New Player Tips – Second to None
New Player Tips is a recurring feature in which we ask World of Warcraft veterans to share their thoughts and advice for new adventurers on a variety of in-game topics.
This week’s topic is: Secondary professions for fun and profit.
The secondary professions in World of Warcraft (archaeology, cooking, first aid, and fishing) are available to characters who have a few levels under their belts. These are activities that many players might have in common; a level-19 gnome rogue and a level-75 draenei warrior might never cross paths otherwise, yet they could meet at the same fishing hole. A goblin priest and a tauren hunter may think they have little common ground before joining forces to complete a cooking quest. New players often wait before training and fully investing themselves into the primary professions, but the secondary professions can be embarked upon with fine results from the start.
While they offer immediate, tangible rewards, new players may find that taking up some or all of the secondary professions can be a challenge. Secondary professions require that a player dedicate time and effort in order to reap the rewards, and these benefits may not be immediately obvious to all characters. It might take a new player a long time to fully perceive all of the benefits of fishing, for example. While the most obvious benefit of fishing is the gathering of materials for cooking (which provides its own set of benefits), there are other gainful uses for caught fish. In many places, there are even items to catch other than fish.
This is where we turn to those of you who have done it all, or at least filleted it all and cooked it on a campfire in Hillsbrad Foothills. How do you think a new player can get the most fun and profit from the secondary professions?
If you were a new player starting today, how would you tackle the secondary professions? As a seasoned veteran, what tips would you give to help newcomers make the most of archaeology, cooking, first aid, and fishing? Share your tips in the comments below and don’t forget to rate the ideas and comments you like as well.
See what players had to say last time about must-see quest lines.
What’s Your Level of Secondary Profession Expertise?
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Comments (34)
Argent Dawn
Frostmane
Azuremyst
Azuremyst
Azuremyst
Sylvanas
Kul Tiras
Magtheridon
Sunstrider
Silvermoon
Magtheridon
The Sha'tar
Draenor
cooking and fishing max.
Ahn'Qiraj
First aid is good when you stand in a BG having survived 1-3 attacks and have 25hp left, but you can also throw a first aid on the flag carrier. It's not always the healer is around... Usually a Rogue interrupts such weak attempts to survive, though.
The Venture Co
I find fishing far too boring to be able to stick to it and the mechanic used is among the worst possible as any kind of lag at all and you simply can't fish.
As for archaeology, I'm going to max it eventually but due to the silly amount of time needed just travelling from one spot to another for just three pieces that don't even give a skillup of any sort it'll be a slow and sporadic process at best. I do like the idea behind archaeology but I think it's implementation needs to be totally redesigned. Granted I like some of the rewards and I do think they do reward the effort but it's just a poor design at the moment.
Sylvanas
Archaeology: If you're into the lore and want to find out more then you'll find it interesting. I enjoy it and it passes the time whilst in the queues. Plus there's that cool mount.
First Aid: Useful in the early levels but kind of redundant towards the end game.
Fishing: Goes well with cooking. You'll either love or hate this but always worth a go.
Cooking: Definitely max it as there are some nice stat buffs to be had. The food also sells well on AH and you do become a hero within the group/guild :D.
Anyway try them all.
Wildhammer
with the AH you can sell excess cloth from first aid, extras from cooking materials, fish you've caught, any gathering profession materials, etc. the list is extensive so keep it simple for the first few trips there.
if this sounds for you, think about having 2 gathering primary professions (skinning, herbalism or mining); my personal preference from my own leveling is a Mining and Herbalism combo (also they both give xp when gathering, whereas skinning doesn't).
best of luck
Windy
Drak'thul
Burning Steppes
Getting First Aid to skill as you level is soooo easy, you get stacks of cloth and usually have nothing to do but vendor them.
Fishing, I've never had the patience for fishing but it's great for dailies and nice bonus', not necessarily a must for new players but definitely worth a look. Put on some music and fish...
Cooking, okay so I avoided this like the plague but it's really really useful end-game wether raiding or bging if someone has food to give around or a feast they are legends. Never %**@!!@* off the guild cook... Advice for new players wait till Pilgrims Bounty is on! Then get cooking skill to 350 in like a few days.
Finally Archaelogy, okay so as you gathered by my fishing mention I get bored quite easily, archaelogy was fun the first few tries but I quickly got bored of it, hence being on like 50 skill points. It has some of the sweetest end game items (sword and staff win), and can be really fun for some people. Advice to new people, take it and see what you think even if it's just to break up the leveling grind.
TL:DR, Take everything and see what you think, you'll find uses eventually.
X
Chromaggus
Draenor
Start training first aid from the start really helpfull when doing qeusts, PvP and dungeons.
On lvl 85 it's handy in arena, BG's and qeusts.
Than just do your daily fishing and cooking qeust in Stormwind or Ogrimar.
Gives you XP and spares you the time lather so you can farm gear.
also easy to take main profs from the start and keep them up.
Doomhammer
Totaly agree with you there.
If you level up and don't have tailoring, chances are that you'll manage to max out your First Aid by the cloth you'll gather while levelling.
Fishing and Cooking you can indeed do the daily quests every day, they give XP and skill points, so they're worth doing indeed.
Archaeology might seem like a bit of a weird profession, but it never hurts to pick it up when you reach level 20. Even if you might not use it a lot, or not like it, you'll probably run by a few digsites while levelling up.
Each of those digsites gives you experience and a chance to discover a bit of lore about the races, and maybe even usable and cool rare items.
Wildhammer
fishing i enjoy if im really bored, long it is to level and its (in my opinion) a worse grind than Archaeology. but it does have some nice items that can be gained from the dailys and from certain areas (quests and items)
first aid is useful but not really until higher levels to be honest (unless you are serious about leveling it)
cooking is what it is, but out of the 4 secondary professions is the best money maker at max level!
Grim Batol
Zenedar
I used to put a movie on while doing archeaology and fishing. If you have a gathering profession you can search for fishing pools at the same time and do it on your gathering rounds :)
Once you've learned them all they can really be done while waiting to do other stuff like dungeons if you really aren't interested in levelling to max level as fast as possible.
-I'd like some more Archaeology stuffs too now plx, I've got them all apart from the epic sword from Tol'vir kthnx-
Blade's Edge
Enjoyed all the other proffesions, I did the dailies after I maxed them out so I didn't really rely on that option. Each of them is very useful, especially cooking, and each of them is very rewarding as well.
For new players? Take them all! Don't need to max them at once, just see whatever you like the most. They require some effort, for sure, but each of them gives their own rewards unique to the proffesion. Sum up!
Cooking: Food buffs, chef hats for faster cooking, unique recipies, unique achives.
Fishing: Different poles (I like to collect them), vanity items, gear, healthy bonus from selling fish, even a mount!
First aid: Fast healing, turning cloth into something more useful, life-saver bandages.
Archaeology: (my opinion) Just fun. A great tool to learn more about WoW, lore characters, lore items, not to mention gives the most rewards out of all secondaries. You get epic gear, epic mounts, many, many pets, and loads of awesome vanity items to impress your friends with. And on top of all, some items can vendor for A LOT!
So get your secondaries today!
Did I mention you can get 5 different titles from them? So go go go!
The Sha'tar
Secondary professions are quiet nice, I like the easiness of fishing, first aid tends to be forgotten about (I have non healer alts that don't even have it..) and cooking tends be to forgotten until I feel like farming the bits and bobs for it.
But I enjoy floating around for digsites, though.
Magtheridon
Shadowsong
I find secondary fun to level, at some point I get sick and tired of it, but when its maxed out I never regret having it done!
Magtheridon
Doomhammer
Either way. Secondairies rule!
Kor'gall
All of that 6% is female.
Grim Batol
Agamaggan
Tarren Mill