Engineering buffs up
by Zach Yonzon 
Feb 24th 2009 at 9:00PM
Just after we'd dried some Engineers' tears, Arawn over at Crusader Aura posts a little tidbit he found while exploring the PTR. It looks like Engineers are getting some new toys to play with that just might be the start of useful things for those multi-faceted masters of myriad mechanisms.First up is a cloak enchant that adds spell power to cloak as well as works as a parachute effect on a one minute cooldown. While the +11 Spell Power may seem minor, it should be noted that this is the first and only cloak enchant that adds directly to spell power. The glove attachment also seems to be the best enchant for tanks, arguably on par with the Armsman enchant.
Both seem to be the best enchantments for specific roles and should help quiet the discontent that Engineers are currently feeling. Needless to say, both require Engineering to function. Stay tuned in case Arawn digs up some more Engineering goodness.
Filed under: Engineering, Patches
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Lorsty Feb 24th 2009 9:05PM
Woot! I won't feel bad for keeping engineering now...
Alright, I never felt bad about it. I actually love engineering
Kakistocracy Feb 24th 2009 11:56PM
Yeah, I've found that you kinda need to love it to keep it.
hagu Feb 25th 2009 3:43PM
Engineering used to be fun (WTB Titanium dragonling), but I am embarrassed when people ask me my profession since it is clearly the least powerful crafting profession. Tailoring is substandard but everything else can add about 38 sp over not having that benefit.
Remember that what is important is the *NET* increase. For example, being able to add +11 spellpower to your tabbard would add a net 11. Adding +11 to my cloak means I gain 11SP but lose 23 haste since I can no longer have the enchant. That is why the HyperspeedAccellerator's are not worth using - they are inferior to +28sp.
So I will use this on my Thaddeus cloak but that is it.
An engineer in Nax+ has no benefit vs not having a profession or 38 sp less than if they had JC, inscription, BS, LW, enchanting, ... The math isn't hard. If they want the professions to be comparable power, then there needs to be some way an engineer can be about 38 spellpower better than if they did not have the profession.
Most people I chat with do not expect engineering to ever be viable, but hope springs eternal. At least until 3.1 goes live and I have to drop engineering.
TheAdamant Feb 24th 2009 9:09PM
This is all nice and stuff, but. .
Really? Nothing for Inscription? We've got glyphs, books, and fancier shoulder enchants. All that really does is give us free offhands for our alts, no need to grind Hodir rep, and a bunch'a useless stuff.
I'm sorry for the QQ, but I'm beginning to regret taking the profession. Any chance of getting our own trinkets or another enchantment capability?
oppewala Feb 25th 2009 1:33AM
I see no problem with inscription... you have shoulder enchants which are better than the rep ones (or so im told)...
Also, you can make a ton of money with inscription if you play your cards right.
Engineering, on the other hand, has a gloves enchant which has no use to certain classes/specs and some funky little gadgets, of which i have yet to sell any. The goggles are good, until you get a new helm out of 10man naxx.
sickbox Feb 25th 2009 1:48AM
You do get your own trinket. Not to mention that it's one of the best trinkets in the game. Get popping on those cards and put yourself together a deck.
Huy Feb 24th 2009 9:16PM
Uldar is the the land of engineering it says.....Hope is all i gotta say.
voodooatl Feb 24th 2009 9:12PM
Wow, looks like more engineer only stuff - so its still a massive money pit with little-to-no payoff then.
Arawn Feb 24th 2009 9:21PM
The PTR is still young. Blues on the EU realms were fishing about for peoples ideas on what perks to give Engineers.
Marculus Feb 25th 2009 4:22AM
Two ideas's for the engineering devs. Why don't we recycle stuff instead of throwing it away / selling it to the vendor:
Beachcomber's Gem Popper
Reagents: Fish Oil
Removes a gem from its socket. The gem might be destroyed in the process.
"It smells funny but it often does the trick."
This would be a nice device to reuse your gems by removing them from the socket (pop!). Also, engineers could sell this service to any other player through the trade window, like enchanting.
Environmentalist's Pulverizer
Use: Unfolds into a Environmentalist's Pulverizer that grinds uncommon or higher loot to small pieces. After 10 minutes its internal motor fails. (10 Min Cooldown)
"Be careful with large items."
This baby would grind your green/blue/epic gear into small bits, like Pulverized Saronite, Pulverized Titansteel, Leather scraps, Cloth, depending on the gear type. When you try to grind a big two-hander, it sometimes explodes :-P
With mining, you would then use "Smelt Pulverized Saronite" to recycle 4 pieces of it into a Saronite bar and so on.
By recycling used gear this way, it should yield a lot more gold than just vendor the item.
This would also be an alternative to DE-ing in dungeons when useless BoP's drop.
A better name might even be "Al's Gear Grinder".
So there you go Blizzard!
Vladimire Feb 24th 2009 9:16PM
C'mon some Reflex-Enhancing whatever to give me agility, or something for ranged crit XD
dro Feb 24th 2009 9:24PM
It may look nice, but like the pyro rockets just before it hits live, the armour enchant is just going to be gimmicky.
Here's why:
For weapon users, namely non-druid tanks, we have parry. Even though Armsman gives us only 10 parry rating, the 2% threat is a lot, especially when you're in a raid with top dps chasing your threat. Even though 7k tps is easily achievable with my DK tank, I'd always give my dps a run for their money and let them go all out.
Which brings us to the next point. To who does the armour buff benefit more? I'd say druids. They can't parry, so Armman is out of the equation. But truthfully, how many druids took up engineering?
Kael Feb 24th 2009 9:24PM
Too bad the glove enchant is only for plate, not that Feral Tanks really need another armor buff, but it'd be nice with the lowering of our armor in the next patch.
dro Feb 24th 2009 9:27PM
Epic fail on my part. That armour tinker only works on plate, and druids are the only ones who will like to use them over armsman. So it's going to still stay sitting on my "unused" list.
gundamxzero Feb 25th 2009 1:18PM
It would work well for dks as well.
Flyp Feb 24th 2009 9:46PM
Yes. good news is on the horizon then, i am pretty excited, needless to say.
AlexW573 Feb 24th 2009 9:48PM
Woot! Both Parachute Cloak, and Spellpower!
Veras Gunn Feb 24th 2009 10:00PM
Still not too excited. 800 armor, after diminishing returns, is nothing. I'd much rather avoid damage all together with the extra parry rating, than resist a handful of extra damage from an insignificant amount of health.
The cloak is a nice change, it's got the nice little engineering enchant people love, but also adds stats that matter. It doesn't effect me in the least, but if they continue this way it'll be worth it. A plethora of cloak enchants that boost stats and let you slow fall would be great. Perhaps rocket boots of the same design would be great too. If they mirrored other enchants in the actual stats and added little engineering gadgets I'd be so very happy.
SaintStryfe Feb 24th 2009 10:04PM
They're asking people? Well, I'll hold off dropping until 3.1 is near or close to live then. I'm still not holding up hope.
Deathgodryuk Feb 24th 2009 10:23PM
WTB dps engineering chants