Pecking order of professions.

Patience is a virtue. My consumable experiment has gone well, but I doubt it will go over well in any mass. But, I still think I might work on a small stockpile of fish and Northrend meats to sell later for people leveling cooking.

After feeling a bit silly for getting confused about profession leveling in Cataclysm, especially since I'm normally quite thorough with my reading comprehension, I now have a more clear understanding of what is going on and can start to speculate on exactly what order I'm going to be leveling my characters. I was enlightened by a fellow poster at The Consortium, who pointed out some important bits from two reputable sources. The first source is a  post made by WoW insider about a week ago, and I also get a lot of my information from Kaliope's blog but I obviously missed some key articles.

It's understood that you will be able to train Illustrious Grand Master level profession at character level 75, however, a few professions (Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, and Leatherworking) will be gated (cannot purchase recipes from city trainers) at profession level 500 until you do a quest chain at level 84 that unlocks Twilight Highlands. Twilight Highlands phasing will reveal trainers and recipe vendors for at least some professions. This leaves the other professions to be leveled to 525, unless there's some last minute changes. Engineering and more importantly Tailoring are two that I'm half expecting to change. I know this is making a lot of people groan, but you know what? I totally like this idea. Plus, it allows me to solve the puzzle of omgwhatdoIfreakingdoaboutthisproblemIhave?!

So, based on this beta information we can speculate a few key things. I should worry about leveling my characters with with BS, JC or LW first. I should then worry about the characters with gathering professions second, and lastly the ones with professions that aren't going to be gated to max crafting level. So where does this leave me?

Well, it looks like I'm in luck here. The only character with a confirmed gated profession is my main. Yay! Now I have an even more justified reason to level her first, and that will bring me to a max level Jewelcrafter and Engineer. That leaves me with herb/mining likely second on the list, however hesitant I am about my DK, I really do want to get back into the groove with her for Cataclysm. My third toon will likely be my tailor/enchanter, however I may decide to level her second instead of my farmer for the simple fact of recipe access. Lastly, will likely be my scribe/ alchemist. I think this is a bit of a risk though, but at the same time I have a fall back. 

Since I'm the gold-savvy family member, I get to call the shots, so since it will be my hard earned gold leveling a few certain other people's professions, I will have access to these. Leatherworking/ Jewelcrafting and a Scribe/ Herber. Pretty awesome wild card huh? And I don't even have to level the characters myself.

Also, on that note, I'd like to just say that having a large guild is going to be massively beneficial to any entrepreneur, especially in the early days of Cataclysm when no one has the same professions. Generally guild members means good deals or "your mats no tip". All this along with the guild leveling perks that eventually kick in (also another reason why I might hold off on my farming toon right away) is a pretty good deal for having to put up with people. So, if you're not in a guild, GET IN ONE.

Now, really, there's going to be so many people looking to max their professions. Look at my main for example; both professions consume ore and volatiles (I think that's the new elemental crafting unit). Miners are going to be making a KILLING. Because of this I've considered forgoing questing on my DK and every time my rogue hits a new level, I'll put in a good hour or two of farming (while everyone else is questing) with my On a Pale Horse and well-invested 310% mount speed. Hopefully this will put me ahead of the questing droves, and I can skirt high-level mobs trying to eat me while I gather some mats.

See, I'm still all over the place! But, at least I've shared some of my ideas and thought them out myself here.

PS. I'm still working out my design, so let me know if something is hard to read or looks funny, and forgive me if the blog looks totally different every time you visit.