Feeling a little gassy now that Thanksgiving has come and gone? Not if you're an engineer -- because gas clouds (as well as other types of clouds) are curiously nowhere to be found. At the time of this post , the disappearance of felmist, windy cloud, swamp gas and arcane vortex spawns was being widely and dramatically mourned by engineers. Engineers have been busily harvesting the clouds for motes since patch 2.3, when their handy-dandy Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles (which require Engineering [350] to equip) began showing the location of nearby clouds on the minimap.

Where did all the clouds go? Apparently, something significant changed when the servers reset for the debut of Arena Season 3. After the initial round of harvesting (when many engineers reported successful sweeps of their regular extracting routes), the clouds stopped respawning. Many players report seeing what appear to be the shadows of the clouds -- but alas, no clouds to actually cast the shadows.

Just as engineers were beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labors extracting motes with their Zapthrottle Mote Extractors, the outlook seems to have turned ... well, decidedly uncloudy. Engineers are clamoring for a blue response on both the profession and bug forums alike, but no official response has yet been posted. Most in-game petitioners have been told that the situation was working as intended, and several players report email replies indicating that Blizzard is aware of and investigating the "situation." So no, your goggles aren't broken -- stay tuned to the official forums for possible updates!

Read on for tips on spotting pure water pools and a handy way to search for crafted items that have had stat updates in patch 2.3.



Pure water pools
If any of you fishers out there are still having trouble spotting pure water pools since patch 2.3, take note: it's probably your graphics settings. Settings involuntarily changed by the patch may cause pure water pools to appear no different than regular pools. Bump up your settings to restore the pools to all their bright blue, swirling glory. (Of course, if you have found a fish tracking journal, you'll already be seeing the pools pop up on your minimap. Go fish!)

Changes in crafted items
If you don't have a lot of research time to make sure you're on top of the various and sundry stat tweaks to crafted items in patch 2.3 (or if you're a real old-timer who's returned to the fold and want to know what's been introduced since you last played, pre-Burning Crusade), you need wowhead's handy filtering option. Check out this example of changed tailored items to see what these filters can show. This option will be old news to the hardened researchers among us, but for craftspeople with less time on their hands -- it's solid gold!

How to start a tradeskill
Thinking of taking up a new profession? The things that matter to you as a new character will vary significantly from the things that matter to you as a re-speccing level 70 or an alt-aholic seeking to round out a stable of craftspeople. Insider Trader will look at each side in several upcoming installments. Send your questions, tips, how-to's and ideas to Insider Trader -- we'll do the rest!

Insider Trader's Lisa Poisso is a writer and editor, when she's not fiddling with filters on various gaming sites.

Tags: arcane-vortex, clouds, extracting, felmist, patch-2.3, pure-water, swamp-gas, windy-cloud, Zapthrottle-Mote-Extractor

Filed under: Fishing, Engineering, Tips, Insider Trader (Professions)