Tanking Professions: Mining > BS ?

[Tankette]

Depending on where you are in progression, the extra slots from BS can be very useful. The crafted plate tanking pieces have a lot of defense, but very little other tanking stats. As you being to replace these with raid loot, your defense will start to drop dangerously low. One way around this, is to have some extra gem slots for defense. The FR fight in Naxx is another place where some extra def gems help out.

Once you get past this area, JC/BS is probably the best bang for your buck. It depends on your personality and how quickly you can level a farming alt, though. The idea of needing to either change my professions or leveling another toon quickly in the next expansion was a turn-off for me. For other people, not as much.

We are 6 bosses into Ulduar on 25 man and 8 bosses in on 10 man. I make about 1k to 3k gold per day so I can max out the new professions quickly. Leveling up an alt will probably take a couple weeks if I don't get bored with it, which I probably will.

[Mookey]

All tank related proffesions provide you with around 50stamina gain.

BS = 2sockets x24sta = 48sta

Enchanting = 2x rings enchanted with 24sta = 48sta

Mining = 50sta

LW = 90sta-40sta (preventing default tanking enchant)=50sta

I can't be sure about mixology if it provide increased effect on flask that matches
50 sta - I'm pretty sure it does

And then we come to JC

On paper - for people filling gem slots with only blue stamina gems - it's same as any above mentioned professions instead of 24sta you get 41 sta, difference is 17sta multiply that with 3 and you will get 51sta which is close to mentioned other bonuses.

As I said on paper:
JWC = 51sta
Mining/LW = 50sta
BS/Ench = 48 sta

True beauty about JWC is that (as mentioned) you fill your yellow/red slots with 41sta, so for those that used green and purple gems to fill this slots they will see upgrade of 87 stamina (or 37stamina over other professions).

True fail of mining comes for doing any other job then tanking - stamina is not that important, while other professions can easy sort their 2nd set of gear with AP/SP.

[Swanky]

To OP: yes, mining will be "better" by 2 stam till epic gems come out. Ofc for offspec stuff bs will prolly be better.

As for best tank profs for EH, well, Jc / Engi ofc. Atleast according to the EH calc this site has.

[Coeus]

I can't be sure about mixology if it provide increased effect on flask that matches
50 sta - I'm pretty sure it does

Mixology provides 320 HP with a Flask of Stoneblood.

[veneretio]

Eventually, there'll be epic gems again and Blacksmithing will pull way ahead. Ultimately, the Stamina difference between most professions is so small that just stick with what you like. The biggest difference between any of them was JCs starting out with better trinkets, but thanks to Ulduar everyone else will have access to 2 Stamina trinkets as well.

[Tankette]

Mixology provides 320 HP with a Flask of Stoneblood.

Hmm, I haven't noticed this, but then I'm not very observant. With that and my 75 stam / 50 dodge trinket maybe Alch isn't so bad? *starts scratching head

[Tankette]

Ah, I'm sticking with the plan of going BS/JC. I've already started on a DK alt that I got to level 59 last night with 310 mining and 300 alch to cover those professions I am dropping on my main. I've got about half the mats to get either BS or JC maxed out sitting in my bank alt's guild bank too. I've never had a toon with BS or JC so maybe I'll have some fun with those and maybe make some good money while I'm at it too.

[Risky]

epic stam gems anyone?
bs > mining.

[Kataztrophe]

BS > Mining

Why? Because when Icecrown comes out and epic gems are back in the game, the two gem slots from BS will equal 60 stam versus only 50 stam from mining. BS will be the best raiding profession for all tanks.

[CKaz]

There is no question JCing is the best prof, but you get more bang for you buck as miner over BS... imo.

That's where I was... I'm now wondering how much this shakes things up
MMO-Champion BlueTracker - Upcoming Jewelcrafting Change

[Mookey]

I'm quite wondering if this thread (since we know that developers are lurking here) made this change after the analysis.

[Dhalphir]

Those extra slots can be worth 41 stamina each if you do the BS/JC route. Intensive, but currently the 'best' profession combination for stamina increases overall. Furthermore, epic gems that have been datamined will also be worth more than 24 stamina each, making BS slightly better than mining ultimately.

Personally, if you're not going to be bleeding edge progression, I would take mining/BS or mining/JC since you can level both together in that fashion without resorting to the AH.

How you do it depends a lot on your committment & time.

Wrong, JC does not mean that you get two 41 stamina sockets.

You get those anyway whether you're a blacksmith or not.

To work out the value of the blacksmith sockets, you need to use the lowest common denominator gem which is the 24 stamina one.

Also, until the 3.2 JC change, if you put prismatic gems in prismatic sockets, you're retarded.

[Jericho]

I really need to go and update the tanking profession thread....

Right now JC is the single most powerful profession. Not only do you get the raw stamina from the gems themselves but you also get an additional 27 stamina if you use them in the correct pieces to get the 9stam socket bonuses on certain tanking pieces. So instead of the 48 or 50 stamina from other professions you are actually getting upwards of 75 stamina for the profession. You also do not need to worry about matching your sockets to activate the meta, which in and of itself is getting you another 12 stamina not having to use a purple gem to meet the red gem requirement.

So in total... currently JC gives you upwards of 85-90 stamina versus the 48-50 from all other professions. Toss in the easy and early access to major stamina trinkets and you have the most powerful single profession in the game.

This all changes coming in 3.2. (Which they seem to be hinting is going to be a heck of alot sooner than we think... personally I am guessing end July/early August with how they are speaking. Which gives them time to get Icecrown before christmas. Which they really have to do.) Jewelcrafting will become simply a benefit of raw numbers and the trinkets. You still can not go wrong with JC as a profession that will get you a sizeable early health boost via the 2 stamina trinkets. However, the profession becomes increasingly weaker in general.

Do not believe for a second however, that JC will not see some sort of buff come ice crown and the "real" epic gems that comes with it. Do not think for a second that all the other professions will not see an increase either. Do not look for mining to scale though. Also do not look at things scaling from an overall standpoint. Leatherworking is less likely to get a new enchant. However it is more than likely to obtain BiS BoP armor piece that gives a significant bonus to druids, rogues, hunters and shaman. However this will not translate for plate tanks. The same will go for tailors and cloth items. Overall Blacksmithing has the best overall scaling with gems. It has the best potential for improving plate tanks' stats in general.

Finally... Mining has the least potential to scale well in the future. It flat out will not be seeing a boost of some sort. Its going to be 50 stamina now and will be 50 stamina in the future. If you do not actually mine regularly, or do not plan to mine regularly its a waste when compared to BS or even JC.

Enchanting is probably in the same ballpark as Mining. We will probably not see enchant upgrades (however, it is possible.)

Alchemy is the same as well. While its more than likely we will see a return of the overpowered epic version of the alchemy stone. We will not be seeing a raw upgrade in Mixology. I really do hope that instead of giving us a real trinket we get access to several "alchemy stone enchants" that we can use to actually enchant our existing trinkets with some dps, healing or tanking specfic enchant. Because quite frankly, the alchemy trinkets tend to try to do "too much". They have the potion bonuses (which are now extremely worthless) and tend to be half of one thing we want and half another, instead of keeping a focus.

In the end ... until 3.2 is active. It is still JC > all. With BS coming in second, but has much more potential than JC does. Then LW, Enchanting, Mining, Engineering, and all the rest. Just remember the limiting potentional of the last 4.

[Hayate]

I wonder how it is going to be when 3.2 hits, when JC lose the prismatic ability, and Epic gems coming out.

but as right now BS/JC is best combination, sometimes you are not just look at MEH point of view, you also have to think about other option that are benefit for tanking, I.E Avoidance, Threat...

[Kalbitang]

I'm quite wondering if this thread (since we know that developers are lurking here) made this change after the analysis.

I'd really hope that it was already something they were aware of before seeing this thread. You never know, but I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Tankette]

Well, I got JC up to 430 over the weekend and got my Monarch Crab and 3 41 stam gems. It was a big boost to my health and it puts me over 34K unbuffed. I miss having 2 hour flasks from having Alchemy but I can live with that I guess.

I leveled up a DK to 68 and got his Alchemy to 435 so he can make flasks for my two raid characters and guildies. I still need to do the Elixer Spec quests so he can proc. His mining is up to 415 but I've got to get him to level 77 before he can take over mining from my main, which is a big source of my income. Then I'll switch from mining to BS on my main.

The pending nerf to JC is a little bit of a bummer but it isn't enough to make me regret switching to JC. If nothing else, at least JC is something new to play around with after messing with Alchemy for almost 2 years.