With the launch of World of Warcraft: Midnight approaching, professions are once again one of the biggest factors in early-expansion gold making. Whether you’re planning to dominate the Auction House, focus on efficient gathering, or build a long-term crafting empire, choosing the right profession at launch can make a massive difference. Then, which ones to choose? After spending hundreds of hours testing every profession on the Midnight beta, Kaychak put together a complete tier list based on overall gold-making potential and long-term value on his YouTube channel. Let’s dive in. But before that, if you want a head start in Midnight without spending hours gathering and crafting, you can also check out MmoGah’s WoW Gold service for reliable delivery before launch.
C-Tier Professions
Fishing
Fishing receives several welcome updates in Midnight. There’s a rare mount drop, treasure chests with valuable loot, and new interactive mechanics like spirit fish attacking you. These changes make fishing more engaging than ever.
However, despite the improvements, fishing remains a secondary profession. It simply cannot compete with primary gathering professions in gold-per-hour potential. While it may offer fun side income and rare drops, it’s unlikely to be a top-tier gold maker.
Cooking
Cooking remains similar to the last expansion, offering food buffs and feasts. Midnight adds teas that grant speed and gathering stat bonuses (Finesse, Perception, or Deftness), which should sell well. However, several factors hold cooking back:
- Leveling is extremely easy.
- Profession gear can be crafted perfectly on day one.
- There are minimal barriers to entry.
- Multi-stage crafting complexity has been reduced.
Since everyone can level cooking quickly and efficiently, profit margins are likely to shrink rapidly. For those reasons, it lands in C-tier.
Leatherworking
Leatherworking feels very similar to its previous iteration, but with fewer intermediate crafts. Overskilling issues have been fixed, and hide crafting has been simplified. But you’ll still craft armor kits, embellishments, weapons, drums, and intermediate materials.
Leatherworking historically had strong profit margins, though items sold more slowly than other professions. It’s solid, but nothing groundbreaking in Midnight.
Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing sees the removal of the Everburning buff mechanic, which is an excellent quality-of-life improvement. However, it now suffers from weak stat scaling, fewer intermediate crafts, and heavy reliance on alloy crafting.
Alloys will likely sell well, but the profession feels simplified and somewhat underwhelming. It will perform fine, but it lacks excitement or standout systems, placing it in the C-tier.
B-Tier Professions
Skinning
Skinning introduces a new “high-value beast” system, where special mobs yield better materials. While interesting, it currently feels underdeveloped. There are no unique materials tied to these mobs—just higher quantities of standard leather and hides.
The new Majestic materials (Claw, Hide, Fin) are promising and could support strong markets. However, meat specialization remains weak and in need of rework. Skinning is moving in the right direction, but isn’t fully optimized yet.
Tailoring
Tailoring loses unraveling, reducing crafting depth, and gold-making potential. The loss of a resourcefulness-based crafting stage lowers the barrier to entry.
Basic bolts will sell, but are easier to produce. However, cooldown-based bolts like Sunfire Silk show strong potential due to increased demand across multiple crafts.
Cloth farming also appears slightly weaker this expansion. Tailoring remains viable, but no longer dominant.
Engineering
Engineering doesn’t receive a new mount, and crafted parts are reduced. However, it gains a fascinating new mechanic: Recycling. Recycling allows engineers to break down Midnight crafts from all professions to generate key engineering materials. This creates strong cross-profession interaction and spreadsheet-friendly opportunities. The return of Ammunition and scopes is particularly promising, offering consistent long-term demand if they remain competitive in BiS setups.
Engineering feels healthier than before and earns a solid B-tier placement.
Enchanting
Enchanting remains stable. Base crafting hasn’t changed significantly, though optional reagent crafting is gone. What pushes enchanting into B-tier is:
- Disenchanting stability
- Shattering systems available from launch
- Epic and rare material conversion opportunities
While crafting alone may not be exceptional, material flipping and shattering provide strong market opportunities.
Alchemy
Alchemy is significantly simplified in Midnight. Knowledge trees are easier to navigate, and crafting specialization is more direct. Potions and flasks remain staples. Recipe acquisition is now more controlled rather than RNG-based.
Transmutes are interesting, especially Mote transmutes, which may create expansion-long shuffle opportunities. However, the loss of advanced systems from the last expansion limits upside. Alchemy is stable and reliable—but not revolutionary.
A-Tier Professions
Mining & Herbalism
Gathering remains king for most players. Mining and Herbalism offer:
- Simple, low-barrier gold making
- Strong early expansion profits
- Solo-friendly farming
For players who don’t want to manage complex crafting systems, these professions are a reliable and stress-free way to earn gold—especially at launch. For 90% of players, gathering will likely outperform crafting in early Midnight.
Inscription
Inscription remains one of the strongest vertical-integration professions.
Positives:
- Milling remains intact (huge advantage over tailoring)
- Strong multicraft/resourcefulness nodes
- Wide crafting diversity
- Multiple shuffle opportunities
While some crafts were nerfed and knowledge trees simplified, inscription still offers consistent multi-stage profit potential throughout the expansion. If you understand margin calculation and material flow, inscription remains incredibly powerful.
Jewelcrafting
Jewelcrafting receives a major structural overhaul. Now, nearly all materials—including glass, stone, and raw gems—have ranks. This fundamentally changes crafting dynamics and creates new optimization layers. Prospecting and gem crushing become more complex and interesting due to ranked outputs.
While it may not have the highest raw gold ceiling, it is arguably the most strategically engaging profession in Midnight. The material rank system alone makes it one of the most intriguing markets to explore. For that reason—and its strong overall potential—it earns A-tier.
Final Thoughts
Midnight professions feel streamlined overall. Some systems were simplified, lowering barriers to entry, while others gained interesting new mechanics like recycling and ranked materials. If you prefer:
- Low effort, consistent gold: Mining & Herbalism
- Complex vertical crafting systems: Inscription or Jewelcrafting
- Stable consumable markets: Alchemy or Enchanting
- Casual side income: Fishing or Cooking
