World of Warcraft Gathering Professions

World of Warcraft professions are divided into two groups, primary and secondary. A player may only have two primary professions but all 3 secondary ones. Primary professions are broken down into Gathering, Production (Crafting) and Service professions. Secondary professions are Fishing, Cooking and First Aid. Of the secondary professions, fishing is the only gathering one.

With Primary and Secondary professions your skill level does not automatically increase as your characters class level goes up. As with all skills, in order to level up you have to have a trainer teach you. Apprentices have to be at least class level 5, Journeymen a 10, Expert a 20, Artisan a 35, Master a 50 and Grand Master a 65. Each skill level has point caps, also.

The Gathering professions are Herbalism, Mining and Skinning. These are the only Primary professions that have a chance to fail when being used. There is no guarantee that you will succeed at getting your prize the first, second or even third attempt. Also, gathering your materials (mats) can put you in harms way. You will rarely come across any mat that isnt in the middle of a herd of vicious creatures or an enemy encampment. Skinners are hard pressed to find a string of carcasses just lying along the roadside in WoW so be prepared to fight for every leaf, nugget or bear hide. Your payoff is that these raw ingredients sell well at the Auction House and on the trade channel.

The Gathering professions are pretty straight forward in what youll be doing. As an Herbalist, you pick plants, Miners find ore lodes using their pick to dig them out and Skinners use their skinning knife on dead animals to collect the hides. In this regard being a gatherer is also the most simple of the professions.

WoW Gathering professions are simple and dangerous to do but worth the risk when your bank is fat. Pick with Harpies flying by, dig for gold near goblin camps or skin serpents; a little danger can have a profitable return in these professions.