Insider Trader: Patch 3.2.2 madness
by Amanda Miller 
Sep 18th 2009 at 2:00PM
This week's Insider Trader will analyze these changes and tell you what they mean for you.
A little history lesson
Orgrimmar is a large, bustling city, full of Hordelings going about their business, whether industrious and profitable or the sort that sees them dancing like MC Hammer and contributing to a lively Trade Chat discussion about Megan Fox.
Blacksmiths, Miners and Engineers alike, young and old, eager to advance their crafts, grab as many materials as they can and hike to the back of the Valley of Strength, out through the Drag, and into the back of the Valley of Honor in search of a forge and anvil suitable for their needs. Upon arrival and a quick discussion with their Trainers, they discover that they are missing some materials, and must hike back to the Bank and the Auction House and then back in order to complete their next task.
Ten minutes and a few useless hammers later, the process repeats itself. Again and then again. The lengthy smelting ritual combined with the complicated and material-intensive schematics common to both the Blacksmithing and Engineering trades can make this a time-consuming endeavor indeed.
In patch 3.2.2, history will be made. After years of begging, an anvil and forge are finally being installed at the General Store, allowing most business to be conducted within a few strides of a mailbox and the Bank and Auction House. This is revolutionary stuff people!
Engineers to be less strange looking
The Mind Amplification Dish will no longer modify the appearance of your helm. You might be tempted to pass over this purely cosmetic, minor change without a second thought. You might not even retain that you read it. But wait a minute; since when are Engineers afraid to fly their freak flag?
Engineers are rooted in a rich tradition of the wild and wacky. They get a thrill out of taking risks and often willingly endure unexpected and nonsensical inconveniences just to brighten up their days. They march to the beat of their own, experimentally tinkered with, untested underwater rocket drums.
Here are but a few examples of their fun-loving fashion sense:
- Goblin Rocket Helmet. Too bland for you? Try the Deepdive Helmet on for size!
- Gnomish X-Ray Specs are a crowd-pleaser.
- The Goblin Mining Helmet is sexy and functional.
- The Powerheal 4000 Lens can really improve your vision.
Quicker campfires
Basic Campfire is having its cast-time reduced from 10 seconds down to 2. This small matter of convenience will come in handy in our impatient in-game environment, although anyone seriously annoyed with its current incarnation should really have taken up Blacksmithing in Orgrimmar. Blizzard is only trying to teach us patience, you know.
Seriously though, this is a minor, but handy little change, although it did raise one question in my mind. Wouldn't it have been more fun to link the quicker cast-time to the Chef's Hat? Sure, this would mean that lowbies would make slower campfires, but hey, they do a lot of things slower. Especially now that they get super cheap mounts very early, they probably don't need to be spoiled any further.
More raiding buffs!
This has been covered, but not by Insider Trader, so I thought I'd do a quick review for those of you who aren't in the loop. Some of the most coveted class specific buffs are becoming craftable. The reagents for these items are still undergoing changes.
- A Scribe will be able to grant a raid-wide replacement Power Word: Fortitude using the Runescroll of Stamina. This translates to 165 stamina for a period of 1 hour.Now, you won't feel like you have to bring a Priest.
- Leatherworkers will make Drums of Forgotten Kings and Drums of the Wild, which grant Kings and Gift of the Wild, respectively. This will help out your raid should it lack a Paladin or a Druid.
While this isn't a fully fledged, inclusive system yet, it does mean that crafting professions will once again be playing an important role in the world of raiding.
Each week, Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. Patch 3.2 added a lot to the Engineering profession. Did you know about all of the changes?Filed under: Mining, Insider Trader (Professions), Features, Analysis / Opinion, Patches, Leatherworking, Engineering, Cooking, Blacksmithing, Inscription
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Hendrata Sep 18th 2009 2:09PM
Why don't you blacksmith in Thunderbluff instead? It's close to the AH, bank, trainers...
Tirrimas Sep 18th 2009 2:15PM
Because Org's the center of the Horde universe, and there are no Engineering trainers in TB.
T-M-B-S-E Sep 18th 2009 3:58PM
Even though I already know the answer, I go through this mental weighing of pros and cons almost every time I send my B-smith back to the old world.
Org has (soon to be "had." yay!!) the absolute worst anvil/forge location. TB has the best, with UC a close second. If there's blacksmithing to be done, Org loses.
Org and TB are tied for the most convenient AH/Bank/mail setup, with Org nosing slightly ahead since it's sometimes hard to get one's bearings in TB. UC has recently pulled ahead with the new mailboxes. So, this category is effectively irrelevant.
Here's the deciding factor between TB and UC: portal location. When you port to UC (or Org) you can mount immediately -- heck, sometimes you're already mounted -- and then it's a short hop, skip, and a jump to the AH. In TB, you end up in that Spirit Cave and can't mount until you run out, and then you have to guide your mount across a narrow bridge and through a narrow building.
For B-Smithing, UC wins!
(well, until 3.22)
sprout_daddy Sep 18th 2009 6:35PM
I started Alliance and when I rolled a Horde engineer, I was completely flummoxed by the lack of smithing tools right near the AH - I kept thinking for months that there must be some somewhere close, but that I wasn't looking in the right place. Although I no longer play Horde, I'm glad Blizzard did this for the sanity of those I hope to kill.
Amaxe Sep 18th 2009 10:25PM
Well, unless there is a change I missed, Ironforge and Stormwind had poor placement for their anvils (especially in the pre-mount days).
And lets not forget Darnassus with their "Anvil? What's that?" prior to 3.2
Personally I'd just be happy with mailboxes near trainers/forges
feyrbrand80 Sep 18th 2009 2:09PM
I believe they had put in a scroll to replace Mages AI but they removed it I wonder why
Mordockk Sep 18th 2009 2:18PM
because every single class can benefit from the buffs theses prof's provide....lots of classes don't need intellect. That's probably their thought on it.
Diabot Sep 18th 2009 2:26PM
Also mages QQ alot
Lorsty Sep 18th 2009 2:26PM
Because a warlock's felhunter already provides an intellect buff unlike Power Word: Fortitude, Gift of the Wild, Blessing of Kings and Heroism/Bloodlust which are still buffs that only one class has (priest with Fort, druids with GotW, etc).
I believe the whole point of the scrolls was to make buffs that only one class has in case you don't have said class.
Jon Do Sep 18th 2009 3:06PM
But don't forget to bring your Bloodlust... er... Shaman!
Jaiz Sep 18th 2009 3:11PM
@Mordockk I know a few Rogues and Hunters that need a bit of intellect.
peagle Sep 18th 2009 3:16PM
GC already answered that:
We felt that the near-mandatory buffs were Fort, Kings and perhaps Gift. It may be very hard to do say a 10-player heroic without those buffs.
Once you get into Arcane Int then you have to start thinking about Spirit and Shadow Protection and whatever. We didn't want to create a dozen or more new scrolls. And honestly, we'd rather you have players than scrolls. But we recognize that you don't always have that much flexibility in a 10-player run.
bushkanaka86 Sep 18th 2009 4:46PM
I still hate this idea of giving class specific buffs to everyone. Just more homogination amoung the classes.
None of these buffs are mandatory. Is it nice? Certainly. My guild just did our first attempt at ToC 10 this week and we dropped all 5 bosses without a druid buff. So if we can do the hardest raid in the game on our first try without a buff, then why is it mandatory. I don't know. I still think it is stupid and wish that classes were still unique. Oh well. That is the thing that will probably push me away from the game some day.
Trent Sep 19th 2009 6:33AM
If something so trivial pushes you away from the game, then you're overreacting.
Class balance in raids is still extremely important, and it has always gone far beyond buffs such as Gift of the Wild and Power Word: Fortitude. But it is a well-known fact that in most ten-man raids, 11th and 12th men are typically added when their buff is required, and they are left to simply stand outside dishing out buffs after wipes. That is a sign of a broken system. There's a lot of good reasons to have a priest in your raid..Fortitude machine shouldn't be one of those reasons.
As for homogenization..it's a mixed bag and always has been. But it is hardly as rampant as some claim. Most class specialties are still the same today as they were when the game was released. It's just now, they're not completely gimped when forced outside of that specialty. It has prevented the situations that occurred in the past where certain classes couldn't even get invites to certain raids because their specialty wasn't needed. It might be just me, but that kind of change is a good thing, isn't it?
Bob Dewane Sep 18th 2009 2:13PM
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!!
As a Gnome Engineer NOTHING has made me happier than the look of the Mind Amplification Dish! That, in combination with my Peacekeeper Blade, had me hoping that they would ADD a shield tinker that would turn my shiled into a giant spinning gear! Instead they take away one of the things I have come to love the most about my profession. Ugh! Can't they just make the appearance change optional?
PLEEEEEEASE BLIZZ...DON'T TAKE AWAY MY GEAR HELM!!!!!!!
Discostu Sep 18th 2009 2:53PM
The shield you are looking for is called Force Reactive Disk, schematics drop in molten core.
peagle Sep 18th 2009 3:18PM
Agree with this, making helm look like the dish was an absolutely awesome distinction for engineers. Reverting back should be optional, maybe during the enchant process.
Aaron B Sep 18th 2009 3:56PM
Disappointed in this one, definitely. I liked being asked "what is that thing on your head," and then saying "check this out!"
Us engineers are fashionistas and deserve our trademark looks.
tuff Sep 18th 2009 4:56PM
there is a spinning gear sheild. I think it drops in gnomer. you should check it out cuz its really cool.
Dazaras Sep 18th 2009 5:30PM
There's already a "hide helm" option. If you don't like the look go with that, I'd say, although I don't understand why you'd do that.