More Profession Powerleveling

With Skinning and Herbalism, you can only get 1 skill point per gather, maximum. You’ll sometimes find another herb directly on top of the first, so when you click on it, it seems like you’re getting 2 collections, but it’s a whole new node. However, there is a gathering profession that you can gain skill points in very quickly. Mining. You can get up to 60+ mining skill just by smelting Copper Ore, then go mine a few copper nodes to get you to 65, where you can smelt Tin Ore. Do that for 10+???? levels, and start making Bronze Bars at level 75(1 copper bar and 1 tin bar). Bronze bars gray out around 121, so go and find a few Tin or Silver veins, and get up to 125. This allows you to unlock expert mining, and be able to smelt Iron Ore. Smelt about 80 Iron Ore to get to around 140-141 mining, and then go to Thelgen Rock in the Wetlands, right before the pass to Khaz Modan. That’s why Ores sell well on the AH, because they haven’t been smelted yet. They have some use in other crafting professions, but a lot of the time it’s because people want the skill points from smelting it themselves. The higher level ores are used for Prospecting by Jewelcrafters, but I really doubt that they’d prospect copper or tin.
This cave has Tin/Silver and Incendicite veins, and a lot of lvl 22ish spiders. I usually leave a character there for a while, so make sure your bags are cleaned out, and mine your little heart out. The spiders will give you a lot of stuff that will sell pretty decently to a vendor, as well as Spider’s Silk, which will sell on the AH. Gooey Spider legs are also used for a cooking quest in Duskwood for Alliance players, so they might sell on the Alliance AH. Go through the cave collecting all the ore you can, keeping a lookout for Solid Chests, and then log out of that character for a couple hours. This should allow you to get to level 155 Mining, which allows you to smelt Gold Ore. Smelting Gold Ore will get you to 175 Mining, which is where you can smelt Mithril. This is a good place to stop powerleveling mining, and it will allow you to take advantage of the split prices between Ore and Bars that you’ll find in the AH.

Some of the profession guides on the web have overlooked some shortcuts you can take while powerleveling your professions.
Leatherworking is an example of this. You can get up to level 35+ by making Ruined Leather Scraps into Light leather. You can get ruined leather scraps off the AH for almost nothing, and it’s worth those free skill points. You’re going to be using the light leather anyway, so you might as well get the skill points. If you’re running a few alts, I’d recommend them to be Skinners and Miners until level 10+ anyways, so you should have plenty of scraps for your Leatherworker.
From level 35-65+????, you can cure Light Hides with Salt. Again, free skill points, cheap on the AH, and you’ll need them for recipes. Even if you don’t, it’s cheaper than buying Light leather for the same amount of skill points.
Curing Medium Hide is good from 100-130+.
Curing Heavy Hide is good from 150-165+.
Armor kits XXXXX

With my new Horde Leatherworker (Shaman), I powerleveled to 225 using the above tips and a LW grinding guide, and rarely had to make white items that I had to vendor.
I leveled Skinning and Leatherworking on my first Horde account with a…….Warrior. Big mistake. I had plenty of gold from my enchanter alt, so I power leveled my leatherworking by buying leather off the AH. I even got someone to get me the Red Whelp Glove pattern, because it’s an Ally only recipe that’s very nice for a twink rogue to wear while grinding.

However, I realized there were Bind On Pickup Blacksmithing recipes that a toon that WOULD wear plate and mail would want. I also realized that skinning on a Warrior, someone who relies on Rage, is a very Bad Idea. You lose too much Rage while you’re skinning. IMO, with a full 10 character account, the only one who should be a skinner is a Hunter. I’ve detailed that below in my Profession Lineup with Alts section. So, I dropped Skinning and LW, and picked up Blacksmithing and Engineering. Blacksmithing so he can make his own armor/weapons, and Engineering for the fun and extra damage. Nothing better than setting off a bomb to hurt the enemies surrounding you, tossing up a Target dummy, then chopping them down individually while they’re concentrating on the dummy.

Engineering is another example. Don’t ever make Silver Contacts, buy them from engineering supplies or from the AH (if they’re less than 1 silver each). Instead, make some EZ-thro dynamite or Small Seaforium charges around the 100-110 level. You can send the EZ-thro to your non-engineers, and skip that section of the leveling guide. As detailed in Engineering tips, I’d also advise picking up Gyrochronomatum whenever you find it in engineering supplies or the AH (at 30 silver or less).
I’m rethinking the idea of having one of my characters be a tailor right off the bat. I’d advise getting the recipes when you can, at cheap prices, but thinking back on what I’ve made for my mage/warlock/priest up to level 20-24, the only things that come to mind that were kinda useful were the Hands of Darkness and Truefaith Gloves. Everything else I found on the Auction house, because I couldn’t really make anything that was as good as what was offered on the AH.