Nothing has been posted about grinding through enchanting yet, so here's my
attempt.
The following is a *rough strategy* of how to skill
up in enchanting. This might not be 100% accurate, but should give
anybody a good idea of how to tackle what is the most awkward
profession in the game. In addition I am currently only level 257 in
Enchanting - so I am not prepared to comment much beyond 250!
As with all professions, enchanting definitely is easier to grind after
you have a character at level 40 or greater. This way up until level
40, you can concentrate on getting cash for your mount. For a
'support' profession, you really need one that allows you to easily
make green items. Tailoring is the most sensible, as all of the
ingredients are available as drops or vendor bought. Leatherworking
is also a very good profession for making green items, especially
higher level ones (i.e. lvl 40~55), as the requirement tends to be
leather and a few vendor materials. That said, my own preference is a
'collection' profession (Skinning, Mining, Herbalism), as you can
then sell these items for much needed cash.
As hard as I've tried, I've not been able to come up with a definitive list of what
to grind on at specific skill levels. The reason being that its
impossible to know what each individual person has in the way of
resources. A person who has access to somebody with Engineering or
Blacksmith, is likely to end up with lots of essences, whereas a
person with access to Tailoring or Leatherworking, will end up with
lots of Dust. In addition, disenchant results are slightly random -
something which generally gives Dust may suddenly give you an Essence
or even a Shard, though it doesn't happen often, it is often enough
to make life difficult to create a perfect guide (Weapons seem to be
more random than Armor).
One useful hint that I can give you is with reference to when an Enchant
initially goes from Orange to Yellow. You should still get a skill up for
the first 5/10 enchants you do. You may get one non-skill up from this 'buffer',
but its still worth doing if there are no more efficient enchants.
Endeavour to locate a *good* list of Enchants, and go from one level to the
next. Every time you hit a 'magic 5' (i.e. multiple of 5: 5, 10, 15
etc) look on the list and see if there is a more efficient item that
you could be making, often there will be.
Try to be semi-self supporting. Once you hit 150 in Enchanting, there
is no reason why you shouldn't be selling some of your enchants for around the 1g/2g
mark. This definitely helps the cash flow no end. Level 250 is where
your enchants become more popular, and you can charge a significant
chunk of money for enchants. If you get the balance right, then you
should be able to buy the raw disenchanted ingredients and break even
once you have done some enchants.
I cannot iterate the following enough, but always disenchant quest
rewards - around 50% of the time I find that they drop shards.
Although the sell price of the item seems very attractive at times,
the disenchanted items should make you more.
If you're in a guild then see if you can team up with somebody else
who wants to grind up a skill. Leatherworking is a good one. If you
pick up skinning, then give them all your leather and get them to make
up green items for you to disenchant. Both of you benefit
One other possible difficulty is trying
to get the raw rod for enchanting (e.g. copper, silver, golden,
truesilver, arcanite). My own take on this, is to try and buy all of
the ingredients to make one, and then try to find a blacksmith who is
prepared to make one. Offering double the cost of the learned
blacksmith recipe is a good idea as well, as this way the blacksmith
will make a profit even if they have had to learn the recipe.
Arcanite Rods are also very difficult to get. They require a high
level Alchemist and a high level Blacksmith, plus a dropped recipe
(Transmute Arcanite), rare resources (Arcane Crystals) - and that's
before you even get to enchant the thing. Expect to pay upwards of
100g for an Arcanite Rod.
Bear in mind as well, that the
Artisan trainer for Enchanting is within the Uldmaan Instance. This
however isn't too much of a hassle, as you can't train in Artisan
Enchanting until level 35, and that's about the right level for this
instance. Go with a level 60 friend and life will be really easy, but
if not, then go with a group and make sure that you want to stop off
there for around 10 minutes to level up enchanting. Offer the whole
group enchants that will get you skill ups if necessary! I would
recommend however, to level up to 225 before going to Uldmaan, and
taking enough resources with you to level up from 225 to 250 in the
instance. Also take about 20g with you and you can learn every
225~250 enchant that can be taught, that way you will never have to
go back into the instance. The reason for stopping at 250, is that
every enchant with a requirement beyond 250, is vendor bought or
dropped.
--
Although I can't create a definitive list
of what to do when, the following is a rough idea of what to go for.
I've concentrated on things that require Dusts as it is generally
easier to get Dust than anything else.
1~50 - Disenchant anything!
1 - Enchant Chest - Minor Health (1 x Strange Dust)
50 - Enchant Bracer - Minor Stamina (3 x Strange Dust)
80 - Enchant Bracer - Minor Strength (5 x Strange Dust)
110 - Enchant 2H Weapon - Lesser Spirit (6 x Strange Dust)
130 - Enchant Bracer - Lesser Stamina (2 x Soul Dust)
140 - Enchant Bracer - Lesser Strength (2 x Soul Dust)
160 - Enchant Chest - Greater Health (3 x Soul Dust)
170 - Enchant Boots - Lesser Stamina (4 x Soul Dust)
180 - Enchant Bracer - Strength (1 x Vision Dust)
205 - Enchant Cloak - Greater Defence (3 x Vision Dust)
210 - Enchant Shield - Stamina (5 x Vision Dust)
215 - Enchant Boots - Stamina (5 x Vision Dust)
220 - Enchant Chest - Superior Health (6 x Vision Dust)
245 - Enchant Bracer - Greater Stamina (5 x Dream Dust)
260 - Enchant Boots - Greater Stamina (10 x Dream Dust)
265 - Enchant Shield - Greater Stamina (10 x Dream Dust)
285 - Enchant Cloak - Superior Defence (8 x Illusion Dust)
Erm - Ok, you could use this as a what to grind at what level I guess :p
--
The following is a reasonable list of efficient green armor items to make
and disenchant. I've concentrated on Leatherworking and Tailoring,
for the simple reason, that I don't consider Blacksmithing and
Engineering to be very efficient as nearly all green items require
'uncommon' resources. Although alot of green Leather items require
Hides, not all do, and at higher levels the requirement for hide
drops significantly.
Strange Dust -
T30 - Brown Linen Robe (Low Yield) - 3 Bolts Linen (6) + 1 Coarse Thread
T85 - Heavy Woolen Cloak - 3 Bolts Wool (9) + 2 Fine Thread
L105 - Fine Leather Pants - 8 x Med Leather + 1 Bolt Wool (3) + 1 Fine Thread
Soul Dust -
L150 - Green Leather Armor (Vendor) - 9 x Heavy Leather + 2 x Green Dye + 4 x Fine Thread
L160 - Guardian Pants - 12 x Heavy Leather + 2 x Bolts Silk (10) + 2 x Fine Thread
T165 - Green Silk Armor (Drop) - 5 Bolts Silk (20) + 1 Silken Thread
T175 - Azure Silk Cloak (Vendor) - 3 Bolts Silk (15) + 2 Fine Thread + 2 Blue Dye
T205 - Black Mageweave Leggings - 3 Bolts Mageweave (15) + 2 Silken Thread
T205 - Black Mageweave Vest - 2 Bolts Mageweave (10) + 3 Silken Thread
Vision Dust -
L205 - Nightscape Headband - 5 x Thick Leather + 2 x Silken Thread
T210 - Black Mageweave Robe - 3 Bolts Mageweave (15) + 1 Heavy Silken Thread
T215 - Black Mageweave Gloves - 2 Bolts Mageweave (10) + 2 Heavy Silken Thread
Dream Dust -
T255 - Frostweave Robe (Drop) - 5 Bolts Mageweave (25) + 1 Rune Thread
L260 - Wicked Leather Gauntlets (Vendor) - 8 x Rugged Leather + 1 x Black Dye + 1 x Rune Thread
T265 - Runecloth Belt - 3 Bolts Runecloth (15) + 1 Rune Thread
T265 - Runecloth Gloves - 4 Bolts Runecloth (20) + 1 Rune Thread + 4 Rugged Leather
L265 - Wicked Leather Bracers (Drop) - 8 x Rugged Leather + 1 x Black Dye + 1 x Rune Thread
Good places to grind cloth (i.e. multi-drops of cloth from 1 of 3 kills or better)
I play horde so this is Horde related:
Linen - Theramore Keep (South of Ratchet)
Wool - Dunholm Keep (Hillsbrad)
Silk - Roguefury Caves (Thousand Needles)
Silk - Scarlet Monastery (Trisfal Glades)
Mageweave - Feralas (Various Ogres)
--
Overall, Enchanting can become a profitable and rewarding skill to have,
however getting to skill 300 and some of the better enchants, will take considerable
investment of cash, time and hair pulling.
One final piece is aimed at all of the buyers of enchants - please don't hassle if you
feel that an enchant is overpriced. Check out a web site and see what
actual ingredients are required for the enchant you're after. Every
shard used is effectively a blue item that wasn't sold on the AH, and
essence's come from green weapons. Some of the top level enchants
require 4 shards and a whole host of other items. If necessary
/whisper the enchanter and see what enchant they'd be prepared to do
for the price you're willing to pay. Its not your right to have an
enchant on an item, and selling enchants in a city requires the
enchanter to take time out from doing other things - *we* can't just
put our trade on the AH!
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