Saturday 25 August 2012

Engineering Pets - Part 1 - Squirrel, Lil Smoky & Pet Bombling

Cute Puppies © wsilver under Creative Commons Use via Flickr
I've been leveling my Engineering Warlock for over a year now but with the release date for Mists of Pandaria, I thought I should promote her from 'stuck in Ironforge banker' to 'let's get this done at last' leveling project. As part of that leveling push, I'm also trying to raise my Engineering skill whilst making some gold too. The Engineering pets are a big part of the gold making arsenal & now that pet battles are on the horizon, I'm sure these pets have a pretty good potential to be more profitable.

But one of the problems that many newbie Engineers face is the sheer variety of bits & bobs required to make almost anything! I know I often go round in circles trying to work out which materials I need for what gadget or gizmo so I thought I would take a few posts & summarise the materials for all the current Engineering pets.

This post will cover the Mechanical Squirrel Box, Lil' Smokey & the Pet Bombling, part 2 will be the Tranquil Mechanical Yeti & the Mechanical Toad & part 3 will be the De-weaponized Mechanical Companion & the Personal World Destroyer. I'm not certain & haven't been able to find confirmation but it looks like there will be at least one more mechanical pet available once Mists of Pandaria is released. I'll add a part 4 later if there is!

Mechanical Squirrel Box (skill 75)

Probably the easiest to make & the easiest to get the schematic for, I love this little fella! It only requires an Engineering skill level of 75 & although the schematic is a world drop, you can usually find it on the Auction House for 50 gold or less (depending on server of course!).

Materials

1 Handful of Copper Bolts (uses 1 Copper Bar)
1 Copper Bar
2 Malachite

Yup! Just 2 copper bars (which is just 2 copper ores) & 2 malachite gems - I usually sell these squirrels in the 25-35 gold range - I call that good profit although looking at The Undermine Journal, it would seem the mean price for EU servers is over 100 gold!

I have malachite on a shopping list & I buy all of them below 1 gold each. If I am running short & squirrels are selling well, I will go to 2 gold each but that is rarely necessary. Depending on the prices of the other gems prospectable from copper ore, it may even be profitable to buy some ore & prospect for yourself if you have a jewelcrafter.

Pet Bombling (skill 205)

This is another fairly easy to get schematic - it drops from Mechgineer Thermaplugg in Gnomeregan so as long as your engineer can get into the instance, you will get this from the boss. As far as materials goes, it's not too complicated but one spanner in the works is the fused wiring required. Fused wiring requires a skill level of 275 so you will either need to buy some, find someone to craft some for you or wait until your own skill is that high before you can make a Pet Bombling.

Materials

6 Mithril Bar
1 Big Iron Bomb (190)
1 Heart of Fire
1 Fused Wiring (275)

Big Iron Bomb takes 3 Iron Bars, 3 Heavy Blasting Powder(125) & 1 Silver Contact (90)

Heavy Blasting Powder = Heavy Stone

Silver Contact = 1 Silver Bar

Fused Wiring takes 3 Delicate Copper Wire (jewelcrafting) & 2 Essence of Fire (makes 5 fused wires though)

Delicate Copper Wire = 2 Copper Bar, JC skill level 1

Summary of most basic level materials

6 mithril ore
3 iron ore
3 heavy stone
1 silver ore
6 copper ore
2 essence of fire
1 heart of fire

I am currently selling these for around 165 gold each although the price can vary quite widely. The Undermine Journal says the mean for my server is 156 gold and for all EU Alliance servers of 220 gold. I think I'm underpricing here somewhere! lol

Lil' Smoky (skill 205)

This is also a fairly easy schematic to obtain but it will depend of the RNG this time. There are 3 types of NPC's in Gnomeregan that drop this schematic - the Crowd Pummeler, Arcane Nullifer & Peacekeeper Security Suits. Luckily the drop rate is not too bad so if you are lucky, you may get it on your first run through.

Like the Pet Bombling, this skill level 205 pet also requires Fused Wiring, a skill level 275 item (see note above).

Materials

1 Core of Earth
2 Gyrochromatom (170)
1 Fused Wiring (275)
2 Mithril Bar
1 Truesilver bar

Gyrochromatom takes 1 Iron Bar & 1 Gold Power Core

Gold Power Core = 1 Gold Bar (makes 3 cores)

Summary of most basic level materials

1 core of earth
2 iron ores
2 gold ores
6 copper ores
2 essence of fire
2 mithril ores
1 truesilver ore

I don't have this schematic yet - I didn't get it on my first run through & my dungeon running buddy is taking a break for now. Once my leveling gets a bit more advanced, I'll go back & solo Gnomeregan for it as many times as necessary!

I'd say this is one of the more profitable pets if you can get the materials cheaply enough. The Undermine Journal mean price for my server is 477 gold & for the whole EU is 296 gold. However I rarely see this on my Auction House so I'm guessing there may be only 1 or 2 players crafting them & keeping the prices high.

Materials Snatch List for these three Pets

Malachite - 1-2g each
Heart of Fire - less than 50 silvers
Essence of Fire - less than 2 gold each
Core of Earth - less than 2 gold each

Truesilver ore/bar - less than 5 gold each
Gold ore/bar - less than 3 gold each

Heavy Stone - less than 50 silvers each

I haven't included the basic ores as there is always stock on the Auction House for when I need it. I also tend to keep a basic supply of various ores anyway - it's part of my pack-rat mentality! The other materials to look for are the component parts - sometimes leveling engineers sell stuff to make space & don't realise that they will need them later. So I also look for cheap listings of

Big Iron Bomb
Gyrochromatom
Silver Contact
Delicate Copper Wiring
Handful of Copper Bolts
Fused Wiring
Gold Power Core

Summary

If you have an under-used Engineer, maybe now is a good time to at least look at these pet markets. Mists of Pandaria will definitely have some kind of effect although with the crafted pets not being counted as rares, there may not be as much of a boost to these as to some other types of pets. It's always been a small but constant market for me, even with my Engineer stuck at 275 skill level! Next time, toads & yetis!

6 comments:

  1. I think that with these *distracted by puppies*

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  2. I don't really know much about this but if you like this kind of thing then you might like this.

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  3. I think it has to be said though that profitable markets are usually the ones more protected either by gating or knowledge.

    Low level Engi pets are a little 'too' obvious for their profitability, especially with MoP almost here and I think it's been increasingly jumped on as an easy profit market by more and more players.

    Those 100g+ pets are now no more than 80g on my server and dropping fast.

    I think the more 'easy gold' information that crops up like this, the more competition jumps into the market to drive costs down.

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  4. The great thing about items like these is that whilst they seem obvious, and are the type of battle pet that can be made easily, the focus on them is very volatile.

    In other words, players try to make a profit from them, make a little, then forget and move on to something else instead.

    When they move on, that's when the tenacious gold maker will jump in and make his profits.

    For example, one player had the squirrels in lockdown at 10g each at my server. He got bored, moved on, and I was able to start selling my own squirrels at many times that price. Yay

    So if they're not profitable today, come back next week.

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  5. I think it depends on their viability under the pet battle system too. Even if they're decent, demand will ensure market supply will creep up and competition will bat them down.

    It's hard to predict at this stage where crafted pets will be after mop, but my guess is... the better the pet, the cheaper it probably will be (unless you can price fix with a cartel?)

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  6. They are so cute and mindful. So fragile and awesome, I'm glad to see all of them. I wish to take one of them in my hand.

    Illinois German Shepherd Breeders

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