WoW Patch 3.2.2 madness

The shining feature of wow patch 3.2.2 will be Onyxia's return, and of course, the already infamous Ony mount, but there are some profession changes coming too. As always, they can be found in the latest patch notes, although you'll have to scroll past the Brood Mother to find them.
This week's Insider Trader will analyze these changes and tell you what they mean for you.

A little history lesson
Orgrimmar is a large, bustling city, full of Hordelings going about their business, whether industrious and profitable or the sort that sees them dancing like MC Hammer and contributing to a lively Trade Chat discussion about Megan Fox.

Blacksmiths, Miners and Engineers alike, young and old, eager to advance their crafts, grab as many materials as they can and hike to the back of the Valley of Strength, out through the Drag, and into the back of the Valley of Honor in search of a forge and anvil suitable for their needs. Upon arrival and a quick discussion with their Trainers, they discover that they are missing some materials, and must hike back to the Bank and the Auction House and then back in order to complete their next task.

Ten minutes and a few useless hammers later, the process repeats itself. Again and then again. The lengthy smelting ritual combined with the complicated and material-intensive schematics common to both the Blacksmithing and Engineering trades can make this a time-consuming endeavor indeed.

In wow patch 3.2.2, history will be made. After years of begging, an anvil and forge are finally being installed at the General Store, allowing most business to be conducted within a few strides of a mailbox and the Bank and Auction House. This is revolutionary stuff people!

Engineers to be less strange looking
The Mind Amplification Dish will no longer modify the appearance of your helm. You might be tempted to pass over this purely cosmetic, minor change without a second thought. You might not even retain that you read it. But wait a minute; since when are Engineers afraid to fly their freak flag?

Engineers are rooted in a rich tradition of the wild and wacky. They get a thrill out of taking risks and often willingly endure unexpected and nonsensical inconveniences just to brighten up their days. They march to the beat of their own, experimentally tinkered with, untested underwater rocket drums.

Here are but a few examples of their fun-loving fashion sense:

• Goblin Rocket Helmet. Too bland for you? Try the Deepdive Helmet on for size!


• Gnomish X-Ray Specs are a crowd-pleaser.


• The Goblin Mining Helmet is sexy and functional.


• The Powerheal 4000 Lens can really improve your vision.

Farewell, funky helmet. Soon, if you desire too look like the mad scientist that you truly are, you'll have to sport an outdated Gnomish Mind Control Cap instead.

Quicker campfires
Basic Campfire is having its cast-time reduced from 10 seconds down to 2. This small matter of convenience will come in handy in our impatient in-game environment, although anyone seriously annoyed with its current incarnation should really have taken up Blacksmithing in Orgrimmar. Blizzard is only trying to teach us patience, you know.

Seriously though, this is a minor, but handy little change, although it did raise one question in my mind. Wouldn't it have been more fun to link the quicker cast-time to the Chef's Hat? Sure, this would mean that lowbies would make slower campfires, but hey, they do a lot of things slower. Especially now that they get super cheap mounts very early, they probably don't need to be spoiled any further.

More raiding buffs!
This has been covered, but not by Insider Trader, so I thought I'd do a quick review for those of you who aren't in the loop. Some of the most coveted class specific buffs are becoming craftable. The reagents for these items are still undergoing changes.

• A Scribe will be able to grant a raid-wide replacement Power Word: Fortitude using the Runescroll of Stamina. This translates to 165 stamina for a period of 1 hour.Now, you won't feel like you have to bring a Priest.
  


• Leatherworkers will make Drums of Forgotten Kings and Drums of the Wild, which grant Kings and Gift of the Wild, respectively. This will help out your raid should it lack a Paladin or a Druid.
  

The primary function of these items is to help out 10-man raiding guilds who don't want to be stuck bringing players for buffs that they might otherwise leave behind, or don't even have available, and it is more common than you might think. In the absence of a class, anyone with the above professions will do instead.

While this isn't a fully fledged, inclusive system yet, it does mean that crafting professions will once again be playing an important role in the world of raiding.