Blackrock Depths farming: a travelogue

Lemme tell you something: leveling professions sucks. My Mage, who is now level 57 and fast approaching Outland, is attempting to level Enchanting and Tailoring, the classic clothie profession combo. We're at something like 250 for each; Enchanting is a little higher. My goal was to get my professions to 300 before I was in Outland, so there would be less of me leveling my professions at 70 and more of me attempting to make money off of them.

On the Druid this happened really fast. Gathering professions are really easy to level, and with Alchemy, the amount of materials you need to advance in skill is much less, and all the stuff you're making you can probably use - compare making a stack of healing potions to making a stack of green robes. Hey, I can disenchant them, but they d/e into a type of dust I don't need anymore.

So, I've been doing 20-mintute runs through Zul'Farak to amass Mageweave, and just today I started farming Mr. Tauren Pyromancer Man for his fancy Fiery Weapon enchant, a.k.a. the bane of our exsistance while PvPing from 19-29. Got the key and everything, which took longer than I would have liked; I was pushing my luck a little by pulling five dudes at once that all have spell locks.

The recipe itself was selling for 50g IIRC today, which I guess isn't too bad. Chances are I won't try and get more than one; after five attempts I didn't get a single drop, so I'll just take one, thank you.

Granted, with Wrath less than two months away, endgame crafting... make that endgame anything won't do much for me. The Spellthread recipes require Exalted with the Shattrath City faction of your choice, and chances are I'm not willing to get myself to that point. It's probably best just to get to 375 so I'll be ready to tackle Grand Master Alchemy, Herbalism, Tailoring, and Enchanting... oh, and maybe, just maybe, Grand Master Fishing and Cooking.

I've seen some of the neat Fishing-related stuff in Wrath, but the act of fishing still just sucks. They need to like, double the skill-up potential on the high end. I'm sure it won't break the economy or anything if more people are making sweet food buffs.