Choosing a profession at the start of the expansion has, in the past, been a fairly daunting task (for those of us who haven’t stuck with the same one since Day 1). But, thankfully, as information as been collected about Profession design in Mists of Pandaria, we’ve seen profession bonuses that look a lot more even. No longer are we looking at a host of options that vary between secondary stats, primary stats, buffs, procs, and specialty items. In MoP, the choices have been vastly simplified. So today I just wanted to quickly impart the data that I’ve amassed on each of professions and hopefully make healers’ lives a little bit easier heading into pandaland by giving you a broad summary of each profession, in terms of the numbers, the associated gear, and the frosting on the cake. (As always, if you see anything that I’ve missed or incorrectly represented, do submit a comment or shoot me an email so that I can correct it).
Professions by the Numbers
| Profession | PVE Benefits | P/C/U | Intellect | Spirit | Other |
| Alchemy | Mixology+Trinket | C | 320 | (or) 480 | |
| Blacksmithing | Glove and Bracer sockets | C | 320 | (or) 640 | |
| Enchanting | Ring Enchants | C | 320 | n/a | |
| Engineering | Glove Tinker+Helm | U | 320 | n/a | |
| Herbalism | Lifeblood | U | n/a | n/a | 480 haste |
| Inscription | Shoulder Enchant | C | 320 | ||
| Jewelcrafting | JC Gems | C | 320 | (or) 320 | |
| Leatherworking | Bracer Enchant | C | 330 | n/a | |
| Mining | Toughness | C | n/a | n/a | 480 stam |
| Skinning | Master of Anatomy | C | n/a | n/a | 480 crit |
| Tailoring | Cloak Enchant | P | 320 | (or) 750 |
Notes:
- C = Constant, P = Proc-Based, U = On-Use
- Other potential secondary stat gains are excluded, if applicable (eg: Elixirs for Alchemy, which would provide secondary stats)
- Alchemy: mana gain assumes the use of the Alchemy trinket
- Tailoring: Lightweave = 2000 Int/15sec (60sec ICD) = 500 static – 180 Int Ench = 320 Int OR Darkglow = 3000 Spirit/15sec (
50 sec ICD60sec proc window) =900750 static. Note: Wowhead is reporting 50sec ICD with 15% proc chance, but it seems a more realistic estimate would be 55-60sec between procs. So, thanks to Therya for giving me the nudge to be more conservative.
- Tailoring: Darkglow embroidery procs will be distributed by Mana Tide
- Alchemy: values assume Flask use, elixirs can be used to gain 480 in secondary stats
- Inscription:
At the moment, there does not appear to be a BOE equivalent to Secret Serpent Pearl Inscription. So the net gain is the full amount of Spirit for Scribes.Note: per Ciory’s and JDH’s comments below, this enchant appears to have been removed from the game. So, Inscription remains an Int-only option. - Herbalism: Lifeblood’s proc is 2880 haste / 20 sec (120sec CD) = 480 haste (static average)
Healer/Hybrid Gear
The following list contains gear items of note from each profession. If an item is available only to players who have that profession, it will be noted with (BoP)
Alchemy
- Zen Alchemist Stone (BoP!)
Blacksmithing
- Paladin Lightsteel Set (Set Link)
- Forgewire Axe / Masterwork Forgewire Axe
- Masterwork Lightsteel Shield
- Paladin: Living Steel Breastplate, Living Steel Gauntlets
- Paladin: Gauntlets of Unbound Devotion (Requires rare raid crafting mat)
- Paladin: Chestplate of Limitless Faith (Requires rare raid crafting mat)
Enchanting
- none
Engineering
- Ghost Iron Dragonling (BoP)
- Druid/Monk: Camouflage Retinal Armor (BoP)
- Shaman: Energized Retinal Armor (BoP)
- Priest: Lightweight Retinal Armor (BoP)
- Paladin: Specialized Retinal Armor (BoP)
- Available tinkers: Sparkling Tinker’s Gear, Fractured Tinker’s Gear, Quick Tinker’s Gear, Smooth Tinker’s Gear
Herbalism
- none
Inscription
- Greater Crane Wing Inscription (Enchant – only craftable by Scribes)
- Rain Poppy Staff
- Inscribed Fan / Inscribed Red Fan
- Inscribed Crane Staff
- Relic of Chi Ji (Darkmoon Fair card)
Jewelcrafting
Leatherworking
- Shaman: Lifekeeper’s Gloves, Lifekeeper’s Robe, Fists of Lightning, Stormbreaker Chestguard
- Druid/Monk: Nightfire Robe, Liferuned Leather Gloves, Wildblood Gloves, Wildblood Vest
Mining
- None
Skinning
- None
Tailoring
- Greater Pearlescent Spellthread (Enchant – craftable only by Tailors)
- Priest (w/out Spirit): mperial Silk Gloves, Robe of Eternal Rule, Spelltwister’s Gloves, Spelltwister’s Grand Robe
- Priest (w/ Spirit): Legacy of the Emperor, Touch of the Light, Gloves of Creation, Robes of Creation
Extras and Shiny Things
The following items are the new and shiny extra bonuses associated with each profession come MoP. (Although these shouldn’t really impact your selection of a profession for raiding, but I’d be lying if I said that one of the reasons I’m so interested in sticking with JC is because of the Panther mounts!) Items that are available only to players who have that profession are noted as “[Profession] only”.
Alchemy
- Alchemist’s Flask (Alchemist only)
- Alchemist’s Rejuvenation (Alchemist only)
Blacksmithing
- No new items
Enchanting
- No new items
Engineering
- Wormhole Generator: Pandaria
- Blingtron 4000
- Advanced Deepdive Helmet
- Mist-Piercing Goggles
- Geosynchronous World Spinner
- Depleted-Kyparium Rocket
- Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
- Watergliding Jets (Engineer only)
- Goblin Glider (Engineer only)
Herbalism
- Water Spirit (WoWhead notes these can be obtained by non-herbalists through Enigma Seeds)
- Life Spirit (ditto of above note)
Inscription
Jewelcrafting
- Jeweled Onyx Panther (this is the combination of all of the other panthers)
- Jade Panther
- Ruby Panther
- Sapphire Panther
- Sunstone Panther
Leatherworking
- No new items
Mining
- No new items
Skinning
- No new items
Tailoring
- No new items
One last thing to note: I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the absolutely great guides put together by Perculia on each of the MoP professions. They can be found here:
- Alchemy/Herbalism
- Blacksmithing
- Enchanting
- Engineering
- Inscription
- Jewelcrafting
- Leatherworking
- Tailoring
Last Tweets
Nice post thanks you! it’s gona help me chose witch profession my monk will be!
How does inscription have the option of a spirit bonus?
At the moment, Secret Serpent Pearl Inscription provides 520 Spirit/100 Crit. I had in my notes that there was a BOE variant of that same enchant, but upon looking again this afternoon, there doesn’t seem to be anything listed in the Wowhead dtb. So, I’ve modified the value to show a full gain of 520 Spirit for the Scribe.
Oh awesome
I’m still annoyed they overlooked the BS perks in light of the secondary stat changes. Combined with decoupling int from healer mana, but not buffing ints effect on throughput, spirit really feels like a primary stat, and the perk is flat out twice as strong for them. At least they didn’t just double the JC gems too!
For me the perks of Alchemy are too awesome to drop, also as guild lead being able to drop cauldrons and keep the bank full of potions if handy. I just dropped Engineering for Inscription as my second profession, having both feed off a single raw material seems like a nice perk in itself after an expansion of engineering being under utilized thanks to only watching the herb market. Hardly a reason for those with gathering alts, but I don’t level a toon unless im raiding on it, so they all gather from the AH >_>
i’m uncertain about the Alchemist’s Flask (Alchemist only) the bonus of intel on it is way higher of a normal flask that give 1000 intel. so it’s like a bonus of 2420 intel by drinking this flask. this is probably bug! what do you think?
The haste bonus for herbalism, is that an average?
Also, herbalism has one other added use. We get the spirit of water and spirit of life while picking herbs. Water spirit is a bop mana potion – 30k mana. Not precisely a raid bonus, but free mana pots is a nice little extra.
Correct–the 480 haste is the average haste contribution of Lifeblood over the course of an encounter.
And great find about the Spirits! I’ve added those into the Extras section.
I think that the Secret Serpent Pearl enchant was removed from the game in an earlier beta build; those are the comments someone made on the Beta forums, and it does not appear on the trainer at all.
Assuming that, and assuming that Spirit is going to be the #1 stat for healers (which it should at least for the first tier if not longer), here is how I would rank the professions.
1. Tailoring – Comes out on top, because not only does it allow an INT vs Spirit option, Darkglow Embroidery also replaces an existing INT cloak enchant, allowing swapping more INT to Spirit than any other profession.
2. Blacksmithing – The only profession that allows a Spirit profession bonus, and provides it at a 2:1 ratio compared to INT. BS is worth 640 Spirit, compared to Alchemy or Jewelcrafting providing 320
3. Alchemy – With a Spirit flask, it’s worth +320 Spirit. It’s tied with JC, but I would rank it higher, both because it’s easier/cheaper to level and because with cauldrons going away, the double duration flasks save you a load of gold.
4. Jewelcrafting – +320 Spirit. It doesn’t make sense that the JC only gems don’t provide Spirit: INT at a 2:1 ratio to be in line with the BS perk.
5. Leatherworking – +330 INT. It is INT, but for some reason, it provides 10 more INT than the other professions.
6/7 – Inscription and Enchanting – Both provide the same +320 INT bonus. Both are only really “acceptable” professions, and you should be looking to dump them for one of the top 5 if you really want to min/max
8. Skinning – This is for Resto Shaman only, but +480 Crit adds regen through Resurgence, and is probably more valuable for Shaman than Engineering.
9. Engineering – On use INT was weak for healers before 5.0.4, and only becomes weaker without it affecting Replenishment/mana pool size anymore. On top of that, it looks like there are several on use trinkets in T14, which will invoke a shared lockout with Synapse Strings. Should be avoided as a profession.
10. Herbalism – I guess it could be somewhat useful macroing Lifeblood to Divine Hymn/Healing Tide/Tranquility if you’re too lazy to get a proper profession
11. Mining – Near completely useless.
A couple things to note:
1. If Darkglow’s bonus is no longer being distributed via Mana Tide, that’s a huge hit to the benefit of the profession.
2. Tailoring does take an additional hit in terms of usefulness because Darkglow requires you to sacrifice an additional 180 Intellect (from the cloak enchant) for that additional Spirit. So, instead of it becoming a question of ~320 Int versus ~750 Spirit, it’s actually a question of +320Int or +750Spirit/-180Int. So, you have to ask if that Spirit difference between Tailoring and the next highest Spirit profession (Blacksmithing) is worth the additional loss of Intellect? 180 Int for 110 Spirit (= 750 – 640)? Probably not. Again, my answer would more likely be “yes” if #1 above wasn’t a factor.
3. Although I agree about Alchemy being a gold savings, there’s no way that should factor into profession min/maxxing.
4. Engineering – I disagree with you here. Yes, on-use Int hasn’t historicially been as powerful for Resto Shaman as it has for other classes, because we haven’t had raid cooldowns that boost our own output, but that doesn’t mean that will be the case going forward. With HTT, Ascendance, and Primal Elementalist at our disposal now, Synapse Springs can contribute to a big boost in output. Even UL+HR on a raid at 50% HP would see a significant jump in HPS just through a +Int proc, because remember, in that situation not only are you benefiting from UL’s multiplier, but also Mastery’s multiplier on your effective healing as well.
How you value Tailoring will depend on how you value INT vs Spirit at a 1:1 ratio. I believe that given the mana constraints at level 90, Spirit > INT even 1:1. What Darkglow allows you to do is replace that 180 INT with Spirit plus get a Spirit profession perk (something no other profession allows). Of course, if you believe that INT > Spirit, it’s not going to be as strong.
Also, I don’t necessarily know that Darkglow not working with Mana Tide is that big of a negative. You want to use MTT on cooldown (at least after the first use), and Darkglow has about a 25% uptime. As a result, if it did work with MTT, and you were trying to line up MTT uses with Darkglow procs, you potentially would be losing as much or more regen from waiting on procs and getting less MTT uses than you would gain from them lining up. It’s a lot like trying to line up Divine Plea/Innervate/Shadowfiend with Power Torrent procs; in theory it sounds great, but in practice, you often do more harm than good.
Any CD like MTT isn’t about using it on CD, but getting the most out of it on a fight. If you could get 3.8 MTT drops in a fight, the 0.8 does nothing for you. If you could use that 0.8 waiting for a spi proc buffing the 3 MTT drops you were going to have anyway, you are winning.
Not that it matters if its not going to buff it anyway. It does make it relatively better for other healers however, if the value we place on Spi is going to be semi equal to other healers, and its interaction with MTT is included in that value, the tailoring proc becomes better for everyone else.
Again, not important though, different healers are different, and shaman without TC have always been more hungry for Spi than the others.
The Secret Serpent Pearl enchant was indeed removed. They took it out of my profession book, off the trainer and the shoulders I have with that enchant on them no longer give the stats when I put them on. This turns Inscription into a 320 Int only profession.
As of several builds ago, Mixology is giving 480 Spirit when you quaff a Flask of the Falling Leaves (1000 Spirit flask). The remainder of the primary stat flasks are still giving 320 Int/Agi/Str through Mixology. The Stamina flask also gives 480 Stamina through Mixology.
Final note is about tailoring. It’s true that the Darkglow Rank 2 still gets distributed through Mana Tide on live servers, but the rank 3 Darkglow (the 3000 spirit version) DOES NOT go through Mana Tide. I test this every build on my tailor Shaman because in early builds it did indeed get rolled into mana tide, but it has been several builds now that it has not.
Awesome comments; thanks for the information. I’ve updated the table accordingly.
That’s definitely a hit to Tailoring’s benefits if Darkglow is no longer being distributed. I was giving some serious consideration to making the switch, but without that gain, it’s certainly not as appealing. (The real kicker is, all of this is subject to change before/after release!)
If the Spirit flask is giving +480 Spirit, that leaves Alchemy as the third strongest profession. Even if Darkglow does not affect Mana Tide, it still is going to be the strongest profession perk in any situation where you value Spirit at least at a 1:1 ratio with INT. The proc is worth 818 Spirit on average. Yes, you lose 180 INT from the regular non-tailor cloak enchant, but even factoring that in, it beats every other profession.
I recently made the switch to Tailoring/Blacksmithing on my Shaman for that reason. AoE looting makes it much easier to level now if your server is like mine and doesn’t even have the necessary Frostweave/Embersilk available on the AH.
@jdh – actually, I don’t think we need to rate Spirit that high for the purposes of prof bonuses. Yes, we will want lots and lots of spirit, but not to the exclusion of intellect. Here’s my thinking:
Sparkling lapis – 320 spirit
brilliant ruby – 160 int
I can gem 1 spirit gem to get the gain of most professions. I have to gem 2 int gems for the same return.
Given that Spirit is itemized as a secondary stat, anything that brings less than 640 is wasteful imo. Get your large chunk of the higher itemized stat from your profession and gem and gear for spirit.
Oooh I have a new one for you. The Dragonling is still BoE! on the beta. You can socket it with 2 cogs and hand it off. +600 spirit ftw
Ive been following the Darkglow discussion and synergy with Mana Tide. Has anyone confirmed as to whether MTT synergizes with the proc?