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I found this thread at the official Blizzard forums, and it's possibly the only useful post I've ever seen there from someone outside of Blizzard. 
There's a whole lot of information about the entire game, including some Tradeskill stuff:
There's a whole lot of information about the entire game, including some Tradeskill stuff:
Section II: Skills.
World of Warcraft breaks abilities into two separate fields: skills and talents. Skills are those items that do not directly affect combat – included here are languages, riding on steeds, trade skills, and some miscellaneous abilities (discussed more in other sections). Talents are combat-oriented abilities: attribute increases, defense, regeneration, magical abilities, holy specialization, magical resistances, slayer talents, weaponry skills, invisibility detection, etc. As of now, there are no racially restricted skills or talents, although the devs expressed some hope that there might be racially restricted skills later on. (More on talents later.)
Every level, a player earns 1 skill point. Talent points start accruing at 10 per level, but increase at higher levels (you actually earn MORE than 10 per level when you gain advanced levels). Since the two channels are separated, you will never have to gimp your character to participate in trade skills. However, since skill points are level based, you will not have level 1 trade mules. Currently, respec’s are in discussion, but not finalized: Blizzard doesn’t ever want a player to feel that they screwed themselves with a particular spec. There was some discussion that a maximum-level character might be able to acquire extra skill points through buying them or questing for them, but this is far from decided.
With skills, there are three levels per skill. For example, to get the first level of mining ability costs 3 skill points, second level costs an extra 5, and third level costs 7 additional skill points. While the dev mentioned keeping this concept open for change in the future, there currently is no plan to change skills to “many cheap levels” rather than “three increasingly expensive levels.” One should expect to spend roughly 10-15 skill points to max our a skill. As of now, there are about 20-25 skills in the game:
- Blacksmith: this skill makes the chain and plate weapons, as well as the metal weaponry. There is no separate skill for armor or weapons; blacksmiths make both. In addition, blacksmiths can make whetstones, consumable items that can be applied to armor or weapons to imbue them with magical abilities for a limited time period – think of a whetstone that could grant a sword +2 fire damage for 60 minutes. Blacksmiths are important for tanks, but they need to be supplied through mining.
- Leatherworkers: most characters will get their armor from these folks. They make all leather-based armor. Furthermore, they make the consumable “leather patches” which imbue leather armor with special bonuses for a limited time, e.g., a +3 AC patch that lasts 30 minutes.
- Clothiers (tailors): these people make clothing to customize all players’ looks, cloth armor for pure casters, and also the bags that hold your gear. There is no weight attached to any items; your carrying capacity is limited only by the size of your bags. As a result, these tailored bags will be VERY important in the game. While the dev mentioned that magical bags are possible, he added that there was no current plan to implement magical bags of any kind.
- Enchanters: these people add consumable temporary enchantments to any equipment; also, they can add permanent enchantments to any item. As of now, there is no limit to the number of enchantments that an object can carry, but that is obviously subject to change for balance purposes.
- Cooks: these people make the food that we all enjoy. In game, food increases your health regeneration while sitting (example: I found jerky strips on some troggs I killed, and they were labeled “increases health by 98 points over 23 seconds while sitting.” Think of food as portable regeneration spells). Similarly, beverages (water, milk, etc.) are to mana what food is to health. Right now, brewers might be pulled out of the game until after release, with the current plan being to roll beverage creation into the cook’s role in the game. Before you get sad, let me mention that while brewing may be out of the game (for now), alcohol will be IN the game. The devs mentioned that they are still hammering out the details as to HOW alcohol will be implemented – one idea that I found hilarious and wonderful: “if you’re a human male, we’re toying with the idea that alcohol will make ALL humanoid PCs and NPCs look to you like a beautiful human female for awhile.” Classic Blizzard humor – huzzah!
- Alchemist: of course, these are the people who make your friendly neighborhood potions. Just as smithing requires mining, so alchemy will require herbology for gathering raw ingredients.
- Mining: calling all dwarves…mining is how we get metals from the earth for making into weapons, engineered items, and armor. Expect to find high-quality metal veins in dangerous dungeons.
- Herbology: the same thing for gathering rare plants. Expect to find high-quality herbs in dangerous dungeons as well.
- Fishing: I have to mention this one, because it’s so nifty. You get a fishing pole and go to a stream, river, or ocean. Cast into the water and wait. When your bobber dips, quickly click on it – if you were fast enough, you’ll catch a fish; if not, you must try again! It was the only example of “twitch gaming” in WoW, according to the devs, but I saw it in action, and it looked like some major mindless fun.
- Engineering: while engineering is quite useful to the engineer, it won’t be a very tradable skill. For instance: an engineer can create dynamite to blow the bejeezus out of his enemy, but to USE dynamite, you must have the engineering skill, so it can’t just be sold to other PCs like a potion could. The one engineered item that IS marketable is that engineers make the guns and ammo in the game. Right now, steam tanks cannot be built OR used, although they appear in game as part of the scenery here and there.
- Fletching: not yet in game, but coming.
World of Warcraft breaks abilities into two separate fields: skills and talents. Skills are those items that do not directly affect combat – included here are languages, riding on steeds, trade skills, and some miscellaneous abilities (discussed more in other sections). Talents are combat-oriented abilities: attribute increases, defense, regeneration, magical abilities, holy specialization, magical resistances, slayer talents, weaponry skills, invisibility detection, etc. As of now, there are no racially restricted skills or talents, although the devs expressed some hope that there might be racially restricted skills later on. (More on talents later.)
Every level, a player earns 1 skill point. Talent points start accruing at 10 per level, but increase at higher levels (you actually earn MORE than 10 per level when you gain advanced levels). Since the two channels are separated, you will never have to gimp your character to participate in trade skills. However, since skill points are level based, you will not have level 1 trade mules. Currently, respec’s are in discussion, but not finalized: Blizzard doesn’t ever want a player to feel that they screwed themselves with a particular spec. There was some discussion that a maximum-level character might be able to acquire extra skill points through buying them or questing for them, but this is far from decided.
With skills, there are three levels per skill. For example, to get the first level of mining ability costs 3 skill points, second level costs an extra 5, and third level costs 7 additional skill points. While the dev mentioned keeping this concept open for change in the future, there currently is no plan to change skills to “many cheap levels” rather than “three increasingly expensive levels.” One should expect to spend roughly 10-15 skill points to max our a skill. As of now, there are about 20-25 skills in the game:
- Blacksmith: this skill makes the chain and plate weapons, as well as the metal weaponry. There is no separate skill for armor or weapons; blacksmiths make both. In addition, blacksmiths can make whetstones, consumable items that can be applied to armor or weapons to imbue them with magical abilities for a limited time period – think of a whetstone that could grant a sword +2 fire damage for 60 minutes. Blacksmiths are important for tanks, but they need to be supplied through mining.
- Leatherworkers: most characters will get their armor from these folks. They make all leather-based armor. Furthermore, they make the consumable “leather patches” which imbue leather armor with special bonuses for a limited time, e.g., a +3 AC patch that lasts 30 minutes.
- Clothiers (tailors): these people make clothing to customize all players’ looks, cloth armor for pure casters, and also the bags that hold your gear. There is no weight attached to any items; your carrying capacity is limited only by the size of your bags. As a result, these tailored bags will be VERY important in the game. While the dev mentioned that magical bags are possible, he added that there was no current plan to implement magical bags of any kind.
- Enchanters: these people add consumable temporary enchantments to any equipment; also, they can add permanent enchantments to any item. As of now, there is no limit to the number of enchantments that an object can carry, but that is obviously subject to change for balance purposes.
- Cooks: these people make the food that we all enjoy. In game, food increases your health regeneration while sitting (example: I found jerky strips on some troggs I killed, and they were labeled “increases health by 98 points over 23 seconds while sitting.” Think of food as portable regeneration spells). Similarly, beverages (water, milk, etc.) are to mana what food is to health. Right now, brewers might be pulled out of the game until after release, with the current plan being to roll beverage creation into the cook’s role in the game. Before you get sad, let me mention that while brewing may be out of the game (for now), alcohol will be IN the game. The devs mentioned that they are still hammering out the details as to HOW alcohol will be implemented – one idea that I found hilarious and wonderful: “if you’re a human male, we’re toying with the idea that alcohol will make ALL humanoid PCs and NPCs look to you like a beautiful human female for awhile.” Classic Blizzard humor – huzzah!
- Alchemist: of course, these are the people who make your friendly neighborhood potions. Just as smithing requires mining, so alchemy will require herbology for gathering raw ingredients.
- Mining: calling all dwarves…mining is how we get metals from the earth for making into weapons, engineered items, and armor. Expect to find high-quality metal veins in dangerous dungeons.
- Herbology: the same thing for gathering rare plants. Expect to find high-quality herbs in dangerous dungeons as well.
- Fishing: I have to mention this one, because it’s so nifty. You get a fishing pole and go to a stream, river, or ocean. Cast into the water and wait. When your bobber dips, quickly click on it – if you were fast enough, you’ll catch a fish; if not, you must try again! It was the only example of “twitch gaming” in WoW, according to the devs, but I saw it in action, and it looked like some major mindless fun.
- Engineering: while engineering is quite useful to the engineer, it won’t be a very tradable skill. For instance: an engineer can create dynamite to blow the bejeezus out of his enemy, but to USE dynamite, you must have the engineering skill, so it can’t just be sold to other PCs like a potion could. The one engineered item that IS marketable is that engineers make the guns and ammo in the game. Right now, steam tanks cannot be built OR used, although they appear in game as part of the scenery here and there.
- Fletching: not yet in game, but coming.