How do Professions work?

There are two types of skills in World of Warcraft: gathering skills, which allow you to collect the raw materials needed to make items, and Professions, which actually transform those materials into finished goods. Professions are generally paired with gathering skills in a relationship that makes each integral to the other. To make items with the blacksmithing ability, for example, players will need ingredients that are acquired by applying the mining skill. Players will not have to be equipped with both paired abilities to succeed, however. An alchemist working to create a potion can always purchase the necessary herbs from an herbalist.

How do players acquire new recipes?

Profession recipes are the blueprints for crafting an item, and they detail the raw components required to manufacture that item. Many recipes are available from the same in-game trainers who teach a specific Profession. Other recipes are found through various vendors around the world or on the corpses of slain monsters.

How are Professions in World of Warcraft different from those in other MMORPGs?

A great deal of effort has been made to make every item that is crafted useful so that players are not just creating items to increase their skills. Also, many of the raw materials needed will be found in dangerous locations throughout the world. Players are encouraged to adventure in order to gain ingredients, rather than just farm a distant, nondescript patch of land endlessly.

Recipes will work every time. If you collect the proper ingredients to create an item, you don't have to worry about them being wasted due to failures. There's also no need to constantly experiment in World of Warcraft to find a combination of ingredients that will work. A recipe clearly lists what it will allow you to create and what raw materials are required. There's no guesswork (or surfing through dozens of Web sites) involved