Insider Trader: Patch 3.2.2 madness

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.
Filed under: Mining, Blacksmithing, Cooking, Engineering, Leatherworking, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Insider Trader (Professions), Inscription
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Trent Sep 19th 2009 6:48AM
Of course, this thread draws the one guy who enjoys tedium. "Why I remember the day when we only had one anvil, and we had to walk through 4 feet of snow to get it to it. And if we wanted to get our mail we had to stand in line, and even then we might never receive it. And we liked it that way, I tells ya!"
Well sorry gramps, but I actually enjoy not having to ride from one side of the city to the other to level my profession after the countless hours I spent farming. I guess I'm just crazy like that.
As for the campfire...wow, you're really nitpicking now, aren't you? What could possibly be bad about reducing time in making a basic campfire? What, campfire-making purists will be up in arms that casual campfire creators will take all their thunder?
I suppose you truly can't please everyone.
alpha5099 Sep 18th 2009 6:09PM
As a Leatherworker, I'm pretty excited about these new drums. Three things I'm curious about: 1) Can I use both? It'd certainly be nice to get Kings and GotW up on everyone myself, but I suspect that it'll be either or. 2) How do I get them? Are they only going to drop in raids, 'cause I'd like to get my hands on them from the trainer. 3) Will I need to 450? Meh, I should probably get those last three skillups either way.
crschmidt Sep 18th 2009 7:49PM
1. "Yes", I'd bet, but I haven't tested.
2. They're trainable (at least on the PTR).
3. Yes (at least on the PTR).
Izzybuff Sep 18th 2009 8:26PM
That picture is priceless! My mage can sympathize!
zaababy Sep 18th 2009 9:47PM
A more convenient anvil and forge makes my day! I have slogged back and forth between the valley of honor and the bank/auction house more times than I want to remember.
Almoderate Sep 18th 2009 10:16PM
"Now, you won't feel like you have to bring a Priest. "
And therein lies the problem-- particularly for shadow priests. Am I the only one who seems to be getting the message that Blizzard really just wants us to heal?
yarf Sep 19th 2009 9:07AM
"U R PRIEST U CAN HEALZ PLZKTNXBAI" - GC
As a Shadow priest main spec, I remember two things.
Now I didn't play pre-BC but in BC we were useful for Vampiric Touch providing mana to the raid. Vampiric Embrace provided a good amount of heals during heal intensive fights. Not to mention the Spirit buff, Fort buff, and Shadow protection buff. Not to mention Misery and our +hit!
Now, in Wrath, we are fully replaced! Our +hit is replaced by 3 other classes about, shadow protection can be brought by paladins and i think shamans get a shadow resist totem but I'm not sure (My Shaman's only lvl 60) and Vampiric Touch and Embrace both are miniscule and don't really mean much to a raid.
So now, we're going to be mostly useless. I enjoyed the challenge of putting together a pug going "Need this buff, so this class..." Because it meant you actually had to THINK before you raided. Now... you can just go be mindless.
Now before people accuse me of QQing, I do completely understand why Blizzard is implementing this change, and for those who thing they are referring to 10 man raid, clearly need to realize that just because YOU can do it on 10 man without those buffs doesn't mean everyone else can. Many pugs will not get past Acidmaw and Dreadscale without Fort. I've seen it, and my guild has surpassed 10 man TOC as a guild.
For guilds who are just starting out, or the very casual guild who doesn't have the players to ensure these buffs are provided, rather than pugging and carrying a scrub, they can bring these.
I do, however, think the amount buffed should be less or last half as long, or at least be incredibly expensive to buy. Though I agree, it should be that anyone can use them, like scrolls, rather than just the specific profession.
Still waiting for Tailoring to be worth something other than bags and spellthread... and the Transmute proc for Transmute specc'd Alchemists really needs to be improved. Of course I'm sure there are other professions that are utterly useless end game except for a few minor things, but as I don't have those professions maxed on any character, I couldn't tell you.
RogueJedi86 Sep 19th 2009 9:18AM
So when are they gonna add a forge/anvil closer to SW AH, since the run between AH and Dwarven District is just as long as the Orgrimmar AHForge/Anvil run? I never go to SW(always stay in IF) because if I need to make anything, it takes 5 minutes to run back and forth making the stuff and buying reagents and etc. I just stay in IF for the convenience for when I gotta make something for someone.