When you have an enchanter in your party, getting drops in a dungeon can be sort of an autopilot thing: you hit the
disenchant button and move on. Reader Akwihahlo actually sort of has a beef we this. As he points out, the Dream Shards you get from disenchanting a blue BoE on most servers only go for around 5-10 gold a piece, assuming you can sell them at all. In the meantime, the blue might go for more on the auction house to a player still looking to gear up for dungeon runs, or it might just plain vendor for more than you could get from the dream shard. With the new functionality that automatically shows sell prices in the tool tips of all items, it's even easier to tell when an item is lucrative as "vendor trash."
For my part, I tend to be the type to greed lucrative-looking BoEs (or even BoPs with very high vendor values), but I don't sweat it if others do. For some people, it's not so much stretching your gold as getting the run over with so you can get to those 2 extra emblems at the end. What's your method? Do you consider the pros and cons before you hit the disenchant button, or do you prefer to just hit it and get on with the run?
Tags: disenchant, disenchant-roll, disenchanting, enchant, enchanting, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, professions, roll-to-disenchant, tradeskills, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-hot-topics, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Mar 28th 2010 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Gamer am I Mar 28th 2010 8:05AM
Luckily for me, enchanting mats are still selling for respectable money on my server. Dream Shards still go for 20g, so I'll always click DE if something sells for less than that to a vendor. As for BoE blues, I used to click greed on them, but I've come to realize something: they never sell. Auctioneer may say they sell for more than a dream shard, but that's really an irrelevant point when no one will buy them. As such, I even pick disenchant for those, too.
klink-o Mar 28th 2010 8:34AM
Same here. I pretty much just blindly hit d/e if the option is available (with the exception of boe epics). I've tried several times to sell boe blues but the fact is there's virtually no demand for them. Even worse, the deposit for listing them is often several gold, meaning even if it sells the first time you may still be losing money. Coincidentally, I just cleared out my bankers of a number of blue boe's I'd stashed away hoping they'd have more value someday. I figured they were of more use turned to dream shards to buy up the last few enchanting recipes I was missing, than rotting in the bank.
Wellsee Mar 28th 2010 12:13PM
@Klink-o: I thought (from the money columns) that if the item sells you get back the deposit.
Personally I always hit greed. I don't take the time to read the tooltips and all the BoE items I can send to my leveling enchanter.
Aloix Mar 28th 2010 3:08PM
Yes if it sells you get your deposit back, (and if you list it for a shorter time there's a lower deposit cost), but personally I'm not willing to take the risk.
I'd much rather have the shard, I can GB it, or use it for my own chanter to make some chant for personal use or a scroll for profit.
vazhkatsi Mar 28th 2010 7:22PM
shards stack, items don't so i hit D/E . except that one time when someone D/E'd an epic boe
Effreet Mar 28th 2010 8:06AM
If it's an epic bop weapon I almost always greed. They vendor for over 20g. All boes I greed too ppl buy off the ah for mucho deniro sometimes and if it doesn't sell I have the guild enchanted de it for the guild.
Vangelis Mar 28th 2010 8:09AM
I greed everything now except for bop epics where inevitably the abyss crystal will sell for more.
I never, ever DE weapons (except for the above mentioned epics. 11g for a staff is better for me than a greater essence as my GB is overflowing with most mats!
If i greed and win a green and i want in disenchanting i'll send it to my disenchanter!
Literaltruth Mar 28th 2010 8:14AM
Dream Shards on my server are now so low in value as to almost never make disenchanting a lucrative option on anything that doesn't have purple text. It was only in the last week or so I noticed this and stopped mindlessly clicking on Disenchant. On my toons that can DE things themselves I automatically greed since I will always have the option later - but even on my non-enchanters on BoPs, the vendor price is almost always higher than the Dreamshard sale price so I'll have a look at the tooltip and usually always greed.
With BoEs I will also always greed. I tend not to sell them on the AH since it seems that very few people are buying these days - and who can blame them really, with relatively fast dungeon queues (yes, even for DPS - it's a lot slower than Tanking or heals, but it's still faster than the old system of hanging about in a city spamming trade for hours trying to get a group for anything except the daily heroic) and T9 in a matter of days noone really wants an old 200-level blue that they'll probably come accross during their own dungeon grinding and will probably be allowed to need on since noone really cares that much. Therefore I greed and vendor BoEs as well (and these have the advantage that if they do have a low vendor sale price, I can send them to my DE-er to shard instead. I do tend to have one or two alts levelling up though, so I might keep something if I think "That'll do for my rogue in 20 levels or so".
People really should keep abreast of the prices of Dream Shards and compare them to vendor prices.
Bonksy Mar 28th 2010 8:15AM
Being the enchanter people abuse for this 'feature' (I'm not bitter, honest) I always disenchant everything I can't use for the mats I actualyl use for my profession, greed something if it's offspec, and need it for main spec. Although it's been a long time since I've needed an item in a heroic for main spec.
Microtonal Mar 28th 2010 2:30PM
I'm an enchanter, and I have six 80s to kit out. The mats are far more valuable to me than the relative pittance I could get from vendoring or AHing dungeon drops. There are easier ways to get gold, anyway. You get more just as a reward for completing the dungeon than you could get selling off a BoE blue.
Priestess Mar 29th 2010 4:26AM
This. Exactly what they both said. As an enchanter, if I'm in a random that's all pug, I don't even look before I push DE, it's like it's automatic, some invisible force causing me to DE everything in my path. However, this changes if I'm running with guildies or friends who may need things, in which case I still don't look before I push, but I push Greed instead of DE in case I can hand it off to them, and I can always DE it later. But either way, yeah.... nothing to decide here. Time to move on to something more important, like healing that PuG....
Hal Mar 28th 2010 8:21AM
I have a rule for myself to make it simple: DE blues that vendor for less than 5g, and DE purples that vendor for less than 10g. BoEs don't even factor in anymore.
While my threshold for abyss crystals might be a bit lower than the AH price on my server, there's no chance I'm going to end up selling any of those mats, and my rule has allowed me to stockpile a nice stack of the things anyhow, so I'm not particularly fussed about it either way.
I always scratch my head, though, when I see people get a dream shard out of a blue weapon that would vendor for 20g+. They could buy four of the things for that price!
Numb Mar 28th 2010 8:29AM
I have a pretty simple rule - I DE all greens and all BoP blues/purples (at least on all of my chars that outgear the dungeon drops), and I Greed on all BoE blues/purples. Of course, since I myself have an enchanter, it's no big deal if I happen to have picked up the rare blue that *doesn't* sell respectably.
Snuzzle Mar 28th 2010 10:33AM
For the first few weeks of the random dungeons, I refused to even play my enchanter in randoms due to not wanting to give others a free reign over my profession. When I was on other toons, I clicked greed out of principle.
Eventually though, I just got sick of it because no one understood why I was doing it, and I was getting sick of the "helpful" comments of "You know we can auto DE those now, right?"
Plus, it wasn't having any effect. Blizz isn't keeping track of how many people click DE vs Greed/Need. It was a pointless protest. Clearly, the auto-DE feature was here to stay.
However, I still don't click DE all the time for BoPs, even on my non-enchanter. Why? If there's a lower geared hybrid class in the group with me, and it looks like it might be an upgrade for him, I'll hold off so as to avoid accidentally sharding an off-armor upgrade.
I also don't DE lower level greens (generally, level 58 and below). Most of the time, they even vendor for more than the enchanting mats would AH for, and a lot of times the greens themselves sell well on the AH. Plus I know they're helping equip a lowbie. Even if it's a crappy plate item of the Whale, it will oftentimes vendor for more than the dust would AH for. I notice a lot of people's automatic reaction is to click DE though even at that level. *shrug*
Snuzzle Mar 28th 2010 10:35AM
Replying to the wrong post FTL. I was originally going to reply that I do the same as you with a minor change, then branched off bunches. Sorry.
sonatasun Mar 29th 2010 10:29AM
This reply is to the protest comment above. I too, am an enchanter. And I too, do not think well of extending to others the disenchanting privilege I worked to achieve. Blizzard has marginalized this profession.
One, this addition to the game ruined the auction value of the mats, destroying a valued income source.
It has made the profession too easy to obtain. Where I once enjoyed status in my guild as the high level enchanter with the spells and the mats, I now find several who have leveled alts in this profession for the convenience.
I would like to ask WoW.com editors to write a guide on enchanting to guide us in dealing with this change.
Signed,
"Nerfed Enchater"
Sel Mar 28th 2010 8:34AM
I usually click DE for BoE blues just because I can never sell them on the AH, so they end up getting vendored. I'd rather have the shard than the 5g or so that I would get from the vendor. The only time I'd hit greed is if the item might be useful to an alt that is still gearing up.
Abyss Crystals sell for around 30-35g each on my server, so it's worth it to DE the BoP epics that would vendor for 20g or higher. I have hit greed on certain weapons before though when I just want to get the gold right away.
jjtwalton Mar 28th 2010 8:48AM
The stupid thing is that you can Greed some whack EPIC cloth hat and get 4g for it and Greed a UNCOMMON 2H Axe and get 13g for it. It's really messed up. There are add-ons for picking the most valuable vendor item and the whole looting economy is out of proportion.
Anyway, my rogue is a Disenchanter, so anything that drops on my Main or Alts that is BoE I send to her... I normally Greed plate and DE anything else...
Let's face it.. if your bank account is so low that the extra couple of gold a run makes a difference, then you're in financial trouble anyway, wow-speakingly. The amount of times my bags have been full and someone else has looted 'MY' vendor junk sword that sells for 4g or so is shocking. I call them Vendorninjas. Took me a while, but I coined that phrase!
Axel Harris Mar 28th 2010 8:47AM
I'm sure it differs from person to person. But I never really find my self in a position where I can't use a dream shard or abyss crystal for some enchant I need on my person. I don't come across enchanters often enough and win the rolls often enough to find myself in a position where I'm overflowing with enchanting items.
relmatos Mar 28th 2010 9:01AM
I dont sell shards or any other enchanting mats on the AH so I dont really care.
My rule is simple. If the blue item sells for over 7Gold, Greed. otherwise, disenchant. For epics the rule is 16G.