Despite a glaring lack of raid or communal functionality, Engineering has always been the "fun" profession. With stuff like Explosive Sheep (which totally needs an updated version, by the way) and World Enlargers, it was the game's craziest -- if somewhat unprofitable -- profession. Although Wrath of the Lich King Beta's latest build has new stuff for tailors and other, um, professionals, there's nothing for Engineering. Yet.

The WotLK Information Wiki has mined some interesting schematics that just might be available to tinkerers and bombardiers everywhere. The speculative schematics seem to confirm what Drysc elucidated about their direction for Engineering, which is to convert most of the fun stuff like the ever-popular Rocket Boots series into item attachments instead of items that may or not be better (usually not) than the Engineer's actual item for that slot. In the case of Rocket Boots, for example, there's Nitro Boosts, which can be applied over one's boots like an enchant. It still requires "a skilled Engineer" to use, of course. Let's have a look at some other cool stuff after the break.

MOLL-E
Creates a portable mailbox for 5 min.
Mike Schramm featured this little wonder way back when it made its appearance in an old Beta of The Burning Crusade. Back then, it was called the Remote Mail Terminal, before the blockbuster Pixar movie inspired a rename. This schematic, like most of the Engineering spells found in the game files, still has unknown reagents so the chances of this making it to live are merely wishful thinking. Blizzard pulled this from the Burning Crudade Beta before it ever made it live. Will it make it through the second round? Engineers everywhere can only dare to dream.

Steam Powered Auctioneer
Creates a steam-powered auctioneer that takes bids for 10 min. This device creates intense heat and can only be used in the cold climate of Northrend.
Now this is an interesting item that's more than likely to never make it to live servers. On the other hand, from the description, the item only takes bids and doesn't allow players to put up auctions. It only works in Northreand and also needs a mailbox to retrieve won items, so it works well with MOLL-E. Still, this item is so good -- too good -- that Engineers shouldn't hold their breaths.

Hyperspeed Accelerators
Permanently attaches hyperspeed accelerators to a pair of gloves, allowing a skilled engineer to increase their haste rating by 340 for 8 sec. The gloves can only be activated every few minutes.
This is simply awesome. More items like this would make Engineering not just fun but a serious consideration for a raiding profession. It might need a bit of tuning in terms of haste granted, duration, and cooldown, but this actually has a plausible chance of making it to live realms.

There are a bunch of other cool stuff on the WotLK wiki site, such as the Belt-Clipped Spynoculars and Personal Electromagnetic Pulse Generator, two of the new belt enchants. The latter seems like the perfect tool for busting tanks in the new siege vehicle-populated Battlegrounds of Wrath. Speaking of tank-busting, there's also the Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket for those with an Iron Man fetish. If any of these schematics make it to Beta, I'll be sure to have my Engineer craft the cool stuff. Maybe I can't afford an RL MV Agusta, but a hog will suit my Shaman quite nicely. More Engineering goodness over at the WotLK Information Wiki.

Tags: Belt-Clipped-Spynoculars, Engineering, Hand-Mounted-Pyro-Rocket, Hyperspeed-Accelerators, MOLL-E, Personal-Electromagnetic-Pulse-Generator, portable-mailbox, Remote-Mail-Terminal, Steam-Powered-Auctioneer

Filed under: Engineering, Analysis / Opinion, Wrath of the Lich King