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A Tinker's Personal Protective Equipment: specialties and specifications of sartorial safety
Or"We can dance/ We can dance/ Wearin' the Safety Pants!"Engineering is a dangerous line of work. At every turn there's caustic chemicals, grinding machinery, explosive reagents, angry law enforcement officials, disgruntled fire brigades, out of control dragonlings, and steam tonks running amok. Many an Engineer has lost track of a finger or two from time to time, and many others have put considerable research, born of necessity, into the design of prosthetic limbs to offset such professional risk.But there's no need for such damage to occur to a right-thinking Engineer. While we're no great hand (or hoof) at stitching together many garments, there exist plenty of items which can be worn not only for protective purposes, but also great aesthetic effect. Herein, we will discuss the varieties of Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, available to Engineers, with an eye to not only safety, but fashion.Head Protection: You'll shoot your eye out, kid.Headgear is where we'll start with this lecture, as it's the part of your PPE gear you're likely to be able to make yourself. Of course the signature of the Engineer's look has long been thought to be the goggles. This is the easiest part of the PPE ensemble to obtain. A monocular goggle is better than nothing at all, but any number of goggles exist which provide better coverage as well as better utility. Remember, always keep your head on a swivel, and keep that swivel calibrated to within acceptable limits of swivelocity. For those Engineers who are unwise Goblin enough to be unconcerned with the eyes, there is also the pair of Foreman's Helmets: the Enchanted version for spell slingers, and the Reinforced version for mail wearers. Even the most staunch M.E.G.A. member must admit that the head is also important, though some Taurens in the workshop have never quite understood the need to protect their already well-protected (and some say solid bone) heads. The production of the Foreman's Helmets is left to those of you who are members of G.E.E.K. Hoof and Horn, as ever, disavows all knowledge, responsibility, or even vague understanding of the Goblin Engineer's craft.
Making the most of long arena queue times
Fighting in the arena is hands down my favorite thing to do in WoW these days. I do get very bored while I'm waiting for queues to pop. Since I usually do 2v2 and 3v3 battles I'm usually looking at wait times between five and ten minutes. Drysc stated that this occurs due to a limited number of instances that can be hosted at any given time, the problem will not likely be solved in the near future. Instead of complaining about it, I try to find something productive to do with inevitable delay. There are several in-game activities that to do with these unexciting minutes. I love to window shop the next piece of battleground or arena gear that I'm working for. It is also an excellent time to work on crafting and auctioning items. Skinners who queue up in Blade's Edge, find themselves in a perfect position for killing Bladespre Raptors for Knothide Leather.
Encrypted Text: Job perks
I love the profession system in WoW, but sometimes it strikes me as odd that we're basically paying money to go to work. I wouldn't run around the world and skin animals, pluck feathers, find rare threads and cause massive environmental destruction for a leather jacket in real life, but I'll gladly do all that to make an epic leather chestpiece in WoW. Nevertheless, it's a good idea to pick up a crafting profession in WoW, just for the perks. (Unless you want to be one of those ultra-capitalists who take two gathering professions.) We've covered this in general terms before, but today we're going to focus on the crafting profession-specific BOP items and abilities that can really help out rogues in the end-game. Alchemy Honestly, alchemy doesn't have a lot of good BOP stuff. It's good for money-making and as a support profession for an alt (someone has to get all those transmutes done), but it doesn't offer a lot of enhancement for your main, unless you count "Being the guy at the raid who sucks up to everyone by giving them pots" as an enhancement. Which, for rogues, is not a bad thing -- there's enough of us out there that being an alchemist can help get you that coveted raid spot. But for pure min/maxing, it might be better to buy herbs off the AH or farm them on an alt and then have a guildie make you your pots. Particularly useful pots include Flask of Relentless Assault, Haste Potion, Insane Strength Potion, Fel Strength Elixir, Elixir of Major Fortitude, Onslaught Elixir and Super Healing Potion. The Alchemist's Stone is one of two items that are only usable by alchemists, and though it's a good starter trinket, it'll be quickly eclipsed for everyday wear by more rogue-specific trinkets. It really shines for hybrid classes and mana-users, but rogues shouldn't be popping healing potions like bubble wrap in PVE. If you are, you have bigger problems than your trinket selection. The other alch-only item is the Mad Alchemist's Potion, which restores health and mana and gives you a random buff. Nice, but not reliable when you need it.
Wowhead evolves again
The best WoW database site (in my opinion) just got better. Several features have been added to Wowhead over the past couple days; as the site's "Adorable Bearcat Overlord" Miyari notes, they are perhaps not strictly essential (her term is "icing"), but nice to have anyway. My favorite addition is that users' comments will now be annotated with the patch number that was in effect when the comment was made, so you can more easily spot information that might be outdated (see screenshot).Alchemical recipes that are attained via discovery are now noted as such under the "source" tab, and the corresponded spells will state their provenance as well. Elixirs will now be annotated as to whether they are Battle or Guardian elixirs. Pet skills will now show which pets can learn the skill, as well as which mobs can teach the skill. And finally, tradeskill spells will show at what skill levels they change from orange to yellow, green, and gray. I say well done, Wowhead folks! If you have any ideas for how Wowhead can improve, hit up the their Site Feeback forum.
Insider Trader: Crafting a future for professions
Insider Trader is your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Are you a tradesman -- or are you simply a player who crafts? The determining factor is yet another question: Do you care? For the vast majority of WoW players, crafting is a means to an end: better gear, more money, consumables and resources. For others, though, crafting is a game in and of itself. The WoW tradesman relishes the entire process of crafting: training up, obtaining rare recipes, scrounging mats, actually crafting items, researching new possibilities, interacting with customers ... an enjoyable pursuit in its own right.WoW's crafting system is by no means complex or even especially compelling – and perhaps even anachronistic. This week, Insider Trader brings you musings on professions inspired by well-known MMORPG blogger Tobold's predictions on the shape of MMORPGs in the year 2020. We have a lot for you to ponder and pontificate about – so please come join the conversation, after the break.
Insider Trader: A year in the making (err, crafting)
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products. I'm a details girl – and I think that's why I enjoy crafting. I actually enjoy the process of researching where to find recipes, making shopping lists and traveling to collect ingredients. I'm intrigued by the idea of crafting failures and more complex crafting systems seen in some other games, and I definitely believe that player-made products should be a vital part of a vibrant game economy. That said, sometimes I get so caught up in minutiae that I lose track of the flow of time. (My husband can tell you the month and year any remarkable event took place, while I can't even remember how many years we've been married. /blush) What I can say for sure is that crafting has changed over the past year, morphing from the everyman's tool for making money and filling holes in gear to a means to an end for end-game players to gain access to BoP crafted items. Oh, there's a bustling market out there for certain enchantments and potions, odd and ends, to be sure ... But the face of professions across most servers looks radically different at the dawn of 2008 than it did one year ago.This week, Insider Trader looks not at a timeline of changes during 2007 -- but rather, a review of trends and notable changes that are turning the tide of where crafting is headed in today's World of Warcraft.
Are you a recipe completist?
Earlier today I was perusing the official WoW forums, looking for any new info about our favorite game, when I noticed a particular post. Warla, the player in question, was announcing that they had collected all of the cooking recipes in the game. At first glance, this might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but there are a lot of recipes that are more readily available to one faction or the other, such as Dig Rat Stew. Taking into consideration that Warla is on a PvP server and can't easily do a trade through the neutral auction house, this is actually quite a feat.I'm not really a perfectionist when it comes to my professions (and I'm definitely not the type who would announce such accomplishments in a public forum), but I have known other people that were. One guy I know is a blacksmith and spent hours researching and tracking down every last pattern that was available to him. The same guy was making a point to complete every single available quest in the game too, so his blacksmithing goal wasn't really his loftiest.
WoW tipping etiquette and social networking
While catching up on my reading, and perusing Kestrel's blog this morning, I came across a post examining some of the fundamentals of tipping when dealing with a craftsman or asking to have a lockbox opened. By nature, tipping is a controversial topic, even in a virtual world. There are only loosely defined guidelines, the gesture is optional (or is it?), and it is all about communicating and exchanging with politeness and respect. Before we can determine how to go about tipping, we need to have a clear picture of if and under what circumstances tipping is appropriate. We have previously discussed some of the situations in which this is debatable, including: When you are dealing with a player who is leveling their crafting or lockpicking skills, and you are providing the materials, in essence, you are already helping them out; the exchange is costing them nothing, and they are gaining a skill point. If you are purchasing an item for a fee of Xg plus materials, then the fee may also be said to contain the tip, or stand in place of it. Kestrel points out that if the person volunteers to travel to you, this is tip-worthy behavior. This might then complicate the above two situations.
Don't pay extra for the white
If you think back to your first character, you will probably cringe at the memories of some of the mistakes you made. At the time, I remember things being very confusing; later, it just seems silly. One of the most common mistakes made by new players is spending money where they shouldn't, or spending more than they could have. This may not be of consequence to a level 70, or to those who have level 70s funding their lower characters; but for anyone leveling for the first time, getting swindled can severely eat into your wallet. When leveling professions in particular, which is a very expensive endeavor, one must take extra care. The various recipes you can purchase in the auction house are sometimes overpriced, and other times, are scamming you out of figures such as 80x more than you would have otherwise paid. How can this be? The main way in which you'll see players getting away with this is through selling patterns that are white, as opposed to green, blue or purple. White patterns are vendor-quality items, which means that there are vendors out there, somewhere, that are selling them. Often for 25s-1g pre-Outland, and 4-6g in Outland. These same patterns often sell on the Auction House for up to 20g. In fact, many players go out of their way to hunt down white patterns and sell them at marked up prices. Here are some ways to determine whether the player selling your item is a reseller: Is that player selling multiples of the same pattern? Does the player have other white patterns for sale?
As the Worlds Turn: Gluttons for punishment.
"There you are, brave warrior. Tales of your valorous deeds have spread like wildfire throughout my court and now you stand before me. But as my heart is lifted by your presence, the plight of our people weighs heavily upon my crown. I fear the Borderlands are lost. Ancient enemies hide in the shadows waiting for a mere moment of weakness. But you, you are our light in this darkness. You are the harbinger of peace and better days. The kingdom, the people, needs you to be the hero of which legends are made. But first, I need you to take this bushel of apples to Farmer Poopypants across town. He's going to make me a pie!" Ouch. If you've played MMO's for longer than five minutes, chances are you've run into a quest like this one. If it isn't apples for Poopypants it's the letter for Sir I'm-too-lazy-to-go-into-town-to-get-my-own-damn-mail quest. A good number of quests in MMO's range from the silly to the downright ridiculous. But I'm not here to talk about silly quests. That would be a painful endeavor that my intestines aren't up to taking. What I'd like to talk about is why we as players subject ourselves to preposterous quests and other strange, bizarre, and mildly offensive game notions to play our precious MMOs. So, sit back, pop some ibuprofen, crack open your last bottle of GameFuel and prepare yourself. It's going to get ugly.
More thoughts on Dofus
I wrote up my initial thoughts on Dofus over here. Here I am back with more pictures and a final report on why it didn't gel for me. Whilst I would love to write a totally unbiased review of Dofus, I don't think I can. I will try to highlight my experiences of how it works, and how it can be used so you can make an informed decision as to whether it is your kind of thing. Keep in mind that my opinions will be coloured by the fact it didn't grab me hard enough to make me carry on. The first thing to say is that you can almost certainly get a good experience from playing Dofus as a free-to-play user. Pay-to-play (about US$6.90/month) gives benefits: better drops; no limits on professions; certain drops only accessible to pay-to-play; certain areas only accessible to pay-to-play. This lets you try before you buy. %Gallery-10531%
Preparing for 2.3: Pre-patch farming, part 2
The other day I listed the items that will be used in new recipes after the patch. I did miss a few things, but with your helpful comments, I've updated the original article to be more complete. I'll mention again that it's difficult to make predictions on what will sell the best, but nonetheless I've decided to list some of my thoughts on the subject below.
Preparing for 2.3: Pre-patch farming, part 1
Although your time to farm before the release of the patch is quickly dwindling, hopefully everyone will be able to spend some quality time over the weekend preparing for next Tuesday. It's always difficult to accurately predict what will be big sellers, especially since the economy on one server may be radically different than another. With this in mind, I've decided to simply provide a list of all the items that will be used in new trade recipes or for obtaining the new reputation rewards.
Learning a third profession at level 80
Nerrisa brings up an interesting idea on the forums that I hadn't considered before-- what if we all got to choose a third profession when we reach level 80? For some, handling two professions is more than enough, but there are also plenty of people who could definitely benefit from a third. And although the professions are paired off pretty well (Alchemy and Herbalism, Leatherworking and Skinning), there are definitely some trios that would work well also-- Enchanting goes great with anything, and Mining, Blacksmithing and Engineering would be a great combo, too, for power players who've reached 80 and are looking for lots more to do.Of course, Bornakk says no to the idea (actually, as Incgamers points out, he really says there are "no unannounced plans" for it to happen, which is quite a few qualifiers for him), so it's unlikely that we'll have an extra profession slot to face Arthas with. But don't forget that we will have a new profession, Inscription, and if Blizzard adds many more professions, maybe we will need a third slot to keep them all straight. I'd love for my characters to learn more, I'm just not sure if I'd have the diligence to get them all to 375-- I'm having enough trouble with two as it is.
Insider Trader: Tools of the trade
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products. It takes it to make it – and let's face it, craftspeople love goodies and gadgets. Addons for professions are some of the most satisfying, relieving the drudgery of tasks such as repetitive combines and character-hopping to verify inventories. Today's installment of Insider Trader is a reminder to revisit your favorite addons site and take a peek at what's fresh for craftspeople. New addons come out every week, and if you haven't surveyed what's out there recently, you just might be in for a pleasant surprise.Read on for a sampling of today's most downloaded addons for craftspeople – no profession-specific addons this time (we'll save those for a later installment), but rather a taste of some of the sweet little tools that make life easier for every profession. Don't forget to stop by to post a comment and share your own favorites.
Back on schedule?
There was a flood of patch 2.3 news yesterday, which almost certainly means the CMs hit some sort of release date for 2.3 info (not to mention that they said they'd talk about 2.3 after 2.2 released, though we didn't realize it would be the day after). At any rate, the CMs made a lot of people happy yesterday-- from numerous amazing class changes (Fear Ward! No Blind reagent!), to info about new Engineering flying mounts and daily PvP and cooking quests, 2.3 is looking pretty groovy all around. Finally, something to get excited about again! Sure, there's the next expansion, but it's tough looking forward to something Blizzard hasn't even designed yet.And the best news is that patch 2.3 is likely to show up sooner rather than later. Eyonix, at the very beginning of the big Blue forum rampage yesterday, once again cited voice chat and the new sound system as the reason for the long wait on 2.2. It wasn't a class balance or content patch, it was a completely technical one. And that's why it's been three months since new content. It'll be interesting to see if Blizzard ever tries something technical like this again-- lots of players have asked about upgrading the graphical engine, but if their efforts on the sound engine are any indication, that's just too large an undertaking for them to handle while also being expected to release new content.But hopefully 2.3 will make up for lost time-- while the coders were working on editing sound channels, hopefully the developers were thinking up new ways to make the classes more powerful and interesting. Of course they haven't announced any release dates (this is Blizzard, after all), but my guess is that we'll see 2.2.2 with a week or two, and 2.3 about a month or so after that, definitely before Christmas.
Insider Trader: When good patterns go green
Insider Trader is your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Nothing interrupts a peaceful night of crafting like a lunatic guildmate ranting about learning a coveted new pattern, only to find that it's already green in skill level – nothing, that is, except that sickening feeling in your stomach as you consider what you'll do when your favorite patterns go green. Skilling up a profession can be a rollercoaster ride, if you don't hit the right patterns at the right time. (Of course, all the professions have those infamous "dead zones," when skilling up seems to be based on either unfathomable luck or unfathomable finances – or maybe both. But we'll cover dead zones in another installment.)Skilling up in a profession can happen when you create an item that's listed in green, yellow or orange in your tradeskill window. Items listed in grey will not give you any skill points for creating them; red listings anywhere means you don't have the required skill level. Just as it does with creatures you fight, pattern color indicates difficulty and skill-up potential. Green items raise your skill occasionally, yellows about half the time and oranges every single time. (The exception to orange skill-ups occurs in skinning, in which successfully skinning an orange creature does not guarantee a skill-up.) As a burgeoning crafter, your goal is to find patterns that are relatively easy to get the materials to make while providing a solid shot at skilling up. While orange patterns offer a guaranteed chance of gaining a skill point, the best bang for the buck is often a yellow pattern.And that's where things start getting murky ...
Please stop tipping me
I recently took some time off from leveling my pally to get some rare jewelcrafting recipes. As a result of skillful AH playing, I can now make some of the best blue gems for melee DPS, magic DPS, and healers. (Sorry, tanks, there aren't enough of you out there to make those recipes worthwhile.) As such, my little pally alt has become one of the primary gemcrafters for my guild. And I really, really enjoy cutting the gems that go into my guildmates' armor. It makes me feel happy to know that my rogue's elixirs and my pally's gems can help out the raid, even when I'm not playing at the time. But recently, some of my guildmates have begun tipping me for my cuts, which is kind of awkward. Especially since I charge strangers 4g for cuts, and my guildmates have been giving me 5. The following conversation usually ensues: Me: I cut gems for guildmates for free.Guildmate: No, I know how expensive those recipes are.Me: Really, I know you're saving for your epic mount.Guildmate: So are you.Me: No, dude, it's okay.Guildmate: Just take the damn money! I feel especially guilty because I've always considered guilds to be a shared resource of skills. Therefore, I get my Mongoose enchanted for free if I provide mats, and in return, I cut any gem someone needs. We have some amazingly generous enchanters who always end up contributing half the mats because "I have enough money", and meanwhile, people are paying for my lousy one-click jewelcrafting. Do you tip guildmates for crafting services?
Bring on the horizontal changes, please
Mystic Worlds lays out exactly what is, in my humble opinion, the biggest problem with World of Warcraft right now: We need some horizontal change. As I said in my impressions of BlizzCon, Blizzard seems intent on building more and more vertical content into the game-- Zul'Aman is built to be played after Karazhan, and Wrath of the Lich King will add another 10 levels onto the top of the 70 we have now. And while Blizzard keeps building up, they're more or less ditching everything that happens from 1-58. Even worse, the only changes we're seeing there are going to be to move past that stuff faster-- not only are they ignoring it, they're working on pushing it out of the game entirely.So Mystic Worlds wants more horizontal changes. That doesn't necessarily mean midlevel content (although a lot of her suggestions mean more things to do for midlevel players). Instead it means that Blizzard should take a breath, and set their teams on making the existing game experience more fulfilling. Things like guild halls, single player dungeons, more professions (Inscription will probably provide new items 1-70, but Woodworking has been necessary for a long time), and little touches-- more live events, gambling minigames (that all players can do), and fun little additions that all players can get involved in, not just those who have made it to 70.Now, there has to be some part of Blizzard that is pushing for this stuff-- it's not quite as simple as casual vs. raiders in this case. But Blizzard seems to think that they're behind on high end content, and that they're rushing to catch up to players who are hungry for more of it. I don't think either perception is true. If anyone is hungry for new things to do, it's players who have more than three alts, and yet a main that hasn't yet reached 70. I'm more than willing to trade one of the three or four 25 man instances planned in WotLK for two or three of these "horizontal changes," and I'd guess most other players are, too.
BlizzCon Profession recap featuring Inscription
At BlizzCon, we learned of what Blizzard has planned for professions in patches as well as the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. We are not getting a knitting profession any time soon, regardless of what Penny Arcade says, but we are getting Inscription and a lot of love for our current professions.What kind of love? How, what, when? Your questions are answered after the jump:
