Holy Paladin 101 Trade Skills

As the title states we are going to look at the trade skills available and determine what may or may not be a good fit for a holy Paladin. I can say, in all honesty, that I feel trade skills are the most overlooked resource for the majority of the players, especially on their first character. This was the case for me with my Paladin and I have been through several different trade skills until I finally selected what worked best in my situation. I am wanting to approach this topic though from the belief that this is the basics, in other words it is the first character and the first time you have played WoW. With this clarification out of the way, let's take a look at the trade skills which can be most beneficial to our class.

The very first thing that comes to mind, and this is in no particular order, is blacksmithing. At the lower levels there is not much to be gained for a holy Paladin, but at the highest levels we are able to gain some of the best crafted pre-raiding gear available. The best situation is if you have a character you use as a gatherer, and they would be able to gather your materials for the equipment you desire. (In all honesty, having one or two characters who will gather herbs, metals, and leather will go a long way in helping your ability to craft, but that is a topic for a whole different blog.)

Another suitable trade skill would be jewel crafting. I think it gives the best rewards right up front and can assist with some of the harder to find things such as trinkets, rings, and neck equipment. You also gain the added bonus of being able to cut your own gems, which can save you a small fortune at the auction house. It is even better if you supply your own materials, as you save a ton of your gold for stuff that perhaps you are not able to craft or luxury items such as vanity pets or mounts.

Engineering can provide you with a couple of nice pieces of equipment for your head and also offer you some minor items such as repair bots and things of that nature. It is less of a benefit to the class, but I think it is the utility of the trade skill that can help. There is nothing like having a high-level engineer in a run who can drop a repair bot and help keep the group running smooth, also you are able to purchase your own reagents for your greater blessing spells.

Probably the most overlooked trade skill for a holy Paladin is being an alchemist. It provides a myriad of options to you. You can create your own potions, whether mana or health. You have the ability to create elixirs and potions which will boost key stats, such as spell power. When doing solo quests or grinds, you can boost stats that we normally are not concerned about. It is definitely worth having a look at if you have not considered this as an option.

Enchanting is a great option for almost any class. With enchanting you reap the rewards immediately rather than waiting as you will have to with something like blacksmithing, engineering, or even jewel crafting to an extent. It is also a great way to earn some spare gold, either by selling your disenchanted materials on the auction house or selling your enchants in a trade channel.

The trade skill I view least valuable to the holy Paladin is inscription. There is no immediate value to our class in this skill. There are but a handful of glyphs that you can make that will be of value and the time it will take to make these glyphs and the number of herbs that it will take is a huge amount of time. In my opinion, that time can be used much more efficient in raising reputation with factions for gear or running instances for gear. The plus side is that because of the time it takes, a lot of people on my server seem to be shying away from it at this point, so profit is up for the sale of the glyphs as there is no competition driving the prices down, but this is something that can change and you will not be able to control. That is why I advise staying away from this particular skill, unless the holy Paladin is not your main character, then perhaps this would be a good choice simply because you have other characters who are high levels and it would make no sense to spend the time leveling it again.

A secondary trade skill to look at is cooking. There are a couple of really nice recipes that will raise the spell power of your character. I bring this up because I see a lot of people who ignore this skill, and it is an easy skill to level as you get many materials by simply doing your regular quests and daily grinds.

Fishing is a good secondary skill, but I would only suggest spending the time to level this if you are going with alchemy, as some of the potions will require items from fishing. Also, fishing does supply some materials for your fishing skill as well.