Tuesday, September 21, 2010

My love affair with Engineering - Part 4

9/24/2010

Level 65-80 (376-450 engineering)
Bombs - Saronite Bombs, 'nuff said. You could use explosive rabbits, but you need to have the EMP device on your belt to set them off. Portable Nuke for Goblin engineers, but you'll want to use a shield spell/item with it to offset the damage. It does have the highest bomb damage in the game, though.

Goggles - You will want to make the Mechanized Snow Goggles at 65, which will automatically make the armor type you can wear (Cloth,leather,mail,plate). Enchant them with the 45 stamina Mind Control enchant, and replace them at 72 with your class type epic goggles, which are ilvl 200. These will last you until 80, and even will be useful until you've gotten all your other armor up to the 226-232 level.

Flying Mount - At level 70, you can build your own epic flying mount, but you have to go back to Shadowmoon Valley to learn the recipe.

Trinkets - Noise Machine and Sonic Booster can be very useful for a level 65 tank, as well as any other class. I've been playing around with having my paladin use 1 of each while going thru BC dungeons, and they seem to work out well. I'm not sure if I'd want to use the Noise Machine on a Warrior Tank, since it might interfere with rage generation. There's the Gnomish Lightning Generator trinket, and if you make 2, the crit will stack, but you can't activate them individually. Also, I've found that if you only equip 1, and have the other in your bank/bags, you can't fire the equipped one with a macro. Either make only 1, or never use them seperately.
BTW, Gnomes can equip any of the 3 trinkets at level 50, since they have a +15 racial engineering bonus, they can get up to 390 engineering.
Have a level 420+ engineer make 2 Noise Machines for your level 50 mage, equip your Xtreme Lite boots with Greater Fortitude, your belt, and your goggles of choice, and you'd have at least 173 spellpower and a buttload of stamina and other bonuses.

Self Portal - Wormhole Generator: Northrend is awesome. Not only is using the flight taxi expensive in Northrend, it takes forever to get from Dalaran to Borean Tundra to do the fishing daily there. Not with this, you drop from the sky right into the lake, and are easily able to complete the quest within minutes of accepting it.

Cloak Enchants - Melee and caster varieties, you probably won't even think of getting another enchant for your cloaks.

Glove enchants - Haste, armor, or long range attack to finish off a fleeing foe, your pick.

Do-it-yourself Rocket Boots - Nitro Boosts 24 critical strike rating and blazing speed, hell yes!

Mailbox on demand - MOLL-E If you ever think of going for the Insane in the Membrane achievement, you would kick yourself for not having engineering to be able to turn in multiple librams to the Shen'dralar. Also useful for mailing off stuff to an auction house alt when your bags get too full while farming.

Robot Butler - Jeeves is really nice while in a dungeon to sell your trash too on your 20th run thru Stratholme for the Baron's mount. Or, your tank threw a drama fit and left during a heroic? Pull out your tanking equipment from the bank, and show the rest of the PUG what you can do.

Resurrection - And so much more! The Army Knife is everything you need for your tradeskills, plus you can rez your healer if you survived a wipe.

Land Mount - It's a motorcycle, and it always makes you feel like you're going fast, especially when it shifts into second. C'mon!

I'm not going to discuss ammo, scopes, or ranged weapons, since they don't have very much of a profit margin now, and ammo will be going away with Cataclysm.

I hope that some will be inspired to look more closely at engineering, and not just at the few enchants, port, butler, mailbox, and mounts that are useful at level 80.

My love affair with Engineering - Part 3

9/22/2010

Level 50-64 items of note. (level 300-375 engineering)

Bombs such as Fel Iron Bomb, Adamantite Grenade, and Cobalt Frag Bomb (which is made at 350 engineering, and already is a WOTLK recipe) will be made while leveling up, but once you've burned through those, and are heading into Outlands, you'll want Saronite Bombs. The Box of Bombs recipe is learned at 405 engineering, but you only need 350 engineering to use them! Look for them in the AH, and buy them when they're a good price, or pay a max level engineer to make some for you.

Goggles are also back in fashion. Now, you could go with Cogspinner Goggles, and hope you get some good stats on the helm. Or you could go for Power Amplification Goggles, which are decent for casters, with no hoping and praying needed. You could wait for level 62 to make and use your class specific helm, but you'll probably be replacing that at level 65 with your cloth/leather/mail/plate version of the Snow Goggles, which usually have pretty nice stats on their random enchants. It's pretty much of a waste of Khorium Bars to make the BC class goggles now, so I don't recommend it. What I DO recommend is the Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles, which, while cloth, have a mix of stats that will appeal to any class. Either do the Libram of Constitution quest for more health, or have a level 60 add a Heavy Knothide Armor Kit to your BOE goggles before you equip them. Hint, go for the heavy knothide!! The 10 stamina will multiply with Blessing of Kings, but 100 health won't.

Goblin Engineers will want at least 1 Rocket Launcher, 2 if they're tanks.
Gnomish Engineers would want the Poultryizer, 2 if they're tanks.

Self Portals - Area 52 Ripper for Goblins, Toshley's Teleporter for Gnomish.

Paladin/Warrior Tanks - When you step in Outland dungeons, a Force Reactive Disk on your arm can help you make sure that you stay on top of the threat list, even despite those newly minted DK's doing their best to wipe the run.
Mount - At level 60, you can learn and make your Flying Machine, one of the few profession created flying mounts.

Money Maker - Are you tired of constantly dumping gold into the engineering profession, with nothing to show for it other than being overpowered at your level? The Mote Extractor will start filling your pockets with gold once you hit Zangarmarsh and go thru the quest to learn it. Especially useful in Nagrand for the Windy Clouds, which drop Motes of Air, since Primal Air is usually the most expensive Primal. It continues being useful in Northrend too, with plenty of clouds in Sholozar, Wintergrasp, and other areas to give you free Crystallized elements.

Bubble Belt - Finally, an upgrade for your Gnomish Harm Prevention Belt. The Nigh Invulnerabilty Belt can be equipped at level 50, yet its ilevel is high enough that you could socket it with a belt buckle at level 70.

Xtremely Overpowered Boots - The Xtreme boots for melee toons, and the Xtreme Lite boots for casters. These are yet another engineering item that can accept enchants of a higher level, which would be WOTLK enchants like Icewalker and Greater Fortitude. I know for a fact that they'll take those 2, and they'll probably take Tuskarr's and Greater Assault.

My love affair with Engineering - Part 2

9/21/2010

On to the level 35-49 range! (level 225-300 engineering)

Even more powerful bombs are available, though I only list the ones I usually use, since the others are to costly for my tastes. Dense Dynamite at level 250, and Fel Iron Bomb at 300. I never actually make Fel Iron bombs at this level though, since I hate not getting skill points. I usually just shuffle them from my level 50+ toons, since they make them to advance their engineering at that level.
Not much in the goggle department in this range, since you'll have started to get stats on your helm drops by now.
More class borrowing though.

Resurrection - Goblin Jumper Cables XL have a much higher chance of working. /yell "Live, dammit!" when you're gonna shock someone.

Underwater Breathing - Don't have a shaman/warlock with you? Don't feel like stocking breathing potions from an alchemist? Just pop on your Deepdive Helmet when you're running low on air, then switch back.

More Attack Pets - The chicken, walking bomb, and two dragonlings become available in this range, though you'll have to be level 40 and 50 for the dragonlings, goblin engineer for the bomb, and a gnomish engineer for the chicken. Also, unlike before, they've been severely nerfed. They used to scale in level with your engineering level, meaning that you could have a guardian pet that was a lot higher in level then you were. Plus, if you are a dedicated engineer, at level 50 you'll be crafting Burning Crusade trinkets, making the Arcanite Dragonling unnecessary.

Mind Control - Mind Control, not just for priests! Tricky to use though, the one time I tried it I couldn't get out of combat, and kept getting swarmed by mobs.

Death Ray - The signature attack of the new Cataclysm hero class, the Combat Engineer! Seriously though, if you use this during the 35-49 range, it will help a lot. You really need to couple it with the bubble belt/paladin bubble/Mana shield/Void Walker Sacrifice/Power Word: Shield to get the most use out of it though, since it will hurt you severely while charging otherwise. This is one of the reasons that all of my engineers go Gnomish except paladins, and even they go gnomish first to get this and the chicken, then go Goblin after. And this was when you had to drop engineering to switch specializations too. And go uphill to school, in the snow, both ways......

Self Portals - Before the portal in Dalaran was available to drop you in front of the Caverns of Time, you had a long flight from TB or Org to get to Tanaris, and an even longer one from Darnassus. The Gnomish Gadgetzan teleporter and the Goblin Everlook Ripper give level 260 engineers a time saving device that they can use every 4 hours. Just remember, keep fire extinguishers and healing spells handy when going to Winterspring, and keep your parachute on when going to Tanaris. Accidents can and will happen. Also, be prepared to /yell "You no take candle!!!" when tranformed into a kobold in the teleport chamber.

Other fun gadgets - High Powered Flashlight, Goblin Rocket Helmet, and the Gnomish World Enlarger.