Each week Arcane Brilliance brings you a column about Mages and all things Mage-related. That's right, Arcane Brilliance is nothing if not consistent. You won't find any server instability here. We're never down, we're always up, and you can always enter our instanced content. And the best part? Arcane Brilliance doesn't charge you 15 bucks a month. Although, donations are totally welcome.

So how's everything? Did you make it through patch day unscathed? Did you log in, like me, and find that your Mage's face, forearms, and feet were gone, and there was a hole through his chest (pro tip: upgrade your video card drivers more than once every three years)? Are you running out of mana at an outrageous clip? Are your crit numbers from Molten Armor up or down? Did your guild manage to make it into Ulduar yet, and if so, did you manage to snag any phat loot? Did you dual spec your Mage so he can now both DPS and DPS? I went Frostfire/Firefrost, myself. When triple-specs hit, I'm taking a Frarcano-fire spec. Mark my words.

All in all, I'd say 3.1 wasn't too bad. We have some new glyphs to play with, the Argent Tournament is good, clean fun, our mounts can swim, and we have a whole new batch of loot-pinatas to blow up. Our DPS seems to be down a bit, but we're still beating Warlocks, so I'm not going to mail any angry, expletive-laced letters to Blizzard just yet. I've written them--rest assured--but I'm not yet prepared to actually invest in stamps for them. Those things are like a buck apiece these days.

So now we turn to the third and final installment in our guide to professions for Mages. If you missed them, the first two parts can be found here and here. This week we'll investigate the merits of Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, and Engineering. As an added bonus, we'll take a quick peek at the three secondary professions and enumerate the reasons for investing in them. Yes, even though you can conjure Strudel from the very air around you with but a word and a snap of your fingers, you still need to learn how to cook

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

Patch 3.1 is looming ever closer, and things are about to change in a big way. Today I'll be discussing how the patch is going to affect your professions, and how you can take advantage of this by maximizing your profits on the Auction House.

Players have become increasingly bored with raiding because the content that was released with the expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, was too quickly conquered. Across the board, players are showing up to raids on an inconsistent basis, and many people now spend much of their time on the Public Test Realm playing through Ulduar.

This has contributed to falling prices on the Auction House for raiding materials and consumables, because not only have many people stopped raiding, many others have decided to save their gold and raid without being buffed to the gills.

What should you do in these tight times? Aside from the things for which you are currently saving, the patch will bring with it a 1000g bill to learn how to dual spec, costs to fund raid wipes, bring new consumables, and enchant and gem new gear.

By learning what to sell and purchase and when, you can minimize your post-patch costs and make some gold while you're at it.

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

In the World of Warcraft, as in life, we are constantly being faced with morally significant choices. Some players try their best to listen to the Angel on their shoulder, while others will do whatever suits them at the time. Proper etiquette is always in debate.

Of course, as this is a virtual world, the moral implications of our actions are on a much smaller scale. Hitting someone for being annoying could cause many problems in my personal and professional lives, yet blasting someone similar off of a cliff in-game can be almost therapeutic.

When it comes to gathering and crafting, greed crops up. There are many ways to get what you want, often at the expense of others. This week, Insider Trader will discuss the underhanded side of the professional world.

Breaking news: a few people still play Warlock and many of them still drive healers crazy. Bravely posting on a Level 1 Alt, Suepah of Wildhammer posed the question, "Why do healers care if I life tap to 10% or so?" She says that even if she taps down when the tank is pulling, she uses a bandage and stays out of the way of the mobs.

Timing is a major key, life tapping while the tank is pulling draws attention away from the task at hand. It also draws away from the healer's mana. My healer gets very frustrated when a Lock takes over his mana pool. To the point where he wanted to take a third rogue instead of a Warlock in a PUG. Life Tap is a cool ability in extended combat situations, but Warlocks can eat or drink at the end of a fight just like any other class.

In the last year and a half that we've run this weekly column, Lisa Poisso and Amanda Miller have written many a column giving you the inside angle on making, selling and buying crafted items. Below is a compilation of the best of our advice for you to use as reference in your crafting adventures.

Note that any of the leveling guides going over skill 350 were written pre-Wrath. You should stop following the guide at 350 and look for Wrath profession leveling guides at that point. The exception to this is Inscription.

GENERAL PROFESSION GUIDES

• WoW Tradeskills for newbies
• How to work the Auction House
• Finding your Wrath profession trainers

PRIMARY PROFESSIONS

Alchemy

• Leveling Alchemy 300-375
• Outland faction Alchemy recipes

Blacksmithing

• Darkmoon Faire recipes for young Blacksmiths
• Outland faction Blacksmithing recipes
• Overview of Blacksmithing in Northrend

I admit, I'm not, which is new. When BC came along, while I leveled to 70, I always stopped to mine the Fel Iron nodes. Even on my initial tramp from 1-60 on my characters, I usually stop every few levels to make sure their chosen tradeskill is up to date. But this time, on my Death Knight, I'm not stopping for a thing.

It's a weird feeling. I'm conscientious about making sure my characters are well-rounded, making sure they have the skills to pay the bills, so to speak, first aid and cooking in addition to a set of well maintained trade skills, but on my Death Knight, I just can't bring myself to let up on the questing and grinding for professions, even if it means leaving piles of dead, unskinned Bog Lords in my wake.

Admittedly, this may have something to do with the fact that his trade skills start at level 1 while he's level 55. In the end, I'd rather level in Hellfire Peninsula instead of picking daisies in Elwynn. Can you blame me? Still, I promise at level 80 that I will make time to level up his Inscription.

While I have asked about this before, I thought I'd see if the responses were any different now that Wrath is underway. Are you taking breaks on the road to 80 to level your tradeskills? Why or why not?

The days of choosing a profession and maximizing it solely based on a few purples at the very end are no more. Not only will many more crafted epics be bind on equip, they will be available earlier than the maximum rank.

Instead, the incentive to choose between the available professions will be based more on fun and personal preference. Each profession is getting its own 'goody bag' of items that are fun and promote individual customization.

Intrigued? Here's an overview of what you can expect to see:

Over the past few weeks, the WoW Insider team has been working diligently to provide Wrath content, including galleries, guides, preparations, new items, and more.

Professions is an issue that affects every player, so in case you missed any of the tradeskill goodies, here's a round-up to give you something to read before the expansion goes live.

• Dan O' posted several galleries showing many of the new crafting recipes.
• Allison summarized the amount of money you are going to need in order to acquire all of your profession training.
• Did you know that crafted bind on pick-up items will become largely a thing of the past? Eliah dishes on the details, the reasoning behind the change, and what we're going to get instead.
• Stones and oils are disappearing in Wrath. While you will still be able to make them, they will not work on items above level 70!
• Alex Z. answered reader questions about professions in the expansion in one day's Ask a Beta Tester. In addition, alchemists got their own article!
  
• Insider Trader has been helping you cheaply and efficiently level your inscription, first from 0 to 100 and then from 100 to 200. Stay tuned for guides taking you all the way to 450!
• Your gathering professions come with nifty abilities, which will continue to scale in the expansion.
• Check out our tailoring preview!

One of the first things on your mind after stepping into Northrend will undoubtedly be the most convenient location of your profession trainers.

You gatherers are going to need the know-how to start hoarding items for fun and profit, and craftspeople will want to see what new items can soon be constructed. Besides, you won't want to be left behind in the server-wide race to the new level cap, 450.

This information might affect which starting zone you choose to explore first, so pass through the break to see what stops you should be making before you venture out to quest and conquer.

Times are changing. Where previously you could merely craft epic swords and new-fangled flying machines, you can now craft success.

Achievement points, the latest addictive means of displaying your awesomeness, are all the rage, and can be crafted up in a jiffy. Well, maybe two jiffies.

As a level 70, there is one achievement you almost certainly have, and that is "Professional Master." This is awarded once you train the highest rank of any given profession, and serves as a little pat on the back for a job well done.

Ready to go further? Get ready to maximize your fishing, cooking and first aid skills!

We have a lot of profession questions today, but also a few about Achievements, the Beast Mastery 51-point talent, and what happens when you push Death Knights off a cliff:

Riley asks...

How is the Shaman Hex ability working? Does the target still have control of movement and does the PvP trinket work against it?

Hex is a the crowd-control spell for Shamans referenced by the devs at the class panel here, and it's been tinkered with a lot since we first heard about it. It was originally meant to be more of an emergency-only, short-duration CC. In its present form, Hex's duration has been increased to 30 seconds and it doesn't necessarily break on damage. However, in PvP the target can control where they go, the PvP trinket does work (you can also shapeshift out of it as a Druid), and it's considered a curse and can be dispelled by Mages, Druids, and restoration Shamans (who will have the ability do dispel curses with a 31-point talent Cleanse Spirit). Think of it as a somewhat odd combination of Counterspell, Fear, and Polymorph.

The debate over whether Death Knights should get a free hand up on their primary professions continues to rage, but what actually interests me most are some of the arguments put forth by those opposed to Death Knights getting "free" tradeskills. Some of them are saying that it doesn't matter that Death Knights have to wait, because people should wait until max level to deal with professions anyway.

This is a completely alien concept to me. On any new character, the first thing I do upon hitting level 6 is run to the nearest profession trainers to learn my chosen professions. I like being able to doing something about those herbs and mineral nodes I see while I'm leveling. I can go do some tradeskilling if I start getting bored of leveling, and I can use the final product for my own leveling process, or sell the raw materials on the AH for a nice chunk of change.

I can't really fathom waiting for maximum level before I started a profession in earnest. Why go back to Elwynn forest to harvest bushels of Peacebloom at level 70 when you could have done it from level 1-11 while you were there?

So here's something that may be considered somewhat of a companion question to yesterday's profession question: Do you level your professions while you level up, or do you leave them until after you've leveled up?

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

This week, Insider Trader will be starting a discussion about trade channel in World of Warcraft, including its usefulness to its likability, abuse, and role in the game.

At first glance, trade channel is supposed to be a channel linking all major cities, providing a forum for craftsmen and buyers to meet up and exchange goods and services.

Within this context, players make a living, purchase gear and consumables, research goods and services, make friends and business associates, and learn the ins and outs of server economy.

Unfortunately, when asked their opinions of trade channel, many players describe it as annoying, useless, or offensive, and many keep it turned off permanently. Still others seem to hover in trade chat, spending a great deal of time in it either chatting, selling or sometimes, buying.

This week, Insider Trader will be taking a further look into the future of professions in World of Warcraft.

Although Wrath of the Lich King is still only in alpha testing, what little we do know, though it might change, helps us anticipate the direction Blizzard is taking.

In fact, we can even begin to see what the army of Death Knight Inscribers might take as their second profession, which will undoubtedly have repercussions on the market.

Not only will the amount of competition skyrocket, but opportunities to make a buck selling to lazy Death Knights will abound.

For these and more details, head on through the break.

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.