WoW Classic profession and class combinations are important to consider, especially for players who are committed to shorter hours in Azeroth this time around. While the beauty of vanilla WoW is that pretty well everything has a use if players are willing to sink enough time into it, the fact is, some character builds are simply engineered to be more efficient than others. While the hero traversing the world with an Enchanting and Engineering profession combination on Mage will likely still manage to enjoy themselves, they're also going to have a much slower time leveling pretty much everything.
Given that WoW Classic is a near-perfect recreation of the 2006 version of WoW it's based on, the grind involved in exploring Azeroth is predictably brutal. Between having to navigate treacherous areas with enemies dozens of levels higher than a character and circling around expansive zones without much in the way of modern quest design to make the journey more reasonable, the amount of time WoW Classic asks to have from its players is costly. Even choosing the WoW Classic faction that's right for a player's mindset and friend group can be an exercise that takes hours.
With the early days of login queues and server disconnects mostly behind players, WoW Classic fans can finally start to plan out what their future in Azeroth really looks like. Will they try to become the richest they can? Do they want to hit max level as fast as possible? There are builds that work for nearly everyone, and we've collected some of our favorites to help players figure out which direction they want to take their WoW Classic profession and class combinations.
WoW Classic Build - The Moneymaker - Priest, Tailoring & Herbalism
This build is tailor-made (sorry for the terrible pun) to help players build up their bank in Classic WoW. It's not recommended as a primary build, but it can certainly help line the pockets of players who want to tackle questing much more easily the second time around with better gear bought at the auction house, and it's a good foundation for those who are interested in maintaining three or more max-level characters on the same realm.
Tailoring and Herbalism are widely regarded as the two most profitable Gathering Professions in WoW Classic. Tailoring is needed to make bags, which are some of the most sought-after pieces of equipment in the entire game as inventory space continues to play a big role throughout all of the stages in WoW Classic. That makes it easy to turn a quick buck at the auction house with excess bags crafted for recipes and skilling up. Herbalism is needed for potion making, which fuels end-game content in PvE especially. Top guilds and raiders will want a constant supply of them, but not everyone will have the raw materials ready, which is why Herbalism will shine.
In terms of class, Priest is the best choice. It has some of the best self-sustain in the game which makes it easy to navigate tough areas looking for materials, and it has very little downtime thanks to Spirit Tap and a focus on Spirit and MP5 stats. Other options include Paladin and Hunter, although at least with a Priest the Tailoring profession will also provide the player with gear to help them continue to progress through increasingly tougher content.
WoW Classic Build - PvP Specialist - Warlock, Alchemy & Engineering
This build will tax player wallets quite a bit, which might mean savvy heroes should choose our Moneymaker build for a playthrough before getting to the next character here. The PvP Specialist takes advantage of some Engineering-only trinkets that are extremely useful in PvP. This is especially good for twink characters - avatars that are purposefully kept at a specific level so that they are in one category of Battlegrounds placements, and have the best talents, gear, and professions for the role. To complement this, Alchemy can also be used to brew potions that are good during PvP play.
Warlock has the best amount of S-tier play in each variation of PvP to make it the easy recommendation for players who aren't quite sure exactly which mode of it they'll be participating in. Soul Link/Siphon Life Warlocks in particular boast very good performance in virtually every facet of PvP, and can make use of Engineering items quite efficiently to cover the class's few weaknesses.
WoW Classic Build - Quick Leveling - Hunter, Mining & Engineering
These professions might not seem like an obvious fit for Hunter, which is a class interested in leather gear, but they complement a decision to focus on leveling quickly quite nicely. Mining is a great moneymaker as it is a Gathering Profession, which will enable the player to avoid being gated by gold as they progress through WoW Classic and find themselves needing nicer gear from the Auction House or a mount to speed things up. Engineering makes all of the desirable gadgets players could want and doubles as especially useful for Hunters since it also makes gun ammo. Between these two professions, Hunters should get a steady stream of income and useful items in equal measure.
Hunters are just incredible solo play characters. Between pets being able to tank or do DPS depending on the need and some great damage output, Hunters rarely suffer downtime and are good at progressing through content that other classes might need to recruit a buddy to get through. That, coupled with Aspect of the Cheetah, which allows the Hunter to move faster than other players while running, makes the class far and away the best combination with professions to level quickly. A distant second might be Paladin - only because they get a free mount, saving the need for grinding gold quite as heavily as other classes.