No World of Warcraft character is complete without professions! Along with their gold making potential, professions can provide powerful bonuses to your damage, healing, or survivability. This guide will go over the best professions for a Elemental Shaman in Cataclysm PvE content.
One important thing to note is Mail Specialization, which necessitates all your armor slots be occupied by Mail pieces to grant you a 5% increase to Intellect as an Elemental Shaman. This is mandatory, so gone are the days of getting that occasional Leather or Cloth piece because of its desirable stat spread.
Engineering is so much better than any of the other options because of the Cogwheel Sockets and Cogwheel gems, which give huge stat boosts to the Engineering helm. Tailoring is the preferred second choice as Lightweave Embroidery is much better than Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect, your second-best option for the slot. The other professions are more or less equal or less than.
Best Professions
Engineering
- Synapse Springs give you 480 Intellect for 10 seconds and can be used once per minute.
- Energized Bio-Optic Killshades are pre-raid BiS for Elemental Shamans, and you cannot overlook the huge benefit of having two Cogwheel Sockets. You can socket a Sparkling Cogwheel for Spirit (which, of course, with Elemental Precision maxed, gives you Hit as well) or Fractured Cogwheel or Quick Cogwheel.
- Nitro Boosts give you a much-needed mobility cooldown.
- Jeeves and other convenience items are great for farming and solo questing.
- High-Powered Bolt Gun interrupts the cast of your target and deals damage, and while it’s more useful in PVP, it’s an extra cooldown to use in emergency PVE situations as well.
Tailoring
- Lightweave Embroidery is a powerful cloak enchantment that can proc a 580 Intellect buff for 15 seconds and the main draw for choosing Tailoring over the other professions as your second profession.
- Master’s Spellthread is a cheaper version of Powerful Enchanted Spellthread specifically for Tailors.
- You can craft bags, Spellthread leg enchantments and a magic carpet mount.
- Embersilk Nets can be useful and are Tailor-exclusive.
Useful Professions
The following professions, with the exception of Herbalism, all provide around 80 Intellect when taking advantage of their max-level perks. Jewelcrafting can provide 81 bonus Intellect by using three Brilliant Chimera’s Eye gems over three Brilliant Inferno Ruby gems, but that’s just one bonus point of Intellect. Min-max or follow your heart; the choice is yours.
Inscription
- Felfire Inscription grants 80 more Intellect than Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone and saves you from having to farm Therazane reputation.
Alchemy
- Mixology provides 80 bonus Intellect when you use a Flask of the Draconic Mind.
- Flask of Enhancement is a reusable flask item that you can use in easier content and PvP.
Enchanting
- Enchant Ring – Intellect grants a total of 80 bonus Intellect when used on both of your rings.
Jewelcrafting
- Brilliant Chimera’s Eye grants 81 bonus Intellect in total if you use 3 of them (which is the max you can have equipped).
- (This bonus gets reduced to 51 Intellect later on when Brilliant Queen’s Garnet is added.)
Blacksmithing
- Socket Gloves and Socket Bracer allow you to use two extra gems for a total of 80 bonus Intellect.
- (This bonus gets raised to 100 Intellect later on when Brilliant Queen’s Garnet is added.)
Leatherworking
- Draconic Embossment – Intellect gives 80 more Intellect than Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect.
Herbalism
- Lifeblood is a 2-minute cooldown that increases Haste by 480 for 20 seconds and provides a bit of healing.
Sub-Par Professions
There’s no real good reason to go for the below professions unless you’re a true role-player.
Skinning
- Master of Anatomy gives a passive 80 Critical Strike Rating.
Mining
- Toughness gives a passive 120 Stamina bonus.
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