Gnomish-Engineering
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WoW Archivist: An ultrasafe history of engineering
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? If you're an engineer, you're accustomed to the chance of failure. The state of the profession throughout WoW's ten years is a bit like a goblin device. Sometimes engineering has succeeded incredibly well. The shiniest of rewards showered down on the profession from Blizzard's workshop like Thorium Grenades of Joy. During other eras, the profession has backfired, blasting shrapnel in players' faces like so many Explosive Sheep. No one would argue that engineering is in a pretty good place right now, especially considering the newly revealed Sky Golem. It's one of the sickest mounts in the game, it transforms, it lets you harvest herbs without dismounting -- and it's only craftable by engineers. In the family of primary professions, engineering has always been the weird uncle. No other profession makes such a diverse and bizarre array of products. Engineers can make ranged weapons, a shield, armor of all four kinds, consumables, pets, mounts, trinkets, utility items, "enchantments," "gems," "keys," feasts (yep), fishing lures, portable crafting stations, and specialized bags. It's also the only remaining profession that is still divided into exclusive specializations: goblin and gnomish engineering. Let's look back at the early days of the profession and how it has evolved through the last four expansions.
Patch 3.3 PTR: Epic ammo
Here's some good news for hunters in the next patch that I don't think we've covered on its own yet. Huntsman's Lodge points out that there are two new types of craftable epic ammo on the PTR for us to load up. Iceblade Arrows and Shatter Rounds are both learned by engineers who rep up with the Ashen Verdict, the new faction to go along with the assault on Icecrown. Both add a whopping 91.5 damage to ranged weapon DPS, and of course they're BoE, so all you'll need is an engineer buddy honored with the new guys. One catch: arrows require Gnomish engineering, and the bullets require Goblin engineering. Interesting choice by Blizzard, but it shouldn't be too big a problem, especially since mats are pretty cheap anyway (two Crystallized Shadow for the arrows and two Crystallized Earth for the bullets). Sounds good to me. Still no sign of those great ammo plans we heard about way back when, but more damage (especially some so relatively easy to get) is never a bad thing. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Choose My Adventure: Turpen dings 45
WoW.com readers, it's up to you to decide the fate of Turpen the Gnome Warlock with Choose My Adventure. Casting your vote toward the many aspects of Turpen and make him your own! Well, not literally. He belongs to Alex, but you know what we mean.Well, it took longer than I had hoped, but Turpen has finally dinged level 45 and he did it in the wet, muddy wastes of Dustwallow Marsh. It wasn't particularly hard, but between all of the patch 3.2 preparation I've been doing, it was sort of a scatterbrained trip. Do a few quests here, a few quests there... all in all, it wasn't particularly memorable!Throwing fuel on the 'not very memorable' fire was the completely anticlimactic ding of level 40. I remember that level being something of a landmark, but for Turpen the level came and went without much celebration. Mounts are at level 30 now, and the level 40 talent for Affliction Warlocks is pretty useful, but not much to get excited about. Oh boy, Dark Pact! Mana regen is so exciting! Don't get me wrong, I love me some mana, but could there be anything less exciting to someone who's leveling, questing and exploring? I want toys! I want explosions! I want excitement! This was none of those things. Maybe I would've been more excited if I run around with my Imp or Succubus out, but I've been getting pretty good mileage out of my Voidwalker still. I didn't have mana problems before Dark Pact, so I rarely use it now that I have it.
Pet Bombling and Lil' Smoky available to all Engineers in patch 3.1
With the Patch 3.1 patch notes as long as they are, even we miss a lot of the little things that crop up in them. Luckily, I was reading Kaliope's WoW Crafting Blog (which is fantastic) and happened to spot this little tidbit: All Engineers, regardless of specialization, will be able to get their hands on both Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling. You don't need to do the repeatable quest(s) for them and pray to the RNG gods anymore, either.The schemata for Lil' Smoky and the Pet Bombling are now Bind on Pickup drops from Gnomeregan. I know, I know, Gnomeregan is terrible, but most pet collectors are so overleveled for that place that this new method of getting the recipes should be dramatically easier. The Pet Bombling appears to be a 100% drop off of Thermaplugg, the final boss of the dungeon. Lil' Smoky is slightly less reliable, but not by much. He drops off of the Arcane Nullifiers and only the Arcane Nullifiers, as far as testers have found. That makes sense, considering Lil' Smoky shares their model.If you're going to be hunting down these bad (and smelly) boys come patch 3.1, Gnomeregan is the place to be. Kaliope even has some further advice on tracking down Lil' Smoky, should you need it. Good luck on your hunt!
Wormholes coming to an Engineer near you
Just the other day, a fun little potential toy for Engineers cropped up. Wormholes! Wormholes? Yes, wormholes. What do they do? Think about Mages for a moment. They have both Teleport and Portal spells. Teleport spells take only them to a capital city of their choosing. Portals create a way for your entire party or raid to go to that capital city.Engineers have Transporters, which work similar to a Mage's Teleport. They take you specifically to whichever Goblin or Gnome town your Engineering specialization likes best. Wormholes will be the answer to the Mage's Portal. You will be able to take your entire party to that town, not just you. The only one we've seen so far is a Wormhole to Gadgetzan, which may actually prove to be quite useful. While Shattrath has an NPC that will teleport you straight to the Caverns of Time, I haven't seen one of those in Dalaran so far in the Wrath Beta.Currently it seems the intent is to have Engineers quest for these Wormhole generators, but they aren't available on either the live or beta realms quite yet. That could easily change before we see them ourselves. We may also see these in Patch 3.02 rather than Wrath of the Lich King as well, seeing as Northrend has Goblin towns of its own.[ via MMO-Champion ]
Engineering fun builds up in Beta
New schematics are finally in for Engineers in the Wrath Beta, with the exception of the eagerly anticipated and widely speculated upon motorcycle. Despite the glaring absence of The Hog, there are a bunch of neat stuff for Engineers from the basic -- such as the space-saving Hammer Picks and Bladed Pickaxes -- to the cool and complex, such as MOLL-E, a portable mailbox. Check out the gallery for a quick look at the new schematics in Beta and an overview after the jump. %Gallery-30265%
Ultrasafe: The prestige, perils, and prestidigitization of Gnomish dimensional travel
And lesser related fields or "I Can See My Hearth From Here, and It's Getting Closer." The Ultrasafe brand of dimensional transporter incorporates two versions thus far discovered by M.E.G.A. Research & Development. The first version Gnomish Engineers are able to learn is the Ultrasafe Transporter: Gadgetzan. The second learned is the Ultrasafe Transporter: Toshley's Station. Here we will discuss the various risks and rewards of the use of the Ultrasafe brand of transport, and briefly touch upon similar transport methods associated with the Goblin Experimental Explosive Korporation.
