Is Engineering a money maker at 60?

[itwasfree]

Title pretty much sums it up. I love engineering for the tools (and my mechanical squirrel, Steve). But now that I'm halfway to 60, I'm beginning to think about what I'll be doing for money to pay for all those consumables/enchants/mounts without TBC cloud farming.
I'm a warrior, so hunter solo-clearing and rogue pickpocket-runs are out for me.

Is the trick to dump mining (which has been AIDS to level up) for something like enchanting/alchemy if I want to make money? Or are there viable ways to make money with engineering I should be aware of?

[bowdacious]

Skinning / herbalism and live in ungoro. This is far better than anything else for money farming

Only problem is... I'm not sure the patience to find enough herbs to level up is humanly reachable

[Böw]

being a hunter is a money maker at 60

[itwasfree]

Skinning / herbalism and live in ungoro. This is far better than anything else for money farming

Only problem is... I'm not sure the patience to find enough herbs to level up is humanly reachable

So the herb problem is just a lower-level thing? [Or is it precisely the continuation of this problem which makes it profitable in Ungoro?]
I'm surprised skinning is a money-maker. Always seemed worthless in the past given it was the easiest of the gathering professions to level. Why is it better than mining? Or is it just that it gives you something to do while looking for herb nodes in Ungoro [which could be said of mining as well, I spose.]

[Slicy]

- Lvl a hunter or mage alt to 60 and farm DM. That's probably the best gph on Nost. Just because you aren't competing with anyone else for mobs/nodes, whatever the day/hour/current server population.

- Yes, dumping mining can be worth the time invested to lvl up another profession.
Pick a money making 2nd profession like enchanting (especially if you go for the DM tribute option) or skinning. Forget about mining and even more about herbalism. The reason why skinning is the only viable/reliable money making gathering profession is because dynamic spawn rates for mobs got implemented to compensate the very high population but nodes were left and are still completely unchecked.
Killing x amount of beasts in 1 hour, skinning them and selling (even to the vendor) what you got will probably get you more gold than 1 hour of herbs/ores farming in a zone (not considering arcane crystals/black lotus luck here, since it's not reliable at all).

- No, the "herb problem" is also a "high lvl thing". High skill herbs (except dreamfoil and mountain silversage since AV release) used for raid consummables are a pain in the ass to pick up, unless you're willing to go herbing between 3 am and 9 am ST and/or focus a large part of your playtime on camping nodes locations.


Otherwise you do have (a limited number of) ways to make money with engineering, but it will be way less efficient and reliable.
- Sell iron/thorium grenade stacks if you keep mining as 2nd profession. The stacks usually always sell for low amounts but you can craft them in huge quantities (speaking about iron ones here). Cut deals with the players that are buying your stacks regularly and in high amounts.
- Get your hands on rare and valuable schematic(s) (Fire Reflector & MC ones for instance) and offer your crafting services for big fees. Even if the crafted item is needed only once by the buyer and isn't preraid BiS/BiS, you'll always have players wanting it because it can save time / give a purple satisfaction / make them feel stronger or special / etc.

No, engineering isn't a monkey maker at 60. But it is by far the coolest and funniest profession in vanilla for its possible uses in any aspect of the game. Not being able to make enough gold with it to supply yourself with everything you need at 60 is an understandable and fair downside I'd say.

[itwasfree]

/snip.

It is absolutely a fair trade off, which is why I'm thinking about what I should do with the other profession.

Thanks for the awesome info.

[The Shortest Path]

Skinning is not even remotely a money-maker with the single exception of Devilsaur Leather, and good luck ever getting the tag on one of those if you aren't a hunter/shaman with a pet or totem sitting on top of the spawn point 24/7.

[itwasfree]

Skinning is not even remotely a money-maker with the single exception of Devilsaur Leather, and good luck ever getting the tag on one of those if you aren't a hunter/shaman with a pet or totem sitting on top of the spawn point 24/7.

Seems really to be the theme on every open-world money-making technique. Spose that's the struggle of a 7k+ pop on a game designed for less than half of that.
To compound that, I've got a typical day job so my hours are pretty limited to primetime [though I'm on US East Coast, so towards the later half of the night, perhaps those farm spots would be less contested.]


And on top of all that I'm a warrior, so soloing DM is out. I've always enjoyed Hunters though, so perhaps leveling an alt to run DM will be my best option at the end of the day. But that'll take *at least* 150 hours. Hours I could spend farming/building up another profe.... Oh wait. That actually seems to be the best option.

Though now that I think about it, aren't healers in a similar boat? Obviously splitting reduces the efficacy in half, but couldn't I team up with a pocket healer to farm certain elites/dungeons? Wouldn't 200 hours of that be better than leveling up a Hunter and sinking 50 hours into DM farming?

[The Shortest Path]

Engi can make money by rolling Healing or Shadow/Frost damage lenses

[pootpoot]

well u need 245 engineering to wear those lesnses