Preface:
This is a guideline for the profession exclusives and utility that each profession currently give to any tank at the current build of Wrath of the Lich King. The ranking at the end of the post is my beliefs about the usefulness and overall value of the profession. Use it for whatever value it gives you.
The biggest thing you need to know is that there has been a paradigm shift with professions. Blizzard has stated that they do not want a repeat of the "best in slot" fiasco that was had in TBC. What does this mean? Simply put, no more Stunheralds, no more Frozen Shadowweave vs Illidan. What do we get instead? For the most part we get stat enhancements and enchantments. There are exceptions to the rule, but all professions have one or the other, while others have a little bonus here and there or a fun item or items.
I have made an attempt to gauge what each profession gives for tanks in general. (Not just those that walk around town with a shield on their back.)
Overview of current profession choices...
Jewelcrafting:
Right now, Jewelcrafting has several interesting BOP items. The biggest of which is the Unique-Equip(3) Jeweler's Gems that are available to them quite early on. These gems are prismatic and thus fill all 3 socket color requirements, making them fulfill most multi color Metagem requirements on their own. The
Monarch Crab is a very powerful and trinket and with a 1 minute CD on its useful dodge "on use". Combine that with the flexibility that having 2 gem sockets in a trinket (the only trinkets in the game currently to have sockets) and this trinket is not one you will replace until you are well within raid content.
Direct Benefits:
Jewelers Gems:
3x
Solid Dragon's Eye, 41 Stamina Gems =
+33 Stamina vs. 3x
Solid Majestic Zircon,
30 Stamina Epic Gems
3x Solid Dragon's Eye, 41 Stamina Gems =
+51 Stamina vs. 3x
Solid Sky Sapphire,
24 Stamina Rare Gems
3x
Subtle Dragons's Eye, 27 Dodge Gems =
+21 Dodge vs. 3x
Subtle Cardinal Ruby,
20 Dodge Epic Gems
3x Subtle Dragons's Eye, 27 Dodge Gems =
+33 Dodge vs. 3x
Subtle Scarlet Ruby,
16 Dodge Rare Gems
3x
Bold Dragons's Eye, 27 Strength Gems = +
21 Strength vs. 3x
Bold Cardinal Ruby,
20 Strength Epic Gems
3x Bold Dragons's Eye, 27 Strength Gems = +
33 Strength vs. 3x
Bold Scarlet Ruby,
20 Strength Rare Gems
Trinkets:
Figurine - Monarch Crab + 2
Solid Magestic Zircon =
123 Stamina
Figurine - Monarch Crab + 1 Solid Magestic Zircon + 1
Enduring Eye of Zul =
108 Stamina + 10 Defense Rating
Figurine - Monarch Crab + 2
Solid Sky Sapphire =
111 Stamina
Figurine - Monarch Crab + 1 Solid Sky Sapphire + 1
Enduring Forest Emerald =
99 Stamina + 8 Defense Rating Figurine - Ruby Hare + 2
Solid Magestic Zircon =
122 Stamina
Figurine - Ruby Hare + 2 Solid Sky Sapphire =
110 Stamina
Figurine - Ruby Hare + 2
Regal Dreadstone =
92 Stamina + 20 Dodge Rating
It is difficult to compare trinkets here. So we will can only generalize. The trinket has sockets, which makes it ideal of easily getting meta socket bonuses and general customization. Other trinkets have passive bonuses and 1 blue trinket has 111 stamina. This is not the very best trinket available by any means. A further benefit is that you could easily stack these two trinkets giving yourself upwards of 280+ stamina easily through the use of the JC gems. Starting Naxx with that much stamina in your trinket slots may be nice. However, there are defense cap concerns right now and we will just have to see if we could ever afford to stack stam on two trinkets like we could in early TBC. It is a great starter trinket with a "Moroes-like" use. Are there better trinkets? Short answer is Yes.
However, Effective Health is the buzz word around the community. Using one or both of your trinket slots for pure stamina concerns is what most tanks are going to do, most of the time. Bosses hit much harder, gone are the days when we saw small damage in quick succession. Say hello to the days where most bosses are like Brutallus was and hit like a Mack truck and do so with not only physical attacks but unavoidable magic damage as well. Note: It is currently too early to tell how common epic gems will be in Wrath. A safe bet is that they will be drops from inside raid dungeons. There are many questions about how and when they will be available. Judging from how late they appeared in TBC, we can only assume they will not be available until Icecrown so while its best to plan ahead, its also wise to gauge numbers vs both epic and rare versions.
We currently have access to one quest reward epic pure gem. These gems are available from the Dalaran fishing daily. Because it is only a single gem, these have no weight in the discussion of Jewelcrafting in general. Enchanting:
Enchanting is not nearly as powerful as it was in TBC. Where you got +8 to stats as a tank on slots that you could not enchant otherwise, in Wrath you will not get as much oomph from the profession. With there being no new stat enchant, you can pick up +24 stamina to rings and get a total of 48 extra stamina that you would otherwise not have access to. That is it, nothing more to speak of. The ability to DE stuff is quite nice as it will always be a money maker for you throughout your career add that into the ability to drop a scroll of mongoose on the AH and you will have a better moneymaking craft in Wrath. As a tank however, you will not be seeing a large boost in effectiveness.
Direct Benefits:
Enchant Ring - Stamina = +24 Stamina x2 =
+48 Stamina Enchant Ring - Assault = +32 Attack Power x2 =
+64 Attack Power Engineering:
Engineering has what is always has. Not much. With the advent of the Goggles, it became a well liked profession in TBC, but the current Epic Goggle pattern on the beta is subpar. Armored Titanium Goggles compared with other available tanking helms, does not have the same "overpowered" statistics that the first tier goggles did in TBC. You also get a trinket. The real power here is the Sonic Booster. While not overpowered, the trinket does seem to like to proc a decent amount, and 81 stamina combined with a threat boosting buff is nothing to sneeze at. The vaulted Nesingwary 4000 is still BOE on the beta and even though a number of people say that it will eventually become BOP, I just do not think non tank engineers will let Blizzard do this. The Khorium Destroyer made a pretty penny for engineers in TBC and with the very limited number of marketable patterns that engineering has, I do not believe they will let them make this a BoP item.
Engineering has a good number of fun things. From Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket to the Nitro Boosts but only the Personal Electromagnetic Pulse Generator seems to have any real use in a tank's arsenal. One of the few Belt enchants in the game, this item could be of use if and when we see another highly "mechanized" instance or encounter.
Direct Benefits:
Armored Titanium Goggles --
While this helm is severely outclassed by ALL of the raid drops, it provides a significantly larger amount of defense rating than other "Pre Naxx" helmets. While not a large upgrade over the Sunwell goggles, the Illidan helm or even the 5-man blue Egg Helm from the Occulus, the helm will help you easily hit the defense "cap" early on without having to resort to pulling out old trinkets and gemming purely for defense. It is easy to obtain and do so 8 levels before you have a shot at any real upgrades, yet unlike in TBC there are much better helms much earlier on in the raid cycle making these worth a whole lot less. Blizzard knows you are going to replace this so well that they added
Belt-Clipped Spynoculars to offset the loss of the goggles Gas Cloud finding use once you replace them.
Sonic Booster =
81 Stamina + AP Proc
Once again its extremely difficult to compare trinkets at this stage of development. Yet, it has a significant amount of stamina. While less than the Jewelcrafting trinket and the 111 Stamina heroic drop
Essence of Gossamer, it has a threat proc and that can not be underestimated.
Hyperspeed Accelerators =
10% Haste Buff for 8 sec or .66% Haste average
While definitely not a huge tanking issue. These can be highly situational for threat purposes.
Blacksmithing:
Simply put, we are all hoping that BS is no where near finished yet. They have yet to add new specialty recipes. What they have added are quite nice though. With the ability to add a colorless socket to both bracers and gloves that do NOT take up an enchantment slot, you have the ability to add a huge amount of stat to those items with out ANY loss in functionality. Just using TBC gems this is an addition of 30 stamina. However, when using just the mid level blue stamina gems in Wrath you will gain 42 Stamina and 60 with the epics. These sockets open up possibilities for threat and avoidance as well.
Toss in the ability to make the other stuff we use, Shield Spikes, Weapon Chains, Armor and Shields, etc. Blacksmithing becomes a phenomenal tanking profession. Oh and did I mention we finally get our Skeleton Keys back?
Even with the loss of Sharpening and Weight Stones, we still have more than enough to keep us happy.
Direct Benefits
Socket Gloves +
Socket Bracers =
+21 Stamina/16 Defense/16 Dodge/16 Strength x2 or
30 Stamina/20 Defense/20 Dodge/20 Strength x2
This can not be underestimated. Using only blue gems this is 42 stamina or 32 of another stat (or combination there of) that we would get that we otherwise would not. While other professions may give a total of +48 stamina, Blacksmithing has the flexibility of sockets colorless sockets. Sure, right now we may want to go for pure EH, but at some point we will more than likely be wanting to socket for more threat or avoidance while keeping socket bonuses. These 2 "free" sockets allow us to do that easily.
Leatherworking:
While drums have taken a hit in effectiveness with the advent of the debuff associated with them, they are still a once a fight buff that is not to be scoffed at. Add that into the new BoP bracer enchants and leatherworking remains a decent if not even more enticing profession choice for a tank. New BoP Bracer enchants that give huge resist buffs for the inevitable resistance fight + AP and Stamina enchants as well. Considering there is no Wrath Stamina to bracer enchants this is a 48 stamina buff.
Direct Benefits:
Fur Lining - Stamina = 90 Stamina -- vs
New Bracer Enchant in 3.0.8 - 40 Stamina=
+50 Stamina
With the addition of the new Stamina to bracer enchant, Leatherworking becomes in line with the other professions. Where it used to be the most powerful stamina profession, it is now virtually the same as the rest.
Fur Lining - Frost Resist =
+60 Resist
There is a resistance fur lining for all of the normal schools of magic. Obviously focused towards druids who normally have a more up hill battle when it comes to obtaining resist sets than the plate wearers, but still a boon to all tanks. Putting a resist enchant on a normally non resist enchantable armor piece can only help make resist gear sets vastly more flexible.
Tailoring:
Tailoring?!?! You must be crazy right? Well, not a conventional choice, this may be a decent choice. There are two cloak enchants that may be a decent option for a tank.
Lightweave Embroidery may be a decent threat enchant for a Paladin tank. With roughly a 2ppm at 800-1000 damage this may be a powerful tool. It is unknown if this is effected by spellpower (yet I highly doubt it).
Swordguard Embroidery is an option for a tank as well. In the new realm of DPS is a huge part of TPS, an executioner proc off your cloak may help a decent amount for a threat set.
Reality is that both of these may be options for Alt tank toons who had their tailoring leveled up to make bags and mooncloth/spellcloth in TBC. Not for a main tank toon
Alchemy:
With the advent of
Mixology (the passive elixir buff) and arguably better Alchemist stones, Alchemy is a lot more powerful of a profession on its own. The
Indestructible Alchemist Stone is an extremely nice choice at 75. While I really would like to see some more defense itemization across the board, its still a great item with stamina and defense. Add that into the ability to buff your ONLY potion of an encounter by 40% and its a wonderful option.
Direct Benefits:
Mixology = Passive Buff trainable at level 50 and 225 Alchemy that gives bonus to flasks and elixirs.
Elixir/Flask buff on Flask of...
Stoneblood =
320hp Endless Rage =
64ap Frost Wyrm =
37sp @ 50%
Note: Flask scaling is not set to a solid value. Each flask currently has a separate level of increase. Each flask gives a separate buff level. While
Flask of Fortification gives 721hp and 15 defense rating instead of 500hp/10def. You can see that it is not 50%. Other flasks have a unique % buff over their non Mixology counterparts. This is a nice sized bump to flasks. When combined with the double duration (making flasks last 2 hours), this buff is nothing to sneeze at.
Although not as much as the 48+ stamina that you get from other professions. Yet it does give some flexibility to buffing thanks to the bonus to elixirs as well.
A special note: With the change to Flask of Stoneblood in patch 3.1 we expected to see a sizeable boost in the health bonus. This was not the case. The bonus stayed at roughly 320hp which is far below the 600+hp we get from other professions.
Elixir of...
Protection = 200 Armor
Mighty Defense = 11def rating
Deadly Strikes = 11crit rating
Accuracy = 11hit rating
Mighty Fortitude = 87HP and 5hp/sec
Mighty Strength = 12str
Mighty Agility = 11agi
Indestructible Alchemist's Stone =
75 Stamina + 50 Dodge Rating + 40% bonus to health/mana potions.
Not nearly as much stamina as the other trinkets available out there. The JC and Engineering trinkets both outclass it for stamina. However the innate bonus of the stone itself to boost your one potion use can not be denied. Nor can the passive amount of pure dodge on the trinket vs the use and proc only benefits of the other profession trinkets. This trinket is still one of the better static stamina trinkets.
In the end, alchemy is a useful profession now that flasks are actually being used again. However, even then it is a subpar boost in health compared to the straight stamina that can be found in other profession bonuses. The trinket is outclassed by any trinket found inside Ulduar. This profession hopefully will get some love in the future, it is still not ready for prime time.
Inscription:
The rumored "extra major glyph" slot was just that a rumor. Blizzard has seen fit to give inscription shoulder enchants that while vastly superior in terms of rating rewards are still rather lackluster in terms of tank bonuses. With only 1 tank related bonus to the profession, there is literally no reason to take this up for anything but it being the new big thing.
Direct Benefits
Master's Inscription of the Pinnacle = 54 dodge rating + 15 defense rating =
+34 Dodge Rating
When compared to the Epic Son's of Hodir shoulder enchant we get +34 dodge rating. This is a huge rating upgrade over anything available. At 80, this amounts to around .78% dodge. When compared to the sheer amount of stamina or health that is to be had via other profession's exclusives, this just does not stand up.
Furthermore, when compared to the easy to obtain
Master's Inscription of the Pinnacle, the 30 stamina shoulder enchant purchaseable for 10,000 honor, these Inscription only enchants pale in comparison.
Herbalism:
Herbalism does not give you much at all. The "buff" it gives a tank is not a great one at all. They added
Lifeblood which at 450 skill is a 450hp heal over 5 seconds for a total of 2k. This is NOT a game breaker. At 80 when we should all have well over 20k health a 2k heal is not going to be all that much. However, seeing as it is off the GCD, is instant, is absolutely free, and has a "potion length" cooldown it is basically a free health pot every 3 minutes in a world where you can only pot once a fight.
Skinning: Master of Anatomy now gives 32 crit rating at capped skill. Which is roughly .7% crit at 80. Is this really worth a profession slot? I really do not think so.
Mining: Toughness now gives 50 stamina at 450 mining skill. What more can you say about it? This bonus is equal to or greater than all the bonuses save for JC's. However, if you are not actually going to use mining and if you are using your dual spec to DPS, this gives you absolutely nothing.
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Conclusion:
Unlike in TBC, we have a pretty balanced playing field. Back in the day, people did Blacksmithing for the weapons, Alchemy for the cheap consumables, and Mining for the money. Now, we have a much more balanced state of things. Jewelcrafting is the current head and shoulders leader for not only tanking, but for every class and spec in the game. The prismatic nature of the JC gems allows you to not only gain what bonuses over normal gems but socket bonuses as well. This will change with the next major content patch however. When that time comes, JC becomes the number 2 or 3 and Blacksmithing will take its place at the top.
Right now I would rank the tanking professions thusly:
- Jewelcrafting -
- Exclusive gems = flexibility in profession bonuses. With socket bonus and meta gem requirement flexibility, it is easy to stack upwards of 75-85 stamina with JC. That is until the proposed changes go live with 3.12. After that jewelcrafting will move way down the list. If you are looking for the present its #1. If you are looking for 3 months down the line, it will be coming up as #3-4 on the list.
- Blacksmithing -
- Exclusive sockets = extreme flexibility in profession specific bonuses. The flexibility of dropping pure gems in these sockets and using hybrids to fulfill the few worthwild socketbonuses brings BS to the top. The potential of BS will only increase as it is the only profession that will naturally scale with the addition of Epic gems.
- Leatherworking -
- The ability to maximize your ability to get resist capped with very little overhead is a huge plus. The stamina boost is the highest, tied with the newly buffed Mining. As an overall package it is better than the alternatives from a pure tanking standpoint.
- Mining -
- The change from 500 health to 50 stamina makes Mining the highest stamina profession. If we just thought about Stamina/EH, Mining would easily come in as our #2. But the flexibility of gemming on both JC and BS exclusives push them a bit higher.
- Alchemy -
- In a world where its 1 potion per fight, maximizing that potion's effectiveness is a plus. Toss in the base bonuses of the Alchemy stone and the 25% (or more) bonus to flasks and elixirs and you have a definite keeper. Its hard to gauge Alchemy. It is the ONLY profession that requires you to continually put out gold to keep your profession buff up. If you are poor, or do not have an Herbalist gatherer, you are better off taking just about any other profession.
- Engineering -
- Engineering goggles are still fairly good, the trinket is really quite nice as well. Yet, it still does not beat Leatherworking in its current form. With a buff to the goggles and the eventual (I hope) epic version of the trinket, Engineering will jump a spot or two, but until then...
- Enchanting -
- With other professions getting just as much stamina boost as Enchanting and the loss of the overall buffs that +stats gave us compared to just pure stamina, drops Enchanting way down the list.
- Inscription -
- ~.78% dodge is nothing to sneeze at.
- Herbalism -
- Lifeblood is a free health pot during an encounter freeing you up to use an Indestructible pot instead. Plus herbalism only herbs such as Fel Blossom.
- Skinning -
- .51% crit is really nice for threat for all tanks.
- Tailoring -
- Threat cloak enchants are a good thing sometimes...
--
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The ranking is not arbitrary but is based on the current usefulness of each profession. Every profession currently has something to offer tanks. Some more than others. When looking at them to rank them, I looked at only the current state of the profession. By no means is any profession complete at this point in the development process. However, we can make some fairly valid assumptions on what will come. IE an epic version of the JC and Alchemy trinkets will be available at some point. The only question is when. Overall, flexibility is the key in ranking things. JC could easily be ahead of BS if not for the simple fact that BS offers a lot more flexibility with colorless sockets than a trinket that right now will eventually be replaced with a raid or 5man drop. Some benefits of the professions are not long term ones. The Engineering goggles, the JC, Eng and Alchemy trinkets fall into this category. While socket slots, Jeweler's Gems, and passive bonuses to flask/elixir use will last for the life of the expansion.
Also, when ranking the professions there is no regard to anything "non tank related". IE, I did not take into account the ease of farming that is Gas Cloud farming, Mining for ore/primals, Herbing for flask materials, etc. Ease of crafting consumable items for your own use however was taken into account (weightstones, sharpening stones, flasks, elixirs, flares, repair bots, etc.)
Blizzcon Talk:
It was said in one of the Q&A's that they wish to continue the trend in providing profession upgrades in each raid tier. However, we did not see a single upgrade in tier 7. With Ulduar we have seen craftable belt and boots, yet these are not BoP or profession specific. While they have basically guaranteed us to see upgrades via raiding, we had hoped these would include profession only items and not just craftable money sinks for other players.
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5.26 Updated JC, Alchemy, and a number of other subjects that had become outdated with recent changes.
Cleaned up and added Direct Benefits of each profession where warranted.
Finished Inscription, finally.
Changed the ranking order purely on the fact that Leatherworking resist "enchants" are more powerful than first believed.
Fixed all the item links. Added a prologue and cleaned up a few things.
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Warrior/Paladin ... Sword + Board Forever
Tank That! 
