- Author: Jamielolx
- Date: July 12, 2022
- Updated: July 12, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
Professions are a crucial part of your World of Warcraft character, potentially offering a large boost to your damage, healing or survivability, while also allowing you to generate some gold.
Best Professions
This section will cover your best options for professions as a Survival Hunter.
Engineering is, in my opinion, the 3rd best profession for Survival, in Phase 1, only becomes the best in later phases due to the importance of mobility but this is not due to the stats. The main benefit of Engineering does not lie in the Hyperspeed Accelerators gloves enchant, which gives a +340 haste rating for 12 seconds, on a 1-minute cooldown. In fact, we won’t even use this enchant. As we prefer the passive +20 Agility from our regular enchant.
We gain nitro boosts that give a high burst of movement speed for 5 seconds as well as a 24-crit rating on boots.
Finally, just like in previous expansions, Engineers can use powerful explosives such as Saronite Bombs and Global Thermal Sapper Charges.
No surprises here — Jewelcrafting is an extremely potent profession for most classes/specs, and that includes Survival Hunters. Not only do you gain access to powerful, Jewelcrafter-unique gems, but you also get to sell gems to others, giving you a well-earned income through this profession.
The main benefit of Jewelcrafting is the Jewelcrafter-unique gems, Dragon’s Eye, which are more powerful than regular gems but are limited to 3 equipped at a time. The main ones you’ll be crafting as a Survival Hunter are https://www.wowclassicdb.com/wotlk/item/42143 and Rigid Dragon’s Eye, resulting in an increase of +60 AGI, the highest amount you can get out of any profession.
Useful Professions
The following professions are considered okay but offer worse stats compared to the best professions, so they’re not recommended. If you’re not focused on making your character 100% min-max, you can use any of these professions.
Blacksmiths can add 2 extra gem sockets to their gear. Bracers + Gloves Delicate Scarlet Ruby will be the early game pick with this profession, translating into a +32 Agility bonus. Additionally, Blacksmithing has the luxury of allowing you to get whatever it is you need in case you want to respec later. Unfortunately, as a Hunter, you cannot use plate armor, so this is the end of the benefits you get out of Blacksmithing.
As a Tailor, you gain access to the Swordguard Embroidery cloak enchant, a proc which gives you +400 Attack Power for 15 seconds with a 45-second internal cooldown. This translates into a possible +133 Attack Power bonus on average if it procs exactly every 45 seconds, or a +100 Attack Power bonus on average if it procs every 60 seconds, which is massive.
However, there is a significant opportunity cost attached to this bonus, as it prohibits you from using the standard cloak enchant for +22 Agility, making it weaker in practice, as Agility is obviously very good for Survival. Procs are extremely powerful as they can be stacked together with cooldowns, so this bonus shouldn’t be written off at all because of this — it’s just not as powerful or flexible as Jewelcrafting
Tailoring is pretty weak on the gold generation side, unfortunately, so the cloak enchants are all you really get here. On the bright side, it’s a cheap profession to max out.
As a Scribe, you gain access to the Master’s Inscription of the Axe shoulder enchant, which provides a +80 Attack Power increase over the standard enchant available to everyone, Greater Inscription of the Axe. This bonus ties what Enchanting and Leatherworking can offer, but is generally cheaper to level, and will save you some gold for not having to grind Sons of Hodir Exalted.
Inscription is also a top gold-making profession, which can make it somewhat more appealing than the alternatives.
As an Enchanter you gain access to the Enchant Ring – Assault enchants, which you can apply to both of your rings for a modest +80 Attack Power This bonus ties Inscription and Leatherworking. You also get to enchant your own equipment without needing to tip another enchanter, which results in a decent amount of gold saved, on top of the gold you can generate by enchanting for others.
As a Leatherworker you gain access to the Fur Lining – Attack Power bracer enchant, which proves a +80 Attack Power increase over the standard enchant available to everyone, Enchant Bracers – Greater Assault. This bonus ties what you can get from Inscription and Enchanting.
You also get to make some Mail/Leather gear for yourself, which is nice if your Hunter is a freshly dinged alt with no previous gear. However, there’s generally no gold to be gained out of Leatherworking, so the benefits end there.
As an Alchemist, you gain access to the Mixology passive effect, which increases the effectiveness of flasks and elixirs you consume, but only if you can craft them yourself. This results in a +64 Attack Power increase when using Flask of Endless Rage, our preferred flask. This is sadly a smaller boost than what other professions can offer, but not by much.
On the flipside, Alchemy is one of the best professions for gold generation, as potions, flasks, and elixirs are always relevant and in high demand. This makes it a great profession for your alts to have.
Skinners gain access to the Master of Anatomy passive, which offers a +40 Crit Rating boost. This is weaker than all the other professions mentioned in this list, but at least it’s something.
Skinning is generally not that good at gold generation either, so it’s overall not a great profession.
Sub-Par Professions
Herbalists gain the Lifeblood active skill, which heals you for 3600 over 5 seconds, with a 3-minute cooldown. Hunters have no healing abilities whatsoever, so this ability is… something, mostly while leveling, farming, or questing — but its benefit will generally not be great in a raid.
On the flipside, Herbalism is one of the strongest professions for gold generation, as herbs are used in Alchemy and Inscription, and thus always in demand.
Miners gain access to the Toughness passive, which offers a +60 Stamina boost. The extra health can help you survive an attack you otherwise haven’t, but it’s not something you as a DPS player should ever count on.
Mining is okay for gold generation, and as with Herbalism, should only be picked up if you’re not completely serious about your character.
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About the Author
Just wanted to put a quick comment here and mention that unless you are hitting crit cap, skinning and its 40+ crit bonus is actually better than the professions that provide 80 passive AP.
JC/BS and Engi and Tailoring (tho weaker) are still better than skinning though.