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Professions and the Adventuring Mage
There are three classes of professions, gathering, production and service. All mages should take the time to learn both Cooking and First Aid professions up to the maximum skill level of 300. With Cooking you will be able to create special foods, which will give you mage friendly temporary buffs that will add to your combat effectiveness. You will also be able to create food with buffs favorable to other classes.

With First Aid you will be able to heal yourself and others when there aren’t any healer’s nearby. First Aid is a necessity! Let me repeat, First Aid is a necessity! It will save your life and the lives of those around you. It is essential for both PvP and PvE encounters so do not neglect working on that skill.

Another skill worth obtaining is Fishing. It’s much harder to raise to the higher levels, but having it will save you money in the long run, as you can fish for many high demand reagents for your advanced cooking endeavors.

In addition to Cooking, First Aid and Fishing, you have the option of picking up any two of the remaining professions. If you are PvP oriented, the Engineering tree is rather helpful. You will find bind on pickup equipment uniquely helpful in many PvP encounters in both the Goblin and Gnomish branches. Similarly, Engineering can help with PvE encounters, but given the mages current role, it is not a necessity for PvE encounters. It is important to note that raising skill in Engineering is rather difficult and expensive. You will need a solid flow of gold or resources to make good progress. Otherwise, it will be a slow, difficult and expensive grind.

Outside of engineering for PvP inclined characters there are no other must have professions for PvE inclined characters. The gathering professions will make you more money over time. Common mage type profession combinations are Herbalism & Alchemy and Enchanting & Tailoring. The most useful combination is Herbalism & Alchemy. With that combination you are virtually assured to have enough resources to create many of the upper end potions.

Enchanting & Tailoring is not recommended for the solo or small team player as many of the most desirable enchants are found only in the higher level encounters. Select enchanting if you must and if only realistically plan on using the profession to disenchant extra magic items found or to enchant your own gear. However, if you are a part of a large or growing guild there should be at least one or two guild enchanters.

I personally would work on having two gathering professions. Over the course of your gaming career you will find a greater market for the raw materials gathered than the end products created. With two gathering professions you would be in a better position to earn gold or trade for player crafted items and equipment. This recommendation is subject to change as additional content may be added to the game to make the production professions more desirable.