I plan on playing a Protection Warrior Orc with engineering/mining. It’s going to be my first time as an engineer. I remember many of the items engineers had access to- especially the bombs. But I am wondering, around which levels are there the most notable power spikes? Keep in mind there won’t be a lot of cheap mats in the AH after launch so my engi probably won’t be maxed the entire time I level (if I remember correctly you couldn’t become an artisan level in your profession until after level 40. If anyone with experience can let me in on some engi secrets, I’d love to hear them. Also, if anyone could advise me on which tree Goblin/Gnomish Engineering I should choose when the time comes? That’d be great! Thanks!
If you’re thinking in terms of “especially the bombs,” you’ll want goblin engineering.
goblin engineering is essentially a crafting profession; you want the superior gnomish engineering and a friend that crafts the big one for you
as for power spikes, expect them when you get overpower, when you get cleave, and when you get shield slam and plate armor and whenever you upgrade your weapon… and if you level with a 2h, then also expect a power spike when you get slam
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I recommend going Gnomish is it gives you quite a few options for pvp and some PvE stuff. The main thing is that most of gnomish are soulbound on pickup where goblin typically mostly isn’t so I recommend gnomish more. As for warrior powerspikes not to sure never done a vanilla war. One good thing about gnomish is well is the death ray that thing can crit for 4 k on a player while damaging you for like 500. Death ray was a bop gnomish trinket that while charged up did damage to you then massive damage to players sometimes you took more damage and sometimes you did like 4k at level 40.
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Oh the deathray is only gnomish?! This is the kind of thing I needed to know. Thank you! I was asking for engineering powerspikes though- not warrior ones. About what level do you think it’s possible to get the death ray?
There was a nice guide I watched on this the other day. This should give you the information you need:
Keep in mind not all the recipes which require a certain specialization require you to keep that specialization. Some things you can make and then re-specialize and still be able to use.
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Think you have to be about level 40 when you choose gnomish or engi. Goblin is all about explosives they also have a rocket helm which is charge that stuns for longer but also stuns you so as a war probs don’t want that (isin’t bop anyway) Theres also stuff like the shrink ray which is just like a death sentence for pure melee and the net o matic which can be real fun on runners. You also have the mc helm which isn’t bop. All of engi besides ez throw dynamite requires engi skill which is a bit unfortunate for some people but oh well not the best prof to level with though can chew through your gold espec when it will be harder getting mine veins at the start.
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As a blacksmith turned gnomish engineer paladin in classic and tbc I’d have to say that your best bet is to level as fury (you can tank leveling in any spec) and level skinning/mining and when you hit 60 and get your epic mount and respec to protection, drop skinning for engineering.
Engineering is very expensive, leveling a warrior is pretty expensive, and getting your mount at 40 and 60 is very expensive.
So forget trying to level up engineering with leveling. I got away with it because as a paladin, I didn’t really have to spend very much for my mounts and substituted my gear with bg rep stuff.
Made the mistake with my rogue where I got engi and mine. Shoulda got mine and skinning. Needed to borrow 70 gold for level 40 mout and sometimes lazyness would kick in and I would just buy some mine materiels some reason. At 58 I barley have 200 gold. Rogue generally cost a lot to level with vanish powder, poison supplies BLIND POWDER (that costs so much early on).
you will see a power spike almost every time you upgrade your weapon.
most notably when you get to the level of the whirlwind axe quest youll want to do it as soon as possible. at the level you get it it will last you into the 50s. i think you get it at i want to say 35 but my memory is foggy.
also when you get key skills like overpower whirlwind and beserker stance. also when you get skills from talents at 40. not sure what level you get them but ya.
i would suggest leveling as fury till 40 and then arms.
you dont have to be prot to tank , in fact fury / prot tanks were very very good.
respec when you get to 60 if you find a main tank spot in a raid but remember you can spec fury / prot hybrid with most in fury and still be almost as good if not better.
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A couple I remember per classes I played:
Warlock:
- Your first wand (wands basically do more damage than all your spells for ~30 levels)
-After that, it’s spec specific… but feels really great getting Nightfall, Shadowburn, and Ruin talents while leveling if you are just building up to SM/Ruin raid build instead of going into the demo tree for common leveling talents.
-Beyond those things, the single most notable feeling of power increase came with ToEP and/or ZHC trinkets… which would basically just double your spellpower.
Rogue:
-lvl 10, Dual Wield and ability to learn 1h swords Massive boost for sinister strike spamming
-I forget the level, 15 or 20 I think… but getting Riposte
-Major rotational abilities… Cheapshot, Kidneyshot, Blind, and Vanish… Too lazy to look up the numbers for what level each was, but they’re all like 20-32 or so
-Poisons… If you can do the quest directly at 20, you almost feel as if you’re doubling your damage output.
-Beyond that, Blade Flurry for combat is a big get, and when you finally have points to spare in the assination tree for Relentless strikes + Ruthlessness your rotation smooths out a ton.
-Finally, when you get Trash Blade from Mara, and basically have a weapon that can carry you to 60 in your mid-late 40s.
Shaman:
-This one was less thrilling, but lvl 20 for ghost wolf
-lvl 30 for windfury weapon (even though it’s not as efficient for leveling)
-lvl 40 for when you have the talents to make a potential swap to elemental
Mage (I barely played this one):
-Any main spell upgrade (frostbolt, fireball, etc) early on are massive and you basically swap to that spell regardless of early talent choices.
-lvl 14 or so I believe when you can start trying to AoE grind.
Warrior (played even less than the mage):
-Weapons. Everything is about your weapon(s)
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If you’re planning on going fully prot, the biggest jump you will see is once you get shield slam, it will actually start to feel like an actual class. Before shield slam there is zero reason to go into prot.
You get the Whirlwind Axe quest chain at level 30. But the chain requires you to kill a lot of lvl 38 elementals, and the final mob to kill is a 40 elite, iirc. So most people don’t end up finishing the quest chain until 35-40. With help you can have it done at 30, which is one of the largest power spikes in the game because you’re getting a weapon that compares with weapons 20 levels higher than you.
ya i thought as much. getting a weapon 20 ish levels that you can use before you should have it = yes please.
Whirlwind weapons lose value very quickly the further you level from 30. I’m not convinced that the earliest leveling warriors come Classic will realize that much value from them as the mobs required to farm stomp level 30-35 warriors without significant assistance. That assistance should be available to the successive waves of leveling warriors a few months after launch. Alliance warriors have access to a superior weapon at level 35 as soon as they can clear scarlet monastery, Bonebiter. That axe should last through Uldaman at least.
I guess I just don’t think that the whirlwind chain will be a guaranteed option for the earliest wave of warriors at its available level given its difficulty and lack of benefit for those required to assist the warriors.
K done hijacking this fellow’s engineering thread.
People underestimate how strong Warriors are. At level 30, on Northdale most recently, I kited the fire and water elementals between swings. The only hard part was the sheer volume of players in the zone. We had maybe 10 of each faction farming at once for the charms. Lots of PvP.
Additionally, you can group with other Warriors. Myself, at lvl 30, a 34 Warrior, and another Warrior I think around 35, all helped each other farm all 24 charms each. It took us probably 8 hours due to the PvP. Then we all did Cyclonian together, using health potions. We went to Undercity, got some basic buffs, scrolls, sharpening stones, then went down there. I was the only one who died, because I figured spamming taunt and peeling for the other 2 doing more damage was better than them dying and me missing every attack.
Power spikes:
Smites Hammer / Arced War Axe (SFK) -> Gizmotron Megachopper (Gnomeregan BoE, not worth buying, lvl 24 though) -> Corpsemaker (for 1-5 lvls depending on your adventure with the WW axe; side note, do not take the sword, for the love of God) -> WW axe -> Bonebiter (SM main quest; Horde don’t get this option, so most Horde Warriors will use WW axe through Uldaman) -> Stoneslayer/Rockpounder (Uldaman end boss; both are phenomenal, personal preference is the sword for sword spec MS) -> Gatorbite Axe (Croc in Maraudon; I’ll note that Stoneslayer outperformed it for my Warriors, both factions) -> Twig of the World Tree (BoE, worth the gold, period; 229 top end, rivaling level 60 weapons, Mace skill for Humans, great stats, bonus of skilling maces to 300 in anticipation of Unstoppable Force) -> Bonecrusher / The Nicker / Blackhand Doomsaw / Barbarous Blade -> epics.
Sulthraze the Lasher at lvl 50 is not bad for anyone going 2h Fury either. The proc rate is quite high, and the rage generation is great. You won’t see very large crits with it, but your DPS will go up over some of the mid-40s weapons, again IF you are 2h Fury.
Engineering gets your early helms, of course, but it really starts to shine once you can make Iron Grenades. Those puppies are the best. I believe you can make them at level 35.
Pretty much as soon as you can specialize, which should be about 225 skill/level 40. I remember counter ganking a LOT of rogues on my gnome warlock in Badlands with that bad boy. Deathcoil into Deathray crit for triple their health. No more stupid UD rogues bothering me for a few hours.
Another good one is hiding your helm and just wearing the Gnomish MC helmet to surprise a ganker. Just hope it doesn’t backfire.
Regarding power spikes for Engineering? There really aren’t any, besides maybe the Deathray. There are some early Goblin bombs that pack a punch but are fairly mat expensive so not really worth it, and I guess the (gnomish) Net-O-Matic is pretty solid too; the latter is definitely not a “power spike” at all, but more of a utility. You’re not going to be throwing grenades of any type with enough consistency in dungeons for them to be a DPS increase, at least not unless you’re buying thousands of gold for mats off the AH.