Leatherworking vs. Alchemy vs. Skinning

And then I remembered WoWWiki and WoWHead. I am supposed to be at the movies right now, but we missed the first showing, and next one's not for another two hours, so research time. I still haven't made a decision, but I figured I would lay out my thoughts in case anyone else is considering a switch/trying to decide what to pick.

It seems like, unlike in BC, there are not a lot of BOP crafted items in the armor professions (or at least in leatherworking and tailoring, the two I have looked at).

My guild has a handful of leatherworkers. Between skinning on Onashne and the gathering professions on my other toons, I doubt I will have problems gathering necessary mats to get whatever I need craftified by one of them as far as armor goes. However, there are certain enchants to bracers and such that only leatherworkers can use. Fur Lining — Spellpower adds spellpower (what a twist!) and there is some lovely +resil and +stam leg armor, which could be super handy out the gate at level 80. Handier than spellthread? I do not know. But it's a nice option to keep open.

Considering how in love I am with the Inscription shoulder enchants for Ahami (WTB head enchants also plz), this stuff might be the deal-maker, and I'd be able to make the BOE epics and some nice leg armor kits for Ideale as well (Ahami's already covered).

Leg armor kits seem to sell quite well, as do the crafted level 78 gear sets, so I don't think this will hurt my money-making ability at all. On the other hand, aside from the PVP kit, none of the leg armor seems all that useful for Onashne herself. Though with Kamai an up-and-coming tailor, that doesn't worry me too greatly.

Alchemy does not have too much to offer on its own. I could make and sell flasks and such, but that would require farming the mats — skinning is much quicker than herbing. It'd be nice to help out the guild by stocking up the bank now and then, but like leatherworking, we have a handful of alchemists, so I'm not sure how useful it would be. On its own, the only things alchemy offers are Mixology — more handy for PVE than battleground PVP, I think — and the Mercurial Alchemist Stone, which is not really the most awesome trinket I can think of.

If Onashne were going to be my only 80 on the server, the choice would be obvious. However, I also have Ideale. Ideale is a jewelcrafter, and alchemy offers Transmute: Earthsiege Diamond and Transmute: Skyflare Diamond, along with the elemental transmutes. This is one of the reasons I originally wanted it for Ahami, before I actually found out what Inscription was and how cool it was. And on the side, I am also leveling Kamai, an engineer, who will someday have a mote extractor, making the elemental transmutes quite useful, especially with Ideale's mining, in turning relatively cheap Elementals, like earth, into ones that sell for big bucks, like fire. This could rake in all kinds of gold and be very, very handy as far as supplying folks with gems and mats.

One other thing to consider: Most of the high-level alchemy recipes are discovery or research based, while the leatherworking ones can be purchased fairly easily. While I like researching on Ahami, it is also frustrating to spend a month trying to get a specific glyph while a bunch of ones you don't want drop, then shelling out the gold to buy it on the AH, then getting it through research two days later. It's also annoying to have to trade for Snowfall Ink all the time just to do my stupid research. I'm not the most patient person. If I want something, I want it now, please. I don't want to have to go farm four stacks of herbs to get the one reagent I need, then have it not even give me the recipe I want and have to wait 20 hours to repeat the whole process. So leatherworking might be more relaxing.

Skinning ... will not be very useful as pure resto. But as hybrid resto/boomkin or with a boomkin off-spec when/if dual-speccing ever happens, the extra crit could be handy. And it will be nice to be able to farm my own mats for armor kits and stuff, plus will add to leatherworking's profitability. If I'm having to buy leather off the AH all the time, then I'm gonna be broke as a joke.

If I had another skinner, I would take both leatherworking and alchemy, but I don't, nor do I want to give up a profession on one of my 80s or on Kamai for skinning. If I level Silang, I will have another skinner — but then I'll have a high level alchemist anyway.

If I stay with leatherworking, then I stay with skinning. If I switch to alchemy, I will stick with skinning as I level and rethink it later on. But I'm still debating whether I should go with the choice that offers enhancements for one character, or the one that benefits my current and future profession network the most.