Insider Trader: The complete final stretch

For months now, Insider Trader has been diligently planning out routes to maximize your profession skills in ways that are efficient, profitable, and quick. Each week, you've stepped up and added your comments, thoughts, and professional secrets so that we can all benefit.

I've aimed to replace the boredom, tedium, frustration and bankruptcy that has been the experience of many crafters, with balance, profit, knowledge, and even (gasp) fun.

Now, as we round out the series, let's take a look through the guides that, together with their comments sections, will send you on a straightaway to 375.

Leatherworking
From rogues and shamans, to hunters, druids, and lately, raiders of any class, leatherworking can be a very useful source of gear. Of course, because it caters to so many classes and different specs, players find many gaps between the four points they gained making their current gear, and the twenty they'll need before the next useful item crops up.

Our leatherworking guide shows you the items that can be made the quickest, for the most efficient gain in skill points, as well as some items that might be worth some extra effort because of their high demand and worth. Should you find yourself in it for the drums, we also have a guide to the different drums, what they do, when to use them, and how to get them.

Blacksmithing
Our blacksmithing guide to 375 includes not only the cheapest and best leveling methods, but also an interview with a seasoned smith, providing tips and practical advice for reaching your goals.

Engineering
You've heard the horror stories. Engineering can be the most painful, expensive, and frustrating profession of them all. Fortunately, recent patches have made strides to help engineers recoup some of their costs, and make many of their toys viable again. Our guide to hitting 375, combined with the new recipes from patch 2.3, will see you sitting in your very own Turbo-Charged Flying Machine in no time.

Tailoring
Tailoring is a very common clothie profession, but like any other, the path to 375 can be confusing, complicated, and expensive. Our tailoring guide provides you with different options for maximizing your skill. Our cloth farming guide and, once you begin to make specialty cloth, the mote farming guide, will come in handy.

Jewelcrafting
When the Burning Crusade went live, jewelcrafting didn't simply appear on the scene; it crashed the party with waves of blood elves and draenei. While time has restored some balance, many jewelcrafters leveled in a jewelry-saturated market, and stalled in the leveling process partway through Outland.

Although it took two weeks worth of column space, Insider Trader worked out the cheapest and easiest methods to 375, with as much profit or, depending on the server, recoup of loss, as possible. Check out the first half of the guide, from 300-355, or move straight through to the last leg, up to 375, and including a discussion of recipes gained through faction reputation.

Alchemy
When leveling alchemy, there are going to be times, as in any profession, where the items you're using are no longer giving you skill points, and you are forced to make items you won't use in order to reach a higher skill level. Our alchemy guide will help you determine what can be made most cheaply, what is most useful and therefore marketable to other players, and even how to build a customer base.

Enchanting and disenchanting
Our enchanting guide will have you to 375 in no time, with tips for finding customers, and information about the cheapest and easiest to acquire recipes in the game. We have also had spirited discussions about etiquette in the business of disenchanting, along with how to set up shop and make money from your disenchanting skill.

Fishing
The fishing guide covers all of your question about fishing gear and enchants, as well as where to fish, how to speed up the leveling process, and how to make the most money while leveling. In fact, it even addresses tips to combat boredom and frustration that many feel.

If you have had your eye on the Stranglethorn fishing contest, Mike Schramm can teach you how to win it. In fact, we have many fisher men and women here at WoW Insider. Daniel Whitcomb has even more ideas to help you overcome the tedium, and Robin Torres offers up her own tips for maximizing your fishing skills. Zach Yonzon also has the inside scoop on fishing profitably.

Of course, any avid Outland fisher will direct you to Old Man Barlo fishing on Slimyr lake near Shattrath for a daily fishing task and some interesting rewards.
Cooking
Cooking is a profession that can raise your spirits and give you the strength and energy you need to stand tall against the biggest baddies in the game. Whether you enjoy the art of combining ingredients and spices to obtain the right dish, made just so, or whether you're anxious to get to the point where you can commandeer a campfire surrounded by a ring of fresh ogre corpses, and whip up some burgers to go, our cooking guide will help you determine how to reach 375. Cooking can be profitable, useful, and even fun.

Of course, whether you've leveled your cooking or not, the daily cooking quest can be extremely helpful in providing fish and meat for your cooking needs, as well as interesting recipes and some money on the side.

Have you seen a recipe in game that you wish you could cook up in real life? You may find that the master chefs of WoW Insider have brought your favorite recipe to the table, complete with photos and instructions.

First Aid
While I never wrote up a piece on maximizing your first aid skills, our guide to farming cloth should cover almost all of the information you'll need to undertake this task. If you're still convinced that first aid is useless, even in Outland, and that the majority of players aren't using it, you might want to head over to our discussion on the importance and use of bandages.

Gathering
Whether you are a skinner, herbalist, miner, or some combination of two, learning the best places to acquire the most sought-after materials can mean the difference between making a profit and becoming wealthy. The gathering guide has your inside scoop on where and how to gather the items you need.

New players
If you're not yet at the point where you're facing down that last stretch of leveling your profession, and in fact, are stuck near the beginning, or even lost about choosing one, then our tradeskills for noobs edition might be just the ticket.