- Author: Nevermore
- Date: September 29, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
Professions are a crucial part of your World of Warcraft character, with a potential to offer a large boost to your damage, healing, or survivability, while also letting you generate some gold.
This section will cover some of your best options for professions as a Frost Mage.
Best Professions
It’s no surprise that Engineering is the best profession for PvP when you consider all the cool gadgets that you gain access to.
Engineering gives you a lot of powerful accessories, ranging from the enhancing effects like Hyperspeed Accelerators, to the offensive gadgets such as Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, and even cool escape and maneuverability gadgets!
Since Haste is the most powerful raw stat for Frost Mage besides the must-have Hit Rating, Resilience, and Spell Power, the best enchantment you can use for your gloves is Hyperspeed Accelerators. We have access to a lot of instant-cast abilities, so Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket is simply not an optimal choice when compared to the raw Haste Rating gained from Hyperspeed Accelerators.
Additionally, as an Engineer you have access to the Nitro Boosts boots enchant, passively giving you +24 crit rating and coming with the on-use effect which massively increases your speed for 5 seconds. It lets you chase your targets or create an effective escape on the spot. However, keep in mind that Nitro Boosts are not accessible in arenas!
Finally, just like in previous expansions, Engineers can use powerful explosives such as Saronite Bombs and Global Thermal Sapper Charges, which can be used to improve your burst!
Jewelcrafting is an extremely effective profession for most classes/specs, and that includes Frost Mages. Not only do you gain access to powerful, Jewelcrafter-unique gems, but you also get to sell gems to others, granting you a steady income, depending on your server’s economy.
The main benefit of Jewelcrafting is the Jewelcrafter-unique gems, Dragon’s Eye, which are more powerful than regular gems, but are limited to 3 equipped at a time. The main ones you’ll be crafting as a Mage are Mystic Dragon’s Eye and Quick Dragon’s Eye, resulting in +42 resilience and +42 Haste Rating compared to using regular epic gems.
Stats are one of the most important criteria in PvP, and Jewelcrafting proves itself to be the best profession for raw stats.
As a Tailor, you gain access to the Lightweave Embroidery cloak enchant, a proc which gives you +295 spell power for 15 seconds, with a 45-second internal cooldown. This is the highest bonus you can gain from any profession. However, since the bonus is based on a proc, it is not reliable.
Tailoring also grants you access to Frostweave Net, a neat item that can be used to snare any melee threat!
Apart from Lightweave Embroidery and Frostweave Net, Tailoring lets you craft a powerful initial PvP set — the Frost Savage. Those items will be extremely valuable to you when you are a freshly-dinged level 80 character! Alternatively, you will be able to sell this equipment to make quite a bit of a profit from it.
Useful Professions
The following professions are considered viable, but offer less of a benefit compared to the Best Professions, so they’re not recommended. However, if you’re not focused on making your character 100% optimized, you can use any of these professions just fine.
As an Alchemist, you gain access to the Mixology passive effect, which increases the effectiveness of flasks and elixirs you consume, but only if you can craft them yourself. This results in a +47 spell power increase when using Flask of the Frost Wyrm, our preferred flask. This bonus is on par with the bonuses provided by the other professions, however, it can’t be used in Arenas.
Alchemy can be extremely useful for PvP, offering access to a large number of potions with varying effects that can give you an instant edge in combat.
Even if you cannot gain access to Flask of the Frost Wyrm in arenas, Alchemists retain the special privilege of using Flask of the North!
Alchemy can be considered the best profession for gold generation, especially when you consider how many flasks, elixirs, and potions are in constant demand. Alchemists, just like in TBC, can also acquire a sub-specialization, allowing them even more possibilities for generating extra gold.
As a Leatherworker you gain access to the Fur Lining – Spell Power bracer enchant, which provides a +46 spell power increase over the standard enchant available to everyone, Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower. This bonus ties with Enchanting, but is, strictly speaking, worse than the +40 resilience bonus that Blacksmithing offers.
With Leatherworking, you will also be capable of creating powerful gear that will provide you with a steady income from selling it on the Auction House.
As an Enchanter you gain access to the Enchant Ring – Greater Spellpower enchant, which you can apply to both of your rings for a modest +46 spell power. This bonus is definitely helpful, however, you will want to prioritize stacking resilience over spell power in your gem sockets. This means that you will lose resilience if you pick Enchanting.
Aside from its special bonus, Enchanting can be considered one of the most useful professions along with Alchemy. It comes with many opportunities to craft materials and scrolls which you can put in the auction house, or to offer your services to other players through direct interaction.
As a Scribe, you gain access to the Master’s Inscription of the Storm shoulder enchant, which provides a +47 spell power increase over the standard enchant available to everyone, Inscription of Dominance. However, we will have to trade the +15 resilience bonus granted by the standard enchantment for a +15 increased critical strike chance.
Scribes also get to make Glyphs and Scrolls, providing a nice source of income in addition to our powerful enchantment. This profession will be extremely valuable at the beginning of the expansion, since everyone will require Glyphs!
Blacksmiths can add 2 extra gem sockets to their gear — 1 on wrists, and 1 on hands. Socketing Mystic King’s Amber into them translates into a +40 resilience bonus.
Moreover, Blacksmithing allows you to craft some good gear that can be used by other players, which is especially useful early on in the expansion or when their character is a freshly-dinged level 80. You can sell this gear directly in the trade chat, or you can place it on the auction house.
Blacksmithing also lets you craft and trade useful materials, such as different types of rods for Enchanters or even tools like keys that can be used to open lockboxes, chests, and doors.
Yet, apart from raw stat bonuses and some early crafted gear, Blacksmithing does not give you any special PvP advantage.
Sub-Par Professions
The following professions do not offer any significant benefits and are thus not considered viable for a Frost Mage in PvP.
Herbalists gain the Lifeblood active skill, which heals you for 3600 over 5 seconds, with a 3-minute cooldown. This can be considered a viable healing effect, however, the high cooldown makes it very situational and not completely reliable. Lifeblood itself will be more valuable in the beginning of the expansion, when the health pools are lower.
On the flip side, Herbalism is one of the strongest professions for gold generation, as herbs are used in Alchemy and Inscription, and thus always in demand. This makes it a good profession to have on an alt, particularly a Druid!
Miners gain access to the Toughness passive, which offers a +60 stamina boost. The raw stamina buff pales in comparison to the bonuses granted from the other specializations.
On the other hand, Mining is an extremely good gold-generating profession, as you can either sell the materials at the Auction House or trade them to crafters!
Skinners gain access to the Master of Anatomy passive, which offers a +40 crit rating boost. At face value, Critical Strike Chance is valuable for a Mage, however, a Frost Mage already has the “Shatter” mechanic, making this bonus underwhelming.
Skinning is generally not that good at gold generation either, so it’s overall not a great profession.
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