Goggle costs and a bit of RP
by Krystalle Voecks 
May 15th 2007 at 10:50AM
I think of all the trade skills I have, Engineering has to be the one I feel has been overlooked the most by the devs. The patterns have traditionally been scarce, and it seemed to me like the material costs were pretty crazy for many things when I was leveling up. In contrast, I still haven't gotten all the patterns for tailoring and recipes for alchemy. Enchanting is definitely a pain in the arse, but I can justify that one with tips and the occasional sale when I have the mats. Engineering, for me, was something I picked up and only leveled for the love of toys. (Like my long-ago-nerfed Gnomish Shrink Ray in combination with Nogginfogger Elixir, which was great for laughs.)
I've listened to my Hunter officer, who has maxed his skill out, decry the material costs of many of the new patterns. (I haven't pursued it on my alt as yet) So when I saw this tidbit today, I thought that many engineers would be glad to hear that they are actually looking at improving a pattern as opposed to nerfing it. Per Drysc when fielding complaints about the inclusion of Primal Nether in the epic goggle schematics:
We're in the process of reevaluating the power consumption needs of the goggles. While it was felt that the Primal Nether would be able to sufficiently power the devices, and through further testing, we're currently investigating other power sources and their availability.
Good news, and a bit of RP. We'll have to wait and see what the final decision is in regards to "power sources."
Filed under: Odds and ends, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ryan May 15th 2007 11:16AM
Is it really that hard to get one primal nether? These are teir-6 equiv head-pieces.
cheesebanana May 15th 2007 11:21AM
I'm happy to use a primal nether to make my goggles next patch.
In fact i even managed to get 2 primal nethers from the only 2 heroic runs i've done since i found out we need a primal nether in case i want to make one set for PvE gems and one set for PvP gems.
I think a primal nether is a pretty reasonable cost tbh. Especially since we can buy them for 10 badges of justice after the patch.
Corrodias May 15th 2007 11:19AM
Primal Nethers aren't -that- hard to come by. You pretty much have to be beating the final bosses of heroics, this is true, but this is not a particularly difficult thing to do if you're in a raiding sort of guild. More casual players... well, there has to be SOME point at which playing less will net you less reward, doesn't there?
Step 1 is to gear up. I remember an article around here just a little while back that said the healer had to chain heal the tank and not pay attention to the others on the trash, and they didn't get too far into the dungeon. But once you've got your tank(s) and healer geared up, it's not so bad. We did the heroic slave pens last night and our holy priest jokingly told us (two feral druids; i was there for off-tanking and dps) to take some damage at some points (although he did have his work cut out for him on the last boss).
Hellfire Ramparts considers the demon boss (not the drake rider) to be the final boss, which makes it a relatively easy nether to get, although there is one pull of 5 that can be tricky and resets if you don't kill them all.
Anyway, you can view the comments of previous articles to find the 'easy' heroics. And in 2.1, you'll be able to spend badges on primal nethers, too, even if you're having trouble killing those last bosses.
TheTreasoner May 15th 2007 11:40AM
The goggles are NOT T6 quality. The (arguable) best of the lot, the Tankatronic Goggles, are a -sidegrade- from T5, meaning that you could have T5 and be completely content with the stats, but if you get the goggles first, then you can be a nice little WoW player and pass on it.
Frozen Shadoweave, Primal Mooncloth and Spellfire are T5-ish quality and have no Primal Nether requirement, just a lot of mats. Perhaps another Khorium Power Core could... oh... POWER THE FREAKING GOGGLES? And a level 70 requirement so twinks can't use them.
Savok May 15th 2007 2:09PM
The entire point of Eng goggles is the fact they have no lvl req, as long as you the schematics and the mats you're good to go.
Eng hasn't been overlooked, by the way, Blizzard can see it just fine, they just enjoy insulting us.
cluelessnoob May 15th 2007 2:10PM
Around 30 gold for a single-use, low-dps flame turret?
Around 600-1,000 gold (depending on local auction rates) for a crafted gun only of any interest to tanks as a stamina source, rather than as an actual ranged weapon? And that's assuming zero cost for the primal nether.
Around 2-3g material cost every time you throw a simple fel iron bomb? That's not a lot but it's reached the point that it's cheaper to just let your mage pay for repairs if he can't manage his threat level and stay under yours, assuming you're the tank.
Blizzard hasn't nerfed the Gadgetzan teleport trinket ... about the only love engineers have gotten. From Drysc's comments, I wonder if they aren't going to raise the overall cost of the goggles - one nether is going to be too low a cost in their estimation, quite possibly.
cprokop May 15th 2007 3:22PM
I view crafting as an alternative to running instances/raiding, and the Primal Nether requirement is a giant affront to that philosophy.
Are the helms BOP? If they are BOE, it is possible to get another ENG to create the helm for you, thought this is more difficult than usual because Engineers can only make the helms of their own armor type.