I don't even care about the flying now. Nice for those who wants it, and glad they have the option, but to me doesn't really matter one way or the other.
 

I'd love to fly. Heck my main is a druid and I miss being able to pop into bird form. But I would rather slam my hand in a car door than go do those reputation grinds.

You might be right on the gathering skills though. The mine seriously broke some things. I think the bigger question is will I bother with the next expansion.

 

So far the best thing about flying is being able to get some of the remaining treasures without having to do jumping puzzles.
 

I made over a million gold with alchemy before patch 6.2 transmuting sorcerous fire/water/air into earth - maybe the easiest gold I've ever made in wow. For reasons I still don't understand the market never normalized their relative prices after 6.1 when the transmutes were added and the auction house was always filled with alchemical catalyst at give-away prices. I have most professions covered on some alt or another, and they have all made a good amount of gold, but alchemy blew them all away in both profit and ease.
 

I haven't even done the achievement for flying yet and don't really intend to. Draenor on groundbased mounts is fine for me.

Alchemy is OKish as a gold source, transmute as Onwuka said, combat pots (though the high volume times of new raid is long gone). Catalysts have a natural low point of 5g. Watch the price curve and buy in volume, if you can get them at 3g50 you look at 5000 gold per hour semi afk work, at 4g per catalyst you still are at 2500 g/h.

On topic of gathering professions I might be biased because I despice farming. At the start of an expansion you can make a shitload of gold with it from players like me ;) While it's profitable I rather play and level my own char, after that in the long run I find the g/h too low to do it myself. Mindnumbing too. I fish from time to time listening to a good audio drama.

Blizzard promised a profession overhaul for Legion, I hope they get it right. Draenor was a step in the right direction with soulbound materials but it gets tedious to log in every day even though it doesn't take much time. Let's see what they come up with and it's better not be farming.
 

It was true more in the days of crafting bonuses, but at some point of getting serious about professions, I recommend a herb/mining druid; instant flight form, herb while in flight. Like Woody Allen's joke that bisexuals have twice the odds on Saturday night, if you are flying around, why not be able to gather both? All other things equal, there is a slight advantage if this is a tauren druid.

The question, and my concern, is combat required for professions in Legion. MoP was my first unsub due to alt-unfriendly professions. My under-geared alt#10 clothie (who I played poorly hence why alt#10) had to get Gl to revered and AC to exalted just to make a bag. And the crafting mats were boP. So even if your main had 300 SoH, your alt could not craft much. In WoD, if your main is a JC and your alt is a tailor you are much better than the converse since there are combat things you need to do to make certain gems. Have I mentioned I hate that?

Who knows what the expansions change-for-change-sake class redesign will be, although I am hopeful for demo locks. But I think this means the toons you think you might main (i.e. gear enough and enjoy enough to do say LFR) probably should not be gatherers since you want to maximize the chance that they have a profession that benefits from combat advancement.

Usual disclaimers: game not job, do what's fun for you not me, free advice is fairly priced.
 

In WoD, if your main is a JC and your alt is a tailor you are much better than the converse since there are combat things you need to do to make certain gems. Have I mentioned I hate that?

My warrior is Jewelcrafter since it was implemented but last time I played him regularly was WotLK (didn't like the game play since Cata). Skyreach mythic for the haste gem... yeah not gonna happen. I actually switched professions on another char for it. Problem is... THAT char will never be rank 6 brawlers guild because I know how to tank but have no desire to learn dps-ing. She is also never going to kill Iskar, not even in LFR.

So am I supposed to learn Jewelcrafting on a third char to complete all the patterns?

/rant ;)
 

FLying is super useful for rare-hunting, collecting treasures and other exploration content. Many apexis-daily achievemnets will be much easier to get now (just getting to Skettis and Lost veil Anzu is thousandfold easier now). Wild pet collection is much easier, some Draenor tamers which required much time to reach are now easily accessible. Archeology is once more viable. Rare hunting for Steamwiddle "preservation" society greatly sped up. New alts now can get to places where they didn't unlocked the flight points, and can collect significantly more garrison resourses when levelling, speeding up garrison construction. Now you can always get to mount-dropping Tanaan rares in time. Even getting your garrison media center (while not that important) is greatly simplified.

Well, and felblight has already dipped in price. Which means more accessible equipment for everyone.
 

Of course you don't care about flying now, it's several months after the last patch of the expansion.

Blizzard is doing the same thing in the next expansion-- they will not allow players to fly until the end of the expansion. It's a major bummer, and I actually quit over it.