Professions

Introduction

Professions can be learned right off the bat
Navigate to Manage > Professions

Fishing allows you to gather fishes to craft or sell
Cooking allows you to craft food which restores health or mana
Herbalism allows you to gather herbs to craft or sell
Alchemy allows you to craft potions which raise your stats temporarily

Every time you gather a resource or craft something you have a chance of leveling your profession. You need a certain level to gather or craft higher-level items.

Items that have a level marginally below your profession level will be less likely to give you extra levels, so you must craft and gather higher leveled items to do so.

Professions

Fishing

To fish, you simply click on a body of water if you’re close enough. You have to keep moving around the map as the fish spawn randomly.

List of all fish you can catch

As you can see, there are quite a number of "junk" fish you can only sell for money. That is not to say making money is bad.

Cooking

To cook, you need a fish or meat and spices you buy from an npc called Chef Rake. He is located east of the castle of Hallengard. where you can find an area with a chimney.

Chef Rake, Catrain, and Kapik (from left to right)

You can get most of your spices from one npc, but there are 3 spices you have to get elsewhere. Mustard Seed and Black Panther Spice are purchased from an Npc in Fertile Lands, while Potent Spices are purchased in Frozen Wastes. They are very expensive.

List of foods that has: Percent Recovered, Health or Mana (purple is hybrid), and cost in gold (spices)

Each food has its own cooldown timer, which means that you can simultaneously consume different foods to recover your health and mana. The more variety of consumables you possess (recipe and non-recipes items included) the more health and mana you can potentially recover during and outside of battle.
Each recipe except for the last 4 requires 2 items, while the latter requires 3. The only item you can’t make without a recipe is Smoked Tetra.

List of all craftable food

Herbalism

To gather herbs, you must click on it when close enough. Herbs that do not craft anything I have marked red. They can "slip" from your hands so it can take multiple attempts.

Alchemy

To create potions, you need the right amount of herbs and vials you buy from an npc called Jim “Herb” Allesandro. He is located east of the npcs that sell gear and south of Chef Rake. They are cheaper to make than food by a wide margin and lasts 10 minutes. The same potion type cannot be stacked (e.g. Minor and Fair Strength cannot be stacked) and used again until the previous one wears out.

Jim “Herb” Allesandro

List of all craftable potions

The only items that require a recipe are Improved Stamina and Heightened Agility

List of Potion sets and combined Herb costs

End

Now that you know the logistics of professions, I wish you the best of luck. Your profession will level up as you traverse to each new area. There is no shame in going back to previous areas to grind the herbs/fish/animals either. It can take a while to obtain the mats needed to craft your items so take your time and endure the grind.