Gold Capped: The market for enchanting mats for BoA gear
by Basil Berntsen 
Mar 18th 2011 at 8:00PM
A long-running, profitable business is selling enchanting scrolls that can be put on BoA gear. These all have no minimum level, since BoA gear is considered level 1, which means they typically take lower-level enchanting mats. Some good examples of these mats are Large Brilliant Shards and Greater Eternal Essences, which are used for a bunch of enchants like Crusader and Spellpower.
The price for these mats have gone up quite a bit on most realms since Cataclysm, and the reason is clear: The ilevels of the drops in Stratholme were reduced in patch 4.0.1, and the drops in there no longer disenchant into the same mats.
Farming Stratholme
Before Wrath of the Lich King, these mats were not as heavily in demand as they are now. The only use for the old enchants was for twinks, but the supply was equally low. Wrath brought BoA gear, which helped demand, as well as a lot more people farming Strat. The prices went way down as more and more people farmed that place, and the fact that the last boss dropped a mount just added to it.
There are, however, no longer any drops in Strat that disenchant into these mats. I think the best deal I got on the Large Brilliant Shards was 10 stacks at 30g per stack -- but these days, I'm lucky to find any quantity on the AH for under 20g per unit.
Supply and demand?
The demand is still there. These enchants are selling better than ever, but the farther we get into this expansion, the fewer mats are in peoples' stockpiles left over from Wrath. What this means is that eventually, once all the leftover stock is used up, the price for mats for these enchants will be considerably higher than it currently is.
Strat wasn't the only place to get these mats, but it was the most popular place. You can find things that disenchant into Large Brilliant Shards in Scholomance, Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Silithus, and Dire Maul. None of these places are nearly as farmable as Strat was, but they do represent a fair slice of content.
Generally, I suspect that unless the price for these mats gets so high that it's worth farming for, the majority of supply for the mats will come from people doing that content with a character that happens to be able to disenchant. Unfortunately, there is no cheaply craftable blue gear that you can disenchant. This will push the price for the enchant scrolls higher, which will lower the number sold. Eventually, this will balance out the reduced supply until we have a new equilibrium.
Check your bags
I discovered about 20 stacks of shards in a guild bank I use for long-term storage. I had completely forgotten about them until a good friend suggested I look around my storage, and at 400ish gold per stack now, I'm making a great profit selling them. It's well worth checking your own storage to see whether you have any of these left over.
I am also watching the auction house hoping to snag some of these for less than they end up being worth. Flipping is always a risk, but I think that unless Blizzard introduces some other source for these, the final price will be higher than I'm currently paying.
If you do decide to try your hand at flipping these mats, be careful not to get caught paying too much for them. The price will eventually settle down once the sources for mats and scroll market balance out, but there's no way to know what that will mean in terms of gold per item until it happens. A good rule of thumb is to not buy mats above the point where they would be profitable in a scroll now. It's probably safe to assume that the average scroll selling price won't go down in the long run, as inflation and scarcity of mats will help keep them up.
Maximize your profits with more advice from Gold Capped as well as the author's Call to Auction podcast. Do you have questions about selling, reselling and building your financial empire on the auction house? Basil is taking your questions at basil@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Noyou Mar 18th 2011 8:18PM
Actually the item level depends on the enchant and the BoA item. With the 1-80 BoA's you can enchant them when they become lvl appropriate (Heavy Borean armor kits for example). I have seen people with +SP and +agility on theirs as well. They also changed items that used to require a 1H or 2H to go on both. I only tried to enchant my 1-85 Cloak but it wouldn't take it so I do not know what if any enchants can go on those. I am thinking they are coded differently.
Minstrel Mar 18th 2011 9:10PM
The ilevel as far as Blizzard is concerned is always 1 for hierlooms. This was a reason why freshly level-capped players were well-advised to find replacements for their heirlooms as quickly as possible, because the ilevel restrictions on getting into heroics didn't count heirlooms as anything above level 1, nerfing your overall ilevel.
I recently tried to put Mongoose on a weapon for my level 50 rogue (Mongoose requires a level 30 or higher weapon) and it wouldn't work, despite the dagger acting as a level 50 weapon.
The reason why it's coded like this is obvious: a level 85 could put a max level enchant on an heirloom and then send it to an alt. That would hugely overpower the heirloom.
Minstrel Mar 18th 2011 9:16PM
Sorry, to amend my comment, Mongoose requires a level 35 or higher weapon. It doesn't change my point, but in the interest of correct information...!
Bapo Mar 18th 2011 10:05PM
For heirloom cloaks, I know I've seen Subtlety on one, and I'm using +3 agi on mine (don't have subtlety yet).
And I don't think there's anything you can put on the helmet, granted, the stats on it even at lvl 1 are beastly. And it seems that at 85, the plate helmet probably would rank as a 320 something for 85. (My pally is still using the Redsteel Helm or whatever it's called)
Eyhk Mar 18th 2011 10:19PM
Heirlooms can only be enchanted with enchants that do not have a level restriction regardless of your level or the person putting on the enchant as the heirlooms have a permanent ilevel of 1 no matter what. There were some BC rep enchants that did not have a level requirement where you could apply it using a high level toon and then send it to your low level toon but it's been awhile since I've tried it so ymmv. Otherwise, you are stuck with Classic enchants only.
Priestess Mar 18th 2011 10:39PM
I've been in this market a long time. So let me clear up a few things that were somewhat ambiguous in that initial comment:
- Heirloom items are always ilevel 1, no matter what level character they are on.
- They only accept enchants that have no level restriction.
- You can only use a two-hand weapon enchant on a two-handed item, not on a one-handed item. You may use a one-hand enchant on either a one- or two-handed item.
For those who care, the best enchants for heirloom items are as follows:
Weapons:
* Enchant Weapon - Spellpower (+30 spellpower)
* Enchant Weapon - Healing Power (+29 spellpower)
* Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spirit (+20 spirit)
* Enchant Weapon - Strength (+15 strength)
* Enchant Weapon - Agility (+15 agility)
* Enchant Weapon - Crusader (proc of 75-100 healing to self and +100 strength for 15 seconds) (this effect stacks if you have two weapons with the enchant)
* Enchant Weapon - Fiery (proc of 40 fire damage
* Enchant Weapon - Icy Chill (proc of slowing target)
* Enchant 2H Weapon - Agility (+25 agility)
Chest:
* Enchant Chest - Major Health (+100 health, meaning hit points, not stamina)
* Enchant Chest - Greater Stats (+4 to all stats)
* Enchant Chest - Major Mana (+100 mana)
Cloak:
Enchant Cloak - Greater _______ Resistance (There's lots of these, but they're rare. It's usually +15 to the named resistance.)
Enchant Cloak - Resistance (+5 to all resistances)
Enchant Cloak - Stealth (Increase Agility and Dodge by 8)
Enchant Cloak - Stealth (Reduce threat from all spells and attacks by 2%)
Enchant Cloak - Superior Defence (+70 armor)
Enchant Cloak - Lesser Agility (+3 agility)
^^ This is not a complete list, and there are alternatives for a lot of these. Such as the mats for Enchant Chest - Stats (+3 stats instead of the +4) is significantly less. And it's possible I'm missing a few. I threw that list together just now, so I might have overlooked one in my haste and I might have not found one in-game yet. But that's a decent list to run with.
The only other issue you'll have if you want to sell the scrolls is finding an enchanter who has gotten enough rep with the necessary factions to get some of these, or happened to obtain the rare drop ones. If you find one who has all these, make them your friend and send them cookies along with your tip. They like it, I promise.
Priestess Mar 18th 2011 10:44PM
Dah! I did miss one.
* Enchant Weapon - Mighty Intellect (+22 intellect)
It's arguably the best for casters now, and I overlooked it. Sorry
xiani Mar 18th 2011 10:58PM
Don't forget the super-rare 'subtlety' too!
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=25084
Ok, it doesn't make make you any more powerful, but since stealth is useless for casters & healers you might as well have it at low levels if you're running dungeons, all that imba gear is going to give you lots of threat;)
Priestess Mar 18th 2011 11:02PM
Xiani, you are right. It's actually there, but I typed Stealth twice instead of Subtlety on that second one. Thank you!
Herman Mar 19th 2011 2:15AM
you can however put any level shoulder or head enchant on yout helm or shoulders, however they will remain inactive until a certain level. for instance i used the ZG enchants on all my shoulders, so that i get 30 AP starting at level 55, i also remembered to save some ZG arcanums, which curiously work for all classes, which activate at 60, if i'd been smarter and saved some of the DM Arcanums, those activate at 50 i believe.
you can also put scopes of any level on an heirloom gun, however they similarly will not activate until the indicated level.
Twill Mar 19th 2011 2:22AM
Many, MANY of you are wrong. You were once correct, but the times they are a changin'.
You can put ANY enchant on ANY Heirloom. Yea.
It just doesn't take effect until you reach X level. I leveled my Hunter while putting a new scope on his bow every few levels.
And you CAN put Helm enchants on. Its just that they don't take effect until later. I suggest the Aldor / Scryer ones. (Personally I bought Zandalari ones pre-4.0.1)
Literaltruth Mar 19th 2011 3:28AM
@Twill
No, no you can't. Scopes are different. On scopes the level req. is for the player to be x-level, not the item - so you can upgrade those as you level. Enchants, however, either have no level requirement or they require a minimum i-level of item to work. Heirlooms, even in the hands of a level 85 character, still have an ilevel of 1 (as can be seen if you show the i-lvl of items in tooltips) so they won't accept any enchants with a level requirement.
Amaxe Mar 19th 2011 9:06AM
Here's my experience:
Those who say only the enchants without a minimum item level are correct.
However, those items (including scopes) which make an item BOP will vanish when shipped between characters.
I **think** this list is still accurate:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Heirloom#Enchanting_your_Heirlooms
(The WoWpedia version of this page has eliminated the list).
Jiffah Mar 19th 2011 1:44PM
I suggest if you are leveling a rogue to use http://www.wowhead.com/item=16254 on both daggers. Quite deadly.
trefpoid Mar 18th 2011 8:50PM
Do you know where I can get Greater or Lesser Eternal Essence from? The Greater ones are at 80g each on my server and I kinda need to enchant new heirloom weapons with +30 SP..
xiani Mar 18th 2011 10:03PM
+22 int will serve you much better than the 30SP - primary stats are what it's all about now!
If you're stuck for the mats, and you know a friendly (dis)enchanter, look for weapons of lvl55+, may well be cheaper than the essences.
Eyhk Mar 18th 2011 10:21PM
Lower blackrock should have plenty of drops that de into greater eternals
Priestess Mar 18th 2011 10:52PM
Eternals drop mostly from weapons, but it can be disenchanted from green items as well.
I run Blackrock Spire (both sides) and get a lot of Runecloth and a lot of Rugged Leather (must have Skinning to get the leather, obviously). Those together with some thread make Runecloth Boots, which disenchant very nicely into Illusion Dust and Eternal Essences, with the occasional Large Brilliant Shard.
A full run of Blackrock nets me about two stacks of shards, and three or four stacks each of Illusion Dust and Greater Eternal Essences once I disenchant all the greens, make all the boots, and disenchant them too. Plus 80g in trash. And then other random stuff I can send to AH for more gold to buy more under-prices mats.
If you are just farming shards, go the the lower half of Blackrock Spire and just kill the bosses. You can walk past most mobs at 85, and a circuit of the bosses nets about 10 shards. It's much, much faster than the top half. About 20 minutes a run for me, and I'm not particularly fast.
Priestess Mar 18th 2011 10:59PM
Sorry, a little more clarification:
Great Eternal Essence disenchants more often from green quality weapons that require level 55-59 to use.
Illusion Dust disenchants more often from green-quality gear that requires level 55-59 to use.
Large Brilliant Shards will disenchant from any blue-quality item which requires level 55-59 to use. This is a guarantee.
The ilevel of the item is irrelevant, it is the level required to use it that you need to look for.
Green-level weapons and armor can both disenchant into either dust or essences, and very rarely a Large Brilliant Shard. You could also get Lesser Eternal Essences instead of greaters. It's just chance.
trefpoid Mar 19th 2011 9:10PM
Ok, thank you all very much for your answers :)