We've already covered the new Engineering Flying Machines (and what it takes to get them!), but there are also many other new recipes introduced with Patch 2.3. Our very own Insider Trader gave us an overview of profession additions and changes, but I wanted to focus on some of the new recipes that will be available.

First, there is a new weapon enchant in town that drops from the bosses in Zul'aman: Executioner. It ignores 840 of your opponent's armor, which is an increase of 2-5% dps according to the commenters on WoW Head. The proc rate isn't clear yet. There are two movies of it on YouTube. This one showcases the glowy effect and this one shows the weapon in action. It's a 375 enchant and takes 6 Void Crystals, 10 Large Prismatic Shards, 6 Greater Planar Essences, 30 Arcane Dusts and 3 Elixirs of Major Strength.

New Jewelcrafting , Engineering and Cooking recipes after the jump!

Insider Trader is your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.


What's in store for your profession in patch 2.3? Without further ado, Insider Trader is here to update you on what craftspeople should be looking out for, now on the test realm. (Sure, you could read the official PTR patch notes -- but then you wouldn't get links to all our helpful posts at WoW Insider!)

The big news for professions, of course, is the new engineering mounts. Now that the mats list for these sweet little rides is out, we know you're all revving your engines to get those last engineering skill points. Early next week, we'll run a special engineering leveling guide with some inside advice on that brutal stretch of leveling from 300 to 375.

Until then, here are the collected notes for profession changes in patch 2.3.

There are a few interesting changes on the horizon of patch 2.3 for the gadget (and explosive) fans among you. The engineers are a long-suffering bunch, and it seems every patch promises engineering improvements, but fails to deliver. In 2.3, at least, we know exactly what we should be getting: flying mounts, as you know about from earlier this evening, and now repair bots. And there's a bit in here for cooks, as well:

• And for your dedication, flying mounts for engineers only will be available in patch 2.3. There will be normal and epic versions of this mount for you to parade around and show how proud you are to have passed all the exams and call yourself an engineer. (Bornakk)
• I also heard this rumor that some Gan'arg Analyzers in Blade's Edge Mountains stumbled upon plans of a new Field Repair Bot and are hoarding them for their own purposes. Anybody plan to investigate this in patch 2.3? (Bornakk)
• I saw me one uh them new repair bots! I swears it! It wasn't tweren't not only repairin' items, it was hawkin' wares! I never didn't not did not didn't see nothing not like it never in my life! (Drysc)
• You'll need cooking to be at a relatively high level to complete the cooking daily quests that are coming in 2.3, so I recommend leveling it up. ;-) (Bornakk)
  

Yay! Yay yay yay! Er...sorry about that. Flying mounts and new repair bots would have to be my two biggest engineering wants for BC. And what do you think they'll be selling? Food/water and reagents is my guess. That would be amazing. How are you engineers feeling now? And speaking of food and water: cooking daily quests? Awesome.

Yet again we descend into the maelstrom and bring forth The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column that shoots forth horrid tentacles at the bathysphere of warrior issues, probing, searching, a kraken of communication. Yeah, I don't know what the deal is with all the squid imagery either. I think Matthew Rossi had too much pizza last night and had some weird dreams that are still lingering as he writes his intro text. The guy's got something like six warriors, he's not right in the head.

Yesterday, when writing Totem Talk, I mentioned that I'm leveling up a draenei shaman (this is in addition to the shaman I already play) - what I didn't mention is that I'm also leveling up a draenei warrior. Yes, this is my sixth or seventh warrior and, after my three 70's and my poor orc warrior who's been stuck at 60 forever, he's currently my highest level alt at 52. Part of the reason I'm doing this is due to extreme guilt at the fact that I haven't gotten a draenei to 70 yet and warriors are exceedingly easy for me to level.

In general, warriors offer a unique way to level compared to other classes. Unlike most of the mana classes, there's only enough downtime to restore your health, and with a properly maintained first aid skill a warrior can maintain a grinding pace most other classes would find ludicrous. (Rogues and druids to a lesser extent, but rogues often have to stealth and position themselves for maximum effect, which can slow them down. Again, I admit now that I am an awful rogue and a talented one might play differently.) However, there are things to keep in mind as you start your newbie warrior. Since I've recently been taken to task for writing most of these columns for the level 70 warriors out there, I wanted to try and provide some balance and address leveling a warrior up.

We are back at our happy little camp of the power source spot in the press area to liveblog the WoW Professions and Items panel with Tom Chilton, Travis Day and Jon LeCraft.

Updated: This post has been cleaned up and extensively added to after it was partially eaten by a technical error.

Liveblog after the jump.

While some may argue that World of Warcraft doesn't have enough professions, there are enough choices to leave any new player at a loss when it comes to selecting one for the first time. So today we're going to discuss the good and bad of the game's ten primary professions and six secondary professions -- and hopefully give you the knowledge to make some informed decisions next time you need to chose a profession for yourself.

Interested in knowing a bit more about the game's professions? Keep reading! Want to tell us which professions you find the most useful (and why)? Leave us a comment!

Each week, Lisa Poisso brings us Insider Trader -- your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

Want to make a completist crafter crit in his pants? Give him a good whiff of something he may not even have know existed: Alliance- and Horde-only patterns. "What?!? They've got stuff I don't have?" That's right -- each faction enjoys a variety of profession patterns available only to that side via quests or faction-specific vendors.

While most of these patterns are low- to mid-level frills, plenty of entrepreneurial crafters find them meaty (or profitable) enough to be worth jumping through hoops for. Beyond the satisfaction of having literally all of the available patterns in a particular trade, craftspeople may actually carve out a niche crafting items for players on their faction who don't normally have access to them.

The neutral Auction Houses are a crafter's bread and butter when it comes to finding these patterns, although having a friend on the other side is even better. Almost all of these patterns (and the items they create) are tradable, although you'll find a pair of Alliance cooking patterns listed that remain stubbornly marked Bind on Pickup. But most are available for cross-faction movement via the neutral auction houses. There aren't many new Burning Crusade-era patterns to track down and agonize over, though -- just one lone Draenei pattern (listed after the jump). It seems that the bitter tears of Horde herbalists pining for Herbalist's Gloves washed the faction-specific pattern trend right down the drain.

Read more for a list of faction-specific crafting patterns.

The idea of a profession system isn't unique to WoW. Most MMOs have some sort of crafting available to their players, usually with a high degree of risk -- you can fail and lose your materials, or even take damage or die. By comparison, WoW's profession system is forgiving. You always succeed at making things and never lose mats. But a lot of people still don't like professions, and consider them a waste of time and money -- particularly crafting professions like leatherworking and engineering, where there's not that much of a market for the products in end-game.

Personally, I love professions. One of my favorite things about starting an alt is looking through the professions and figuring out which one I should level up. My main is alchemy/herbalism, which I adore because it gives me a way to help a group as a rogue. My recently resurrected warlock alt is tailoring and extremely low-level mining, which I'm having fun leveling up to BC standards. The next alt I make will probably get jewelcrafting just so I can try it out.

Do you like the profession system? Which professions do you think can use improvement, and which are the most fun to level?

Nightshift from Lightbringer has a great question over on the forums (forums back up ftw). He asks, "HOW I MINE FOR FISH?" No, just kidding, he asks: Why fish?

I've always been puzzled by this too. First Aid is really the only secondary skill I've ever bothered to level up (because it's necessary for almost any class). Cooking and Fishing have never held interest for me. I tried both of them out-- on my hunter and warrior especially I thought they would come in handy. But the time (fishing) and cost (cooking ingredients) involved in both never seemed to compare to what I got out of them.

Players in the thread claim you can get a lot out of fishing: special food, alchemy ingredients and recipes, and a chance at treasure that you can't get otherwise. But for the time commitment or cost, I've always found it's easier and cheaper to just pull what I need out of the AH. Fishing reminds me of crafting in Dark Age of Camelot-- if you ever played that game, you'll remember that higher level item crafting took longer and longer casting times (until, at high levels, it took like five minutes of meter watching to make one item). Both cooking and fishing seem like neat gimmicks, but in terms of gameplay, I've never really found them necessary or even interesting.

I do have a Nat Pagle's Extreme Angler FC-5000 sitting in my Shaman's bank, however. Is there a good reason I should get it out and start angling? And if so, is there any way to make fishing more interesting?

Earlier this evening I was checking out what the WoW Ladies over on livejournal had to say, and a few of them were chatting about how to make real-life Westfall Stew-- you know, the lowbie collecting quest in Westfall that gives you a cooking recipe and some food with a nice bonus.

When I checked, they hadn't found the link yet, but now they have, and here it is: Real-Life Westfall Stew (Dave also dropped us a note on this one-- thanks, Dave!). They actually cheat a little bit-- they use chicken for vulture meat, and tomatoes for Murloc eyes. I don't know if you've ever had Murloc eyes in Westfall stew but let me tell you, if you substitute tomatoes, you're probably not going to get that tangy flavor that comes with the real thing! Or the pleasure of taking the eyes from the Murlocs in the first place. But I'm sure this faked stuff is pretty good, too.

How soon until we see other great WoW dishes in real life? Who wouldn't want to try some Dusty "Crab" Cakes (who knows where Chef Grual gets those tasty crab legs from), some Cactus Apple Surprise, or some Dragonbreath Chili? And you can wash it all down with some tasty Thistle Tea (it'll get you all the energy you need) or, my favorite (even though you have to be 21 for this stuff), Noggenfogger Elixir. For dessert, a Savory Deviate Delight, of course. With all these great foods to choose from, a World of Warcraft Restaurant is only one Blizzard employee's crazy idea away..

My mom certainly doesn't play any videogames at all, but apparently Malevivs from Eonar showed the game to his mother and got her hooked on it. And apparently other players have had the same experience. Wives, in-laws, kids-- seems like anyone who sees someone playing this game has to pick it up, try it themselves, and be amazed. WoW isn't just addictive-- apparently it's contagious, too.

Or maybe not. Personally, I haven't had any luck at all recruiting anyone to play the game with me. I haven't lived at home for a while, so the closest thing I have to an onlooker is my roommate, and he hasn't shown the slightest interest in it. Even a good friend of mine who really loves videogames (we play Mario Kart DS over the net all the time) hasn't given in, especially after hearing about my many nights spent slaving away to hit 60 more than once..

So is it me, or my family and friends? Have you recruited a family or friend to play just by showing them the game? Then again, I'm not sure I'd want my mom to play at all-- not just because it would be really embarassing to be ganked by her, but c'mon, man-- she's my mom! She doesn't own n00bs, she bakes them cookies!

Professions are an interesting sideline in WoW, and allow us to make money as well as some interesting items. However, there comes a point when the professions we've chosen become expensive and slow to level, and we face a decision: continue or change?

Changing profession isn't something to be done lightly -- you lose all acquired skill in your existing professions, as well as any recipes you've learnt. On the other hand, switching can have its benefits -- if you're not needed as a guild enchanter after all, you can save money by picking up gathering professions and loading the AH up daily. If you're bored of running around levelling a gathering profession, you can switch to a crafting profession, though you'll probably need some spare cash to make the change.

Have you ever changed professions? Did you regret it or have you not looked back since?

The official WoW site recently featured a fairly comprehensive list of profession guides culled from the US and EU forums as well as external websites.  After looking through them, I have to say these are excellent references for any profession.  Still looking for more info on your profession of choice?  We posted a brief guide to power-leveling certain professions a while back as well as a guide to the game's craftable epic items.  (Expect the latter to be updated some time today with a few new recipes!)

The fishing and cooking guide posted earlier is really useful, although the Horde focus means that Alliance players may have to follow a slightly different route. As it happens, I've recently taken advantage of the war effort quests to improve my skills in fishing, cooking, first aid and also my primary profession, enchanting. Here are a few sites I found useful in my quest for self-improvement, to add to the earlier guide:

Overall
WorldOfWar.net has a great overview of all the tradeskills, including useful information such as trainer locations.  Optimising your skills so you spend the least amount of money possible to maximise them is not a trivial task, so good luck!

Cooking
I'd basically neglected cooking since my earlier levels, so I used this "skill up in 2 hours" guide from Allakhazam, bemusing baby Night Elves as
I ran around Darkshore slaughtering crabs and then the Wetlands slaughtering Bluegill murlocs. Farming for raptor meat in STV, I then used the  Roast Raptor recipe at skill 175 to get my skill well over 200, as well as the Rainbow Fin Albacore recipe (at lower levels) and the Spotted Yellowtail recipe.

Fishing
Draznar's Fishing FAQ was reasonably useful, and I used the AutoLoot tip (shift and right click your fishing pole) as well as the FishingBuddy tool. As many guides pointed out, levelling fishing is time-consuming but works well in conjunction with cooking, as you can train in recipes to cook the fish. By far the most useful part of the guide was the PDF reference which lists the most common fish for an area, and the corresponding recipes.

First Aid
There's not really much to say about First Aid, apart from that it's a terribly useful skill to have. If you learn it early, and use the cloth you find to make bandages, your skill should be about 250-300 by your mid forties (if not earlier). Obtaining the book for Expert Level involves a trip to the Arathi Highlands or Dustwallow Marsh (Alliance or Horde respectively) and it's easier to buy it from the Auction House, even with the markup.

To get to Artisan level (225-300), you will get a Trauma quest from your trainer, sending you to Hammerfall (Horde) or Theramore Isle (Alliance) for a special Triage mission. Further bandages (including runecloth) can be learnt here -- take enough materials to get to 260 and then make runecloth bandages for your guildmates' AQ turn-ins to get up to 300.

Enchanting
The tactic I used for most of my enchanting training before really focusing on it was "if money's not a problem, disenchant soulbound quest rewards and hoard the materials". This worked for a few levels, but not spectacularly. Giving out low-level enchants for free to newbies is one way to avoid the grind of giving your bracers 3 stamina again and again, but most people are surprisingly suspicious of getting something for nothing, so you may well be staring at your own items a lot.

This is the guide I used for most of my skilling up, and it seems to work nicely, although you do reach the stage where you may prefer to sell higher-level enchants rather than "grind" your way to 300/300. It really depends if you have money to burn.