mechano-hog
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A First Look at Mists of Pandaria Professions: Engineering
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- if you're not having fun while playing World of Warcraft, you're doing it wrong. Sure, raiding is great, and so is having pockets full of gold. But if you don't find either of those fun, then why bother? Find something that is fun. Fun, of course, is what the engineering profession is all about. It's certainly not about money, after all -- engineers make very few things that non-engineers can use. But while you're struggling to make money in MoP, you'll at least be getting a lot of new perks to enjoy while doing all that struggling. There are cool new pets, new conveniences, new gear, a new world-altering device, and even new mounts -- yes, mounts with an s! Exciting times are most definitely ahead for engineers. So strap on your goggles and have a robot roll up your sleeves -- we're going to dive right in.
Phat Loot Phriday: Mechano-Hog
As we now transition to a new chapter of the story, the narrator will take a moment and indulge in literary thievery -- I mean, literary homage. Well, not really literary, since I'm stealing from a different medium, but I've always liked the idea -- and shut up and read it already, OK? In patch 3.0.1, Blizzard added a new vehicle to Azeroth. While millions of mounts already existed in the game, this new mount was something special. It was a hog. A motorcycle. No sooner had the Mechano-Hog become a reality in the game than thousands of engineers started building them. No individual Mechano-Hog was that big a deal, really. Except for one. This Mechano-Hog was built by a warlock engineer named Demonalisa. Struggling to make money on a roleplay server, Demonalisa spent most of his time farming materials. That plan worked fairly well for him until he ran afoul of the gem market. The Great Gem Crash of 2010 cost Demonalisa his savings, and he was forced to sell off the Mechano-Hog. In late 2010, the Mechano-Hog was purchased for Lolegolas by a stalwart orc named Throgg. Throgg felt the two-seater Mechano-Hog would be a great benefit to them in the Battlegrounds. After all, two coordinated fighters doing battle together can very easily turn the tide of victory. It turned out Lolegolas just liked making "vroom" sounds while doing laps of Dalaran. This Mechano-Hog had the same basic abilities of all the others, but none of that is what's important. What's important are the details like the chewing gum Throgg used to glue the license plate down. Or the "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" bumper sticker Lolegolas ironically slapped across a fender. Or the extra growler racks Throgg installed to prepare for their trip to Pandaria. As Lolegolas started the engine and Throgg plopped into the passenger car, neither of them could know how important that Mechano-Hog would be. Item notes The Mechano-Hog and Mekgineer's Chopper are both still in the game and clearly the most popular ground mounts available by 56%. Source: I made that number up. Phat Loot Phriday brings you the scoop on some of the most ... interesting ... loot in the World of Warcraft, often viewed through the eyes of the stalwart Throgg and indelible Lolegolas. Suggest items you think we should feature by emailing mikeg@wowinsider.com.
The OverAchiever: Mountain O' Mounts from professions
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. Today, we are convinced that archaeology's RNG won't apply to us. There are a number of interesting (and by interesting, perhaps I mean "occasionally very expensive and likely to drive you insane via RNG-laden accessibility") mounts available from professions, though for some of them, you'll have to be a practitioner in good standing before you'll ever be able to learn them. Regrettably, I am the bearer of some very bad news this week concerning the Vial of the Sands for all those of you who like circumventing the highest costs in the game. Also read: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain O' Mounts Mountain O' Mounts in Outland Mountain O' Mounts in Northrend Mountain O' Mounts in 5-man dungeons Mountain O' Mounts in raids Mountain O' Mounts from achievements Mountain O' Mounts from PvP
All the World's A Stage: Gift-giving in Azeroth
With Winter's Veil behind us, it is not too long until Valentine's Day is here. Between these two holidays, I'm frequently left pondering the best gifts available for our loved ones . . . in game. There's a subtle art to simulating gift-giving between characters, since there's obviously a few factors to be considered. First, it's difficult to be creative. Everyone has the same access to the items and gifts in-game, so you're going to be incredibly challenged to pull off something "no one else has considered." Second, it can be difficult to pick out just the right gift, since it can be a little hard to get excited over a trade window. Still, when it comes time for one character to give something a little special to his or her in-character spouse, it's good to have some ideas ready to go. Take a look behind the jump and let's talk about 5 of my favorite in-game gifts.
The Queue: I have no regrets. Well, maybe one...
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Maintenance day, maintenance day! One of the best days of the week, or one of the worst? I'll leave that to all of you to decide.Nautical D asked...I stopped playing WoW just before 3.0 patch came out and deleted all my characters and items to make sure I didn't return, is there any way I could get back and start on WotLK without having to roll new chars?
The Queue: The patoot edition
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Hey, everyone! How did you all hold up over the last week? A whole week with Adam? Did you miss your ray of sunshine? No? Oh... well, that's okay. I'm back anyway! If you don't read Ask a Lore Nerd, I was more or less out of the office the last week moving into my swank new apartment, so that's why I haven't been around. It's all good now though, so Adam and I are back on our rotating schedule.We also have a cool little guest appearance from our resident Death Knight Daniel Whitcomb, so that'll be a treat! Hopefully!Cholestria asked...Are there any titles I can achieve with my level 1 bank alt? She has an outfit from the Brewfest and usually participates in any of the holiday she can, but all the titles seem to require some leveling. Is there any title she could get without leveling?
Bat mounts? Blizzard, please make it so.
An interesting post popped up on the forums, mourning the passing of racial mounts, which apparently nobody uses anymore. The poster pointed out that most people now using bears or mammoths, every Death Knight using their cool Deathchargers, and a rare few actually still using their faction mounts. This sparked a flurry of responses and even had Eyonix chime in with his thoughts (and enviable epeen stroking when he casually dropped his Spectral Tiger in the conversation).I'm actually guilty of not riding my faction mount, the closest I ever got being the Swift Warstrider. I currently use the very awesome but all-too-common Black War Bear (every day, it's like 40 more people pop up with the mount), and for flying I use the not-so-common but also not-very-awesome Albino Drake. On my engineer I'm enjoying the Turbo-Charged Flying Machine and I plan to get a motorcycle when he dings 80. If I could afford Salvaged Iron Golem Parts and everything else, that is. There are really quite a lot of mounts to choose from, which is probably why the easily acquired, 'vanilla' mounts aren't as popular.
Insider Trader: Love is in the Air edition
Love will soon be in the air, and it's time you worked out your game plan. Chances are that it won't be just the city guards and leaders that will catch your eye (or eye socket). Whether you're looking to reel someone in, set up a romantic excursion, or send an enemy a delicious surprise, you'll find that preparation is the key. This year, crafted items are the hot new trend. What better to say, "Darling, I can't get enough of the way your eyes puss" than with handmade?First, you have to look the part. For all of you gents out there, I recommend seeking out a tailor for your very own Tuxedo Jacket, Tuxedo Pants, and coordinating Tuxedo Shirt. Alternatively, a Festival Suit will have you standing apart from the crowd, while a Colorful Kilt will set up some easy access to um, cultural traditions.For the gals, we have the lovely and sophisticated Festival Dress, or the elaborate and vaguely desperate White Wedding Dress. If you want to attract a different sort of attention, then try the Red Winter Clothes on for size! They aren't just for Winter Veil, and are snazzier than anything Victoria keeps secret.
One Shots: Ghost riding
When it comes to Bartle types, I'm overwhelmingly an explorer. If there's some way to walk up cliffs, figure out mechanics and then launch myself off edges, I'll do it just to see what I can find between launch and landing. Today's One Shots comes from one such recent adventure with a guild-mate of mine. He's just recently built one of the Mechano-hogs in World of Warcraft and we decided to go for a spin in Dalaran. In the underground, there's one tube that just dumps out into a sheer drop, so we thought it would be fun to mount up and zoom out of it, as if shot from a cannon. The strange thing is that for some reason during the drop we both seem to have completely disappeared from his Mechano-hog, so all you see in today's One Shots is this cool World of Warcraft mount, careening recklessly towards the ground. Hey explorers - I know I'm not the only one throwing myself off cliffs so if you've captured any screenshots of you finding strange viewpoints on places, we want to see them! Just send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and the game they're from. We'll post them and give you full credit.%Gallery-9798%
Insider Trader: Northern Engineering highlights
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Engineering has seen many changes over the past year, and Wrath of the Lich King brought even more. Today, Insider Trader is taking a look at some of the highlights of the profession to help you set goals and plan ahead with your leveling. This by no means covers every schematic, and instead looks at the big ticket items and new innovations, including stylish, if somewhat controversial, new modes of transportation, consolidations to save bag space, and more.
Wrath profession goodies
The days of choosing a profession and maximizing it solely based on a few purples at the very end are no more. Not only will many more crafted epics be bind on equip, they will be available earlier than the maximum rank. Instead, the incentive to choose between the available professions will be based more on fun and personal preference. Each profession is getting its own 'goody bag' of items that are fun and promote individual customization. Intrigued? Here's an overview of what you can expect to see:
