F2P Engineering Guide

They have the exact same stats as far as I can tell but the Cata goggles require Chaos Orb, True Gold, and rare gems. At a glance, it doesn't seem like chaos orbs are even possible for f2p, and those other materials are harder than their Pandaria counterparts because all Cata content is level 30. Basically, even with the profession dancing necessary for Pandaria goggles, they are still much easier to get than Cata goggles.

For me it will be worthwhile making a few sets of Cata goggles as I have a stack of Chaos Orbs that I have no use for and sending them round to my Vets while they still have a sub - but pure F2P not practical / possible.
 
Pandaria “Engineering”:

All the goggle recipes require 6 living steel, and all except Reinforced Retinal Armor require a rare gem. As a result, it’s best if you start with herbalism and alchemy. Follow this guide to level alchemy until you can transmute your rare gem, and either Transmute: living steel or Riddle of Steel. Transmute: Trillium Bar is also nice but unnecessary. Note, you will need Golden Lotus to transmute your rare gem, most only need 1, but agi/leather users need 6. You’ll likely have plenty, just don’t use them all leveling.


Once you can do those transmutations, trade herbalism for mining, and level it all the way to 75 for Smelt: Trillium. Make sure to leave 40 ghost iron ore leftover to prospect. Black ore and white ore can be bought from Krystel(A) / Danky(H) with Spirit of Harmony. You can farm motes of harmony here. If you have Transmute: Living steel you will need 75 of each trillium ore to make the 36 trillium bars you’ll need. If you have Riddle of Steel You will need 40 of each ore to make the 18 bars you’ll need.

On the south side of Kun-Lai summit there is a big gate bordering the vale of eternal blossoms. Just a little west of that is a tower with a flight point that will let you onto the great wall. You can jump off the wall and run to the vendors.

Once you have 6 Living steel bars, drop mining for Jewelcrafting and prospect any ore you saved for your gem(s), and transmute them. If you didn’t get the gems you need, drop Jewelcrafting for mining, and go back and forth until you do. Then you can drop Alchemy for Engineering.
Skip to here if you don’t want goggles.

Thankfully, leveling engineering is quite simple and you can just mine ghost iron here and follow this guide. Goblin glider needs level 25, Ghost Iron Dragonling requires level 40 with a Relic of the past, and goggles require lvl 75. Tinker’s Kits are available at every engineering supplies vendor and you can farm Windwool cloth here.

Cataclysm Engineering:

Cataclysm engineering is also pretty straightforward, with the small wrinkle that you have to do all your gathering in level 30 zones. Level 30 mobs are dangerous, but not ridiculously so, and there are a number of steps we’ll take so that they are less troublesome.

To prepare for cata engineering, I highly recommend Precious Bloodthorn Loop and goblin glider, aswell as plenty of food/water (in-game), and potions if you don’t have another way to heal yourself in combat. Also, Lavascale Fillet is used in Goblin Barbecue which will be helpful in leveling engineering, aswell as to purchase mastery cog. You can buy recipe from any cooking supplies vendor or sous chef in a major city with Epicurean’s award from daily cooking quests.

You have to level engineering all the way to 75 in order to buy and socket your cogs, and you can follow this guide. I think it’s best to have mining and engineering at the same time so you can craft an Electrostatic Condenser as soon as possible, and so you don’t mine any more than you have to. With the condenser, you will passively gather Volatile Air and Volatile Fire so you don’t need to farm them separately.

I chose to mine in Mount Hyjal, and The Twilight Highlands, because they are "easy" to get to, and had routes with lots of friendly mobs, helping you to avoid fighting. To get to Hyjal, go to winterspring, and get the flight point in everlook. Then go south, when you get to the canyon with the ice giants, go on the left (east) side and only a little bit of parkour is needed to get into hyjal.

Once you're in, be very careful until you get a flight point, because if you die, you are sent to Ashenvale, and have to take rez sickness. The flight back to everlook plus the walk to the canyon takes about 10 minutes, so you never have downtime, but it's still annoying. Don't bother trying for the flight point in the south east of Hyjal, its not there due to quest phasing.

The first flight point available to you is at the Sanctuary of Malorne, and the run there is pretty un-eventful, except for the earth elementals east of it. These elementals are very fast, and almost always un-mount you. I recommend just killing them one at a time to make your way through.

Getting to the Grove of Aessina is straightforward, and the final flight point is at Nordrassil. Between them is a narrow mountain pass that's constantly filled with ogres. You should be able to just kill a couple and take your place in line as they walk up. Again just kill what you need to kill and you should make steady progress. Once you make it to the Circle of Cinders, you're basically home free. From here there are lots of friendly mobs that will tank for you, and this is where I mined obsidium.

The blue route is best, but if ore isn't respawning fast enough take flight paths to follow the green one. The red dot is a cave that very often has 2 nodes in it.
View attachment 18041
The purple route goes behind an ettin/ogre town, and requires some parkour, but I think it's worth it. The red dot is a large cave with quite a few node spawns but inconsistant yield.
View attachment 18040

Mine any pyrite you see for extra chances at volatile fire. Once you hit level 55, I recommend leveling by crafting Goblin Barbecue because it only requires two elementium bars, toughened flesh can be gathered pretty easily from Marsh snakes in Uldum, and Lavascale Catfish can be fished anywhere in Uldum. They turn green at 60, but it may still be worth it if you didn’t get much volatile fire.

Finally, by this point you should have lvl 75 engineering and its time to buy your cogs from Sovik(H) / Billibub Cogspinner(A). All of them only require items that you have likely crafted on your way up, with the exception of Sparkling Cogwheel, which requires Authentic Jr. Engineer goggles. To acquire these, gather 76 Obsidium ore, and smelt 8 bars. Then drop mining for Jewelcrafting, and prospect the remaining ore for 2 Hessonite. If you didn’t get enough, just go back to mining and repeat. Then switch Jewelcrafting for skinning, and skin any beast in a cata zone for Savage Leather.​


Northrend Engineering:

To finish up, Frag belt is pretty popular, and is available with level 5 Wrath engineering. Mine 40 cobalt ore (I like Zul’Drak) and craft anything x4. The recipe is available from the trainer.​
So, on this toon, Feral Druid, I got the Obsidium Ore from Vashjir, swam from off the coast of Dun Moroh via Wetlands flight path.
It got to Sandy Beach just before dying to fatigue. Swam around the entire area. Best place to farm the ore for me was the Abyssal Reef/Shelf. Dead area, no enemies, red npc's, etc. just swim the area in a circle, had to do this 3 times in all I think.
The Elementium from Uldum area was easier, you can run along the mountainsides and ridges, stealth out, shadowmeld, fight when you must, and continue. Regrowth heal was a lifesaver.

Now, got a bunch of Elementium on my Warr, but haven't found a way to get to an Obsidium ore area. Died 3 times trying on my Darkwater Skate from the Darkmoon fare fishing vendor.
Haven't been able to procure the DMCannon to launch, glide, then use the mount. That might could work.

Next, and currently. On my 20 ftp rogue. Had a mission to get something for one of my class hall mission guys Marin Noggenfogger. Have to go to the Gallywix Pleasureland Casino or whatever it's called in Ashara in Kalimdor. Killed a horde Goblin NPC, and got a rocket somehow to ride up to the area that is elevated up in the air. Rode it super high by edge with Hyjal, and then jumped off and glided into Mt. Hyjal. Snuck to Malorne and Assesina flight pts. Later died 4 times trying but got to Nordrassil FP. In an hour, only found 3 or 4 nodes of Obsidium. Will try again using your route(s). However, I made some swim potion and water breathing potions before dumping Alchemy just in case, might try Vash'jir instead/as well. Surviving any more than 1 Red NPC encounter is hard, especially if the Dragonling, (without cogs atm) doesn't pop. The self heals on Warr/Druid would be easier. May take all weekend. You can make Nordrassil your hearthstone home as well, so just hearth back if you die.
 
Pandaria “Engineering”:

All the goggle recipes require 6 living steel, and all except Reinforced Retinal Armor require a rare gem. As a result, it’s best if you start with herbalism and alchemy. Follow this guide to level alchemy until you can transmute your rare gem, and either Transmute: living steel or Riddle of Steel. Transmute: Trillium Bar is also nice but unnecessary. Note, you will need Golden Lotus to transmute your rare gem, most only need 1, but agi/leather users need 6. You’ll likely have plenty, just don’t use them all leveling.


Once you can do those transmutations, trade herbalism for mining, and level it all the way to 75 for Smelt: Trillium. Make sure to leave 40 ghost iron ore leftover to prospect. Black ore and white ore can be bought from Krystel(A) / Danky(H) with Spirit of Harmony. You can farm motes of harmony here. If you have Transmute: Living steel you will need 75 of each trillium ore to make the 36 trillium bars you’ll need. If you have Riddle of Steel You will need 40 of each ore to make the 18 bars you’ll need.

On the south side of Kun-Lai summit there is a big gate bordering the vale of eternal blossoms. Just a little west of that is a tower with a flight point that will let you onto the great wall. You can jump off the wall and run to the vendors.

Once you have 6 Living steel bars, drop mining for Jewelcrafting and prospect any ore you saved for your gem(s), and transmute them. If you didn’t get the gems you need, drop Jewelcrafting for mining, and go back and forth until you do. Then you can drop Alchemy for Engineering.
Skip to here if you don’t want goggles.

Thankfully, leveling engineering is quite simple and you can just mine ghost iron here and follow this guide. Goblin glider needs level 25, Ghost Iron Dragonling requires level 40 with a Relic of the past, and goggles require lvl 75. Tinker’s Kits are available at every engineering supplies vendor and you can farm Windwool cloth here.

Cataclysm Engineering:

Cataclysm engineering is also pretty straightforward, with the small wrinkle that you have to do all your gathering in level 30 zones. Level 30 mobs are dangerous, but not ridiculously so, and there are a number of steps we’ll take so that they are less troublesome.

To prepare for cata engineering, I highly recommend Precious Bloodthorn Loop and goblin glider, aswell as plenty of food/water (in-game), and potions if you don’t have another way to heal yourself in combat. Also, Lavascale Fillet is used in Goblin Barbecue which will be helpful in leveling engineering, aswell as to purchase mastery cog. You can buy recipe from any cooking supplies vendor or sous chef in a major city with Epicurean’s award from daily cooking quests.

You have to level engineering all the way to 75 in order to buy and socket your cogs, and you can follow this guide. I think it’s best to have mining and engineering at the same time so you can craft an Electrostatic Condenser as soon as possible, and so you don’t mine any more than you have to. With the condenser, you will passively gather Volatile Air and Volatile Fire so you don’t need to farm them separately.

I chose to mine in Mount Hyjal, and The Twilight Highlands, because they are "easy" to get to, and had routes with lots of friendly mobs, helping you to avoid fighting. To get to Hyjal, go to winterspring, and get the flight point in everlook. Then go south, when you get to the canyon with the ice giants, go on the left (east) side and only a little bit of parkour is needed to get into hyjal.

Once you're in, be very careful until you get a flight point, because if you die, you are sent to Ashenvale, and have to take rez sickness. The flight back to everlook plus the walk to the canyon takes about 10 minutes, so you never have downtime, but it's still annoying. Don't bother trying for the flight point in the south east of Hyjal, its not there due to quest phasing.

The first flight point available to you is at the Sanctuary of Malorne, and the run there is pretty un-eventful, except for the earth elementals east of it. These elementals are very fast, and almost always un-mount you. I recommend just killing them one at a time to make your way through.

Getting to the Grove of Aessina is straightforward, and the final flight point is at Nordrassil. Between them is a narrow mountain pass that's constantly filled with ogres. You should be able to just kill a couple and take your place in line as they walk up. Again just kill what you need to kill and you should make steady progress. Once you make it to the Circle of Cinders, you're basically home free. From here there are lots of friendly mobs that will tank for you, and this is where I mined obsidium.

The blue route is best, but if ore isn't respawning fast enough take flight paths to follow the green one. The red dot is a cave that very often has 2 nodes in it.
View attachment 18041
The purple route goes behind an ettin/ogre town, and requires some parkour, but I think it's worth it. The red dot is a large cave with quite a few node spawns but inconsistant yield.
View attachment 18040

Mine any pyrite you see for extra chances at volatile fire. Once you hit level 55, I recommend leveling by crafting Goblin Barbecue because it only requires two elementium bars, toughened flesh can be gathered pretty easily from Marsh snakes in Uldum, and Lavascale Catfish can be fished anywhere in Uldum. They turn green at 60, but it may still be worth it if you didn’t get much volatile fire.

Finally, by this point you should have lvl 75 engineering and its time to buy your cogs from Sovik(H) / Billibub Cogspinner(A). All of them only require items that you have likely crafted on your way up, with the exception of Sparkling Cogwheel, which requires Authentic Jr. Engineer goggles. To acquire these, gather 76 Obsidium ore, and smelt 8 bars. Then drop mining for Jewelcrafting, and prospect the remaining ore for 2 Hessonite. If you didn’t get enough, just go back to mining and repeat. Then switch Jewelcrafting for skinning, and skin any beast in a cata zone for Savage Leather.​


Northrend Engineering:

To finish up, Frag belt is pretty popular, and is available with level 5 Wrath engineering. Mine 40 cobalt ore (I like Zul’Drak) and craft anything x4. The recipe is available from the trainer.​

I would also add, that you can get to Vash'jir and mine the Obsidium ore for Cata Eng.
Got there on a Druid via travel form, and a Warrior later with Angler's Fishing Raft.
Best area with no adds is the Abandoned Reef, all the way Southwest on map.
No adds, just swim around and mine.
Do Herb/Alch 1st for some swim potions if you can't water breathe. Or, if you can use a 2 hander with Agi, get the Hydrocane from the Gnomeragon 1st boss.
They (the water breathing potions) last only half as long as they say though, so I hour is 1/2 hour, 2 hour ones are good for 1 hour.
I did the Hyjal on a rogue, got their by class hall quest for Marin Noggenfogger that sends you to the Floating Gallywix Pleasure Casino in Ashara. Got a loaner rocket from NPC's to fly up to the Casino. Kept flying up high over the edge of Hyjal, then jumped off rocket and glided into Mt. Hyjal. Died 4 times, but found flight paths, and finally Nordrassil. Druids can also get to Hyjal from the Dreamwalk area, though I chose to swim to Vash'jir from off the Dun Morogh coast via Wetlands.
 
My big problem is that any time I die in Hyjal, my ghost pops up somewhere in Ashenvale. The extra jog on top of the fact that trying to get back in as a ghost is tricky gives me extra reason to dislike it as a farming spot. Vashj'ir with water walking or just running around the tops of the mountains around Uldum are appreciably less hassle.

Incidentally, for anyone on a fresh account who doesn't have the raft, water walking potions are fairly common drop from daily fishing bags. You should still be doing your dailies for the raft because it's amazing utility, but even a 160% mount with a water walking potion can get you out to Vashj'ir if you head out from the right place.
 
Hyjal is really not the best place for farming. As a heal pala I was able to easily get all flight points, but mining is hard because of the agri range.
I agree with Uldum. Quite easy If you just run on top of the mountains. Didn't try Vash'jir yet.
 
Is it possible to swim from the dunmorough side to vashjir on a paladin? Or is a water turtle mount needed?
 
Is it possible to swim from the dunmorough side to vashjir on a paladin? Or is a water turtle mount needed?
Incidentally, for anyone on a fresh account who doesn't have the raft, water walking potions are fairly common drop from daily fishing bags.
Not sure if you can just cross it without glider jump, but 20s right now have even greater mount movespeed, so it shouldnt be a problem, 1-2 tries wiil do.
 
Not sure if you can just cross it without glider jump, but 20s right now have even greater mount movespeed, so it shouldnt be a problem, 1-2 tries wiil do.

I was able to run across with a water strider mount back in BFA. That's how I know that even the most basic land mount plus water walking can get you across, even if you haven't had the chance to get the cannon or raft or any of the other more involved nice things.
 
ok i just tried it out, you CAN just use a water mount (i used darkmoon skater) from the water on Dun Morough side (when you go from the wetlands coast to the water on the other side of the Dun morough mountains, which is closest to Vashjir) and ride it into vashjir without losing too much HP.
 
Regarding the engineer dragon trinket:
I crafted the dragon trinket on my main, and gotta send it to my vet.. Do I need to skill engineer to cataclysm 75, and put the cogweels on it before sending, or should I send both trinket and cogweels to the vet char and slot them there?
 
Regarding the engineer dragon trinket:
I crafted the dragon trinket on my main, and gotta send it to my vet.. Do I need to skill engineer to cataclysm 75, and put the cogweels on it before sending, or should I send both trinket and cogweels to the vet char and slot them there?

Cata engineering 75 is required to socket the cogwheels. If the vet char has this skill lvl, then you can socket it with him, if not, with another char that has 75 and send it to the vet. It is still BOE after socketing.
 
Shaman can get get all Cataclysm ores (be sure to have taken Cataclysm Mining before) down in Deepholm during their Legion Doomhammer artifact quest line. Just need to not turn in the final quest while you have access to the Air Elemental flying mount. The only problem is if no other miners is mining nodes spawns, you can get locked out of mining if the nodes phase into becoming Rich Obsidian Nodes as that requires Level 30 to mine. Obsidian, Elementium, and Rich Elementium spawns require a several rounds of flying as its based on the spawn and one can gather while on the Air Elemental. Also as there is a forge inside Temple of Earth, one can level mining faster.

I did take Engineering with the mining, due to access to Electrostatic Condenser while gathering Cataclysm ores can help gather Volatile Air, which may handicap my professional progress later because I will not want to drop engineering as well as made the engineering version of the Ultimate Gnomish Army knife, it seems to be working out so far. So having the Legion Hearthstone and the Hearthstone helps to get training in Cataclysm Engineering and Mining then returning to Deepholm to gather more with the Air Elemental.

One thing is the end game with F2P Engineering is to have access to the various trinkets, googles and placement of cogwheels but I find having access to for example Outland Engineering while on the gathering Outlands ores for Jewelcrafting is access to the Zapthrottle Mote Extractor which requires Vanilla Engineering and Vanilla Alchemy to make the Delicate Arcanite Converter. Gathering motes of the various elements to make Primals can help level Outland Alchemy (plus it works in Northend too).

Also those with the S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera can not take the selfie for Deathwing's Fall while on the Doomhammer quest chain, but what I did was to make Temple of Earth my inn for after gathering as much as the Cataclysm ores as possible and I was able to death run to the Deathwing's Fall to take the selfie for Field Photographer after completing the Doomhammer quest chian.

Side note - Field Photographer is almost doable on a Twink except for the 'The Frozen Throne' selfie, Blizzard still ties it to the actual raid instance so the Death Knight twink on Frost artifact quest chain can not get selfie credit while at the Frozen Throne/Lich King at the end. But it appears that the selfies for the achievement are account wide.
 
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Finally ready to tackle engineering and have a question about https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126392/goblin-glider. Once I level Pandaria Engineering to level 25 and attach the glider to a cloak, do I need to keep Pandaria Engineering profession forever or can I unlearn it as long as I have Ultimate Gnomish Army Knife in the inventory?
I think it works with panda engi 1, so you can drop engi if you need something else but you have to pick up engi again if you want to use it.
 

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