- Author: Nevermore
- Date: August 30, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
Professions are a crucial part of your World of Warcraft character, potentially offering a large boost to your damage, healing or survivability, while also allowing you to generate some gold. This section will cover some of your best options for professions as a Survival Hunter.
Click a profession’s bar to see detailed explanations/discussions!
Best Professions
There is no surprise that Engineering is the best profession when it comes to PvP, given all the cool gadgets that you gain access to. Engineering offers a multitude of powerful accessories, ranging from enhancing effects such as Hyperspeed Accelerators to offensive gadgets such as Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, and even cool escape and maneuverability gadgets!
The standard most powerful PvP offensive tool for a Survival Hunter in PvP is Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, however, you can choose to utilize Hyperspeed Accelerators instead. It all depends on your preferred playstyle and build, with Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket being better for burst builds while Hyperspeed Accelerators excel more in long-lasting fights.
Additionally, as an Engineer you have access to the Nitro Boosts boots enchant. These passively give +24 crit rating and come with an on-use effect that massively increases your speed for 5 seconds, allowing you to chase your targets or create a powerful makeshift escape. Keep in mind that Nitro Boosts are not accessible in arenas!
As a Survival Hunter, you can also do a cool trick that involves combining Disengage and the parachute from Flexweave Underlay to effectively gain a few moments of pure “death from above” action. When we say “death from above” we mean that you will effectively be airborne with the ability to shoot down on your foes! This works great in battlegrounds or the open world.
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 potent profession for most classes / specs and that includes Survival Hunter! 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 Eyes, 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 Hunter are Delicate Dragon’s Eye and Solid Dragon’s Eye, resulting in +42 agility or +63 stamina compared to using regular epic gems.
As stats are one of the most important criteria in PvP, Jewelcrafting proves itself to be the best profession for raw stats.
Useful Professions
The following professions are considered viable, but offer a lesser benefit compared to the best professions, so they’re not recommended. If you’re not focused on making your character 100% optimal, you can use any of these professions just fine.
As a Leatherworker you gain access to the Fur Lining – Attack Power bracer enchant, which proves a +80 attack power increase over the standard enchant available to everyone, Enchant Bracers – Greater Assault. This bonus ties Inscription and Enchanting, but is strictly speaking worse than the +40 agility bonus that Blacksmithing offers.
With Leatherworking, you will also be capable of creating powerful PvP gear that will be especially useful in the beginning of the expansion. As a freshly dinged level 80 character, those items will be extremely valuable! Alternatively, you will be able to sell this equipment to make quite a profit from it.
As a Tailor, you gain access to the Swordguard Embroidery cloak enchant, a proc which gives you +400 attack power for 15 seconds with a 45-second internal cooldown. This translates into a possible +133 attack power bonus on average if it procs exactly every 45 seconds, or a +100 attack power bonus on average if it procs every 60 seconds, which is absolutely massive.
Apart from Swordguard Embroidery, Tailoring does not provide you with any real bonus when it comes to PvP, being an overall mediocre profession for a Hunter. The gear you craft will not bring you any benefit, however, depending on your realm’s economy, it might provide you with hefty amounts of gold.
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 +64 attack power increase when using Flask of Endless Rage, our preferred flask. This is sadly a smaller boost than what other professions can offer, but not by much.
For PvP, Alchemy can be extremely useful, as it gives you access to a large number of potions with varying effects that can give you an instant edge in combat — still possible without Alchemy, but requires spending a fair bit of money purchasing potions from alchemists.
Alchemy can be considered the best profession when it comes to gold generation, especially when you think about how many flasks, elixirs, and potions are in constant demand. Alchemists, just like in TBC, can acquire a sub-specialization, allowing them even more possibilities to generate more gold.
Blacksmiths can add 2 extra gem sockets to their gear — 1 on wrists, and 1 on hands. Socketing Delicate Cardinal Ruby into them translates into a +40 agility 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 freshly dinged level 80. You can directly sell this gear in the trade chat or you can place it on the auction house.
Blacksmithing also gives you access to crafting trading good materials, such as different types of rods for Enchanters, or even tools such as keys that can be used to open lockboxes, chests, and doors.
All that being said, apart from minor raw stats bonuses and some early crafted gear, Blacksmithing does not give you any special PvP advantage.
As an Enchanter you gain access to the Enchant Ring – Assault enchant, which you can apply to both of your rings for a modest +80 attack power. This bonus ties Inscription and Leatherworking, but is strictly speaking worse than the +40 agility bonus that Blacksmithing offers.
Apart from the special bonus that it provides, Enchanting can be considered one of the most useful professions, along with Alchemy, providing you with plenty of opportunities to generate materials that you can either sell in the auction house or trade your services to other players in the form of direct interaction or scrolls that you can create and place on the auction house.
As a Scribe, you gain access to the Master’s Inscription of the Axe shoulder enchant, which provides a +80 attack power increase over the standard enchant available to everyone, Inscription of Triumph. This bonus ties Enchanting and Leatherworking, but is still strictly speaking worse than the +40 agility bonus that Blacksmithing offers.
Scribes also get to make glyphs & scrolls, providing a nice source of income, but many will argue that the real benefit in Inscription comes in not having to grind The Sons of Hodir reputation for the shoulder enchants!
Sub-Par Professions
The following professions do not offer any DPS-increasing benefits and are thus not considered viable for Survival Hunter in PvP.
Herbalists gain the Lifeblood active skill, which heals you for 3600 over 5 seconds, with a 3-minute cooldown. This healing effect can prove itself to be useful while leveling or in the early stages of the expansion, however, it becomes less potent as the expansion progresses.
On the flipside, 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 can certainly empower a Survival Hunter, however, it will be less impactful than other professions.
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. This is weaker than all of the other professions mentioned in this list, but at least it’s something.
Skinning is generally not that good at gold generation either, so it’s overall not a great profession.
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