Engineering

Introduction

In terms of safety and active benefits, Engineering is the strongest profession on most classes. The 3 most important benefits from engineering are target dummies, explosives, and goggles. Target Dummies provide a great safety net on a low 2 minute CD. Grenades and bombs provide great AoE CC, damage, and provide an option for split pulling. Goggles provide strong stats at the early levels especially with the lack of head slot pieces in the early game. The profession leveling slows down tremendously in the late game, but the early levels are fast and material efficient. Engineering provides insane utility and safety in high danger situations that is unmatched by the other professions which makes it highly recommended by veteran Hardcore players.

Notable gear / equipment

Target Dummies

Target dummies are the crown jewel of Engineering. They AoE taunt and last 15 seconds or until killed. There are a few things you must know to fully utilize their potential.

• While they do taunt and immediately pull mobs off of you, they do not generate threat. This means that after the initial taunt if you generate threat, you will quickly pull the mobs off of the target dummy. Healing / mana potions, bandaging, and healing yourself will all generate enough threat to pull mobs off the target dummy. This means that typically your best option is to run.
• Target Dummies share CD with other consumables. Healthstones (all ranks), Mana gems, and Whipper Root Tuber are the most commonly used items that share CD with dummies.
• Specifically for Rogues if you use Target Dummy and Vanish, the dummy will releash the mobs onto you and put you back into combat, so you still need to run away to reset the mobs.

Explosives

Explosives provide a reliable way to split pull mobs (the ability to individually leash mobs in a pack) as well as great AoE damage and CC. They are also great for money making.

• Explosives with “grenade” in the name can be thrown while moving while all other explosives with cast times must be used while standing still. Iron Grenades and Thorium Grenades are the 2 that can be thrown while moving. The 3 second AoE stun that comes with these items is amazing for creating space or interrupting spellcasting.
• Explosives share CD with other consumables. Slumber Sand, Magic Dust, and Really Sticky Glue are consumables commonly used by Hardcore players that share CD with explosives.
• Iron Grenades are one of the greatest money making tools in Hardcore. Currently in Hardcore, you cannot trade or use the auction house, so vendoring items is one of the few ways to make money for spells, food/water, and the level 40 mount. Iron Grenades cost 1 Iron Bar, 1 Heavy Blasting Powder, and 1 Silk Cloth to craft between 2 and 4 grenades which sell at the vendor for 5 silver per grenade. These resources are incredibly common in the 30 to 40 level range which make it one of if not the best gold farm for your level 40 mount.

Goggles

Engineering goggles provide fantastic stats at the low levels. Flying tiger Goggles can be crafted as early as level 10 but can be difficult to craft that low due to the material requirements. Tigerseye can be obtained from mining copper nodes, chests, or from mobs, and Light Leather can be obtained from skinning, Tightly Sealed Trunk (fished from low level fishing pools), or chests. Flying tiger Goggles can be upgraded to Green Tinted Goggles in the early 20s. Without engineering goggles, it is likely that you do not find a head slot with stats until well into the 30s which makes the early goggles incredibly powerful.

Goggles do fall off in the mid to late game, but lucky individuals have a chance to strike gold when crafting the Green Lens. While the recipe is easily obtained from trainers, gathering the materials can be frustrating and RNG dependent. Crafting these requires 3 Jades and 3 Aquamarines as well as other materials that can be difficult to grind. The RNG does not stop there. When you craft a set of Green Lens, it will randomly roll one of 8 different enchantments (+ healing, + spell damage in fire, frost, arcane, nature, or shadow, mana per 5 seconds, or health per 5 seconds). A warlock rolling + 34 shadow damage Green Lens will be on the Blessed Run while a mage rolling + 34 nature damage will begin to question their life choices.

Gear and Ammunition

While not as impactful as goggles, explosives, or target dummies, there are a few notable crafted guns and ammunition that can be useful for engineers.

Crafting Materials

Unfortunately, the downside of Engineering is that you’ll have to source a lot of different kinds of crafting materials, such as bars, leathers, gems, cloths, and stones. Keeping your Fishing and Mining skills up will be important for obtaining the crafting materials you’ll need in order to not fall behind the curve. Thankfully, most of the good Engineering schematics are from vendors and trainers, meaning you won’t have to farm obscure mobs unless they have a particular niche crafting material.

See Fishing 1-300 Guide at Wow-Professions.com

See Mining 1-300 Guide at Wow-Professions.com

Recommended Classes

As previously mentioned, Engineering is an excellent choice on any class. Below are the classes that most benefit from Engineering when compared to other professions.

Hunter

Hunters benefit greatly from the crafted items like guns and ammunition. Having access to a second “oh-****” button for when their Feign Death fails is also incredibly welcome. Grenades are also nice since Hunters lack clean ways of interrupting casters early on, and struggle when overwhelmed.

Rogue

Rogues struggle versus large packs of mobs, and thus enjoy the ability to split pull and AoE cc large packs of enemies. While the crafted gear is lackluster, Target Dummies give an extra layer of defense for when their big cooldowns aren’t available. Be careful when using target dummies as they will keep you in combat if used before Vanish.

Paladin

Paladins also prefer to fight mobs single-target, and have no inherent way to split pull. While Paladins have an enormous amount of inherent safety even without their large cooldowns, they are nonetheless weak to being on the wrong side of the math when dealing with large groups.

Warrior

While Warriors have slightly better AoE cooldowns, they are still weak to casters and large groups of enemies. Between grenades for AoE cc, Target Dummies to hoof it in a tight spot, and decent stamina headgear, Engineering does an excellent job of helping Warriors overcome some of their inherent weaknesses.