Enchanting or Engineering?Follow

Okay, some background: I have a 45 Tauren Shaman who's currently skinning/DS leatherworking. The catch is, I only do instances and the amount of skinning that can be done in an instance (divided by the number of skinners in a group, too) is pretty shabby. Most of the time I buy the mats for LW anyway, but the bottom line is that I want to drop skinning and replace it with a more useful trade skill. I have a decent amount of money from LW and rich friends and I'm ready to sink it into a skill. So, which one?

I know, I know... it's personal preference. I've read up on both, but I haven't tried either so I'm looking for opinions. I don't need to make money with this profession; it will be only to benefit my instance/dungeon/group abilities, and maybe a bit of battlegrounds.

Enchanting: I update my armor pretty frequently, so I usually just go without enchants because it's too much trouble. However, it would be nice to disenchant all the useless BoP items I pick up in instances, and I could always keep all my armor with at least a low level enchant.

Engineering: How often do you find yourself using these skills in an instance? The dynamite and mechanical pets seem nice, but the scopes and bullets would be worthless to me. Without mining, how much of a gold-sink does this become? Also, I think this is against Tauren lore; are there any racial hindrances?

Thanks in advance for your opinions, and sorry for the rambling post. Oh, and please state your reason(s); I don't want to turn this into an enchanter/engineer population count.

-Viduus

Right now I am working on a priest with Goblin engineering and Enchanting. Here is the rationale for each, depending upon what you want out of your game experience (and I want both...)

Enchanting can make money later on, but over time you can expect that the market will saturate. The reason I am doing it is to be popular with my guild. Doing those enchants for free can make you well thought of. Of course, that is why I am developing a priest anyway--no one appreciates you, but somehow they know they can't live without you.

Engineering is a money sink, but it does two things for me. At mid-levels (35-49), it is great for getting an edge in PvP if you have the discipline to work it up to at least 260 and make the trinkets. If you have money to burn, the explosives are a lot of fun, too! The death ray, dragon gun, mortar, rocket boots, mind-control cap, harm prevention belt, discombobulator ray, net-o-matic projector, dense dynamite, and thorium grenades have provided me with endless entertainment in battle grounds.

But the value of engineering declines at higher levels because the spells and weapons get more powerful. Nevertheless, I think the target dummies can be useful as crude crowd control to avoid a wipe. Seaformium charges make up for lack of lock-picking, too. And there are a few high-level items you can make, but don't expect to make a lot of money on them. So engineering gives an edge in PvP if that is your goal.

I may drop engineering for the new jewel crafting skill if it is really good. One more way to be popular and maybe make some money. But in the mid-levels, I love engineering for battle grounds.

There are actually some hella usefull things about engineering. Especially if you enjoy battle grounds. For instance, goblin sapper charges are amazing to use in big close spaced fights, and in instances where you get mobbed by twelve squishy mobs. The Big One is insanely useful for a wide area long time stun, but it takes a while to get off, so it can only be used in certain situation. The goblin rocket helmet is like a sap anyone can use. The big iron bomb and the iron grenade are probably the most useful in the game, as it can function as a very useful all purpose stun. Right now I have shortcuts on my menu for iron grenades, high explosive bombs, goblin sapper charges, and thorium grenades. Now in the case of your Tauren, a sweet thing to do is use: Warstomp, grenade, heal. As the warstomp would stun them for the time of the bomb cast and then the bomb would stun them long enough for a heal. Not just lesser healing wave but full healing wave. And through all of that you haven't had to take any damage but have dealt some.