Whether to Give up Skinning for Enchanting

I'm thinking about giving up skinning for enchanting on my main. My skinning is currently approaching 290. However, my other trade is herbs, so I can still farm, and it seems that the shift of the game post-40 is toward humanoids and away from beasts. Plus, I'd love to be able to DE my own soulbound stuff and, eventually, to get Smoking Heart of the Mountain for tanking.

I wanted to get the thoughts of those in the know.

Thanks in advance,

Bevo

Hmm good question. I debated doing this with my mage and decided against it for a few reasons:

1. It is such a pain to lvl enchanting...not too bad to get it up to 200s if u can solo instances and get greens (which you will have to do to DE high lvl stuff) but to learn everything...mats for rods, etc are expensive.

2. Expensive...yes I know all profs can be expensive but enchanting seems to be pretty crazy. You lose out on selling greens and once u can't solo instances anymore mats are hard to come by and killer expensive on the AH...I can't remember how much Gold I spent getting to 290...20+ G for 10 points sheesh...and yes you can sell enchants and you can rake in a lot on high lvl enchants but it's time consuming standing around org advertising...took me forever just to GIVE away enchants for tips just to make a little extra gold back from the mats I bought.

3. DEing and selling mats...lets say you have a lvl 55 green or even a blue and you get illusion dust or a shard...well you can sell the dust for 1-2 G and the shard for 4 - 5 gold...if you had of vendored it instead of DEing, you probably would have gotten the same or a gold or two less then selling the mats...unless you want to grind instances for drops it's not too efficient...especially considering how much you just spend to lvl your enchanting that high (time and gold). With the new DE min lvl enchanting requirements the price of mats will probably go up since there will be a higher demand (cry) so this point may be invalid (but countered by the fact that you will have to spend more to lvl...)

Sooo yeah DEing your soulbound is cool...seems less wasteful then just vendoring but a lot of effort for an extra 1-2 gold. The bonus of being an enchanter tho is of course all the scooby enchants you can give yourself the second you get that new piece of armour...and selling high lvl enchants.

That being said, if you have a green or something that just won't sell and you want it DE'ed, send it my way and I'll mail you back the mats. If you want any enchants, post me and I'll let you know what I can do (my best is +25 agility to a 2H wpn...cant do the 1H yet tho).

My opinion is to keep skinning...but that's just me...I'm bitter at how much I have to fork out hahaha but that may change once I start making some of that money back But just to DE??? Nah I don't think it's worth it.

I have 250 enchant on my ally toon.. and even with guild support (them sendind me about 100 low lvl greens) it was a pain to get to 250. And it seems there are no chants really that anyone is will to pay for till you get to 300 AND grind time consuming rep (say timbermaw to get +15 agi) I also had neither the personality or patience to not only stand in org for hours yelling advretisements... but I wouldnt be able to stand the 50 questions from folks wanting to know what the mats are for this or that .. who never buy!

Tho I also have 300 skinning.. and STILL buy my stacks of leather for my LW toon on AH. Skinning is time consuming so I have no patience for needing to kill to skin. Herbs u just run and pick and keep going. Tho I keep getting told to not drop it cuz IM gonna get to skin some whoop whoop fancy dragon in some instance at some point... yeah right..

Until the patch came out.. I would make 50's LW items and have my lowbie enchant toon ( lvl 20 ) DE them.. I got a lot of dream dust, lesser eterrnals ( 4g each AH ) and other mats that sold extremely well.

But would I DE my upper lvl drops.. nope.. Had a lvl 53 axe today vendor trash for 5g, cant imagine skipping the 5g slam dunk and hoping it DEs into something I can use.

I think come BC the whole economy of chanting on horde side is gonna change. Horde will for the most part chant for tips if u have Mats. But since mats wont be so readily available anymore ( no one can have lowbie toons DE ) Mat prices will go up. So I guess DE-ing might be good biz.. but how much mats can u farm to sell..

Not to mention the fact that twinks are prolly the BIGGEST consumers of pricey chants.. ( lifestealing, AGI, firey, icy , and crusader ) and in BC u wont be able to chant lowbie weaps anymore... so there goes ur largest customer base.

Im ditching skinning in BC, and taking up jewelcrafting... I guess I will find out if that sinks or swims... as far as profession. I do in teh begining as folks are lvling it.. it wont make any gold as the AH will be flooded by the items made during lvling.

I'm keeping herbs as there will be new herbs to pick...and alch may get a nice shot in the arm with newpot recipes.

I think cooking is actually gonna make some coin.. as the new cooking recipes will give pet buffs... same like some of the current ones give people.

BH

Thanks for the replies. Based on them, I think I'll keep skinning, at least for a few more levels. I also have a low level leatherworker / enchanter. I find that if I buy leather low, make the right items, and sell the mats, I come out quite a bit ahead. And this is with only 150 leatherworking. Still, maybe I'll pick up enchanting on my main once I build rep with some factions and am able to make Smoking Heart of the Wild (best druid tanking trinket in the game).

Once again, thanks,

Bevo