wrath-motorcycles
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The Engineer's dilemma
After a recent article on how the Engineering motorcycles of Wrath are going to be BoE items usable even by non-engineers, there's been a lot of commentary both here and on the forums about many Engineers' preference for the mount to be BoP -- or at least usable only by fellow Engineers. Last night we heard from reader Deftek who made the following three points: a). the motorcycle would be the only mount in the game beside your own faction's that doesn't require a rep/token grind or a profession; b). the vast majority of Engineering's gadgets have always been for Engineers only, and; c). everyone is going to have one if all you have to do is buy the reagents on the AH and track down an Engineer.It's an interesting conundrum. Profitability and accessibility seem to be zero-sum in the game, and Engineers have complained for years that the profession was a complete money sink because they could sell so few items or services. I'm leveling Engineering on my Warrior right now and it became apparent pretty early that the profession lacked the usual lucrative items available to others; there's no real equivalent to Tailoring's bags, Leatherworking's armor kits, or Alchemy's raid potions. I've made money selling Mechanical Squirrels and that's it. So while I understand where Deftek's coming from, I still think the profession would benefit greatly from the addition of marketable BoE items, and Engineers have just been handed something that basically sells itself.Having said that, a mount isn't an equivalent to, say, super mana potions or golden spellthread; you buy the motorcycle once and you never need to replace, consume, or update it, so the market for it will never extend beyond these one-time purchases. So while Engineering needs more moneymaking items, from an economics perspective the mount isn't a good choice and possibly should be BoP. But it sure looks cool, and I'd love to have one on my (non-Engineering) main.
Engineering motorcycles to be BoE
I met a player in the beta a few nights ago riding one of the brand-new Engineering ground mounts, and he was kind enough to pose for a few pictures and chat with me about it. At the time he confirmed that the mount was being sold in Dalaran for a fraction of its actual value, presumably for the sake of testing its passenger function (which unfortunately still seems to be bugged, so don't count on hauling a buddy along if you run out and buy one right now). He also said the mount was BoE, which both I and Alex had a hard time believing would remain a permanent feature. Blizzard seems to keep most engineering gewgaws in the family, as it were.Well, it looks like we were wrong; CM Valnoth has confirmed that the new Engineering-made ground mount for Wrath is going to be Bind on Equip, so I'd advise making friends with a good Engineer sometime soon (by the way, don't miss Jaylynn's #68 comment on the next page of the thread). We're not sure how expensive the mats are going to be once Wrath goes live, although the player I spoke to estimated it would be less than the current cost of a Turbo-Charged Flying Machine (though quite likely to be more expensive before the Northrend-fueled economy settles somewhat). Daniel Whitcomb's also observed it's likely to remain BoE as having one of these babies is linked to the achievement Get to the Choppa!, so with any luck Engineering is going to be a somewhat more lucrative profession in the expansion.
Motorcycles finally implemented in the Wrath beta
I was a little mean earlier and dropped a teaser for the new motorcycle mounts from the Wrath of the Lich King beta on Ask a Beta Tester earlier, so let me make it up to you all. We've put together a little gallery of the highly anticipated (by some) motorbike mounts that were officially implemented just last night, so if you're interested, go on and take a look.They're a little buggy, they use some slightly new mechanics. They're about halfway between a mount and a siege vehicle. Your action bars don't change or anything like that, but it is definitely considered a vehicle since a passenger can hop into your sidecar. It's also not Engineering only, but I think that is so they can get extra testing done on it. It's a seriously cool mount, and one I'm pretty okay with. If Azeroth can develop helicopters, airplanes and submarines, they can build motorcycles, too.%Gallery-32185%
