Thanks to the new profession benefits introduced in WotLK, your two sidejobs have been that much more integral for min-maxing your character. Certain professions have some amazing boosts (we’re talking about self-only buffs or BOP items) for the common tankadin. Others… not so much.

A breakdown and my recommendations ahead.

Alchemy

• Mixology, which gives you increased duration/benefit from any flask or elixir you can make. This means that–to use the most common tanking flask–the Flask of Stoneblood will give you 970hp instead of the usual 650. Not bad!
• Indestructible Alchemist’s Stone, which gives +75 stam, 50 dodge rating (1.27% avoidance at 80), and boosts the effect of healing/mana pots by 40%.

Blacksmithing

• Two free gem slots, one for gloves and one for bracers. Assuming you add Solid Sky Sapphires, that’s an additional 48 stamina (or 547hp). When epic gems are released, you’re looking at an additional 60 stamina (or 684hp).

Enchanting

• Enchant Ring – Stamina will give you an additional 48 stamina/547hp when used on both rings. Comparable to BSing right now.

Engineering

• Reticulated Armor Webbing adds +800 armor to your gloves, and is the best enchant you can get for that slot.
• The tank goggles are nice, and were definitely what made Engineering godly in later TBC, but nowadays you’ll be replacing the highest iteration with Naxx10 gear. Hopefully this will change in later patches.

Herbalism

• Lifeblood, a HoT that eventually heals for 2000hp. But that’s what healers are for, or yourself while soloing.
• You also have the chance of finding certain items that can be consumed for boosts to AP or SP… at the cost of physical or magical damage vulnerability. Clearly a no-go for a tank.

Inscription

• Master’s Inscription of the Pinnacle is the best possible shoulder enchant for tanks right now. Much better than the exalted Hodir one.
• I have a warm place in my heart for Scrolls of Recall. Alas, cannot be used in combat, so no Bubblerecalling.

Jewelcrafting

• Dragon’s Eye Gems are an amazing boost, for two reasons: because they’re prismatic you can cut three Solid Dragon’s Eyes and put them in any bothersome red or yellow slots, and the net benefit of using three Solid DEs is 51 stamina, or 581hp. Best hp boost from any profession right now.
• The Monarch Crab is also an awesome trinket. If gemmed right (aka Solid Sky Sapphire and Solid Dragon’s Eye) you’re looking at 137 stamina from one trinket alone. There’s no comparison in pre-Ulduar trinkets as I type this.

Leatherworking

• Fur Lining – Stamina looks awesome at first glance (90 stamina/1024hp!) but consider that you can’t also pick up Enchant Bracer – Major Stamina for 40 stamina. So you’re only looking at a net gain of 50 stamina (seeing a pattern here? …pardon the pun).

Mining

• Toughness, which gives 50 stamina. With talents that comes out to an extra 570hp. Pretty nice EH boost, although, unlike the extra health from Blacksmithing or Jewelcrafting, this number will remain static as further patches come out (unless a Rank 7 is introduced).

Skinning

• Master of Anatomy, +25 to your crit rating (or .54% crit chance). Nice for threat I guess, but overall you want to be focusing on EH or avoidance/mitigation for buffs.

Tailoring

• There’s really nothing here for tankadins, as you would imagine. The one slightly interesting thing was the Lightweave cloak embroidery that would proc sometimes for an additional 1000 to 1200 Holy damage. Great for threat I suppose, but it’s being changed in 3.1 to proc for additional spellpower instead.

Overall, looking at all the benefits above, the best profession combination for a tankadin is Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing. Right now Mining would be marginally better by 2 stamina, but eventually when epic gems are released, BSing will become better by 10 stamina. So it’d be better to hang onto Blacksmithing and reap the benefits in a future patch.

What professions do you deck out your tankadin with?