Engineering: Potential Cataclysm Goldmines.

Wait what? Engineering?  How is engineering, a profession that has in the past been poor in the gold department, going to make me gold?  Well Engineering has been given the usual items to make gold and Cataclysm is no exception.  Cata, however, has given a few extras that will at least boost income in the beginning but may prove the be less profitable later in the expansion.

First off just a note to Engineers with a gathering profession along side it.  There will not be clouds to farm the new "eternals".  Engineering however is only heavily dependent on Volatile Air.  Engineers will still be able to obtain Volatile Air when skinning, mining, and herbing by having an Electrostatic Condenser in their bags.  While this change does require a gathering skill, I do believe it will simplify a lot of engineers lives it would be nice however to somehow incorporate it into other professions to allow all engineers to benefit.

Blizzard managed to add a bit more flavor to the scopes.  There are now Hit, Haste, and Att power proc Scopes.  Hit will most likely be profitable during the first raid tier and possibly into the second.  As we move further into the expansion however I would not expect the Hit scope to sell very often.  Haste will be beneficial to both people hit capped and PvP though if the att power scope procs often enough I would expect to see these sell.  Another point between these two is price as the Gnomish X-Ray Scope will be more expensive to craft.

Something that may seem counter intuitive but I expect to sell fairly well is the Loot-A-Rang.  This item needs a skill of 490 but only a skill level of 125 to use.  It will be very useful for any ranged toon leveling with engineering.  Think about it how much total time is spent running to a mob after you kill it?  Or what about that one mob you can't loot without killing the 1000 pats that decided to check out their fallen friend?  While this won't be a game changer it will provide a "fun" ability for engineers leveling and as we know items that increase "fun" sell very well.
On a smiler note the two new pets will provide a slow but steady income.  Both are interesting pets as, De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion reminds me of the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog just not as dangerous and the Personal World Destroyer is a mini fel rever with a blue glow.

Engineering has been given two completely new items which I believe may prove to be great money makers early in cataclysm.  The first being the Lure Master Tackle Box.  This is the perfect bag for anyone that will power level fishing.  And there will be a lot of people doing so as the new fish feast requires guilds to fish 10,000 fish before it becomes available.  The last item for today is the Goblin Barbecue!  Buff food created by engineers! finally something to bring to the raid!  Sadly all those people who bought your Lure Master Tackle Boxes to fish for their guilds will make this obsolete once they obtain Recipe: Seafood Magnifique Feasts.  Also Broiled Dragon Feast provides an alternative to the Barbecue.  While this may not see much time as the buff food every raid wants I do believe it will prove easier to make than the dragon feast and the cool grill that spawns alone will drive sales from the people who enjoy collecting and using unique items such as this.

Unfortunately that is it for engineers.  Even though you still will fail to top the charts on the income scale you don't have to give up making gold completely just for the versatility the profession provides you.  Tomorrow I will be looking into Inscription and those of you who hate the glyph market will be happy to know Cataclysm is giving you a few goodies outside of glyphs to make gold with.