Tweaks to enchanting in 3.0.8
by Matthew Rossi 
Dec 23rd 2008 at 3:15PM
Are you an enchanter? Have you started tearing out your hair at how hard it is to get things to DE to Infinite Dust or Greater Cosmic Essence, while Dream Shard after Dream Shard piles up in your bank even after you've bought all the enchants? In my case it's Essences that are the issue. Nothing I disenchant seems to want to turn into them, while even lowly greens keep turning into shards. I have all the enchants to learn, I simply can't get enough essences to do any enchants.Turns out this is being retuned in 3.0.8 although I'm not sure I like how it sounds. See, the solution of jacking up how many shards enchants need would certainly make shards more valuable on the AH, but I don't sell mine anyway. Meanwhile, am I going to be getting essences from DEing now? Dust isn't that hard to get in my opinion (certainly not as hard as GC seems to think it is) - it's essences I can't get enough of, and essences that limit the enchants I can and can't do. On my server a Greater Cosmic Essence can run you 50g for one, and when I need 10 for an enchant and only have 1 after DEing two days worth of farmed/quested greens, that's a problem for me. I don't see how making it take more shards to do an enchant would be any great favor unless those shards somehow took the place of Greater Cosmic Essence, and if they do, what's the point of GCE at all? Here's hoping I'm just being reactionary and the changes coming in make it easier to level this profession.
Filed under: Enchanting, Analysis / Opinion, Economy, Enchants
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Alan Dec 23rd 2008 3:25PM
I have the opposite problem... I always run out of dust first and I have a great store of essences.
The rate for shards, with regards to what the recipes cost, seems about right to me. Leveling from 70 to 80 netted me 14 shards, which is enough to get started but still not so high that I can clean out the recipe vendor.
skynes Dec 23rd 2008 3:25PM
I have the opposite problem to you. I've got tonnes of dream shards and essences but too few dust. I just can't seem to get dust at all.
Vendrill Dec 23rd 2008 4:12PM
NEED MORE DUST, DAMMNIT!!!
More dust! More!
The BC enchanting system was a hell of a lot better balanced than this rancid mess.
I want the name of the guy who screwed this up so badly. He needs to be hit upside the head with a bag of Dream Shards!
WoWie Zowie Dec 23rd 2008 6:35PM
sadface for my enchanter paly. hes lvl 79, DEs all superfluous items from quests and drops. been donated uncountable greens from my main and friends. still only 421 skill level. tons of shards, not enough mats for sill ups
Heilig Dec 23rd 2008 5:28PM
I'm with you guys. Dust is freaking impossible to get, and every recipe takes a full stack or more. Essences are almost as bad, and their magic solution is...make chants cost more shards? WTF? The limiting factor on every other profession is how long you spend gathering mats. You can't exactly farm enchanting mats reliably. How is making enchants cost MORE going to help this situation? Nobody gives a crap about how many shards they have or don't have. We need the greens to DE into more dusts and essences, or lower the number of dusts and essences the enchants cost.
Plan Dec 23rd 2008 6:04PM
Really? I've gotten a ridiculous amount of dust from DEing greens, and no shards aside from the LW blues I've had disenchanted.
I mail every green to an alt, and every two weeks or so, pay an enchanter 30g to DE the massive pile of crap that accumulates in my alt's mailbox. I think I ended up with about four stacks of 20 dusts on this round, a couple shards from the blues, and 12 Greater Cosmic Essences.
So I'm seeing the exact opposite as what you guys are seeing -- tons and tons of dust from greens, and the blues DE to shards like they should. It seems like exactly the same system as it was in TBC and I don't have any complaints, although it sounds like the system may be bugged for certain players and not others.
rosencratz Dec 24th 2008 4:32AM
Yep, i gotta say that the current material requirements for enchants is pretty damn steep. I myself am stuck on around 417 now due to a lack of GCE and even though i only have 2 entire stacks of dust... which i would've thought would be plenty but apparently is only just 2 levelling enchants. :(
I've stored up a nice pile of 25 dream shards ofcourse but what use are they to me. I still have an entire 13 skill points to go before i can spend them on anything. :( I don't mind them tweaking dream shards or lesser shards ideally into levelling enchants but if they do it better be with the benefit of reducing the other materials which is surely.... surely what they meant?
Ircasha Dec 24th 2008 12:34PM
I have the same problem - I have a bag full of Cosmic Essence, but having problems getting Dust from anything.
Viper007Bond Dec 25th 2008 2:00AM
+1 to dust being hard to get. Plus when you're a tailor, you blow through the stuff.
Amnion Dec 23rd 2008 3:26PM
Absolutely agree. Seems to take me over a week to gather 3 essences and all the enchants I need to learn need much more
Flambee Dec 23rd 2008 3:26PM
I've got tons of shards and tons of essence, but I can't seem to get anything to DE into dust to save my life. I have both enchanting and tailoring, and I've reached the point in both professions where I have to have dust to move ahead (for obvious reasons in enchanting and for imbued frostweave for tailoring). I'd welcome the chance to get more dust more easily.
But if they're going to be raising the cost of enchants you buy with shards, looks like I'm going to buy all the ones I can now and just save them till I can learn them.
Ghilda Dec 23rd 2008 3:59PM
I don't think I've seen anywhere that they're raising the cost of purchasing enchants... just the number of shards to actually perform the enchant once you already know it. At least that's my understanding from the couple of blue posts I've seen. Correct me if I'm wrong though, so I, too, can go stock up on formulas. :)
hold up Dec 23rd 2008 4:40PM
I read a post on the forums and it says that the price of a certain enchant will go from requiring 16 dust to 6 dust and 2 shards, or something along those lines.
I dont think the cost of buying the recipe is being increased, just the mats required for the enchants are being changed.
Can O Beans Dec 23rd 2008 3:30PM
I need dust. While I was levelling, I wasn't levelling my enchants. I sold a stack of dust. I so wish I could get it back.
They finally tuned enchanting so that people actually want the enchants that will level you instead of only the level cap enchants. If I had a ton of dust, I could be at 450 instead of stuck at 411.
Essence is not a problem, but it might become one if I had ample dust.
Philip Dec 23rd 2008 5:18PM
Exactly the same problem here, too. Dusts. That's my biggest bane. I was wondering about the issue. It's nice to see confirmation of that from Ghostcrawler.
Turtlehead Dec 24th 2008 2:44AM
Trust me, cosmic is the block. You'll see it later. Higher level greens DE up to five dusts, and dust overall, over half the time. A cosmic or maybe two well under that, the remainder being a shard. Shards can be gotten 100% from blues. So...save your cosmics. You'll need them.
Juicy Dec 23rd 2008 3:31PM
Agreed! GCE's needs to drop from more items/in larger quantities. The prices are just starting to get ridiculous.
Hamma Dec 23rd 2008 3:31PM
I've got dust coming out my ears but not nearly enough Cosmic's. I really don't feel needing more shards to do enchants is a good solution either.. now my currency to buy more enchanting is used up. If anything make things drop a dust and cosmic or something along those lines.
Or even make it so you can buy various mats by exchanging the other mats.
Eiella Dec 23rd 2008 3:34PM
wow... since when did WoWinsider become WoWQQallthetime.com
Arlendor Dec 23rd 2008 3:49PM
It's a blog. Blogs are subject to the motivations, opinions, and bias of their writers. It is not and has never been anything else. If you think the site has taken a turn you don't like, it's nobody's fault but your own for continuing to read something you find uninteresting or whiny.