The sad state of engineering
by Chris Miller 
Mar 14th 2007 at 2:26PM
While many trade skills aren't living up to our expectations, engineering is the saddest panda. While the gathering professions get to gather new materials (although maybe not in the quantities they'd like) and nifty epic patterns and weapons, engineers have gotten a variety of new flares and items they can't even make. Yes, flares. And items that can't be made because of bugs that will go "in to a future patch."There were many engineering recipes dropped between beta and retail release of the expansion, as a result there aren't many recipes available to progress from about 355 to 370, and the recipes that are in game require very expensive materials. Also, most engineering trinkets cease to function against creatures or other players over level 60, so as an engineer levels the stuff they've been using becomes less and less useful with no replacement in sight. To compound matters, none of the trinkets or bombs can be used in arena combat, including even marginally useful trinket pets. As compared with jewelcrafters, who can use all their pets in arenas. The only positive preview we've gotten for things coming for engineering is this post, in which Drysc hints at a frost grenade. Since it's a grenade, and probably a consumable, it's also a non-player in arenas, and since many engineers took the profession for it's PvP utility this is not a very promising development.
I've dropped engineering after being an engineer for over a year. How many engineers are left out there? Why are you still an engineer? Are you finding it has enough utility to justify keeping it, or are you hopeful that there are enough new things coming that it will be once again worthwhile?
Filed under: Engineering
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jack Kelly Mar 14th 2007 3:16PM
Dropped it about a month ago on my main. Kept it on an alt for Bullet making and pretty much nothing else.
It's utterly pointless to keep.
Ickibod Mar 14th 2007 2:35PM
It's even sadder to consider that Engineering is so broken it can be levelled from 250 to 375 for
Ickibod Mar 14th 2007 2:38PM
It's even sadder to consider that Engineering is so broken it can be levelled from 250 to 375 for less than 200 gold using a glitch (Constantly reloading the goblin mortar)
Zuuler Mar 14th 2007 2:45PM
I've always thought of engineering as sort of a novelty profession, where the crafted items aren't entirely useless but that they wer emore of a novelty than anything else. I have never lvled an engineer, so I don't know much about it, other than it can produce explosives and mechanical pets.
But from what I hear from current engineers, it soundslike the profession needs some work done to it. I believe bliz has already mentioned they are doing a profession overhaul with engineering being on top of their list.
Gitr Mar 14th 2007 2:59PM
I have a leveling BE hunter. Is it worth dropping Leatherworking to get the craftable arrows/shot to get +dmg with Engineering? To say the AH on my realm is an understatement, so it's doubtful I can buy crafted arrows/shot.
Zone99 Mar 14th 2007 3:17PM
I'm still engineering and up to 300 however I haven't made any effort to go further.
One of my friends made full use of engineering by making Mithril Shot and selling it on and outside the AH. I think he got up to 2000G selling bullets and scopes.
Unfortunately, I haven't had as much success. I've never been in an situation where I can get a sniper scope schematic and I did make some money with bullets but when Blizzard came out with the impact shot, it really wasn't worth it.
I stay with engineering for one reason and one reason only: so I can use my Goblin Dragon Gun. It just looks cool!!
Gitr, I wouldn't drop for engineering just for the shot. By the time you get the mats to make the shot (mithril shot, say), you've spent more time than you want to.
A lot of people I know have dropped Engineering and gone to Enchanting to disenchant the greens that drop in BC.
Pingmeister Mar 14th 2007 3:23PM
I thought the only reason to be an Engineer was the reason I use: So you can wear the Deepdive helmet.
hawkspur Mar 14th 2007 3:52PM
I'm a 375 engineer and I have been an engineer since launch. As it stands right now, engineering is fairly useless but I hold onto the profession in the vague hope that it will be revamped.
Heres to the upcoming revamp.
Doodzin Mar 14th 2007 3:28PM
Jumper cables make engineering somewhat worthwhile. Nothing like having that hunter come out of a FD to make a wipe into a non-wipe.
Karl Mar 14th 2007 3:34PM
I enjoy engineering with my Rogue and have saved the day more than a few times with a quick Vanish and use of Goblin Jumper Cables XL. I also like the transporter. Grenades cost too much in materials to be worth making them in any great amounts. The Repair Bot is a very nice item, but fused wiring is such a pain to find, that it is almost not even worth it. When 40-man runs were still being done, it would be worth it for a guild to make these, but otherwise...I suppose if the Bot sold more items (say arrows and reagents for instance), that it would still be worth making. I will say that I think the potion injectors are a great item, but could be improved on. Perhaps change the shared cooldown with potions (and make the item not used in arenas for an unfair advantage).
Other than these things, most engineering recipes are more novelty than anything useful. I guess that smoke/flares could be useful if you were instructing people running through a new instance.
If they could come up with more items built for specific classes, it might help as well. It would be nice to see things that aren’t tailored just for casters.
Roguerhunter Mar 14th 2007 3:40PM
I haven’t leveled up my engineering just yet still leveling my hunter as I am currently 66 but they need to revamp engineering with some PVP trinkets and some WPNS to make. Also there should be some Bullets that could be made or epic bullets that only engineers can make. You have to give us at least some Dmg on the Bullets to surpass the abundance of range users out there. What would be nice is an Atomic Bomb that could do a 1 shot 1 kill type of kill no matter what level player you are with an hr cool down lol....
hawkspur Mar 14th 2007 3:57PM
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=192589361&sid=1
dakotareese Mar 14th 2007 3:59PM
I just can't give up on engineering. I love my slow fall cape, and my teleporters. Most other times are a pain in the @$$ because of the pre-mediation of having to equip trinkets...and then being stuck with them for the duration of the fight.
-Engineers are so reliant on trinkets, that there should be an epic quest that provides for a third trinket slot...or the ability to swap trinkets in combat. My Arcanite Dragonling never saw combat because it couldn't offset the utility of my non-engineering trinkets...even if the 3rd or 4th trinkets slots had to be trinkets you made, it would be nice.
-I've heard about the Frost Grenade before. I hope this means that Engineers will be getting some system of consumables similar to Hunter traps.
-I hate how the profession seems to assume all engineers are gnome cloth wearers. The Nigh-Invulnerability Belt is a cool item, but it should be offered in all armor classes. How hard would it be to require a belt reagent made by either tailoring (cloth), leatherworking (leather, mail), or blacksmithing (plate)?
-So I always enjoyed underwater quests because of my Deepdive Helmut...but every other quest near water in the expansion just throws water breathing consumables at players. Thanks for removing that advantage Bliz.
-Finally, what if we could use our bombs while riding flying mounts? Would probably never happen, but you know...
spencerhowarddma Mar 14th 2007 4:17PM
I have engineering on two characters. One is basically idling, but with the other it's an important part of his RP personality, so I don't plan to abandon it. In my experience, engineering can be somewhat useful for the gadgets. Jumper cables, parachute cloak and deepdive helmet can make the difference between life and death in some circumstances. Others items are just plain fun, like the discombobulator ray. I have never found any of the trinkets, like the net gun for example, to be very useful for PvP because basically you can't count on them. Explosives are at best situationally helpful.
I have always been particularly frustrated by the ammunition you can craft. Basically, crafted ammunition gives you a slight edge for a few levels, but because of the way the levels differ between crafted and purchased ammo, crafted isn't always better. For example, you can buy vendor solid shot at level 25, but you can't use the crafted version until level 30, and crafted heavy shot is worse than vendor solid shot. In order to make it worthwhile, crafted ammo needs to always be better, significantly better, than vendor ammo, with material costs comensurate with the quality difference.
Overall, I would have to say that engineering can be fun, but it really doesn't give you much of an edge. In my experience, the only crafting profession that is truly and consistently useful while leveling up is alchemy.
Honso Mar 14th 2007 4:19PM
Blacksmithing starts off well, but as soon as you hit 340 or so, it becomes rather expensive to grind out those points. 350's a big milestone since you obtain your first epic patterns from your specialization trainer, but trust me, you won't be grinding w/ those patterns. To make this even worse, you can really only grind to 355 when your grindable patterns turn green, making them basically as expensive to grind on as your rare and epic patterns. Once they go grey, I have no idea how I'm going to grind out 375 considering I have to rely on rare pattern drops from impossible-to-PUG instances or boring-as-hell mob grinding. That or spend my epic flying mount savings on mats -- "Oh, great! Primal Water is 40g each again!"
Mayhem50 Mar 14th 2007 6:18PM
I've been and eng shammy since launch also and i'm at lvl 320 I used a lot of the trinkets in PVP and against trash mobs in instanced till now. while they still work they seem to backfire. Mind you it's nice to see the instance boss shrink :P
I agree it's pretty useless when all you can do is sell items to other engs and the items sept the bombs are pretty useless and even pointless.
Blaise Mar 15th 2007 11:11PM
My engineer gnome is still in his low 20s but i already kinda see what you mean. You cant make any money from engineering, so its basically useless except for ppl who twink for powerleveling or those of us who still just play WoW for fun.
rocketscientist Mar 14th 2007 5:13PM
Tailoring is very hard from about 360 to 375, but in the end it is extremely worth it. I just wish I'd had enchanting leveled when I was vending some of that stuff.
dontfront Mar 14th 2007 5:29PM
The reason why I keep my eng:
I hope one day the glory of iron grenade abuse will come back ... :/
Snukums Mar 14th 2007 6:10PM
Primarly I keep engineering, for Repair Bot. I'm the only engineer that raids constantly, so I'm the only one that can use the repair bot, and hopefully, the mailbox.
But for utility in battle? NOT.
Also, the fact that almost all the wearable gear you make is cloth really pisses me off because as a Warrior, you can't use it.