If you want to make gold quickly or gear up your alts in The War Within, you need to make sure you’re leveling up the best professions for the expansion. We’ve picked out the top professions to focus on, including tips to help you stay ahead of the curve with your crafting.
Which professions to pick in The War Within
It’s important to note that the best professions for The War Within will change as the game progresses. Some professions, like gathering ones, are more valuable toward the start of an expansion, while others increase in value as the seasons go on.
If you’re concerned about gold-making, it’s worth using an addon to help you keep track of the auction house on your server so you can monitor materials and demand, like Auctionator.
Alchemy
As players are getting stuck into higher-level content in The War Within, they’re be hunting for useful flasks and potions to take with them into their next M+ dungeon. Alchemy craftables help with everything from restoring health in a pinch to useful stat boosts.
Alchemy is a crafting profession, meaning you need to invest a little gold up front if you want to max it out quickly. It’s not the best profession to pick up on your first character, but if you’re hoping to make some gold with an alt, it’s worth the time and effort.
If you’ve got the Herbalism profession on the same character, this can help reduce your upfront investment drastically, as you can hand-pick your own herbs. If not, you can buy everything quickly and easily from the auction house.
Of all the crafting professions available, Alchemy is arguably the easiest to turn into a consistent source of gold, thanks to the long-term value of its craftables.
Engineering
While Alchemy offers the simplest route for gold-makers and raiders, Engineering is the most versatile crafting profession and it’s a worthy pick for The War Within.
Engineers can craft anything from battle pets and mounts to toys that offer speed boosts or change your character’s size. If you’re playing as a Hunter, you’ll be able to tame rare mechanical pets with the Engineering profession too, adding extra value.
Engineering is a worthwhile pick for Mythic+ dungeon fans and raiders. The variety of tools and gadgets that are available through this profession can offer a surprising amount of utility for current-level content—and they’re often quite fun.
Leveling up Engineering can be somewhat expensive, thanks to having to buy most of your materials upfront, so it’s important to keep an eye on the Auction House for any price dips and changes. Again, having the right add-ons can make a big difference.
Mining and Herbalism
While crafting professions do have their perks throughout an expansion, gathering professions are exceptionally useful to pick up during the early stages.
While many people are focusing on Delves and M+ dungeons, this is the perfect opportunity to stock up on rare materials and list them on the Auction House.
The War Within has plenty of Mining and Herbalism nodes scattered around its zones, some with new quirks like secondary stat boosts or DoT poison debuffs. Certain ore nodes even come with explosive dynamite (these nodes are called “EZ-mines”) which can make harvesting them quite risky.
If you pick Mining, pairing it with Blacksmithing is a natural choice. Alchemy and Herbalism synergize well, too, although picking both Mining and Herbalism can give you the opportunity to earn even more gold by selling all your materials on the auction house.
Both of these gathering professions also require minimal effort to get to max level. If you’re short on time but want maxed out professions, these two could be perfect for you.
While crafting professions require you to have all the necessary materials and time to create new items, gathering professions like Herbalism only require you to pick a solid route and have a good understanding of what each node type does, like whether it provides a buff or not.
While you’re exploring the map looking for ore and herbs to pick, keep an eye out for profession-specific treasure to help boost your Knowledge Points.
You can find items like Earthen Iron Powder (which is an Alchemy-specific treasure) in Dornogal, behind the Alchemist’s Workbench in the city. Generally, these treasures award three Knowledge Points apiece, making them worth watching out for.
