cost estimate:

350-375 = 7 gold

Fishing

Fishing is worth doing during TBC Classic. It offers a profitable daily in Dalaran and there will be food buff fish and other items worth gathering in Northrend. That said, it is worth being aware of changes to skilling up fishing between TBC Classic regular and WotLK Classic pre-patch.

Starting in WotLK Classic pre-patch fishing will change in a few ways:

The fishing timer is shorter, meaning faster skilling up
Can fish anywhere and skill up, but you will only catch junk until at the appropriate skill level for the area
Learning fishing 1-375 no longer requires any books or special quests, just visit a fishing trainer
Completing Nat Pagle’s quest will now reward Nat’s Lucky Fishing Pole, the best fishing pole you can easily get going into Northrend (if you had previously completed his quest he will give you the new poll instantly.)

Cost estimate:

No gold, but a decent amount of time

Inscription

The inscription will be worth doing with TBC Classic materials, but you can only get up to 365. After that, all Outland taught recipes go gray and you have to wait for the new trainers in Northrend. All Outland herbs can be milled for the same needed pigment, so go with whatever is cheapest (likely Ragveil). Use it to create any of these glyphs.

The inscription shop in Dalaran, extra busy during the beta test

You’re paying the cost now to get access to making the new Darkmoon cards later ASAP. Those will be a lottery, but a winning card can more than pay for your entire profession.

Cost estimate:

350-365 =100 gold

Jewelcrafting

Jewelcrafting is worth doing with TBC Classic materials. It isn’t so much that it is cheap now, but that it’ll be expensive over the first few weeks of WotLK Classic. Jewelcrafting is a BiS PvE profession for many classes, so there will be a lot of demand for leveling materials.

Buy the cheapest Talasite recipe you can find at the auction house. Then buy up to 50 Talasite and cut them to go from 350-375. Vendor the Talasite when done. You could also cut meta gems for the last 10 skill points and possibly turn a profit on those if you or a friend are working on alchemy.

Professions.gg cost estimate:

350-375 = 189 gold

Leatherworking

Leatherworking is not worth doing and you want to wait for WotLK Classic materials. The high-end TBC recipes are expensive and demand will quickly drop during pre-patch. Meanwhile, new leathers will be plentiful in Northrend and fewer players will be leatherworking this time around, as one drum will work for the entire raid.

The leatherworking shop in Dalaran, where you can train to level past 350 using Northrend mats

Professions.gg cost estimate:

350-365 = 147 gold
365-375 = 250 gold

Tailoring – Worth Leveling Past 350 With a Trick

Tailoring is probably worth doing with TBC Classic materials. I would suggest waiting until after the pre-patch arrives. Review prices for Primal Mooncloth materials and Primal Mooncloth Bags. Primal Mooncloth loses its 4-day cooldown in pre-patch, and it can get you to 375. It may be cheap or even profitable to produce the cloth and turn it into bags rather than follow a standard guide.

Professions.gg cost estimate:

350-360 = 69 gold
360-375 = 243 gold