Best Shaman Professions   

Disclaimer: This is the Best Shaman Professions part of this guide, you can return to the previous page here: WoW Shaman Guide

Shamans can choose to play as healer, melee damage dealers or ranged damage dealers. As all of these specs have their appeal you will have to decide for yourself which you’re going with. On the other hand you’ll also have to decide whether you’re planning on playing multiple roles as it might affect your profession choice. In this article I will cover the combinations you can pick up while leveling as either elemental or enhancement, and which professions are good for the raiding shaman.

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Tailoring/Enchanting 

If you choose to level as elemental you will be hard pressed to find good gear for your playstyle at the lower levels. With tailoring you can circumvent this by simply wearing cloth at the lower levels. Between having more intellect and spellpower you can easily compensate for the lack of armor. Enchanting is picked up because you can disenchant the items from tailoring that you won’t use, and instead use them to further level your enchanting or sell them if you’re short on cash. Once you hit level 80 these are also strong professions for the raiding elemental and restoration shaman, meaning you’re well prepared if you choose to go this route.

Skinning/Leatherworking
If you choose to level as enhancement you’ll be wanting to keep your gear up to date. The easiest way to keep high quality gear at the ready is to use leatherworking. Even though you switch to mail at 40 it’s still a worthy choice. Leatherworkers still make some mail gear at the higher levels as well so it’s hardly a problem. The great thing with leatherworking is that it’s so easy to level. As you quest you will have to kill plenty of beasts which you can skin. These skins can directly be used for leatherworking. This will guarantee that you’re never short on good gear. At the higher levels you also get access to epic quality items making it an okay profession at the endgame as well.

Mining/Skinning 

Instead of trying to create your armor you could instead focus on buying it. Picking up these professions allows you to earn a lot of money through gathering resources for other professions and then selling them. The money you make can be used to buy items you like from the auction house. This means you can simply upgrade those items which most need it instead of being tied to your profession. Another benefit is that this also allows you to easily upgrade your weapon as neither tailoring nor leatherworking makes weapons. On top of this items from drops are usually ahead of quest gear and crafted gear can’t be upgraded as often as bought gear.

Jewelcrafting 

Jewelcrafting is picked up for multiple reasons. First of all I’d recommend staying away from it while leveling as it is very expensive to get up. The main benefit is that you get some jewelcrafter-only gems which are stronger than regular gems. Not only does this give you a good stat bonus, you also get to choose which stats. The other benefit is that you are able to make your own gems which saves you a lot of money in the long run.

Engineering

Engineering provides bonuses for all the specializations. Once again it isn’t that great for leveling as the items from engineering usually aren’t easy to make plus it’s pretty expensive. On the other hand at higher levels the advantages are great. You get unique glove and boot enchants which are far more powerful than regular enchants. On top of this you get access to many cool gadgets such as teleports, grenades, an auction house in dalaran, a portable bank and mailbox and much more.

Blacksmithing

Another profession that you definitely shouldn’t pick up for the items you make. As an enhancement shaman you can use the weapons you can make but it’s not worth it just for that. On the other hand the bonus you get as a raiding shaman are huge. Blacksmiths get 2 extra sockets on their gear allowing them to customize their stats to whatever their needs are. This also makes it a viable profession across all specializations.

Raiding

In this section I will cover the best shaman professions for those that are raiding. I will cover them by talent tree and if you pick 2 of the listed professions you’ll be doing just fine. Just remember that these combinations will never include gathering professions which means you’ll need some starting capital to level them.

Enhancement – Jewelcrafting, Engineering, Blacksmithing
Restoration – Jewelcrafting, Engineering, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Tailoring
Elemental – Jewelcrafting, Engineering, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Tailoring, Leatherworking

As a shaman you get plenty choices for professions and what it comes down to is what profession appeals the most to you. Remember that the combinations that are used for leveling generally don’t provide full benefit in raids, and most people won’t like it if you bring say mining or skinning to their raid.

Are you interested in learning how to quickly and cheaply level your professions?

If your answer to this question is yes I suggest you have a look at Penn's Profession Guide .

In this guide you will learn all about getting any profession maxed out as fast as possible without blowing a fortune on it. Waste no time and have a look at Penn's Professions Guides in the Guide Section