How to earn the most profession Knowledge Points in Dragonflight
Dragonflight made professions much more interesting — but also much harder to level. That’s because advancing your crafting and gathering skills now requires you to collect profession knowledge as well as traditional skill points. And collecting knowledge is crucial, because it lets you progress through profession-specific talent trees and specializations, unlocking recipes, improving crafting quality, and even increasing the chance of making multiple items.
You can earn a bit of profession knowledge simply by crafting: when make or gather something for the first time, you’ll get one Knowledge Point. (Skinning is an exception: you don’t earn any knowledge by skinning something for the first time.) But you can only earn as many points as there are recipes in your profession, and after you’ve crafted everything, you’ll have to start looking elsewhere to earn more knowledge.
After that, you’ll want to collect items and do quests to earn knowledge and fully unlock your profession. There are a lot of one-time sources of knowledge to track down, as well as quests and items that reward knowledge every week. And with new profession quests and treasures in patch 10.1, there are more ways than ever to earn profession knowledge.
Here’s how to get as much profession knowledge as possible.
How many Knowledge Points do I need to max out my profession?
The number of points needed to fully unlock your Dragonflight profession varies wildly, but expect to spend quite a lot of time maxing out your Dragonflight profession. Here’s how many Knowledge Points you need to fully unlock each profession:
- Alchemy: 510
- Blacksmithing: 800
- Enchanting: 565
- Engineering: 525
- Herbalism: 520
- Inscription: 680
- Jewelcrafting: 630
- Leatherworking: 750
- Mining: 455
- Skinning: 400
- Tailoring: 630
One-time sources of profession knowledge
Find your profession masters
Scattered around the Dragon Isles are a series of Master Crafters, one for each profession. The first time you speak with them after you have learned the Dragon Isles version of your professions, they will award you with five Knowledge Points for crafting professions or 10 Knowledge Points for gathering professions.
Here’s where to find these profession masters:
- Alchemy: Grigory Vialtry
- Blacksmithing: Grekka Anvilsmash
- Enchanting: Shalasar Glimmerdusk
- Engineering: Frizz Buzzcrank
- Herbalism: Hua Greenpaw
- Inscription: Lydiara Whisperfeather
- Jewelcrafting: Pluutar
- Leatherworking: Erden
- Mining: Bridgette Holdug
- Skinning: Zenzi
- Tailoring: Elysa Raywinder
Collect profession treasures
Profession-specific treasures will give you three profession knowledge points for your crafting professions. They’re scattered all over the Dragon Isles — with an all new set of treasures in Zaralek Cavern — and you can start collecting them as soon as you’re skill level 25+ in that profession.
Here are the treasures to look for:
- Alchemy
- Blacksmithing
- Enchanting
- Engineering
- Boomthyr Rocket
- Intact Coil Capacitor
- NEW: Busted Wyrmhole Generator
- NEW: Defective Survival Pack
- NEW: Discarded Dracothyst Drill
- NEW: Handful of Khaz’gorite Bolts
- NEW: Haphazardly Discarded Bomb
- NEW: Inconspicuous Data Miner
- NEW: Misplaced Aberrus Outflow Blueprints
- NEW: Overclocked Determination Core
- Inscription
- Jewelcrafting
- Leatherworking
- Tailoring
Buy knowledge from the Artisan’s Consortium Vendor
Rabul, the Artisan’s Consortium Quartermaster, sells a number of recipes you can purchase as you gain reputation with the Artisan’s Consortium — including a limited supply of Profession Knowledge tokens that require both reputation and Artisan’s Mettle currency. Each token can only be purchased once, and is profession-specific. There are tokens for each primary profession and each awards 10 Knowledge Points for a crafting profession or 15 points for a gathering profession.
Here are the tokens available at each reputation:
- Preferred Reputation — Dusty — 100 Artisan’s Mettle
- Valued Reputation — Rare — 150 Artisan’s Mettle
- Esteemed Reputation — Ancient — 200 Artisan’s Mettle
Earn weekly profession knowledge from quests and more
The repeatable sources of Knowledge Points varies by profession and can be tricky to keep track of. I’ve found the Weekly Profession Knowledge Tracker Weakaura to be quite helpful, but there are several trackers to choose from if you look around.
But if you don’t want to bother with a tracker, just check with your profession trainer in Valdrakken and the NPCs in the Artisan’s Consortium area in Valdrakken, as most profession quests will be clustered there. If you see a blue exclamation point, you probably have a profession quest to do. Completing these quests will give you two or three knowledge points, though there’s a small chance you’ll discover an unknown recipe instead.
Most quests require finding or crafting items, but quests from Azley require you to complete crafting orders. Here are the questgivers to talk to:
- Dothenos for Alchemy, Engineering, Inscription, Tailoring
- Dhurrel for Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Leatherworking
- Temnaayu for Enchanting, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking
- Azley (crafting orders) for Blacksmithing, Engineering, Inscription, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, Tailoring
- NEW: Kayann gives several weekly quests requiring you to turn in profession items in Loamm. These will not always be for your profession.
Use Profession Treatises from Inscription
Draconic Treatises are a reliable weekly source of profession knowledge, though they only reward a single point. These are BOP, but if you aren’t a scribe you can just put in a work order for one. They’re relatively cheap to make, so they’re a convenient source of knowledge (as long as you’re patient).
Scribes unlock these recipes firstly through spending Knowledge Points themselves for the first recipe, and then via random discovery triggered by crafting treatises. By now, they’re quite common.
Find profession-specific drops
Each week each crafting profession can gain up to four points through random drops from thematically appropriate mobs. You could farm for these, but you’re more likely to just run into them as you’re playing. Here are the items you’re looking for:
- Alchemy: Elementious Splinter, Decaying Phlegm
- Blacksmithing: Molten Globule, Primeval Earth Fragment
- Enchanting: Primalist Charm, Primordial Aether
- Engineering: Infinitely Attachable Pair o’ Docks, Keeper’s Mark
- Inscription: Draconic Glamour, Curious Djaradin Rune
- Jewelcrafting: Elegantly Engraved Embellishment, Incandescent Curio
- Leatherworking: Exceedingly Soft Skin, Ossified Hide
- Tailoring: Ohn’arhan Weave, Stupidly Effective Stitchery
In addition to the items above, looting either an Expedition Scout’s Pack or Disturbed Dirt can drop an item that will reward a single Knowledge Point. You can loot up to two of these items per week.
Gathering professions have their own drops, which give varying numbers of points with varying cooldowns.
- Herbalism: Dreambloom Petal (1 pt, cap of 5 per week) or Dreambloom (3pts, once per week), Infused Pollen (1pt, low drop rate, no weekly cap).
- Mining: Iridescent Ore Fragments (1 pt, cap of 5 per week) or Iridescent Ore (3pts, once per week), Elementally Charged Stone, Heated Ore Sample, or Unyielding Stone Chunk (1pt, low drop rate, no weekly cap).
- Skinning: Curious Hide Scraps (1pt – cap of 5 per week ), Large Sample of Curios Hide (2pts, once per week) or Saturated Bone (1pt, low drop rate, no weekly cap).
Do monthly Darkmoon Faire profession quests
Don’t forget about the Darkmoon Faire! When it returns at the beginning of the month, you can do Darkmoon Faire profession quests to earn three Knowledge Points for primary professions. Remember that most of these quests require materials that you can’t buy at the Faire, so be sure to get what you need before you go.
Collect Dragon Shards of Knowledge
This is both the most grindable — and yet, the least reliable — way to get Knowledge Points. You can find Dragon Shards of Knowledge as random drops (particularly from rares and bosses), in rewards caches, and looted from magic chests, scout’s packs, dirt piles, and the like. Each shard will reward you with 1 point of knowledge and 50 Artisan’s Mettle.
Unlike most other sources of Knowledge Points, to obtain your reward you need to take the Dragon Shard to Khadin, an NPC located in a cave near Maruukai. You need to complete a short quest line with Khadin to be able to hand them in, but can start earning them as soon as you have completed the quest That’s My Specialty in Valdrakken.
Originally published March 9, 2023. Updated May 22, 2023.
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