What is the general opinion of enchanting and what is a good second profession to pair with it?

I maxed Enchanting in retail as well as on the Den.

As a matter of fact, all my Den chars are enchanters to some degree since it saves bag space when you end up with too many useless or unusable loot items and can disenchant them. It's also a great way to add valuable stats to many of your items, especially on the Den where each character can learn all trades (professions are quite quick, cheap and easy to master - with the notable exceptions of Skinning and LWing).

Now, since you seem to play on the Shack realm and that I have no idea if main profs are limited to 2 like in retail WoW, I guess it depends on the race/class you play...

As a rule of thumb, plate-class players often take up mining/smithing; leather/mail classes often take up skinning/LW; cloth wearers often go tailoring/enchanting. Of course, that's not taking into account the different racial proficiencies out there (Gnomes have a head start in engineering, Draenei have one in JC as well as Shattrah faction limitations that make 300+ enchanting a bit harder, etc., etc.)

As for herbalism/alchemy, mining/jewelcrafting, mining/engineering and the other possible combinations, people often take those up after one of their characters has become proficient in the more mainstream (self-help) professions. For example, if you already have a miner/smith, maybe your Gnomish mage could take up enchanting/engineering? Or tailoring/jewelcrafting? Or even engineering/jewelcrafting? But that implies your miner/smith works overtime to keep your Gnome supplied with ores/bars/stones/gems...

So I guess it all boils down to your level of commitment to the game: will you be playing many different characters? Which classes/races will you play? Does your guild already have trade masters and in which trades?

Sorry to answer your question with *more* questions! : )

**** Sorry to answer your question with *more* questions! : ) ****

cmoabob, no problem that's what this forum is for, hearty discussion. you brought up a lot of good points. I do sometimes play on the DEN, but, yes, my main server is the SHACK. which follows retail very closely. chars can only learn 2 main & the 3 secondary Profs. My main char is a Night Elf Rogue, so I went with Skinning/Leather working there. I do have alts, but, I am still deciding on their profs cuz they are still low levels. As with what most people do, I want to use them to somewhat enhance my main char. Enchanting seems like the most unusual trade skill, so, I was trying to get a feel for what people think of it & how successful it is. I have other chars that are Engineering/Mining, JC/Mining, Alchemy/Herbal, Tailor/Skinning, & Smithing/Mining. I do not yet have an Enchanter. Now, I probably will!!!

ThanX