Insider Trader: Faction recipes for the rest of you
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.
Over the past few weeks I've been discussing the factions that hold recipes for the various professions, and how deeply liked you'll have to be to get your grubby hands on them. Almost all of the profession recipes have been covered, from the amazing and profitable acquisitions down to the pointless and boring.
Of course, there are still a few straggler recipes out there that are meant for players whose professions are not getting much faction love, and therefore cannot make up an article of their own.
This week I'm going to finish up the series by discussing the rest of the faction recipes, the ones for cooking and engineering. Although there are not many, and some are not even very good, the series just would not be complete without them.
Designs for jewelcrafters part one, and part two.
Engineering
Unfortunately, most engineering schematics are either drops or are available through trainers, making the faction grind kind of boring, at least from a professional perspective.
The schematics that are offered are, well, boring.
Once you've become friendly with the Cenarion Expedition in Zangarmarsh, you can help yourself to a [Schematic: Green Smoke Flare]. Now you can signal people, mark positions and confuse newbies in green, too! Although I do have to admit, the green looks pretty snazzy against certain backgrounds.
The only other faction-specific schematic is [Schematic: Elemental Seaforium Charge]. This one isn't a total loss, as it lets you blow some things up, like doors or chests. Of course, it never works on the cool stuff, but making things explode is a valid and culturally relevant engineering passtime.
All it will take to pick up this schematic is revered with the Consortium. There are a handful of quests in Nagrand that will get you started, including the opportunity to hand in [Pairs of Ivory Tusks] that drop from Elekks in Nagrand, [Oshu'gun Crystal Fragments] that can be found around Oshu'gun as well as on the Ethereals there, and [Obsidian War Beads] that drop from ogres in Nagrand.
Actually, the beads can also be turned in to the Kurenai or Maghar faction, so choose wisely and plan ahead before you turn any in to either faction.
You can also start running Mana-Tombs in your mid-60s, the only dungeon at Auchindoun that grants Consortium reputation, although once you reach honored, you'll have to run it on heroic in order to get any reputation gains.
Once you move on to Netherstorm, there are many more quests, including a couple of repeatable quests involving [Zaxxis Insignias] that can be handed in at Area 52, and [Ethereum Prison Keys] that are involved in several quests and award reputation in a variety of ways.
Finally, if you're level 70, you can start doing the heroic and regular daily quests found in the Lower City of Shattrath. Both award Consortium reputation, and the regular one even gives you one of the [Ethereum Prison Keys] mentioned above.
Check out Wowwiki's summary of the Consortium repuation grind.
Cooking
None of the factions actually offer up cooking recipes on the basis of reputation. Still, I thought it important to include one faction-related vendor and one "hidden" trainer.
In the Lower City of Shattrath, deep inside the Tavern is a bar maiden, who may teach you certain recipes in exchange for flattery.
Kylene will offer you the knowledge to prepare [Fisherman's Feast] which is a standard and sought-after buff food for all tanks because of the +30 stamina. More hit points means happier healers and a raid that is slightly less likely to wipe.
The other two recipes that she offers are completely unnecessary. [Hot Buttered Trout] and [Stewed Trout] offer no buff, and don't sell well at auction.
They do have some uses, of course. If you fish on a regular basis, you will find yourself in possession of a fair amount of enormous barbed-gill trout, which can be sold to a vendor. If you cook it up buttery-style, it sells for more, although you have to take into account the spices you had to buy.
As for regular trout? Don't use Kylene's stewed recipe. You can purchase a cheaper recipe from Horde and Alliance vendors at Zabra'jin and Orebor Harborage respectively. [Recipe: Blackened Trout] will cook up nicely with no added materials, and cooking it does increase its vendor value.
These recipes can also be used to level cooking, or to cook up snacks to keep in your bags if you're wholly against purchasing them from a General vendor, or even to feed to a fish-loving hunter pet.
Petopia has an excellent chart showing which hunter pets will eat which foods, so you can more clearly see which tameable beasts will eat your surplus fish.
The other vendor with which every chef should rendezvous if Mycah, the Quartermaster for the sporeling faction in Zangarmarsh, Sporeggar.
Although you don't need a certain amount of reputation to purchase these recipes, per se, you do have to become neutral with the faction. You begin your Outlandish adventurings as unfriendly with the little guys, leaving you unable to communicate with them. Once neutral, you'll be able to at least talk to Mycah, and purchase two cooking recipes.
The first recipe is [Recipe: Clam Bar] which comes in mightily handy if you're questing in Zangarmarsh. The buff is decent, but common, and the real draw is that it gives you something useful to do with all of the Jaggal Clam Meat you end up with from killing Naga and other mobs in the area.
Besides, who doesn't like DEM clams?
Last, but not least, comes [Recipe: Sporeling Snack] which allows you to make tasty treats to raise the stamina and spirits of your little furry, winged, screeching, void-where-prohibited buddies.
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. Check out our guides to maximizing cooking and engineering as tradeskills, and don't forget our guide to the cooking daily quests!
