Lethal Shots

For those who don’t know, my main (my Hunter) has been an Engineer for quite a while. I have always loved the idea behind the profession, even if it hasn’t always been well implemented in game. So while the Enchanters, Jewelcrafters, Scribes, ect. all got min/maxing friendly perks, Engineers got handed, well, nothing. Our profession only perks are inferior to standard enchants, leaving little reason to use them.

Well, it looks like there are going to be some changes in 3.2 to help offset this imbalance. The blue post can be found here, but I’ll go ahead and list the highlights of the post here:

• Added a new Mind Amplification Dish attachment for helmets, allowing engineers to control other humanoid targets. Some restrictions apply: does not work in Arenas, dish sometimes reverses targets, unable to stack with other stat-improving head enchantments and makes your helmet look… stylish?

Think Gnomish Mind-Control Cap (off-hand, I can’t look up the exact name right now). This is Blizz’s attempt to bring old-world Engineering into current end-game, which I am all for. Some of that old stuff is a blast to play with. But in truth it really isn’t that great for PvE.

• Engineers can now learn to create a portable Wormhole Generator for Northrend. The Wormhole allows them to travel to different locations in Northrend, although the locations are sometimes in dangerous places.

Fun, useful, and very mage-like. But if you really want to impress me, let me use it to go to places in Azeroth and Outland too.

• Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications.
• Increased the passive bonuses provided by Springy Arachnoweave, Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts.

Simply Blizz changing every profession to keep up with Smiths being able to equip two extra epic gems.

• Mote Extractor now has innate tracking of gas clouds while it is in your inventory.
• The Spynocular belt attachment has been changed to a Frag Belt. The Frag Belt periodically produces a Cobalt Frag Bomb that can be used from the belt every 10 minutes (never runs out!).

I’m thinking these two changes may be Blizz trying to augment Engineering’s already weak profession bonuses. At the very least it will be a new toy to play with.

• A new repair bot has been added, and his name is Jeeves. He is the ultimate gentleman robot butler, able to perform all the mundane tasks of repairing, selling and buying junk for your entire raid. Additionally, he can open bank boxes for skilled engineers (350+). Jeeves is not destroyed when used, but due to pressing engagements, can only be summoned once per hour. The schematic for this handsome robot was said to be hidden within the parts of another robot – hoping to be found by an engineer one day.
• Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.

Wow, this is actually pretty cool. Almost as cool as the squire, which (if memory serves me right) can do everything Jeeves and MOLL-E can do, that EVERYONE can get in 3.2 from the Argent Tournament.

• The Ultrasafe Bullet Machine and Saronite Arrow Maker schematics have been simplified to create a full stack of the appropriate ammunition. No longer requires an anvil. Reduced the materials required to make this ammunition.

Interesting change. The only effect I see this having is removing the niche market at the AH of people who buy the ammo boxes and re-list the ammo itself. I do like that it no longer requires an anvil.

• A Steam-Powered Auctioneer has been added to the Dalaran Like Clockwork engineering shop, allowing access to one’s faction Auction House. The Steam-Powered Auctioneer was programmed with a superiority chip, and will only interact with Grand Master Engineers.

Now this is huge. I love this idea. Too bad there will be so much QQing from non-engineers that the idea will either be dropped or it will be opened up for use by non-engineers.

I know I didn’t go over all the changes, but to be honest the rest of them weren’t very exciting. Overall I like the direction they are going. Up until now, Blizz has only payed Engineering minor lip service in terms of min/maxing, but I’m hoping the devs have seen reason and buffed our gadgets up enough to make them worth using. Jeeves is going to be cool, but not really that big of a deal since anyone who spends some time at the Argent Tournament can get a squire. And the Engineer-only auctioneer in Dalaran? You can can forget about that ever making it live. The whining and crying from other professions will be so overwhelming that Blizz will cave. But hey, we can dream can’t we?

And another week has passed us by. Got a lot on my mind this time :

• More maintenance today, with more realms getting hardware upgrades. I am retracting my previous guess of 3.1.2 today. I don’t think it will drop until all the hardware upgrades are done.
• It’s been a little slow on the raiding front for me lately, but there is a Ulduar-10 run scheduled for Wednesday. I can’t wait.
• My server went down last night. So I popped over to Ner’zhul to say hi to Amava and Matticus, then started working a DK through their starting area to kill time.
• I really miss Amava’s blog. Hopefully my small prompting will encourage him to revive it.
• I fail at scheduled weekly posting. I promise the next installment of Hunting Tactics will be out soon.
• I’ve been leveling Inscription as my DK’s second profession. So far I have gotten it up to 200. I don’t have an Herbalist, so all herbs have been coming from the AH. I’m just hoping I can at least break even by selling the junk I have to make to level it.
• I did join in on a successful guild run of VoA over the weekend, downing the new boss on the first try. Let me just say the new boss is way more fun than the old one.
• I tried leveling my Paladin, but I’m just not ready to grind through the old world again yet. So I have decided to work on my Death Knight. As of last night he is up to 63 and just started in Zangarmarsh.
• I healed a normal Gun’Drak for my friends in my alt-guild. It went great, and I think I am getting their interest primed for moving up into heroics.
• The biggest problem my friends in my alt-guild have? They under estimate themselves. These guys know their class and are solid players. With a few craftable gear upgrades and a few things from normal level 80 instances, they could be rocking heroics.
• My gem business is holding pretty steady. It’s not making me a millionaire overnight, but the income is pretty steady.

Well, that’s all I got. Now give give me your thoughts.

Earlier this week I decided to participate in yet another aspect of WoW. The Auction House. Of course I have used the AH before. I’ve bought gear, enchants, gems, crafting mats, etc. I’ve auctioned whatever I might have come across while leveling. But I have never actually played the AH.

Now I don’t mean the old “buy low, sell high” scheme (it hardly ever works), I mean the art of Goblinism. This means I am taking raw materials available on the AH, crafting something useful out of them, and re-selling them for a profit. Maximum profit for minimal work. Naturally, this is done with the professions that I have already invested considerable time and money into leveling. Currently I have four professions greater than 400 skill available to me: Mining (on 2 characters), Engineering, Enchanting, and Jewelcrafting.

Mining provides a small, but steady income in the form of Titansteel. With a 20 hour cooldown to smelt and the still relatively high demand, it is almost always a guaranteed sell. I profit about 30g per bar sold, meaning about 60g a day.

Engineering is by no means a cash cow. There are really only a few items that non-engineers have any interest in. The motorcycle requires too high of a initial investment. The two epic guns require a rather large investment to make, and sell for almost no profit at all. And ammunition will often sell for less than the raw mats to make it. I’m still keeping an eye on tings in case the opportunity for profit does come up.

Enchanting is where I see a huge potential for profit. Every time a piece of gear is replaced, it needs enchanted. The problem for me is that my Enchanter (a level 60 Death Knight) is currently unable to learn any enchants other than the standard ones available from the trainer. There is very little profit from there since every Enchanter on the server knows them and the market is flooded. I’m not going to make any profit here until my DK learns more.

That leaves Jewelcrafting. I’ve started out small, putting no more than 30 gems on the market at once, and I am already starting to show a healthy profit. While many gem cuts sell for the same, or less, than the raw gem, there are still several that offer a nice profit. I am also making sure to do the JC daily every day to broaden my range of wares. The epic necklaces are also tempting, though I’ll want to make sure they turn enough profit to justify the hefty token cost for the recipe.

On top of my crafting endeavors, I also scan the AH for any sources of quick cash, such as crystallized to eternal conversions, or buying stuff to vendor. Not a whole lot of coin there, but it takes practically no time to do so why not.

I now just need to decide what profession to pair with Enchanting on my DK. It needs to offer decent profit potential, but getting the mats to level it may be a problem. I am looking at Inscription, but without a Herbalist to gather mats, leveling it could be quite expensive. Another option would be Tailoring. Mats would be easy to obtain, plus I could DE the items I make while leveling it. This would only be viable though if bags and BoE items could be sold for a decent profit.

It is definitely different looking at the game this way, but it is providing me with a challenge that I am already starting to enjoy.

What’s on my mind?

• Extended maintenance today. Some people think 3.1 is dropping. I hope it doesn’t until next week though.
• I’m leaving for my vacation tomorrow. That means no raiding until next month, and things around the blog will be pretty quiet.
• Since I won’t be raiding while on vacation, I plan to spend my WoW time leveling alts and working on professions.
• I’m already falling behind on the 31DBBB challenge. Between being swamped at work trying to take care of everything so I can leave and packing and cleaning at home I just haven’t had much free time.
• I haven’t been raiding much lately, mostly because 10-man Naxx has nothing for me, so I have been bowing out to let other people go and get geared.
• I’m as pissed as everyone else that 10-man Ulduar is getting the shaft gear and emblem wise. Just because we don’t have as many people doesn’t mean we don’t deserve comparable gear.
• I’ve been playing with the DPS spreadsheet from Elitist Jerks. I think I’m starting to get the hang of using it.

Well, that’s my 2 cents. Now give me yours.

Well, I missed last week. Guess I wasn’t thinking much. But I am this week:

• VACATION!!! In exactly one week I head off to Florida for two weeks on the beach. I can’t wait.
• Raiding is a little hit and miss lately. A lot of real life stuff is going on putting raiding on the back burner.
• Not much progress on the Shaman lately. Just haven’t been in the mood to level.
• I’m thinking about dropping mining on the Shaman and taking up either Herbalism or Alchemy, and then having my Death Knight take the other. What prompted this? Flasks and elixirs are so way overpriced. Might as well make them myself.
• I signed up for the “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” program that ProBlogger is putting on. Expect yesterdays assignment to be up today. Probably stick to that schedule, posting my result for each assignment the following day.
• I’m liking my Hunting Tactics series so far. It’s a lot of fun to write.
• No patch today. My guess is next week.
• Have any Huntery-type questions? E-mail them to me of ask me on Twitter. I’ll do my best to get you an answer. (Maybe the start of a Q&A column?)
• VACATION!!! (I’m excited in case you couldn’t tell.)

Well, that’s all for now. What’s on your minds?