Professing On Professions

This post is a response to the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic "What is your Favourite Profession?" as suggested by Amaranth of Specced for Drama.

After playing WoW for more than two years, I have a guilty secret.

I have never had a maxed out crafting profession before - on any of my characters.

I know, I'm ashamed.  How can I be a progression raider if I don't have my professions maxed out?  How can I be a blogger - someone that people come to for advice - and have my main start the new expansion at <gulp> 110 Jewelcrafting?  The priest that I raided Icecrown Citadel with?  140 Alchemy.

Yikes.

Yes, I admit, I have always sucked at levelling my professions.  The highest crafting profession that I have ever managed, until recently, was Tailoring at 420.  The worst part about this is that my Tailor also happens to by my Protection Warrior.  I can just imagine this heavily armed Gnome sitting in a little shop in Ironforge near the Military Quarter, darning socks and hemming trousers for the victorious Alliance armies coming home from Northrend.  It's a little embarrassing, and the only reason I haven't ditched the profession is that it was my only crafting profession that was leveled to the point that I could craft something - namely bags - that people would actually want to buy.

So when the Blog Azeroth topic Favourite Profession turned up... well, let's just say that I wasn't quite sure how to answer it.

Do I say it was the one that I have levelled the highest?  That would be Jewelcrafting on my Paladin, which was power levelled just recently, although not quite to cap.  I can't say that I particularly enjoy Jewelcrafting, and frankly, the dailies get annoying after a time.  So, no.  Not that one.

Tailoring?  Again, no, because it brings up the shame of levelling it on a class that is just a horrible match for it. I created the Warrior when I moved servers and the biggest thing that pissed me off about the first server that I was on is that I had an awful time getting bags.  So I figured that a Tailor would be awesome, especially since the other profession I really wanted to do was Enchanting.

Well, then, what about Enchanting?  My Warrior - who was my main for a long time - levelled that up pretty high as well.  I do like the idea of Enchanting a lot, and some of the high-end Vanilla enchants are really quite cool:  Crusader, Life Stealing, Unholy Weapon, and so on.  It's cool, and I would say it would come in a close second, but it's not my favourite.

Cooking doesn't count.  Hell, the only reason that I managed to get any kind of a decent level - much less max level - is because of the Pilgrim's Bounty holiday.  If not for that I would have been stuck at level 230, again on my Warrior.

And don't talk to me about fishing.  Seriously.

Heck, even Archaeology could be considered.  I hate the mechanics of the profession, as I discussed before, but it was the inspiration for one of my favourite articles that I have written for Battle Medic, so I do have a fondness for it; similar to how you can't help but love the adorable puppy that keeps peeing all over the carpets and chewing up your vitally important tax forms.

No, the profession that I would consider my favourite would be the one that I started on my very first character, so long ago.  One that was such a rotten pain in the neck to level that I haven't even looked at it since.

Engineering.

Now, I've never actually levelled Engineering, but I love the concept.  Being able to build trinkets and robots and bombs is simply the coolest thing ever.  How can something like Blacksmithing compete with that?

Blacksmith:  "Hark!  I have beat this hot metal into an Axe!"

Engineer:  "Great!  While you were doing that I knocked together these random parts to build a motorcycle.  Listen to it roar, doesn't it sound cool?"

Blacksmith:  "My axe's name is Mittens."

Engineer:  "Umm.  Ok.  I'm going to go and hang out with all of those half-naked Night Elf girls, OK?  OK."

The list of gizmos and widgets and doo-dads that Engineers can make continue to amaze me.  To be able to drop down a portable mailbox in the middle of an instance is cool.  Jeeves is so incredibly useful that it is an essential tool to any raid group.  The Goblin Jumper Cables!  Parachute Cloaks!  Cool Goggles!  Helicopters and motocycles!  If the Engineers weren't all Gnomes, they'd get all the girls.