[QUOTE=Lady of the Lake]
Does not one have to ‘trade’ with others to enchant gear etc…as opposed to enchanting and putting it in Auction? I’d prefer to have tradeskills that allow me to use auction, I become intimidated by trading directly with people. (At least, that’s what the manual said - that you would have to ‘trade’ or something to enchant others stuff.)
Or would I be mainly using this for myself for wands and stuff?
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Enchanting is something which adds small bonuses to your gear as you level, but doesn’t really come into its own until the level cap when enchants are virtually required. It is nice to be able to enchant your own gear and not have to worry about getting materials or finding someone to do the enchant for you. Enchanting can only be done via the trade window*, so you would have to advertise in the trade channel to sell your wares.
Enchanting is great early on for wands, but it is a very expensive tradeskill because you will never really be able to sell green items for cash - you have to disenchant (d/e) green (and eventually blue and purple) items to get materials to use in all enchants. Some enchants also require items from other gathering skills (herbs, fish oils) and items dropped by mobs. I have levelled enchanting to 350+ on 3 different occasions now (3 different characters, no, I don’t want to talk about the pain of doing so, haha), and always at level 60+ when I have plenty of money to afford it. I would not at all recommend enchanting for a first character. What I would recommend is taking at least one gathering skill, such as Herbalism or Mining, so you can sell the materials on the Auction House (AH) and make some cash while you level. Pair that with Tailoring (to craft gear) or Skinning (for cash) until you get to the level cap and get your flying mount, when money no longer matters. At that point, you will have a better idea if you want to be an Enchanter, and the finances to afford it.
Unfortunately, the only player method of repairing gear is to become an Engineer and make rather expensive “repair bots” which can be placed anywhere in the game and act as vendors to repair gear. They only live about 5 minutes, and are generally used strictly for raid situations when learning an encounter results in lots of deaths and there is no other repair vendor nearby.
Tailoring is used to craft cloth armour and bags; it’s really helpful at least into the 20’s for keeping your character equipped, then fades off a bit 'til the high levels. At 70, some of the best pre-raid gear for cloth classes is Tailored, and the largest inventory bags available (20-slot) are tailored. Tailors can also craft tradeskill bags which are special, very large bags which hold only items associated with a specific tradeskill (such as the Enchanting bags which only hold enchanting materials, but have up to 28 slots - these are great for the high levels when you need to store lots of materials).
Racial abilities and starting stats don’t define a class. Any race can be effective at any class. Some races have some bonuses which are incredibly helpful (such as Draenei and Dwarven Fear Ward), but none of these are required to be an effective Priest. Hence all the Night Elf Priests, despite the fact they have what are considered to be the worst racial abilities (although I’ve found Starshards is awesome for soloing a non-Shadow Priest, especially in conjunction with Reflective Shield). Play the class and race combination you enjoy, and don’t worry about it; in the long run, the biggest difference your race will make is the flavour and appearance of your character.
- Whether Enchanting or having a Rogue open a lockbox, always use the “do not trade” portion of the trade window so no one can run off with your gear.
Not a bad spec for DPS/solo, either.
