Renunciation: the trials, tribulations, and terrors of respecialization

Or:

"Are you sure you want to do this? Really?"

In last week's lecture we discussed factions and reputations an Engineer might find beneficial for their career progression. In that lecture, it was mentioned that the only real decision to be made for an Engineer is between the Goblin Engineering school, known as the Goblin Experimental Engineering Korporation, or the Gnomish school, known as the Mechanical Engineering Guild, Associated. Making this choice is an important step in the career paths of many Engineers. It involves a lifelong oath of loyalty, a considerable investment of time and resources, and it steers the direction your tinkering will take for the rest of your career.

Well, almost. One can renounce one's affiliation with M.E.G.A. or G.E.E.K. but at a cost. Perhaps a cost too terrible to bear for many Engineers. The life expectancy of an Engineer is short, and thus his lifelong loyalty can be considered a less than permanent thing. Even so, the memory of an Engineer is long, and it is no simple task to convince those who were once your sworn (and "lifelong") rivals that you are now their sworn (and "lifelong") ally.

You should know before you even consider this the drawbacks involved. Other professions allow a change of specialization with relative ease and minor expense. It is, for many of them, simply a matter of purchasing a new school. They are not like the Engineers, though. The Dragonscale leatherworkers are not foes of Elemental leatherworkers, not to the same degree as are Gnomish and Goblin Engineers. For the Engineer a sacrifice must be made, in order to demonstrate to your prospective new associates that your intentions are good, and your commitment to them firm.

Herein we will discuss the method of changing one's specialization within Engineering.

The First Step is a Doozy.

To begin down the path to a new specialization, you must first renounce your career as an Engineer entirely. You will have to drop the profession altogether and resume it starting from your first Rough Blasting Powder. Due to the nature of our trade, once you have done so, you will not recall any schematics you had learned previously. These will need to be found again, learned again, or perhaps forsaken forever, depending on your level of study at the time of your renunciation. Once you give up the profession entirely, you can immediately re-enter the discipline with any Engineering trainer and begin the long walk again.

• The Cost.

You will receive no refund of gold laid out for your training thus far. Training costs are the same the second time around as the first. No Engineer who has reached this point will need reminding that the costs from here only increase.

• The Loss.

Any schematics you have earned from completing quests will be lost to you. The quests to obtain them are not repeatable, meaning that those schematics will be lost forever, barring intervention from the Divine. Of note in this loss is the Zapthrottle Mote Extractor, a key resource gathering device which is learned from completing a quest in Telredor or Zabra'jin, depending on your faction affiliation. If you have already learned this, consider long and hard the idea of going without it for an indefinite period.

You will not receive a membership card for your new discipline. Engineering membership cards, when renewed, can earn you a schematic for a different robot companion depending on whether that card is for Gnomish or Goblin Engineering. Part of the cost of betraying your school is the loss of the chance for this schematic. You will be a member of your new discipline, but you will not be given a card, and therefore will not be able to learn the robot companion your new discipline offers its members. This renewal feature is the only benefit to having a membership card, so you will be able to function fully as a member of your new discipline.

The Easy Part.

Once you've resumed your craft, beginning Engineering with a rating of 1, you'll need to regain the qualifications to specialize: a rating of 200 or greater, and be of 30th level or higher. Being as you've already specialized, of course, you will already be at least level 30. Upon reaching a rating of 200, you will need to travel to Tanaris, in the south of Kalimdor. Gnomish Engineers, past and future, will need no guidance as to how to reach Gadgetzan. From Gadgetzan you'll need to make your way east to Steamwheedle Port on the coast. Don't bother waiting for a ship at this "port," you've got better things to do than try to imagine why a "port" never sees any sailing ships right now.

As you approach the pier, with some shops on either side of you, look to the left and you'll see the hut pictured above, nestled back in the hills north of the pier itself. In that hut is a gnome named Narain Soothfancy, who wears, I think you'll agree, a silly hat. He is pictured here with Chief Engineer Geargrinder, having a little chat about the woeful state of affairs one might need to be driven from the fine art of Gnomish Engineering into the cold, unfeeling, and often uncomfortably aromatic arms of Goblinery. Narain has the keeping of the book Soothsaying for Dummies, which rests on a table in his hut on the right as you enter.

Reading this book (pictured at right) will allow you to choose a new specialization, with the costs and losses listed above being always taken into consideration. Congratulations! For better or worse, good or ill, chickenization or debigulation, you've set out on a new path to the Tinker's mastery.

Consider, tinkers, before you make this step. Many of the items you make currently require merely an Engineering rating. Some of them, however, may require a specific discipline. If you have made a transporter for Gnomish or Goblin disciplines, it will become a useful paperweight or possibly an improvised hammer once you no longer hold that specialization. The price of betrayal is high. Your former schoolmates might see you as traitor, and your new schoolmates may see you as a spy, or just a tinker-come-lately. Bear in mind what you are saying when you change your specialty. You are announcing that your previous lifelong oath of loyalty is null and void, and offering immediately to your former rivals your lifelong oath of loyalty. Once such an oath is broken it loses something of its value, or at least to some it does.

Cleaning Up Shop: Tool Control Saves Lives
Now that you've made the step to your new specialization, you'll want to visit the trainer for your chosen discipline. Those just arriving in the halls of Gnomish Engineering may learn from Oglethorpe Obnoticus in Booty Bay, or Tinkmaster Overspark in Ironforge. Horde Engineers are reminded that visiting Tinkmaster Overspark is not a recommended course of action. "Gnomish Engineer" doesn't mean "Gnome," as some in our organization have had to be reminded on more than one occasion. [I had to research a lecture on healing, how'm I going to do that without some injury, I ask you? -PH] Those who've renounced the Gnomish Engineering school in favor of Goblin will want to speak to Nixx Sprocketspring in Gadgetzan or Vazario Linkgrease in the Barrens. Good luck to those of you who've made this step. May your dedication to your new school exceed that to your old. This concludes the lecture on respecialization.