Post by Arideni
As a secondary character, you may find Engineering to be more to your liking than Blacksmithing as it really does take a lot of time & effort for little result early on.
Engineering has its perks: flying machines, ammo crafting & valuable items or armor now & then.
Blacksmithing has dated armor & weapons, usually replaced or used as fillers for equipment. That's about all it can really do for you.
Many people claim Engineering to have been a blast, but other than grenades or the occassional trinket (which must be equipped beforehand to use & even then not useful in Arena) there is little to actually gain at first glance. This profession has been gaining love over the course of Burning Crusade, though.
Blacksmithing will be useful since you won't be raiding for any real duration as you said & useful yet again when WLK comes around, but for PVP purposes you may wish to adjust your train of thought - even the crafted armor such as Ragesteel are just stepping stones to bigger, better things for casuals.
That's what I figure, mostly, =)
Just for the record, I took up Swordsmithing. There are really only a couple things I use from swordsmithing & that being Blazeguard (was great for Fury, though I am Protection atm).
A lot of the great patterns you find BOE or BOP don't really appear to be specifically for armor or swordsmiths. For example, the SSC drop patterns don't require armorsmith, so you can pick whatever suits your fancy.
On the other end, my rogue has engineering & there are
many options for different specs. to have different "goggles" to craft.
Check the database to
see them all!