Leatherworking

[Bamr]

Is Leatherworking going to make a lot of money in Cata does anyone know? Because i was just wondering which professions would be the best for Cata.

[Richmond]

If the other expansions have got anything to go by, no they wont. We only sell 1 consumable (leg enchant) and people only ever change there pants once or twice during tiers. Where as the other professions have several items that they can sell to make a small tidy profit. I mean, even tailor's can make bags which make a tidy profit. Blacksmiths have there belt buckles and shield stuff. Engineer's have pets, scopes and Ammo...

If your looking for pure profit then i'd go with Mining and Herbalism, you'll make a mint with the majority of peoples mains professions needing to be powerlevelled. But if you want a profit machine that isn't just Gathering/Gathering then i'd go with Herbing and Alchemy, you won't make a tonn for the first few months but when everyone starts raiding, flasks will be in again and you'll be swimming in it. Either that or JC + Mining

[Therastos]

No. Leatherworking is pricey to level, grants the same benefits as other crafting professions, and has very poor money-making potential.

Leatherworkers have only one consumable, leg enchants. There aren't any niches or not-so-common recipes, so the competition between leatherworkers puts the price very close to material price. In fact, depending on whether leg enchants are the best way to level the profession up or not, the price might actually fall below material price.

Crafts aren't in particularly huge demand either. During the first weeks of the expansion, all the items created by levelling leatherworkers probably end up being surplus. That, again, puts the price very close to material price or below. As expansion progresses, there will probably be rare crafts again. Depending on the method of acquisition, they might provide decent income: If a recipe is a drop, all gold you make using it is a bonus. However, if you pay for the recipe (primordial saronite for ICC-craftables), you must sell a lot of crafts for it to be ever profitable.


Good professions? If you don't care about your performance much, you can go with skinning/herbalism/mining, because their benefits tend to be worse (or at least more inflexible) than other professions. They are best suited "just being there" and grabbing herbs or ores while you are questing or travelling as a bonus: Even if you gather materials full-time, it won't give you much higher income than simple grinding or questing would.

A good, extremely effective, way to get income is alchemy transmutes. For few seconds cast a day, you get certain income by selling the result. Potions and flasks might be able to provide decent income, too, but there are a lot of players having herbalism+alchemy as professions, believing that herbs they gathered themselves are "free": That causes prices to lower under the point where free market would put them. On several realms, I've actually sometimes witnessed potion and flask prices to be below material cost, even for potion/flask masters. There might be, and probably are, realms where it is profitable, though.

Enchanting, inscription and jewelcrafting will remain the big money-makers, but you will need some dedication (or uncompetitive realm) for them to be profitable.

Why am I focusing on gold-making potential so much? Because all professions grant, apart from several gimmicks such as increased flask duration for alchemists, or engineer-only helmets and gadgets for engineers, the same benefits. Blacksmithing and jewelcrafting allow you to be much more flexible with the bonuses (you can decide yourself which stats you desire from gems), but usually you will probably still want to stick with your primary stats.