The Siren Call of Engineering

I remember choosing professions back when I started playing. I was set on a draenei hunter, and after consulting with Ponder I learned that draeneis had increased skill in Jewelcrafting. He advised me to choose Mining to go with it. I was entirely new to the game and was "afraid" of the Auction House, and leveling Jewelcrafting was a tedious and time-consuming hobby.

When I leveled Naanei recently, I chose the same professions. As Naanei was my "True Draenei Experience", of course she would have to be a Jewelcrafter too. And I can wholeheartedly say that Jewelcrafting is still a real pain to level at certain skill levels! Doing it over again, and really taking the time with it, gave me many happy flashbacks to 5 years ago. :) And I realised I kind of miss mining.

Which takes me to my profession-jumping. Wrath of the Lich King launched, and I started taking raiding a bit more seriously, and with it the profession perks. I abandoned mining, which was far from optimal for a DPS-concerned hunter, and took Blacksmithing instead. Blacksmithing as a hunter never really made much sense though, I could neither make gear or weapons for myself. So right before Cataclysm launched, I abandoned it for Leatherworking. Leatherworking is huntery, right? Well, it's nice and all, providing bracer/leg enchants and it makes me able to craft gear for myself. But besides that there's not much happening really... The profession seemed a bit more "alive" in Burning Crusade, when people actually used the drums.

So now I'm thinking of changing again... To the undisputed coolest profession in-game!

Why choose Engineering?

• I'm an Engineer in real life, doing a lot of "figuring out the calculations". It would be nice if Lae could reflect this side of me. :)
• Goggles for transmog!
• Guns
• Scopes
• Flying Machine and Turbo-Charged Flying Machine
• Explosive Sheep
• Goblin Jumper Cables and Goblin Jumper Cables XL
• Parachute/Parachute Cloak
• World Enlarger
• Jeeves
• Portals to Area 52 or Toshley's Station, Everlook or Gadgetzan and Northrend
• Nitro Boosts
• Synapse Springs 
• Portable Mailbox 
• Gnomish X-Ray Specs...

Before I started to work on this post, I thought that changing to Engineering would possibly mean losing all DPS profession perks; I thought the crafted helms with the cogwheels was the only thing Engineers had except the fun tinkers. But then I discovered the Synapse Springs on Wowhead. I can very easily see benefits of this cooldown; I can stack it with Bestial Wrath* and A Murder of Crows, which share the same cooldown. And every 5 minutes I can use Rapid Fire with them as well. On average it will be on par with other profession perks. But on some fights it will be even better! Cooldown-stacking can be very powerful. Take Burning Tendons on Spine of Deathwing as an example; sometimes there are things that needs to be burned down really fast.

* Yes, I'm planning on playing as Beast Master in Mists. I have full confidence in that the changes to the talent system and weapon damage coefficients will result in the specs to be really close. And thus I decided on BM a while back. Of course, I won't hesitate to go SV if needed. (The (now removed) cast time of Black Arrow really put me off it.)

As I said in the key binding post; now, between expansions, is definitely the time to change things I want to change! And I have been thinking of leveling professions on my Scroll of Resurrection-boomkin; perhaps I'll level Mining to get the mats I need for Engineering. I've added Engineering to my End of Cataclysm Bucket List. The only thing I need to decide now is between Gnomish or Goblin Engineering. Any advice on this choice is most welcome. :)

Edit 1: We don't fully know what professions will bring in Mists yet. I think it's commonly assumed that things will work the same way, only with bigger numbers. Hopefully we'll know more by the time I make my switch, but I'm almost sure it won't affect my decision.

Edit 2: I finally leveled Gnomish Engineering, small update in this post.

Lae

Combined Professions (side note 1)

Ponder had an excellent idea, derived from other games. The gathering professions; skinning, mining and herbalism, should be included in the crafting professions. In that way you could still choose two (crafting) professions, but you would get one or two gathering professions along with them, depending on what you chose. Profession perks would probably have to be removed from the gathering ones. It really makes sense I think!

Blacksmithing, Engineering and Jewelcrafting would give you Mining.

Alchemy and Inscription would give you Herbalism.

Leatherworking would give you Skinning.

Picture from Wowhead: Turbo-Charged Flying Machine

Building Character (side note 2)

I keep saying I don't roleplay, but inside my head I totally do. I relate a lot to Lae, and in my head she has all my remarkably good qualities. Most of the time I'm unaware of this, but I experienced a revelation when I recently leveled my Scroll of Resurrection-boomkin (night elf) from 80 to 85. I had a good time leveling her; balance has a fun rotation and they have some nice moves in their spellbook. But I kept reacting to her voice telling me "you can't do that yet" (I tend to spam keys). The voice was so foreign to me! I've almost exclusively played draenei characters so far. Perhaps since I speak English with an accent, the fact that they do too have added to building the relation with my draenei. Playing a night elf was what it took for me to discover this. Go brain! :)

Picture from Wowhead: Flexweave Underlay

Behind the scenes (side note 3)

Kia's Brain (voice dripping with sarcasm): So, this is your new "great" idea?

Lae (whimpers): What are you doing here, Kia's Brain?

Kia's Brain: Your own brain is struggling getting through to you. I'm here to assist.

Lae: ...

Kia's Brain: What about all the time and money you spent on leveling Blacksmithing three years ago? And Leatherworking only 1,5 years ago? What about all the epic Leatherworking recipes you bought?

Lae: Both those professions have served me well, I don't regret spending time on it. And it's only gold!

Kia's Brain: And what will your guildies say when they learn that all those expensive recipes you've gotten for free from the guild's raids will carelessly be erased when you go about your usual profession-jumping ways?

Lae: They love, well at least tolerate, me, they will understand!

Kia's Brain: We'll see about that...

Lae: Na-na-na-na-na, I'm not listening to you! I want my own sedated brain back! KIIIIAAAAA!!!

---

References

Wowhead Engineering
Wowhead Mail Helms that requires Engineering
WoW-Professions Engineering