Back in patch 3.1, Engineers received:
High-powered Flashlight
Binds when equipped
Unique-Equipped
Trinket
Requires Level 49
Equip: Improves hit rating by 24 (3.04% @ L49).
Use: Summon a ring of light on a specific location that lasts for 3 min. (1 Hour Cooldown)
This caused lots of forum QQ and controversy, including posts like this:
To Engineers Complaining about the Flashlight
Which, while very amusing, may not be the entire story. Let’s take a closer look at our maligned flashlight.
First, the formalities, where/how do I get this schematic:
Outland:
NPC: Engineering (bookcase) near Loremaster Skosiris (Scryers)
NPC: Technician Mihila (Aldor)
Location: Shattrath
Northrend:
NPC: Binkie Brightgear
Location: Icecrown
Once you’ve trained this schematic (requires 250 Engineering), you need the following to make it:
Tools:
Anvil
Blacksmith Hammer
Arclight Spanner
Reagents:
Thorium Widget x4
Truesilver Bar x6
Essence of Fire x6
That out of the way, the first thing I want to point out is that there is no Engineering requirement to wear/use this trinket. Yes. No Engineering Requirement. Make it for an Alt. Make it for a guild-mate. Make it to sell. Does it sell on the the Auction House? Based on numbers on wowecon.com, this item is typically listed for about 90 gold (note that listed is not the same as sold). The volume reported is very low, so your mileage will likely vary wildly as to whether you can sell this thing on the Auction House. Surprisingly the approximate cost of all raw materials is about 33 gold, so if it does actually sell, you will make a profit. The 33 gold raw material cost approximation is again based on wowecon.com numbers , however these numbers are a little bit more solid since the raw materials do have a fairly high volume.
There is no doubt that as a level 80, there are any number of items better than this, but how about for a level 49? Based purely on trinkets with “Hit Rating” on it (obviously not a fair comparison – but who said I had to be fair), it’s not until level 65 that you will find a trinket with something higher:
Realistically, the most comparable item is:
Royal Seal of Eldre’Thalas
Binds when picked up
Unique
Trinket
+10 Fire Resistance
Classes: Rogue
Equip: Increases your hit rating by 20.
I make no claims of being a WoW theory crafter. Those that want to start down the theory crafting path (and likely find huge holes in my argument) can go here:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Hit#Calculating_miss_rate
to find out what “Hit Rating” actually does for you.
So…
if you are a DPS class
if you are not hit capped at your level
if you don’t have a better trinket option
this little flashlight might actually be a DPS increase for you. You decide if the “on-use” ability is any good…let me know once you’ve stopped laughing if you read my first link.
