Trade Skills are now "Professions"

[Bolty]

In the next patch (no ETA as of yet), most trade skills are being renamed to "professions," and the way in which players acquire and learn them is changing. You will no longer learn different professions by paying for them with skill points. You'll still learn them by speaking to the appropriate profession trainer. However, players will now be restricted to learning two professions. We decided to change the skill system to make it simpler, balanced, and more intuitive. The new system should allow everyone to participate in one to two professions, and create a much more vibrant market for goods generated from professions.
We strongly encourage players to choose the two professions (trade skills) they wish to keep before the patch goes live so as to avoid the possibility of losing a hard-earned profession. If you have more than two trade skills known on your character, two will be chosen randomly to be retained as professions. The others will be eliminated from your character. Please unlearn the skills you do not wish to keep, and make sure that you only have two trade skills left on your character. To unlearn a trade skill, open your Skills window by pressing the hotkey “K.” Select the skill you wish to unlearn and click the Unlearn button that appears to the right of the skill.


The professions are: alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting, engineering, herbalism, mining, leatherworking, skinning, and tailoring.
The secondary skills are: cooking, fishing, and first aid.

Several old trade skills are being turned into secondary skills. These do not count toward your two-profession limit, so players can learn all three secondary skills, in addition to their two professions, without restriction. The survival skill is being removed and campfires have been folded into the cooking profession.

No More Skill Points

With the changes to trade skills, skill points (SP) will be removed from the game, and currency will be used instead to train skills formerly based on SP.

Mount trainers will now require you to have a certain level of reputation with their respective city in order to acquire a mount.

They're simplifying this system even more? Now it sounds like you can really twink up newbies with gold so they can pump their professions early.

-Bolty