Of Gnomes and Rogues

Being one of the only active Gnome mains in my guild means that I have to put up with a certain amount of, well…cowplop from my guildies about being a Gnome. I know they do it out of love (I mean, how can you not love someone with Princess Leia buns?!), but every once in a while I feel like a I need a day free from all of the jokes, jesting, ridicules, wisecracks and quips . In response to a request I made on our guild forums, our GM was wonderful enough to declare today “Official Don’t Make Fun of Gnomes Day!”

The rules are simple:
All forms of measurement are forbidden. No measuring tapes may be seen during the day.

So there will be much:

-Gnome hugging
-Gnome cuddling
-Gnome being treated with respect

There will be no:

-Gnome jokes
-Gnome punting
-Gnome punching
-Gnome ridicule
-Gnome teasing
-And specifically no mention on height

Of course most people will still probably ignore “the rules” and get in a joke or two, but the whole concept got me thinking about why people like to make fun of gnomes so much. *sigh* With this in mind, I’m dedicating my next post or two to gnomes and gnomish culture…a way to enlighten the masses, if you will, about how wonderful gnomes are (and why I think they are the best race in all of Azeroth).

Here is the last part of my take on the engineering changes for 3.2:

Reduced the materials needed to create all engineering Dragonlings, and reduced their cooldowns, although they still cannot be used in Arenas.
I haven’t used dragnonlings in a long time. Not since I was soloing and I pulled it out in a fight I was having trouble with and it proceeded to not only help me kill the mob I was fighting, but also to then go and aggro every other mob in the area which resulted in my needing to release at the nearest graveyard.

Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.
This is cool! Not sure what the cooldown has been reduced to, but it has to be better than the current 8 hour cooldown. I like this because I am the type to horde everything for vendoring/AH if possible. Now that I’m going for the Loremaster achievement, I’m collecting tons of stuff to sell. I use a scrapbot if my bag are overflowing with gray items, but if I have lots of stuff that will sell well on the AH and I’m too lazy to run back to town, I just whip this out and send to my bank alt. The mailbox is most handy, however, when you are soloing low level dungeons for achievements/quests since you end up with lots of cloth and such that sell at decent rates on the AH.

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 don’t use the Spynocular Belt attachment, mostly because you can’t use engineering tinkers with other enchants…but doh!…apparently you can have this AND an eternal belt buckle at the same time. Not that I really need this on my belt, but hey, its a SPYnocular belt attachment…as is SPY!!! That’s super cool…I’m tinkering with my belt tonight. I know it will be a Frag Belt in 3.2, but I want to be a spy kicking and screaming into 3.2. After then, I’ll just blow you up.

UPDATE: Frag Belt: The cooldown is now 6 minutes, down from 10 minutes.

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.
Probably the bestest reason to be an engineer in 3.2….an AH in Dalaran! (And yes, I know bestest isn’t really a word, but it really conveys the message I’m putting out there.) Now I don’t have to take a portal all the way back to Ironforge, hop on my mount, ride all the way to the AH, purchase my consumables/gems/enchants/etc/, go to the mailbox and then hearth back when I’m done. Woot!! Score another one for lazy engineers.

Transporter devices are no longer classified as trinkets and can be used directly from your inventory.
This is simply great news. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve teleported to Gadgetzan or Toshley’s Station and then forget to unequip it again. I’ve run dungeons and even one raid with a transporter equipped at least part of the way through. Oops!! So not only do we have changes to benefit the lazy engineer, but the forgetful ones as well. Woot!

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.
I don’t actually use these two items, however, I often make them for guildies. I often have the mats in my bag so I don’t have to go and find an anvil to make them! I’ll just make them where I’m at, pull out my MOLL-E and mail ‘em right away. Woot!! And since it is reduced materials, I can make more!

World Enlarger: Cooldown is now 15 minutes, down from 1 hour.
The World Enlarger was one of the main reasons I went into Gnomish engineering (that and the Gnomish Poultryizer...I mean, that’s just awesome!). Sometimes in Ironforge I’ll pull this out and make the world so huge that I become a super, itty, bitty, little gnome! Now I can have 4 times the fun in an hour. Good times.

Here is part 2 of all the engineering changes for 3.2:

Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications.
This is good news for me! I currently have the Hyperspeed Accelerators on my raiding gloves and use them every chance I get. The 10 seconds of extra haste really does wonders for your dps! I haven’t done the Hand-Mounted Pyro Rockets yet, although I’m thinking that I might try them with my pvp gloves just for fun. As a rogue I would never use the Reticulated Armor Webbing, but I’m sure there are classes out there that will benefit from this change. Of course, once again they haven’t said exactly WHAT the increased benefits are, so I’ll keep hoping for bunnies to rain down upon my foes!

Increased the passive bonuses provided by Springy Arachnoweave, Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts.
I don’t currently use any of these tinkers on my gear, but if the passive bonuses are good enough (or if they have something to do with bunnies), then I’ll try them out. Right now, since they don’t stack and there are much better enchants out there, I would only use these if I either couldn’t find the other enchants on the AH or was just too broke to buy them and had the mats for these.

UPDATE: It looks like the incresed passive bonus is not bunnies, but is now 24 critical strike rating up from the current 16 critical strike rating.

Increased siege damage caused by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge.
Woot! I use Saronite Bombs in both Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients when I don’t have a vehicle with which to destroy the structures. In SotA, I like to stealth up and let a Saraonite Bomb off. It doesn’t do a lot of damage, but it’s something thats not expected. If I don’t get immediately killed, I restealth, wait for the cooldown to wear off, and then I do it again. Fun times! Since I am a Gnomish Engineer (gotta stay true to mah peeps!), I can’t use the Sapper Charge, but more siege damage is always a good thing (as long as the toon using it is on my side of course!).

Mote Extractor now has innate tracking for gas clouds while it is in your inventory. Tracking of gas clouds has been removed from goggles.
Now this is an awesome change! I wore my Weakness Spectralizers for a long time, which also had this function, but they have long since been swapped out by other gear (and come 3.2 they WON’T have this function). Since you already need the Mote Extractor in your bags in order to be able to extract anything from the clouds, this means you need to carry around 1 less piece of gear if you want to farm gas clouds. Woot!

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 an 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.
Woot! This is AWESOME! Granted he is similar to a scrapbot in function, but it’s just a really cool item. Who knows…maybe he’ll sell attack bunnies to rain down upon your enemies! *evil laugh* Besides, who wouldn’t want their own gentleman robot butler as the ultimate status symbol? Its kinda like buying the $500 pair of sunglasses when you can buy one with the same function for $20. You do it because you can.

UPDATE: Apparently I forgot to take note of the part that if you are a master engineer, you can also access your bank from this guy. Awesome if I run out of consumables during a raid or if I try to pvp but left my outfit in the bank.

Nitro Boosts: Now have a 5-second duration.
As mentioned above, I don’t currently have Nitro Boosts on my boots, but I might try them on my pvp gear. When sprint is on cooldown, this might be a good thing to have…especially since the 2-second duration is now going to 5-seconds. Of course with a 3 minute cooldown, I wouldn’t get to use them very often.

Potion Injectors now increase the amount gained by 25% when used by engineers. Quantity produced by recipes for Runic Healing and Mana Injectors has been increased.
This is a great change for everyone! I use these when questing, raiding and in bg’s…and having more health is awesome! How many times have you been fighting Heigan and 25% more health would have kept you alive until a healer could get to you? Well, its happened to me more times than I’d care to mention, so I just won’t mention it. Shhh!

Stay tuned for Part 3!