Best Professions for Rogue

When you reach level 80, it might be time to take a look at your professions.  It’s always good to choose two gathering professions so you can make plenty of WoW gold on the way to level 80, but when you reach level 80 you’ll have no problem making a lot of gold in a short amount of time, even without gathering professions.

Best Professions for Rogue: Skinning

Skinning is probably the best profession for any rogue to have.  If you didn’t choose skinning as one of your two gathering professions, go back and level it up.  Skinning gives you Master of Anatomy, which gives +40 to your crit chance, a valuable plus for any rogue.

To give your skinning a boost, try to get your hands on either Finkle’s Skinner, or a Zulian Slicer.  Both add 10 to your skinning skill.  As a rogue, you may want to specifically look for the Zulian Slicer because you can dual-wield it for +20 to skinning.  The Zulian Slicer drops off High Priest Thekal in Zul’Gurub.  It’s probably easiest to check the auction house for it.

Best Professions for Rogue: Leatherworking

The profession which pairs best with skinning is leatherworking.  This is a good choice for rogues also, especially the elemental leatherworking specialization.  Leatherworking will also help you with some gear until you get fully geared after you run some instances.  In general, the gear you can make with leatherworking will be better than the gear you get from drops, except for drops from the bosses in most instances.

Elemental leatherworking is the best specialization for rogues because the pieces you’ll be able to make give valuable pluses to agility, which is one of the rogue’s key attributes.

After you level leatherworking all the way to 450, check out the offerings from Braeg Stoutbeard in Dalaran.  He sells rare and epic patterns for both leather and mail items.  You’ll find Stoutbeard outside the leatherworking shop.

Best Professions for Rogue: Engineering

One other profession that works best for rogues is engineering.  This one might now seem obvious, but rogues can definitely benefit from the epic goggles you gain access to at level 450.  The Weakness Spectralizers is probably one of the best head gear items for rogues in the game, and you have to be an engineer to make it.  The Weakness Spectralizers give you 73 to agility and 90 to stamina.  They’re also socketed, with a +8 critical strike rating when you use the socket.  These goggles also give you +43 to critical strike rating and increases your attack power by 148.

Warrior Focus Macro Guide

When you’re playing a warrior, you often find yourself fighting multiple enemies all at once.  You’ll find focus macros to be a necessity any time you need to interrupt a spell-caster or keep enemies from getting away.

Just keep in mind which stance you’re in whenever you cast any of these focus macros because some moves can only be performed in certain stances.  This is especially crucial if you edit any of these macros with different moves in place of the ones that are already in them.

If you’re looking for macros for other classes make sure to check out all our other class WoW macro guides, or specifically for warriors…our warrior macro guide. That said here’s a quick warrior focus macro guide to get you started.

This warrior focus macro intercepts your target or your focus.  It’s perfect when you’re fighting two enemies and one decides to try running away when his health gets low.  This one will put a stop to it fast, and it works on either your focus or target, depending on whether or not you have the shift key.

Focus Intercept Macro

#showtooltip Intercept
/cast [target=focus, modifier:shift] Intercept; Intercept

This warrior focus macro allows you to cast pummel on your focus without losing your main target.  It’s great for crowd control if the second character attacking you is a caster.  It’s also perfect to use if your focus tries to start healing himself.

Focus Pummel Macro

#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus,exists,nodead] [] Pummel

This next warrior focus macro is quite a bit more complicated, but it allows you to attack a second mob without losing your main target.  Save this macro for when you’re tanking and your DPS members can actually handle more than one mob at a time.  It casts Sunder Armor and Shield Slam, both of which cause a huge amount of threat, so make sure you warn your raid members before you use this macro.

Focus Tanking Macro

/focus
/stopcasting
/target mobB
/castsequence [target:nodead,harm,stance:2,equipped:shields] Shield Slam, sunder armor;
/cast [target:nodead,harm] sunder armor
/target [target=focus,nodead,harm]
/clearfocus

This warrior focus macro is the epitome of taking casters or healers out of a fight for a few seconds.  If you have a shield, it will use Shield Bash to interrupt spell-casting.  If you don’t have a shield, it uses pummel instead.  Make sure the caster or healer is set as your focus.

Focus Shield Bash / Pummel Macro

#showtooltip [stance:1/3] Pummel; [stance:2] Shield Bash
/cast [stance:1/2,noequipped:Shield] Berserker Stance
/cast [stance:1/2,equipped:shield,target=focus,exists] Shield Bash; [stance:1/3,target=focus,exists] Pummel

Paladin Focus Macro Guide

When you’re playing a paladin, you may not have as much of a need for focus macros as on your other characters, but a few focus macros will certainly help out, especially if you’re in a DPS role.  Paladin focus macros are also very helpful for crowd control.

If you are looking for macros for other classes make sure to check out our other WoW class macro guides, or for paladins specifically our paladin macro guide. That said here’s a quick paladin focus macro guide to get you started.

This first paladin focus macro is a great utility one to keep on hand.  If you right-click it, you’ll cast Exorcism on your target.  Left-click on it, and you’ll cast Exorcism on your focus instead.  Middle-click the macro, and your focus becomes your target and gets Exorcism cast on it.  You can easily change out the Exorcism spell to any other one you use heavily.  This macro will really help out when you find yourself battling two enemies at once.

Focus Exorcism Macro

#showtooltip Exorcism
/clearfocus [target=focus, dead][button:3]
/focus [button:1/3, target=focus, noexists]
/cast [button:1/3, target=focus][button:2] spell

This paladin focus macro allows you to cast Repentance on your focus without losing your primary target.  It’s the perfect crowd control macro when things get a little iffy.

Focus Repentance Macro

/cast [target=focus, exists] Repentance; Repentance

This paladin focus macro casts Hammer of Justice on your focus without losing your target. It’s another great crowd control macro to keep handy.

Focus Hammer of Justice Macro

#showtooltip Hammer of Justice
/clearfocus [target=focus, dead]
/cast [target=focus,exists,harm] Hammer of Justice (); Hammer of Justice ()

For a quick save of any raid member, this paladin focus macro casts Hand of Sacrifice on your focus target without stopping the attack on your current target.  It’s handyto bail out your healer in a pinch if the raid goes awry for a moment.

Focus Hand of Sacrifice Macro

#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus, exists] Hand of Sacrifice; Hand of Sacrifice

This paladin focus macro is perfect to use during raids.  It allows you to target the enemy closest to you, but switch quickly to your tank’s target if it’s different than the enemy closest to you.  You can easily customize this focus macro to cast any spell you want when you start the attack.  Just change Exorcism to your spell of choice.

Focus Target Closest Enemy Macro

#showtooltip
/cleartarget [dead]
/targetenemy [noexists]
/assist focus
/startattack
/cast Exorcism

Hunter Focus Macro Guide

Macros may seen confusing and not worth your time, but each kind of character has certain strengths which can be highlighted even more by using macros.  Hunters, especially, can benefit from using focus macros.  For a hunter, focus macros can mean the difference between life and death, especially for the pet, whenever you need some heavy crowd control.

Your focus is basically your secondary target.  It’s the target you can easily switch to if you need to spend your ammo on a second creature attacking your pet.  The easiest way to set the correct focus efficiently each time is by using a macro.

If you haven’t seen the regular macro guide make sure to check it out here…hunter macro guide. Also, stop by and see our other class macros here, wow macro guides.

Here’s a quick hunter focus macro guide to get you set up.

This first hunter focus macro allows you to cast Silencing Shot on your focus without losing your primary target.  Silencing Shot is the perfect crowd control device, especially when you use a focus macro to do it.  The spell buys you three seconds in which your focus target can’t attack you.  Those three seconds may be all you need to take out your primary target.

Silencing Shot Focus Macro

#showtooltip Silencing Shot
/cast [target=focus] Silencing Shot

For a steady volley of gunfire split evenly among two targets, use this hunter focus macro.  It lets you quickly switch back and forth between your target and your focus, using Steady Shot on both.  You can also replace Steady Shot with other ranged attacks to create other versions of this macro.

Steady Shot Focus Macro

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast [target=focus] Steady Shot

This hunter focus macro has a two-fold purpose.  It lets you use Scatter Shot on your primary target while commanding your pet to attack your focus.  It’s a great way to do a bit of crowd control when you get in a jam.

Scatter Shot / Pet Attack Focus Macro

#showtooltip Scatter Shot
/cast [target=focus] Scatter Shot
/petattack [target=focus]

When you’re forced into a melee attack, this hunter focus macro is perfect.  It allows you to keep attacking your main target and then switch to your focus just by mousing over it.  This focus macro works well in cases when one creature gets up close and personal with you when your pet is attacking another creature further away from you.  Just keep your pet’s target as your main one, and then use this focus macro to melee the creature that’s attacking you.  If your target needs to be the creature you’re in the melee fight with, you can also replace Viper Sting with any of your ranged attacks.  That way you can assist your pet by making its target your focus and still targeting your own creature as your primary attack target.

Viper Sting Focus Macro

#showtooltip Viper Sting
/cast [target=focus] Viper Sting

This next hunter focus macro is a more complicated version of the last one.  The difference between the two is that in this one, you can hit alt along with this macro to shift to attacking your focus.  Your target will still be whatever creature is under your mouse, but you can use the same attack you’re currently using on your target, on your focus simply by pressing alt.  Just like the previous macro, you can replace viper sting with any other attack you wish to use.

Multi-Target Viper Sting Focus Macro

#showtooltip Viper Sting(Rank 4)
/cast [target=mouseover, harm][harm] Viper Sting(Rank 4)
/cast [target=focus, modifier:alt] Viper Sting(Rank 4)

This hunter focus macro allows you to focus on one creature briefly without dropping your primary target.  You’ll cast Wing Clip (which slows down the focus creature) and then Disengage on your focus while you continue to attack your primary target.

Disengage / Wing Clip Focus Macro

#showtooltip Disengage
/console targetNearestDistance 5.000000
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/cast [harm,nodead] Wing Clip
/cast Disengage
/targetlasttarget