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WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide

Author: WoWAnalytica
Posted: 15/07/2021
Leveling
Burning Crusade Classic

WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide

Welcome! Sit back and relax, as we embark on the journey with one of arguably funniest professions in World of Warcraft. In this WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide, which is another one of our guides in this series concerning The Burning Crusade stage of Classic. Here, we are going to give a short overview of what Engineering is like in TBC, the changes that came as well as some of the interesting additions to the profession, and lastly, we are going to walk you through the process of leveling-up Engineering in Outland.

However, before we get started, a brief reminder of what Engineering is really about. This profession is mainly concerned with making googles, trinkets, guns, scopes, and all sorts of explosives. As well as some other interesting useful items, some of which may or may not have a tendency to explode in your face, so caution is advised.

Hence, this profession is not really geared towards anyone in particular, with the sole exception being Hunters, for whom the ability to make guns may be useful, especially if you consider leveling. However, players who are more into PvP content rather than PvE, will surely appreciate many of the devices and googles who are sometimes considered overpowered, due to their substantial effects, even if those are considered too short-term for PvE.

Creating all of those unique contraptions requires mostly metals and other items obtained from mining. Hence it is often paired with mining, thus making the player who choses this set of professions, more or less self-sufficient when it comes to acquiring materials. However, you might also choose to buy the reagents from the Auction House, or you may decide to use an alt for gathering resources in order to pick another crafting profession. The choice is yours and there is no better or worse way to play the game, so choose one that you are going to enjoy the most.

Other than that, similar to most professions there are no better or worse races to become Engineers, although Gnomes do get a racial ability that gives them a nice little extra skill with Engineering, however, that is not a basis of long-term consideration, since the effects of this bonus diminish after minutes.

As for the process itself, as some of you might already know, Engineering as a profession requires quite a few tools of trade. In order to craft any items, you are going to need one of the following, or a combination of them:

Moreover, do note that in TBC, at the time of this WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide, there is still no way of handily substituting any of the above-mentioned tools, so as an Engineer you are going to need to carry all of them on you for the majority of the time.

Another thing you also should be aware of is that Engineering, similarly to many other professions has specializations that you can choose depending on your playstyle. In this case it is a choice between Gnomish and Goblin engineering, the first one being more focused on fun devices, while the latter is more focused on explosives. Although, the only difference between the two is in the recipes available to them. Some of the key items are:

Gnomish Engineering:

Goblin Engineering:

In order to choose a specialization, you need to do things a bit differently than you did them in Classic, since you no longer have to go to the NPC’s who are your normal trainers. As of the new stage you now ought to go to one of the following quest-givers:

  • Lilliam Sprakspindle, who can be found in Stormwind, in the Dwarven District.
  • Springsindle Fizzlegear, who is in Tinkertown in Ironforge.
  • Graham Von Talen, who is located in Undercity, in Rogues’ Quarter
  • Tinkerwiz, who can be found in Ratchet.

Those NPC’s can give you one of the two quests: Goblin Engineering or Gnome Engineering, which then leads you on a short quest-chain that mainly involves visiting NPC and crafting stuff, you get your new specialization of choice.

Moving on to the interesting changes and additions there are some that many have waited for. From prestige to gold-making and overpowered pieces of gear – Engineering has it all.

One of the big additions is certainly the ability to craft a mount, even two of them. Which makes Engineering a unique profession and sets it apart from others. Those are the Flying Machine and the Turbo-Charged Flying Machine. The schematics necessary to make those are also quite easy to acquire, unlike the materials, since you only need to visit one of the following trainers in Shadowmoon Valley, both of which can teach players the necessary recipes:

  • Niobe Whizzlespark, who is an Alliance Trainer in the Wildhammer Stronghold
  • Jonathan Garrett, who is a Horde Trainer in the Shadowmoon Village

Do not forget that in order to learn those recipes you need to be at 350 and 375 skill-level respectively.

A second biggest reason to pick engineering in The Burning Crusade is the Zapthrottle Mote Extractor. This absolutely unique item, that can only be made and used by Engineers allows the players to extract Primals from gas clouds that can be found around Outland.

This is an absolute gold-mine for Engineers, since all of the professions in TBC use Primals, and a lot of them on top of that. Hence, the ability to harvest them in bulk is absolutely imperative in this stage of the game.

To get the Zapthrottle Mote Extractor one needs to be level 60 and have over 305 Engineering. At which point they will be eligible for a quest in Zangarmarsh called, The Zapthrottle Mote Extractor!

Moreover, it is recommended that you also craft some Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles. These allow you to see the clouds and also shows them on the minimap. Although, for the most part those can be seen even without those goggles, they make it easier and in one area in particular – Netherstorm, where noticing them with a naked eye is impossible.

On one more important note, each area offers unique clouds that give specific motes, these are:

WoW TBC Classic Engineering leveling guide

In this leveling section of our WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide, we have focused on what we think is most important to you when leveling your new profession and that is – efficiency and economy, since we imagine you want to do things quickly and cheaply. That will stay true regardless of whether you choose to harvest the necessary materials yourself or you would rather get them from the Auction House, the path we show you should be optimal.

It is important to note that, as you may see, when you open the Engineering window, the recipes are going to be shown in different colors – orange, yellow, green, and gray. These indicate how likely you are to get a skill-up upon completing the recipe – from the first one which guarantees an increase in skill points, to the last one which means that you are not gaining any experience from crafting this recipe.

Generally, it is optimal to craft only orange recipes all the time. However, that is not possible, or even more so, not feasible or profitable. Hence, the numbers and amounts you see in this guide are not going to always be precise and you may need to get a few more reagents depending on how lucky you get.

Moving on to the leveling part of this WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide, where we are going to take you step by step through the optimal path from 300 to 375 skill-level. The leveling itself is not particularly hard, however, you will need to obtain certain recipes in order to make an easy work of this process.

First of all, you want to make some Handful of Fel Iron Bolts, which you might want to actually do until they go gray at 310, since these are going to be necessary later, although crafting this recipe to 305 will be enough. Each one requires:

Afterwards, to get to the level of 320, you are going to make either Elemental Blasting Powder or Fel Iron Casing, or a combination of the two, since they are both cheap to manufacture. Do not be concerned by the fact that you are taking this recipe to gray again since as you go further, you are going to need both of those materials. Each of those recipes requires the following:

Elemental Blasting Powder

Fel Iron Casing

Having completed the last step, for the next 5 points you want to make some Fel Iron Shells or some Fel Iron Bomb, whichever you prefer, although reportedly, Fel Iron Bomb make for a faster leveling. These require:

Fel Iron Shells

Fel Iron Bomb:

After completing this step, you can also go on and learn your specialization, be it Goblin or Gnomish Engineering and its first specialty recipes if you want, since those won’t be necessary for the entirety of this WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide.

Having finished this step, you are going to now manufacture some Adamantite Frame, take those to gray as well, that is to level 335. These are going to be necessary for a lot of recipes so you can make that many of them. Each requires:

Afterwards, you are going to have to purchase your first recipe for the White Smoke Flare, since this is very cheap to make, you will also want to take it to gray at level 355. Each of those requires:

The recipe can be purchased from either Feera in Exodar if you are with the Alliance, from Captured Gnome in Zangarmarsh if you are siding with the Horde, or you can just get it from Wind Trader Lathrai in Shattrath City, who is a neutral vendor.

Now, you can prepare for the last part ahead of time, while also getting some extra points. You want to make 5 Khorium Power Core. Do not worry about getting exactly 5 points, although you might, it’s just a good moment to make what you will need later. Each of those requires:

Next, you should get another recipe – Adamantite Rifle, this one, while seemingly expensive, uses the items you crafted beforehand, and the only alternative requires huge amounts of Khorium Bar, which is a more precious resource, as such you want to make those until you get to level 370. However, if you don’t want to follow the next step and farm for the recipe, you can also take this to 375 while it's green and be done with it, but those last 5 points might prove difficult. Each rifle requires:

The recipe can be purchased from either Feera in Exodar if you are with the Alliance, from Yatheon in Silvermoon if you are siding with the Horde, or you can just get it from Viggz Shinesparked in Shattrath City, who is a neutral vendor.

Lastly, for the last 5 points you ought to farm the Schematic: Field Repair Bot 110G, which is a somewhat uncommon drop from Gan’arg Analyzers, who can be found in Blade’s Edge Mountains around the Apexis mountains. Reportedly, this item is quite easy to acquire since it only drops for engineers and is a Bind on Pickup recipe. Moreover, the item is very useful in raids. Making each bot requires:

Assuming you have followed all the above-mentioned steps, you should be now a proud master of Engineer. Congratulations on completing out WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide and have fun with your newly acquired profession.

Engineering Trainer

One of the important things to remember when it comes to professions is that they also have certain ranks, these are: Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, and Artisan, and now the new Outland Engineering rank – Master, which is going to require visiting special trainers to obtain. This will be especially important if you want to follow our WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide since during the leveling of the profession you do need to upgrade these ranks in order to be able to gain more skill as well as learn new recipes.

The new trainers added in the Burning Crusade are:

  • Ockil, who can be found in Exodar, at 54.8, 92.2
  • Danwe, located in Silvermoon City at 76.8, 40.8

Moreover, to learn Master Engineering, between level 300-375, you will need to visit one of those new trainers:

  • Lebowski, in Honor Hold, Hellfire Peninsula, who is the Outland Engineering trainer for the Alliance.
  • K. Lee Smallfry, in Teledor, Zangarmarsh, who is one more Grand Master Engineer in service of the Alliance.
  • Zebig, in Thrallmar, Hellfire Peninsula, who helps the Horde players learn their Engineering skills.
  • Mack Diver, in Zabra’jin, who is one more Grand Master Engineer aligned with the Horde.
  • Xyrol, in Area 52, Netherstorm, who is one more Goblin who works for both, the Alliance and the Horde.

Thank you for taking time and interest in our ultimate guide to WoW TBC Classic Engineering guide and we wish you great adventures and many crafts, Adventurer!

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