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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsEngineering: 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 2 of 2)
PyroAmos Aug 14th 2007 10:09AM
i wish they'd let end-game cloth wearers not need tailoring :(
Lokse Aug 14th 2007 11:53AM
I haven't seen a repair bot used (or needed) since the expansion came out. And I raid a hell of a lot.
iamabanana Aug 14th 2007 1:09PM
It's difficult to justify Engineering for one of my primary professions; @9 did a good job of listing it's perks. I agree, I haven't seen a repair bot in an instance in a while (I have 2 in the bank collecting dust), but there are a few items I use on a regular basis.
The Seaforium charges are great for opening chests and opening the locked door in SH (so you can skip the slimes, people like that).
Making scopes for myself and my guildies is always a good thing as well as the occasional khorium destroyer.
The slow-fall cloak is nice, but you can now get one with Sha'tari Skyguard rep (though the cooldown isn't shared, so you can use both within 30 sec of each other).
The jumper cables are cool, but if I'm using them, somebody did something wrong.
Teleport trinkets are neat and, as previously mentioned, you want them to 'fail' in BC.
I've considered switching to blacksmithing but I'd hate to give up the seaforium, the scope-making ability and the jumper cables.
lfnotter Aug 14th 2007 4:41PM
My main is 375 goblin engineer.
You don't become an Engineer to make a load of cash or be an ub3r raider. You become an Engineer because you get to play with a bunch of cool little toys. :-)
Exploding sheep 4TW!
scott Aug 14th 2007 5:01PM
70 ret pallie
I've been an engineer since release. Early on I loved the gadgetzan trinkets, and world enlarger plus noggenfogger was a blast :)
I easily sold 2k worth of sniper scopes over the years. Bought my first epic mount with the proceeds.
I don't understand why they had to seperate goblin from gnome. If we could pull recipes from each side it would be a decent boost engineering.
Or at least stop making down sides to the higher level trinkets.
Why doesn't the chicken trinket work in arenas? I really don't understand that one. Stormherald is just fine but can't let the engineers use one of there most useful trinkets! sorry.
Invulnerability belt is quite nice. But it's cloth and stam.. had to replace it with the veterans pvp belt with decent stats and plate.
Not to mention your taking a small risk using it in arenas. I haven't had it go bad on me yet but it's always in the back of my mind.
I haven't tried using the frost grenades in arena. But i'm guessing they are also barred from use.
bragunigood Oct 19th 2007 3:37PM
Endgame Engineering: Has everyone ignored the Arcane and Ice bombs? At endgame when 30 or 40g isnt too much to spend... If you have a couple engineers in a 5 man raid you can wipe any magic users(nasty priests in Mana Tombs) and its a nice bit of crowd control for a tank using freeze bombs. Double up your gnomish poultryizer for +90 stamina(of course the chicken part is worthless) get the tanktronic goggles and add that repair bot and I ask you... what other profession is actually helpful WHILE your in instances (alchemists and cooks excluded). Mining on a flying mount is all the money you'll ever need. Note... still testing...