Making Gold with Engineering in Patch 5.2 by Marcus Ty

The Engineering profession is often seen as a poor means to make gold in World of Warcraft and many players tend to avoid it  in favor of professions such as Inscription or Jewelcrafting. But on the right server and with a little local knowledge of the market, Engineering can be a great addition to a gold makers armory of professions.

Reduced Competition

If you look on sites like www.wowuction.com you can get a breakdown of the professions on your server. On my server, everyone seems to want to be a Scribe and a Jewelcrafter. I can understand this as many players see this as the route to riches. However, the competition can be fierce and many players end up spending most of their time undercutting and canceling auctions, resulting in a few gold profit. But there are fewer Engineers on my server and that’s a great advantage because competition is reduced and I can dominate the market - or at least own more of it for a greater profit.

What to Craft in Patch 5.2

I’ve always loved the Engineering profession in World of warcraft. It’s the Tinker in me and the fact that you can craft exploding sheep. I love the smell of Seaforium in the morning! But there are many other cool gadgets to craft. A number of Engineering items that can make you a tidy profit happen to be super alt friendly and can help you boost your ilvl to get into heroics.

Gears of Warcraft

One such group of items that took many a gold maker by surprise was the introduction of Tinker’s Gears. These are a socket enhancement to crafted Engineering gear and trinkets that have proved to be a huge seller on many servers. They come in several flavors:

Flashing Tinker’s Gear    +600 Parry
Fractured Tinker’s Gear  +600 Mastery
Precise Tinker’s Gear     +600 Expertise
Quick Tinker’s Gear        +600 Haste
Rigid Tinker’s Gear         +600 Hit
Smooth Tinker’s Gear     +600 Critical Strike
Sparkling Tinker’s Gear   +600 Spirit
Subtle Tinker’s Gear       +600 Dodge

By looking on www.wowuction.com you can see what’s in demand. Not surprisingly the biggest sellers on my server are Smooth, Quick, Rigid, Fractured and Precise. Engineer’s can craft them using just two Ghost Iron Bars. On my server they sell on average for 75g. Now that’s a great profit!

Recent Sales from Farli's realm

Ghost Iron Dragonling

The reason that Tinker’s Gear are so popular is the introduction in patch 5.2 of the Engineer crafted Ghost Iron Dragonling. This trinket accepts three Tinker’s Gears in any combination. This is a non-Engineering specific trinket that any player can use, greatly increasing it’s demand across the various realms. On my server the Ghost Iron Dragonling is selling for around 250-300g. I normally craft 4-5 of these trinkets a week and list the most popular Tinker’s Gears at the same time, greatly adding to my weekly profit.

Summary

Engineering can be used effectively to make gold if players learn what’s in demand on their server. Sites like wowuction.com and the Undermine Journal can help make sense of  the market for any given profession. The introduction of the Ghost Iron Dragonlin and Tinker’s Gears in patch 5.2 is an example of the types of gear that Engineers can craft for a great profit. The lack of players with the Engineering profession greatly reduces competition on many servers.

Author Bio

Marcus Ty is a level 90 Alliance Mage of Stormwind and has written extensively on the art and craft of making World of Warcraft Gold. His tips and strategies are chronicled on his Blog  and the Journal of Marcus Ty Podcast