Drop LW for Alchemy?

[Lyoncet]

Hey all,

So I just picked up WoW again after a long break (almost no playtime on MoP). I'm looking at my characters and kind of yearning for the days of Vanilla-BC when my Druid was an Alchemist. So I kind of want to pick up Alchemy again. He's currently 545 Inscription 478 LW. I'm kind of tepid on Inscription, but it's nice to have easy access to the glyphs, and the BoA staves seem pretty nifty. As for LW it seems like between no BoP profession gear and how hard I hear it is to level, it may be better off dropping it to pick up Alchemy again if I have to choose between the two.

I also have an 86 warrior who's skinning/herbalism (and I may move him back to his Vanilla Mining/BS just for nostalgia) and various other alts I could potentially use as herbalists, so fueling the professions myself isn't an issue. I'm just wondering if Leatherworking's as meh as it looks to me. If I didn't already have it up so high I wouldn't even think twice about dropping LW, but as it is I wanted to check and get people's opinion before I went ahead and did something.

Also keep in mind that this is for someone who's not currently that dedicated to the game. I can see running some LFR or maybe joining a PvE guild. I don't know if that makes much of a difference in terms of which of those three professions would be most suited for me. On top of that, it does seem like LW takes a lot of commitment and dedication to keep make much money off of, whereas it seems like (and correct me if I'm wrong on this) for a casual player not logging too many hours, I'd probably be able to make more money off both Inscription and Alchemy. And the fact that this is largely motivated out of nostalgia, but also the fact that I just really liked Alchemy and I hear it's easy enough to level. Finally, I also have a not-quite-as-high-LW shaman alt at 85, but I may be faction switching him back to Orc so that could end up a non-issue.

Anyone have any thoughts? I'd just like to make sure that my understanding of the situation is accurate before I click the unlearn button.

[xskarma]

Alchemy is easier to learn then LW, but that's mostly down to the fact you need so many skinning opportunities to get the leather you need. Herbs are usually easier to get.

Alchemy is also easier to get gold out of if you play only now and then since for LW you will likely need to do Golden Lotus for the epic leg enchants to sell and will need to get frequent Spirits of Harmony (which limits production). ALchemy you can just get soem herbs and produce flasks, or get some bars and transmute Living Steel. No spirits required.

In terms of profession buffs for PvE there's no difference between the professions, mostly. They all give about 320 stat upgrade when compared to normal enchants or blank options.

In terms of getting gear though, the LW has the option of crafting 553 gear in 5.4 that might be of interest to you, and probably will not be very cheap on the AH. It's just 2 pieces though, and they take long to craft (21-28 days) so if you're not all too serious you might be happy sticking to the LFR gear.