Out of guilt for ignoring my rogue, I hopped on to Elitist Jerks, who’ve always been PvE centric in their discussion. My love for raiding on my rogue just kind of exploded back into gear. And in the long run, I feel I’m just naturally better at this class than Lock(for PvE at least).

Who to level first…? I’m still torn.

Now, there’s an interesting discussion starting out on page 125/126 of the EJ Wrath Rogue thread about professions. Right now it’s mostly just speculation based on the new built-in prof buffs that we’re getting, which lends itself to some interesting theories.

In BC, the use of drums and ability to craft your own BoP items made LW pretty ideal up until t5. BoP learned spells were already under the gear I was getting from raiding, and the BoE recipes I got from Hyjal and BT were… well, BoE. I still had to pay for the matts, the only advantage was being able to make them myself. I felt, for the most part, the useful BoP LW recipes were for druids, not rogues.

Chanting was one that persisted to be good, since everybody needs chants and you got the bonus ring buffs. Engineering provided the best craftable headslot in the game for rogues, replaced pretty late in raiding. Everything else was good, but not as good.

For Lich King / 3.x, professions are getting some added “passives” which contribute to the diversifying of game play. Gathering professions offer stat bonuses and crafting professions are getting some self-buff additions.

>>> So for rogues, what will be the ideal combo?

Leatherworking is offering several self-only bracer buffs, AP of which is definitely up there. This is extremely powerful given the current state of Shiv/Instant Poison (IP will be scaling based on AP). There are also several LW only leg armors (which I found a little curious, tbh, given previous ability to offer kits to others). Also factoring in the inevitable starter epic BoP sets at max, this continues to be a solid prof for rogues.

Blacksmithing is adding extra sockets, which means extra gems. Very awesome. Again there’s the question of what weapons will be craftable. This prof is geared more towards plate wearers, but any class who can use “Metal” weapons will probably benefit, at least early on / leveling.

Enchanting is enchanting. Not much to be said. Great overall, you get a special self-bonus, and the added ability to sell enchants on AH offers the possibly for profit.

Last major consideration here is alchemy, specifically the “Mixology” passive which offers +50% effective bonus and double the buff duration.

>>>For the start of end-game raiding / casual 10 man raiding, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that LW / Alchemy will be a top combo for rogues (or other melee DPS classes), offering the most useful utility for raids. Drums becoming raid-wide is a major plus, but beingn-chainable is kind of lame.

A close 2^nd would be Enchant/LW.

Once more serious end game raiding starts, Blacksmithing may become more beneficial, especially once epic gems become readily available. Depending, of course, on exactly how much added AP you get from gems, plus socket bonuses. It’s going to be a close call here. I get the feeling that epic AP gems may eventually outweigh the LW bonuses, but it really depends on which Leg / Wrist enhancements you wind up getting from LW, or if an Enchantment may be better for bracers than LW (unlikely). Chances are BoP craftible items from LW will eventually be surpassed by raid drops / tier gear as it was in BC. Blacksmithing weapons, still not sure about.

As far as a partner to BS for end-game, I still feel strongly that the Mixology buff will continue to prove a huge advantage (especially money-saving) during raids. BS/Alch may be the top choice for higher tier end-game raiding. BS/LW is a close 2^nd. As always, Enchanting also makes for a top contender as well.

For PvP rogues, BS/Ench I feel would be the most beneficial all around. Added resil/crit gems may prove to be game-breaking in highly competitive PvP. I imagine most people aren’t going to use pots/elixirs for bg’s or world pvp, and they can’t be used in arena. I’m aware ‘chemists are getting arena-pots, but as far as I know they’re not going to benefit much from Mixology (definitely room to be wrong here, though, I haven’t looked much into exactly what the arena-pots do). There aren’t many other combos I can think that would benefit PvP Rogues (or most PvP players) than BS/Ench.

Other general thoughts on professions:

Inscription is still up in the air for me right now. The only self buffing mechanic in this profession is the Rune system, which I’ve yet to see fleshed in beta or PTR. As such, I’ve left it out for now. However, once more information about this becomes available, it’s quite possible it will be a big contender as a desirable end-game profession.

Engineering is for the most part as it’s always been: a fun profession that offers random and sometimes helpful buffs. Hunters, however, may find the +40 range crit enhancement useful, depending on it’s rival enchantments.

Interesting to note, however, a lot of the item enhancements added in Wrath could prove useful in Battlegroundsl/World PvP, making Ench/Engin a possible contender for desirable profs. Specifically, being able to turn a cloak into a parachute, an alleged unending-until-canceled speed buff to boots, a belt clip that stuns mechanicals (EXTREMELY useful in witnergrasp/strand of the ancients, assuming this applies to siege weapons as well), among other things.

Whether or not it would be useful in Arena depends on the likely event they are not even useable in there.

Jewelcrafting is a big money maker, and doing it yourself is a money saver. But as far as I know, it doesn’t offer much else in the way self-buffing that would provide any bonuses.

>> In conclusion, it’s still pretty early to really decide on what profs will be the best for rogues. A huge factor weigh in will be once a more composite list of what high-level epic recipes start dropping and offer as far as gear / weapons.

Definitely fun to think about.