F2P Engineering Guide

Gobolord

Gobolord

Veteran
Intro:
Ahoy, once again I have just finished my foray into engineering as a F2P, and I wish to present what I learned. First and foremost, I want to say that Cataclysm engineering is not nearly as hard as a few posts have made it out to be, provided you are adequately prepared. That being said, existing in level thirty zones is much easier if you are geared so I would recommend doing engineering last; after your gear is enchanted and gemmed.

Before that though, we should talk about why we’re interested in engineering. I’d say the biggest draw to engineering is Ghost Iron Dragonling, but there is also the Pandaria goggles, as well as goblin glider and belt tinkers.

Most of these items are crafted with Pandaria engineering but the goggles and the dragonling require Cataclysm engineering for the only cogwheels without a prohibitive item level requirement. They also require a Relic of the Past which can be crafted from most other professions, and you should get them before you start engineering.​


Also, I found Ultimate Gnomish Army knife to be exceptionally helpful, it functions as all profession tools except for philosopher’s stone, and fishing pole; and is still usable if you drop engineering. The recipe is learned from Draenor Engineering scroll available from Draenor engineering trainers or the engineering works in your garrison (Not gnomish gearworks / goblin workshop). Note the crafting option for Gearspring parts necessary to craft the knife shows four, but will actually craft 8-9 so you can make the knife in one day.​

Useful links:
  • Cataclysm Engineering Leveling Guide
  • Marsh Serpent
  • 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.
    Hyjalroute.png
  • 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.
    Twilandsroute.png
Changelog and notes:
  • I have not provided any shopping lists because all the relevant ones are available in the leveling guides, and doing your mining all at once doesn't make much sense for this.
 
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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.
Hyjalroute.png
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.
Twilandsroute.png

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.​
 
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don’t forget about jeeves! Recipe dropped from a little mechanical birds over by the alliance flight path in borean tundra. Great job on the guide
 
Gobolord said:
Pandaria “Engineering”:

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 Trillium Ore and White Trillium Ore can be bought from Krystel(A) / Danky(H) with Spirit of Harmony.
Click to expand...


Very useful topic thanks!
I wanted to mention that Spirit of Harmony are also easy to farm if we do Tilers farm.
We can get around one and a half Spirit of Harmony a day that way with just 2-3 min of effort each day.

It does take a while until that part, however, as the seeds need reputation and we need all plots to get maximum income from it, but it is very good source of it and there is much it can be spend on in pandaria proffesions and stuff.
 
Excelent guide. Just a question, a lvl 20 can use Cataclysm Cogwheels on Pandaria Ghost Iron Gragonling trinket?
 
Cleatuss said:
i get it. i have three accounts. you never turn your ftp back on though? thats hard core. I play my ftp get gear and after 3-5 months resub, get chants, gems or what ever i want then go back to ftp.
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yeah we're talking pure f2p, never subbed on it before.
i resub my vets on the regular, without actually ever BGing on them while they're unsubbed... :oops:
 
For the toughened flesh farming, there îs an alternative way to get it, just buy Crate of Tasty Meat from the same vendor you buy the Lavascale Fillet recipe, it has a 16% chance to contain that item. But regardless, amazing guide and congrats!
 
Guys, I have a big problem. I got 8 hours left on my account. I have level'd Pandaria Engineering till 75. Got the recipes but when I crafted for example the [Ghost Iron Dragonling] it appeared level 33 and I can't wear it. It is showing the same on my googles when i preview them in my Engineering.
Some tips?

_Thanks
 
Do you have a tailor/LW/BS? You need one of those to make a relic of the past 1, although those are super easy to make. (Like level 1 in any relevant profession, plus some really basic mats and a ~10 gold vendor item.)

You need an optional reagent (look at the crafting screen) in order to downgrade most expansion items to be usable at your level. Slot in the relic of the past, you should be good to go.
 
healticket said:
Guys, I have a big problem. I got 8 hours left on my account. I have level'd Pandaria Engineering till 75. Got the recipes but when I crafted for example the [Ghost Iron Dragonling] it appeared level 33 and I can't wear it. It is showing the same on my googles when i preview them in my Engineering.
Some tips?

_Thanks
Click to expand...
use the relic to tune it down to level 14
 
PleumAngel said:
So are MoP googles more superior than Cata googles??
Click to expand...
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.
 
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