I currently have a Shaman at level 24 with Skinning and LW as my professions. My intent was to be able to make some gear for myself while leveling, as well as endgame. However I’m seeing that, rather than crafting my own gear, I’m finding it quicker, easier, and cheaper to find gear via quests and AH. Also, I’m looking at endgame patterns and I don’t see anything worthwhile for Shamans since everything is Agility and I believe is a trash stat for Classic Enh Shamans.
Is there light at the end of tunnel for LW Shamans endgame, and I’m not seeing anything, or should I consider swapping to a different professions while I can? I’m thinking Herb/Alch will have more benefits during my playthrough and endgame.
Switch to engineering, it enables utility that other professions can’t have, and you can buy all the stuff from other professions. There’s no BoP LW stuff for shaman that is absolutely necessary (unlike tailoring which has good stuff for cloth). Target dummies and grenades will save your life, probably multiple times. Stoneclaw, while good, is not a replacement for dummies. Dummies are a lot stronger, give you two escape CDs, and provide pretty much the only way of escaping from things like town guards or dangerous elites if you aggro.
I second engineering. Getting shadow goggles early is huge and target dummies have saved me more than once when i couldnt vanish due to DoTs.
My only question is should I drop mining now and move over to alch and start making my own pots and just buy the herbs on AH.
I’ve already considered Engineering. Shamans already have a high level of utility, so the extra provided by Eng doesn’t really draw me to it.
But it seems a general consensus is to drop LW.
I have a hunter that is LW / Skinning. Some of the gear I’m able to craft is quite useful and I like being able to supplement my income by selling the skins. I actually enjoy leatherworking - it was the first profession I started back in 2004.
To each their own though!
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I’m doing the same on my hunter. Pretty decent gear in that.
For a hunter, the AGI gear is very useful. But Shaman doesn’t have the same level of benefit from that stat. We only get crit % on melee swings. In my opinion, STR is a much more useful stat, providing raw attack power and stronger blocks if you run with a shield. LW doesn’t have many STR mail armor patterns, from what I see.
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If you make it past skill 175 there’s much gear with other stats, and underways you could go for all the recipes with “Random Enchantment”. I would continue, also for the armour kits, and an extra influx of G 
Also, does it matter that there’s not many patterns with +stam or +str, as long as all levels are covered?
What does “stronger block” mean?
Sincere question, I’ve never played a sword-and-board.
In sure you’re aware that, aside from the standard increase in armor value provided from a shield, your character has an ability to preform a “block” that reduces incoming physical attack damage. The amount of damage reduced is generally determined by the ‘block’ value of the shield. However, in Classic at least, that block amount is also increased by your character’s STR.