I am currently herb/alch and will be dropping herb soon. I would like to keep alch since I have some rare recipes and I’m not interested in min maxxing entirely.
I think I have narrowed it down to blacksmithing, jewelcrafting, engineering and my least desired which is enchanting.
I have never done blacksmithing before, are the two handed weapons really good for pre bis? How about crafting patterns in future raid tiers? It sounds like fun to me to craft my own weapons.
Blacksmiths can craft themselves an extra belt gem slot, which is cool. Making the Titansteel Destroyer will probably be important for phase 1, as well as for future alts. It does get replaced pretty easily by drops from Naxx 10. The level 78 blue PvP gear is nice to have when you’re starting battlegrounds, but isn’t BoP, and can be purchased off the AH. Specializing in weaponsmithing/armorsmithing is way less important in Wrath, and not important at all after.
Herbalism/alchemy wouldn’t be bad to hang on to, as you’ll be able to sell potions, elixirs and flasks/transmutes.
I’ll be playing a Ret/Prot Paladin. He’s currently Mining (which I’ll be keeping) and Enchanting. I’m thinking of dropping Enchanting for Blacksmithing. It provides two extra sockets for gems, which provides some flexibility in the bonus stat. I’m not sure how much gear there is to craft that’s useful, but I do quite enjoy making my own gear. That’s one reason I enjoyed playing a Mage with Tailoring in TBC. I don’t think BS provides quite the same benefit in Wrath, but I enjoy it nevertheless.
If you aren’t trying to use professions as a money maker you should probably just go engineering. Its by far the most fun profession and incredibly valuable in almost all content with its enchants especially on a mobility limited spec like ret.