Engineering: The Jack Of All Trades Profession
by Eric Vice 
Aug 13th 2007 at 3:48PM
Lately I've been hearing a lot of nay-saying and negativity about engineering. It's been coming at me from all angles. Members of our guild It Came From The Blog were even telling me a couple of weeks ago that I shouldn't even bother because "you don't get that many good items." Let me throw some light on this from a different perspective and tell you why I like engineering. If you're going to look at engineering as a money making profession, then yes, absolutely, I agree with you. But just like there are more "stats that matter" than pure damage per second, there are other reasons to pursue a profession other than just money. For many classes, but I'm thinking of one in particular, engineering can fill gaps in your class that almost nothing else can fill. Take for example the Paladin class. They have no ranged attack ability, but with a little time spent in engineering they can make throwable explosives. Yes, the cooldown is evil, but... if you're soloing with a paladin, you don't have the boomerang, and you need to pull... don't you think you'd find that handy?
Furthermore let's remember that engineering is the profession of choice for PvP twinks! If you haven't made a twink for Warsong Gulch in the Level 19 bracket, let me remind you that there aren't a lot of head pieces in that level! The Green Tinted Goggles from engineering are widely regarded as the second best level 19 twink piece next to the Lucky Fishing Hat which requires a lot of fishing and a lot of luck in a level 30+ zone.
At later levels, the Field Repair Bots are very popular as well, even though they are somewhat expensive to make. Any engineer who can throw one down in an instance will surely make friends of the people who didn't want to hearth home, repair, and come back.
Engineering is not for everyone, but it sure is for anyone who wants to have fun and laugh a little. And while you won't be joining Azeroth's Fortune 500 anytime soon as an engineer, you will get lots of unique stuff over the course of your engineering journey that will help you in the game or - at the very least - give you a good laugh.
Filed under: Engineering
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
TotalBiscuit Aug 13th 2007 4:45PM
Engineering really isn't worth bothering anymore. I was an old-school engineer from launch and it 60 it's only, single purpose, was to make repair bots. Now there's not even much point in making those. Going to repair isn't particularly tricky anymore. I can't remember anyone popping a bot in a good long time.
The epic goggles at the end are nice, and if you're looking for pure +sta on a trinket you can't go wrong with the Rocket Launcher but as a trade-skill it has no value what-so-ever. It's a toy profession. You play about with it until you reach 70 and start playing the game proper and realize that it's of no value, and either build the goggles and as such, keep engineering, or dump it and get a profession that's actually useful to you and your guild.
TB.
Thingy Aug 13th 2007 4:46PM
You forgot the best reason for a hunter to have engineering (the sole reason I took it up and the main reason I still have it today) ... when a wipe is incoming, Feign Death + Jumper Cables XL == love == WIN!
Passit Aug 13th 2007 4:53PM
I have always loved engineering... As a warrior those explosives also make for a nice AOE stun, the Parachute Cape has come in handy more than once. The new high end goggles are awesome... And I can say that in my raiding experience, that yeah the repair bot is a must have, but a hunter who has feigned death and has a pair of Jumper Cables, has been an regular form of wipe recovery for our raids.
Yeah Engineering might not be the most profitable proffession. But Generally You need Mining also to support Eng. And once you're done making your engineering gear, selling minerals and stones found while mining can be a fine source of money making...
Gharbad Aug 13th 2007 5:12PM
I'm not going to argue your points, you're right, its a good twink profession and can give paladins a ranged pull. Cool.
That doesn't change the fact that Engineering is the least useful of professions and really should just be made into a secondary profession like fishing or first aid. Thats how useful it is. I'm not saying other professions don't have issues, they do. But Engineering has really had its fun factor gimped and is so situationally useful that it makes me cry.
but yeah, it gives you a ranged pull and occasionally shrinks everybody/turns you into a chicken.
dontgetmestarted Aug 13th 2007 5:24PM
Your attempt to put lipstick on this pig lacks luster. Engineering is the among the top 3 in cost and difficulty to max and dead last in usefullness. At lower levels its fun factor is ok, but its just not fun at level 70.
Engineering needs more love and attention and the developers acknowledged this at Blizzcon. I only hope they will do something to make engineering truly fun and competitive with other professions at all levels of the game.
simplehiker Aug 13th 2007 5:28PM
@4
Making engering a secondary skill is a good idea. It no only get shafted with less then usefull items but it is very expensive and uses matts from just about every profession... Hey sounds like a secondary skill candidate to me.
Coherent Aug 13th 2007 5:39PM
Longtime engineer here. Engineering isn't bad while you're leveling up. But in endgame, it becomes a white elephant. There's just no point to it unless you're a hunter and you need to make your own bullets (forget arrows, no can do). The goggles helped a little bit, but still, there's nothing you can make that can really do ANYTHING for ANYONE ELSE.
Engineering is fun to play with for a little bit, but once you've been playing as one for a few years, it's all old hat. There's nothing particularly useful about anything that the engineer can build, except perhaps seaforium charges (lately) and even those are ridiculously expensive for the utility they provide.
Paul Aug 13th 2007 5:54PM
I don't have a 70, so i can't speak to it's usefulness their, but as a 52 frost mage engineer, the explosives are a life saver, literally.
When I'm AOE grinding and something goes wrong and i run out of mana, finishing off 8-10 mobs with 1 stick of dynamite makes the cost (and opportunity cost) of engineering completely worth it for me.
But I realize that is a pretty specific reason to like engineering.
Tuscansalami Aug 13th 2007 6:28PM
I was always too cheap to use explosives, so they were never really a drawcard. But there are advantages...
Khorium Destroyer is just about the best ranged weapon pre-raiding or arenas.
The epic goggles, albiet class/spec dependant. But for a BM hunter, nothing beats the massive AEP rating for the Surestrike Goggles v2.0. NOTHING. Plus you get the built in zoom & able to see the invisible gas clouds in shadowmoon/netherstorm.
Mote extractor - always bring one to the gnome boss in steamvaults for free primal life, and I've already found one spot in zangermarsh that I've consistantly seen gas clouds when passing by.
Gnomish Poultryiser - that is, if it worked inside arenas. It's only got a 5 min cooldown, so why not?
Gnomish Invulnerability Belt - at least this works in arenas. Usually. Good against rogues or to prevent mangling.
XXX reflectors. Extra resist you can't normally get in trinket slots, even if they won't reflect well in outland.
Telporters - fast way to get around to Tanaris for Caverns of Time or Area 52 for Tempest Keep - and the BC malfunctions are something you WANT to happen for once.
Gnomish cloaking device - perfect way to slip away after a badly positioned feign death.
Jumper cables XL speak for themselves - particulary handy when grouping with a druid healer and someone falls over.
Net-o-matic Projector - extra crowd control. The backfire is even helpful to get you in close to a runner, fast!
Rocket Boots Xtreme: Epic flying mount speed for several seconds. On foot. Followed by a whirlwind thingy at the end that deals damage and knocking people off mounts. Also great for long distance cliff-jumping!
Parachute cloak - good for insurance against telporter malfunctions when taking the shortcut to the caverns of time.
Gnomish universal remote - well, at least it's fun in gnomeregan, being able to take control of the alarmbots, bombs, and even the final boss himself. Pity that the arcatraz robots keep on damaging your party after you take control...
Steam tonk controllers. Fun for the whole raid whilst waiting for everyone to recover from a wipe!
Salt shakers - where would leatherworkers be without them?
Scopes - hunters will love you.
Lil' smokey - try not to piss the raid off to much with all the whirring sounds it makes.
Elemental Seaforium Charges - Rogues? Who needs them!
All those parts and bits and pieces needed for others in the guild to craft stuff and complete quests - it may not help the bank balance, but it will help the guildies.
And FINALLY come WotLK - we get to craft our own flying mounts! Perhaps more like a 'copter than a biplane, but either way, I can't wait!
Baluki Aug 13th 2007 6:56PM
THE GOGGLES, THEY DO NOTHING!
Sorry, couldn't resist. The goggles are actually very nice.
Tim Aug 13th 2007 9:12PM
Hmmm. Maybe engineering is good 'cause it's fun? Mechanical Yeti's are more fun than Murloc Scale Belt's on any day of the week!
dontgetmestarted Aug 13th 2007 11:28PM
#9 You certainly saved the best for last, stating "WotLK - we get to craft our own flying mounts!" That is pie in the sky. Anyone remember all the neat things we thought we would get with the BC expansion? Your laundry list of items misses the point the majority of us unhappy engineers are trying to make.
You rattled off many things you can do in wildly different situations. How often do you do those things, once every week or day at most? Other crafters get more benefits from their creations either every minute or every hour of their playtime. For example enchanted rings give the player with them a benefit that never backfires in every PvE and PvP encounter every second they are engaged in combat.
Jewelcrafters, alchemist, blacksmithiths, tailors, and leather workers all get more consistent benefits. In short they are better professions.
Beyond the goggles and guns of engineering everything else is situational. As such there should be more engineer made items for other slots like the goggles, or the items should be more powerful since they rarely have the chance to provide benefit to the engineer.
Don't get me wrong I'll be thrilled if I someday get to make a flying mount, but until then engineering needs improvement to favorably compare to the other primary professions.
agentaero Aug 14th 2007 2:31AM
on myfirst character, I picked up BS, and planned to go weaponsmith because I thought the weapons looked cool, now, as a lvl 62 hunter, all I can do with BS to make money is sell the occasional phantom blade, I dont really feel any of the weaponsmith epics are much worth it to me, so I looked around... hmm, engineering.. jumper cables, ammo, guns.... fun, non-com pets, and wackytrinkets, not to mention I dont lose my ability to open chests, and explosives are way better than keys anyways, sure, it dosent make much money, but over half of the weaponsmith stuff is BOP, and you have ot be a weaponsmith to use it anyways, at least this tuff I will use
Varus Aug 14th 2007 3:37AM
Engineering is fun, fun, fun profession. Mechanical chickens with 30 minute cooldowns and other "funny" things that often blow up in your face.
And the bright side is, there are almost no rep rewards and the few that exist are just complete rubbish so you never have to grind rep for your schematics.
As far as usefulness for the rest goes.. it's complete waste of time (especially these days, pre-TBC had couple of items that were useful).
I wonder what happened to the Great Engineering Review? Was couple of goggles and a vague promise of one added schematic (the flying thingy) in the next expansion the whole thing?
I used to be engineer pre-TBC and hung on to it for quite a while waiting for Blizzard's promises of better engineering future to come true, but as patches came and went and nothing happened I finally ditched the whole thing and went Blacksmithing, at least now I have some use for my crafting profession.
I wouldn't recommend anyone picking it up, unless it's just for laughs (at least it's relatively cheap to level).
Jade Aug 14th 2007 3:50AM
Engineering looks good at first. All the toys sound cool. But when they don't work, and the laugh factor wears off--one realizes little value from being an engineer. The comments that make engineering sound good seem to be from players way under level 70.
It didn't help me at all as a level 70 gnome mage. I took up engineering because of the gnome racial, but realized I was better off with herbalism so I could save gold on all the potions I need for raids. The T4 helm is just as good as the goggles when you factor in the set bonus. The T5 and T6 are way better--not that I'm likely to see those anythime soon. Mining is my other one and that is definately profitable.
Think twice before picking up engineering. I do recommend it for a pvp twinks (especially the 19 or 29 bracket). If you want to be either a casual raider or hardcore raider though, you are better off with either 2 gathering professions or one of the much better crafting ones like alchemy, enchanting, jewelcrafting, tailoring, leatherworking, or blacksmithing.
Incendo Aug 14th 2007 4:04AM
Picked up engineering on my lock for one reason, was the only one that didn't get a major improvement in BC and it was bound to come to compensate. Now that I'll be getting my own gyrocopter it's entirely worth it.
Gnomish Poultryizer's pretty nice too.
Foussa Aug 14th 2007 4:09AM
Top ten reasons why I love engineering as a Hunter :
1) AoE bombs and grenades
2) Teleportation trinkets
3) Parachute Cloak
4) Goblin Jumper Cables XL
5) Deepdive Helmet
6) Good rifles
7) Funny pets
8) Rocket Boots Xtreme !
9) Potion injectors - yeah I know, I'm weird
10) Epic goggles, I guess, tough I don't have them
cheradenine Aug 14th 2007 7:45AM
Just for the novelty I used engineering as a priest.
Bombs/Rocket Launcher
Extra damage and attacks rule. Particularly as a Holy priest. The +45 Stamina on the Launcher is also pretty useful
Deepdive Helmet
Looks great and got a new lease of life in Zangarmarsh. Not bad for lurking on the bottom of the lake in arathi either
Goggles
Not bad head gear early on, then if you can be bothered to run Heroic instances for the required primal, you've got the epic.
Scopes!
Adamantine scopes are selling at 25-40G on my server at the moment. I bought my first mount by selling sniper and deadly scopes alone. It didnt take long.
Flares.
Surely the flares are one of the few ways to alter the world in any sense?
Paw Aug 14th 2007 9:37AM
I have Engineering on my Gnome warlock. Absolutely no reason to have it other than for the fun factor. Maybe when I get to 70 I'll get bored with it, but for now it is worth the relatively low cost, zero profit.
Nightwatch Aug 14th 2007 9:39AM
I dropped Blacksmithing at level 280 as I realized how much gold I had put into a profession that offered me no real end game gear (I am a Tankadin). Engineering attracted me due to the fact that The tankatronic goggles (which require only 1 primal nether, less than many other profession's end game gear) are better than anything that I will be able to get for some time, and I had a hunter alt. Compared to BS, Engineering has proved to be of slightly less practical value in day to day gaming, but has proven to have huge amusement value. The mechanical pets, the explosives (how many times have you not had a rogue to lock pick that chest???), the hunter loot, and the weird stuff that you can make make it worth it to me. Compared to Blacksmithing it has proven to be MUCH cheaper to level up.