Hi I have been wrestling with this problem ever since I started fresh by switching realms from Durotan to Moonguard. Reason being is more cross realm stuff has been added meaning I can switch to a more populated realm and still play with my friends. Anyways a new realm means new characters and I was stuck on a limit which is either 5 or 10. 5 would be just enough characters for each profession (excluding engineering which im fine with because I dont really have a main exactly). Evoker: Herb/Mining Hunter: Skin/Leather Druid: Inscr/Tail Shaman: BS/JC Monk: Alch/Ench. With 10 I could double or triple up on some professions but that would probably be alot of mats to gather. Is it worth it getting more characters for more professions for the specialzation trees, for referecence ill be grinding 2 to 3 hours a night for gathering professions like skin, mining, herb, tail, inscr. Or if I start at the beginning of the next expac (since this one is ending semi soon) will I be able to fully or mostly fill out the profession trees if I keep grinding for it. My other 5 characters would be paladin, warrior, rogue, priest, mage. Any advice or help appreciate, or any guides also.
The way TWW professions work is that they give you one item you can fully max out within an hour or two of starting. Usually there is a halo of items you can max out with concentration nearby the item you picked. No grinding necessary.
By making more than one, you can choose multiple specializations and have everything maxed out very quickly. I should know. I got Khaz Algar Master of All in the first week and in the second week I had multiple of almost every profession. You really don’t need to max out the tree. By one month in I had everything I could possibly want to make except for those whose recipes I don’t have because they were drops.
So it’s up to you how you want to approach this. Do you want everything quickly? Then more alts is the way. Do you want to be able to make everything in that profession on one character? Then you’ll be filling out the trees for a while.
Also grinding gathering professions isn’t strictly necessary either. There is a grind, but it’s definitely not 3 hours a night for weeks. It takes (and yes I have timed this) 1.5 hours to get 250 artisans acuity/50 knowledge points for herbalism by grinding the catch-up. Once you get to a certain point in the tree the remaining points are more or less useless. Keep in mind that perception as a stat is the worst stat in the game. I would rate it worse than deftness. So any wheel whose sole purpose is to give you perception is a complete waste of time. Similarly skill scales extremely slowly so once you reach the point where you can get rank 3, it’s only a mild improvement to add more skill. So you really don’t need to fill those trees either.
Thanks for the reply this gave me alot to think about and honestly I think im going to have 10 characters in the long run, at the very least for learning their lore like the legion class halls. Also im surprised perception is so bad as a stat I always considered deftness to be worse since I don’t mind taking a little longer, but ill take your word for it since I never noticed that big of a difference for it either. I plan on doing all pandaren for the classes im doing and eventually the classes that will come to them eventually (druid, paladin, maybe evoker visage). I dont think I plan on doing warlock, dk, and dh, since that doesn’t really fit the vibe for Pandaren, idk maybe ill change my mind but most likely not. Also im kinda hoping that they dont make you gather items bolts from mobs from the next expac for engineering. I say this only because its an uneven number right now for professions that can gather and get items off of mobs. Herbs, Ore, Leather/Chitin, Cloth, Darkmoon Cards, and Engineering bolts, Which means gotta make another character just to gather stuff. But with 10 characters ill have atleast just one for engineering and that will be my monk just because even if I plan on getting atleast 4 high level (Monk, Druid, Paladin, Evoker) monk will be my main. Again thanks for the reply I really appreciate it.
No problem!
The reason why perception is bad:
- Whenever you roll a rare item, you roll perception to determine if you get a second one.
- Because the second event depends on the first one, the odds of it occurring = odds of the first event x odds of the second event.
- For example, null stone has a 5% drop chance. The max perception you can get for mining is 35.0%. The odds of getting a perception proc is 5%*35%=1.75%. That’s with MAX perception.
- Due to this low probability, the amount of nodes you need to tap to see a statistically significant difference is around 3500 nodes. At 250 nodes per hour, that’s 14 hours of mining. That’s more mining than I would do in 3 months.
- the difference between having a maxed perception build vs. a maxed finesse build after 3 months of mining is only +29 increase in null stones on average (236 null stones for perc build vs 207 null stones for finesse build).
- Adding perception means you’re not applying finesse. The COST of having 1.75% additional chance to get rare materials is around 10% loss in normal materials.
Here’s a sample run that I did. In each case, I mined for 2 hours in the Isle of Dorn:
With 728 finesse (728/30 = 24.3% finesse) and 1051 perception (1051/30 = 35.0% perception) from a perception tool and perception enchant the results were:
- 1670 total ore
- 28 null stones
With 1197 finesse (1197/30 = 39.9% finesse) and 552 perception (552/30 = 18.4% perception) from a finesse tool and finesse enchant the results were:
- 1862 total ore
- 32 null stones
The perception increase was not enough to show a greater result than just RNG. (i.e. not statistically significant)
The reason why deftness is good depends on the gathering profession. It is good for all three gathering types.
- For mining, EZ mine is a deftness challenge, where you must mine as fast as you can. This one overload accounts for 23% of my total yield.
- For skinning, wolf/bee farm groups require you to skin as many mobs as you can, as fast as you can.
- For herbalism, deftness allows you to complete your bar faster. This allows you to grab herbs even when mobs hit you (because their hit timers are slower than your herbalism cast bar).
Yeah I am hoping they keep refining professions because as great as it is now from Dragonflight, it does kinda feel as though its still a work in progress. Im curious to see how good professions will be for housing because I will def be pouring alot of effort into it. Also I think ill keep my evoker as my herb/ore gatherer just for the extra skyriding boost from its racial while now knowing that the perception stat is really just not worth it in its current state. Once again thanks for all the info 
!