Ideal professions for a Holy/Ret Paladin In TBC?

I was wondering what would be the “Ideal” two professions to have if Classic TBC launches. I plan to play a paladin, I’m not full decided on if I want to play Holy or Ret just yet though. I will be mainly raiding and not worried about the PvP content and I already know that apparently Leatherworking is the “BiS” for drums and the legs enchant…

Beside that obvious LW profession, I have also been considering Jewelcrafting for the necklace and ring and dropping it after to go back to Alchemy…I kind of like the feeling of being able to make my own potions and supplies. If I stuck with Alchemy I would most likely just stay with Herbalism too for the self staining of material. Some have said that JC/Alch is great too.

-Also prot paladins are suppose to be GOD tier for gold farming so respecting to that when I need gold would always be a option too

I guess the big question to sum things would be…Are the items from Jewelcrafting / Blacksmithing & Alchemy really all that worth it compare to heroic dungeon items and later on Tier 4 to tier 5 items during raids…

  • I don’t plan on creating alts for min/max gathering or alchemy etc…

Any thoughts?

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If you want the best prot farming friendly profession I’d say enchanting so you can disenchant stuff as you farm old world dungeons

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Leatherworking isn’t actually all that useful for a Paladin (of any flavor).

Your Retribution Paladin will almost certainly be in a group that can use Drums effectively (i.e. a dps group). However, they’ll be in that group with a Rogue, a Feral Druid an Enhancement Shaman and probably a Hunter - all of whom will take Leatherworking as a matter of course. So while it’s potentially useful for your Retribution Paladin to have Drums, chances are it’s unnecessary.

Your Holy Paladin is going to be planted firmly in a group with a pile of healers, so they don’t need Drums at all. At best, it could be argued they might use Drums of Restoration. But Drums of Restoration are so weak that it’s normally better to just have your healers take professions like Enchanting for the individual benefits rather than try to buff their group. Especially when you consider your Holy Paladin themselves won’t particularly need the Drums once the damage starts flying and they start crit’ing.

The leg enchant is just a trade good, so there’s no reason to be a Leatherworker for it.

Alchemy is a traditional profession for a healer. However, you won’t get the really good trinket until SWP and the main reason the trinket is so good for healers is the 40% additional mana from potions… which isn’t all that great for a healer with Spiritual Attunement, Illumination and limited ways to spend massive amounts of mana in a short period of time.

Jewelcrafting is a bit of an odd duck. It provides trinkets that are decent enough for any given role, but rarely BiS for any role. It provides some unique gems that are minor upgrades initially and purchasable by anyone in SWP. It provides BiS necks very late in the expansion. So it could be considered good for any class/spec, but not exceptional for any.

Gathering professions are normally not taken (or, at least, kept) by raiding toons since they provide no raid benefits. If you need materials, just farm other stuff and use the proceeds to buy them on the AH.

If you plan to swing a weapon at all, you’ll normally want to pick up Blacksmithing or PvP - at least initially. While you’ll get better weapons long-term, your weapon is the most important item you carry so being able to accelerate gear acquisition there is incredibly helpful. Blacksmithing also provides some BoP raid drops for Paladins.

Engineering can be useful, especially if you have multiple roles in mind for the same character. However, the helms don’t appear until Black Temple (which would likely be a ‘phase 2’ or later if they release that way).

Enchanting is generally consider the best overall profession since the ring enchants can be helpful for anyone and they’re just a flat addition to whatever else you’re doing while the value of the other professions varies quite a bit based on what gear you’re seeing from raids.

Lastly, Holy Paladins are arguably better at AE farming than Protection Paladins. The top half of the Protection tree is primarily useful for holding threat or dealing with raid bosses rather than increasing AE output or surviving a large swarm of minor minions.

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Ultimately, it depends on what you want to do with your character. Each tradeskill has pros and cons. Want gold? Double gathering or gathering + Enchanting.

In the original TBC, I was a skinner and enchanter until cap level. I used skinning to finance enchanting. Then when I capped enchanting and hit 70, I dropped skinning and took leatherworking. The gold I made from Enchanting was good enough to completely finance my LW to cap. This was on my Druid, but the same idea applies.

On my paladin, I was Jewelcrafting and Mining.

Realistically, I’d say the most useful would be Enchanting for the Ring enchants and Alchemy so you can make your own pots.

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Thanks for the very in depth explanation on all the professions. When you said “If you plan to swing a weapon at all, you’ll normally want to pick up Blacksmithing” That completely summed up my holy or ret dilemma lol… If I knew for 100% I was going ret Id for sure have BS! There is plenty of time to decide and your totally right, If I can just gold farm and buy mats off the auction, I guess that would be more efficient anyways then trying to find them.

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I will say, Enchanting and Alchemy does sound nice. I really do want to keep Alchemy in some regards, not so much for the trinkets but for potions like you said! I guess the deciding factor really would be is if I plan to be a ret… Then id probably want Blacksmith/Alchemy and just gold farm for mats post 70 of course. If I went holy…I’d want Alchemy/Whatever I’d benefit most from…honestly that Alchemy/Enchanting is sounding really nice considering that I also currently have a warlock at level 60 currently and could make that my gather alt for herbs if needed

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Personally wither your going for ret or holy as a paladin, Enchanting/Alchemy is very strong. The gold from enchanting items during solo / carry farms and usefulness of having extra perks from making your own potions is very strong. Like others have stated, enchanting gives great ring enchants and alchemy gives a very nice “Not bis” but very good trinket endgame. If Leatherworking is not required, the only other profession I would consider would be blacksmith/jewelcrafting for the items and those get replaced during raids unlike enchanting/alchemy which last a life time.

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If your looking for longevity and consistency go for Alchemy/Enchanting

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I second this, but if you plan on raiding as retribution, consider taking blacksmithing for the weapon as they will be your primary source of damage! Of course they can be filled with lesser pre-raid bis items where you wont see a dramatic shift in dps anyways…Imo this is all depended on if you want to min/max or not

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Holy Paladins who solo will often need to a swing a weapon - you can’t just patiently Consecrate everything to death. The other reason to pick up Blacksmithing is that 25-man raids drop Blacksmithing recipes that create BoP healing Plate. As the Holy Paladin, you are the only person in the entire raid that can possibly use these recipes so they’ll go to waste unless you’re a Blacksmith.

This isn’t a huge deal - it’s generally only one piece of gear per tier - but it’s still wasted loot that you could be using to save a tier token someone else could use.

Indeed, this is one of the reasons for the ‘always take your armorcrafting profession’ rule-of-thumb. From the guild’s standpoint, wasting those drops slows guild progression.

Blacksmithing through tiers 4 and 5 if you’re going to be mainspeccing ret is mandatory if you’re serious about raiding, + it removes alot of the heart ache from not seeing weapon drops.

If you go holy it’s basically whatever you want as while haste is awesome for snapping off your casts quicker, it’s also a recipe for you to burn your mana significantly faster and in early tiers mana can be a concern.

My advice is find out what you’re going to play permanently as early as possible. Respeccing is substantially more expensive in TBC if you are swapping roles thanks to your keeper/violet eye ring not changing with your spec.

The thing is the patterns in TBC are weird. You get some BoE patterns that only create BoP’s, then you get BoP patterns that create BoE’s. Factor in that theres isn’t really going to be a whole heap of Platies in raids and armor smithing in my eyes loses a heap of value.

But I do agree the guild wants atleast one.

i like Jc a lot, tons of money

Holy: herbalism/alchemy for pots.

Ret: bs/mining. Probably weaponsmithing, unless you have easier ways to get your weapons.