Honor's Code

There are two major changes to gems that will require all players, and especially Jewelcrafters to rethink their gemming. The first change being made is that my lovely Dragonseyes, the Jewelcrafter only gems, will no longer be prismatic. They will matchup with whatever socket color they normally would. For example, Solid Dragonseyes will match Blue sockets. The second is the addition of Epic Gems. Right now, I've been using my Solid Dragonseye in Red slots to get a bit of stamina and still retain the socket bonus. It’s been a nice bonus, but that’s going to have to change. Off topic, but I’m completely torqued that I’m not the first Honorshammer that pops up on the Armory anymore. I used to the ONLY one. Now some guy from the guild Conquest on Vashj shows up first. It look likes it sorts by Guild Name, so all I’ve got to do is get Ellevis to rename our guild All Suspects or something. ;-) I examined my MainTank set. Helm : Yellow slot, 12 stam bonus, 16 Def Shoulders: ...

The latest blow to Engineers has come from the Developers. Rocket Boots will no longer work in Arenas . I think this is a precursor to a big announcement, possibly at Blizzcon about Engineering. Remember that here at Honor’s Code, “All Predictions Are Wrong or Your Money Back”. *Honor’s Code is technically free, so if I actually ever got one right, I’d owe you….well... nothing, so you get the point. Honors Engineering History Let me give you a brief synopsis of my history with Engineering and then let me tell you where I think the Developers are going with this. I dropped Engineering about a week after 3.1 hit and I’ve been working on leveling up Mining on Honorshammer. This was the second time I’d dropped the profession. When I leveled Honorshammer during Vanilla WoW, Engineering was fantastic. It provided my Paladin with the one thing he truly lacked, a ranged pull. As a Paladin in those days, you got very familiar with how to body pull. Once I hit the level cap at 60, I...

I farmed Gnomergran a couple of times and got the recipe for both the Pet Bombling and Lil Smokey. These had previously been rewards from a repeatable Engineering quest, that I never remembered to do. Now I have them both. With that piece of business, the last reason I was holding onto Engineering was fulfilled. I did discover that the Reagent and Repair guy in Ulduar despawned a little while after we killed Flame Leviathan, so repair bots are still pretty useful. However, we have two other Engineers in our Raid group. That means we have someone to drop repair bots and I'll only be skinning bosses about once a month. So I unlearned Engineering from Honorshammer. I'll miss my Gyrocopter. Maybe I'll get lucky and get Mimiron's Head at some point. I'm most happy to report that I can still access both my pets after I unlearned Engineering. Not that I've dropped it, I'm sure the Developers will buff it next patch to be an awesome profession, especially for tan...

I got a fantastic email from someone, we'll call him Dave, regarding my profession conundrum. You specifically mention farming low level dungeons for greens to DE to skill up enchanting. Its a common mis-conception but this is not "free" materials. Likewise if you mine your own ore for JC the materials there are not "free" either. If you can get cash in any other way that is faster than this then mining is NOT a money making profession, it is in fact a money LOSING profession. It is my experience that just doing dailies is better cash/time than mining/herbalism and therefore Mining is note "Excellent" at gold making, it is horrible. Quite literally the only reason to have mining is for smelting and on an alt this works just fine. If you need mats to skill up, check what they cost, figure out how long it would take you to farm them, and then figure out what your gold rate per hour doing dailies is. 99% of the time farming them is a money loser...ju...

To me, the question was always between Mining and Blacksmithing as for my new profession once I drop Engineering. But last night, one of my guild mates suggested I also evaluate becoming an Enchanter. I need to evaluate what it is I want from my Profession slots. Basically, I'm after two things. A) Raid utility competitive (not necessarily better, but within a few percents) of any other profession and B) a way to make some gold for my character. Jewelcrafting does both in spades, and it is a very popular profession. Engineering fails on both accounts A and B, and that is a large part of the reason I'm looking at dropping it. What follows is my brief analysis of each profession, with help from the Elitist Jerks profession analysis thread . Mining Raid Utility: 50 stamina Gold making: Excellent Blacksmithing Raid Utility: 2 extra sockets, flexibility Gold Making: Poor Enchanting Raid Utility: Ring Enchants (24 stam x 2 = 48 stam, AP enchants for Ret) Gold Making: Good While I hav...

Bornakk wrote: The changes that are in the latest version of the patch notes are what we currently have planned for engineering in patch 3.1.The perks for engineering are different compared to other professions but engineering has always been a bit unique with their toys and whatnot. We feel the perks work out compared to what other classes have for the time being and have no changes planned at this time.The mote extractor was put in to help get money through the profession which works pretty well. /equip tin foil hat. "This makes me so angry, very angry indeed." I love the Marvin the Martian. His quote sums up pretty well how I feel about this communication from the Developers. At this point my second profession slot could be completely blank, and it wouldn't make much difference to my toon. I've been waiting and waiting for Blizzard to take one of the countless good, creative suggestions from the Profession forum and use it to bring Engineering u...

Honorshummer is my Hunter alt. I shall refer to him as Hummer for rest of this entry. Anytime I use Honors, I'm referring to my Main, Honorshammer. As Hummer nears 80, I've been thinking about Professions both for him and for my main. Honors is Jewelcrafting and Engineering while Hummer is skinning and mining. Actually part of the genesis of Hummer was to give Honors a miner to gather ore for his two production professions. The only one I'm absolutely not going to change is Jewelcrafting on Honors. That is both useful and profitable. Engineering on the other hand is neither. What I am considering is changing Hummer to an Miner/Engineer and making Honorshammer Mining/Jewelcrafting. This would make each toon more self reliant. Hummer would get more use out of the Engineering helm since I don't plan to raid much with him. He can also make his own ammo until such time as Blizzard implements it's plan to remove ammo from Hunters. It's sa...

So I got online last night and said to myself, “Self, it’s time to get some upgrades. I can't control what does or doesn't drop, but I can make sure I've got as good of stuff as I can get otherwise. I don’t have any major expenses that I can see coming up so let's go make some people on Altar of Storms rich.” I got with one of our guilds Blacksmith’s and found out what he would need to fashion up a Titansteel Shield Wall and a pair of Tempered Titansteel Treads for me. This very generous guildy had some of the mats on him and offered to use those mats to make the gear. Did I ever tell you we have some of the most generous/nicest people on the server in Mal Katai? What was required was some Saronite, Titansteel, and Frozen Orbs. Yes, last night would have been a good night to have that stuff listed, because I was buying. Money was no object. I met up with my Blacksmith friend at the Great Forge in Ironforge. Being a Dwarf I felt this was very apropos, and a coup...

Man, it's good to be back. I hope everyone had a great holiday and New Years! I started out last night starting to work on my neglected professions. I've had a very generous guildmate provide me with some materials to work on my Jewelcrafting. For Engineering, I kept all the Crystalized elements I got while leveling, and bought the Cobalt and Saronite bars. I've been taking it in spurts rather than just try to level 375-450 in one night. Actually, as I've started researching it, it seems professions start to peter out around 440. There is really no reason in the current version of the game to push to 450. The server first Feats of Strength are long past. I worked my Engineering up to 400 and my Jewelcrafting to 390. Then I got to train one of the Tinkers (Engineering type enchants) called the Hand Mounted Pyro Rocket. Here are a couple of screenshots of it in action. I don't need another range pull since I have Avengers Shield, but I can use this when Avenger's ...

You ever thought "I need to do a post about X", and then open up your FeedReaderOfChoice and someone, much smarter than you, has just done a post about X? Well in this particular case, X happens to be Professions. And the person much smarter than I is none other than Shia at Banana Shoulders . In this excellent post , she breaks down the Professions with the benefits they provide to the Crafter herself. What I'd like to do is analyze each professions benefits from the standpoint of a Protection spec Paladin. There are more benefits to the profession than what I list. See Shia's post for a comprehensive list. Strong Choices Blacksmithing - up to 3 additional sockets, 'Blue' BoP gear. The sockets don't overwrite enchants so you can still enchant and socket your gear. These are more opportunities to add Defense or Stamina to your gear kit. Jewelcrafting - Better and colorless Gems, can only use 3 at a time. BoP Trinkets (which are likely to be replaced with...

I spent some time this weekend getting Honorshammer working on one of my pre-Wrath of the Lich King goal. The Goal: 375 First Aid, Cooking, and Fishing First up was First Aid. I had planned on AoEing my way through various mobs to drop cloth and level my first aid from where it was at 225 all the way up to 375. Luckily for me, I ran into a couple of old friends, Saisuke and Rika who were kind of enough to gift me much of the cloth I needed to level up to 330. From there, I used a stash of Netherweave I had on banks and alts to finish the grind to 375. So, I now have maxed out First Aid. My cooking is sitting at 366, and to finish leveling it up, I need high level fish, which comes from Fishing. My fishing was sitting at 306. I did the fishing Daily's and got the Weather Beaten Journal (which allows you track Fish on your mini map) and the Weather Beaten Hat (which increases your fishing skill). I spent time in Stormwind, Nagrand, and Terrorkar catching fish and skilling up...

I apologize for bothering you but I religiously read your blog and since you are the main reason I leveled a tanking pally I am looking to you for some guidance.  I am really stuck between which professions to choose to best benefit me as a tank.  Making money does not matter to me in the least since I have plenty of gathering and crafting alts for that.  I have pretty much narrowed my choices down to 3 but i can still not decide what 2 are the best.  Engineering, Enchanting, and Jewelcrafting. I have enough money right now to powerlevel whichever 2 I choose and since I am not looking at being a high end raider but more of a heroic, Kara, and Gruul kind of tank I am thinking that engineering is an easy choice for the head piece but I am really stuck on the other 2.  The ring enchants look good but on the other hand so do the 2 jewelcrafting BoP piece's (the defense one and the spell damage with stamina on it I was thinking would be good for threat boost) Any...

The grind is done. I finally hit 375 Engineering. Of course this meant one thing. Time to build my helicopter! I had all the mats already purchased except for the Hula Doll. The Doll you buy from Grifthah. Now in patch 2.3, Griftah was banished from Shattrah and was hanging out just outside. I flew up and down the road looking for him. Then I remembered talking with Aoes who about the amulet vendor in Lower City. Sure enough, somehow Griftah managed to swindle his way back inside the city. I bought the Hula Doll from him and headed to the forge. You can actually see the Hula Doll on the dash. Nice touch, Blizzard! One of our hunters had just finished his grind with Netherwing so we met in Shattrah for our new mount screenshot. I like the copter so much better than the Gryphon. I appreciate its loyal service, but it will remain banked for the foreseeable future.So another big goal accomplished. I set the goal, put my mind to it and accomplished it. Now the goal moves to paying back the...

Phenomenal Cosmic Powers!! Itty bitty Tankadin. Gnomish Technology at its finest.

Engineering is very fun to have as a Profession on your toon. I love the Goggles. the Mote Extractor (see rant below) and the Flying Mount. One of the nice perks is the Teleporters. Since I chose Gnomish Engineering, I can teleport to Gadgetzgan and Toshley's Station. Gadgetzgan is great for Caverns of Time. That is also where I can buy my Head Enchant so it's rather handy to be able to just port over there when I need it. The Toshley transport puts me close to my Daily quests, Gruul's and Netherstorm. Of course as with all things Engineering, sometimes they don't work *exactly* as planned. Sometimes when I use the Gadget Transport, instead of materializing on the platform, I materialize an unsafe distance in the air near Gadget. This meant I learned that Bubble makes a great Parachute long before anyone started doing Daily Quests and getting dismounted by Flak Cannons or Monstrous Kalari. The Toshley Transporter seems to have a different malfunction. Instead of a sligh...

Okay, this is probably a crazy idea, but here goes. I was on the PTR the other day and I saw one of the new Engineering Flying Mounts. Wow, they look soooooo cool. I was an Engineer pre BC, but I dropped it to level up Jewelcrafting. Jewelcrafting has done very nice for me and my guildies (both current and former). I've noticed that I don't hardly mine much anymore. Most of my playtime is spent in an instance, or Ogril'la or Ruins of Karabor. So I've started saving mats to grind up Engineering. The BoP helm is a nice bonus, but I'm doing it mostly for the mount. I really missed the Teleporters. The cooldown was a bit excessive though. Now comes word that the Potion Injectors can used by non Engineers so maybe there is some hope for the profession. So far I've got most of the mats for the early levels. I know the rough part will be all the thorium, fel iron and adamantite I need. I'm going to farm up as much of it as I can before I drop Mining. In other news,...