To Enchant Or Not To Enchant?
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Monday, August 18, 2008 - 18 Comments Tags: Alt, Rogue, enchant, enchanting, gold, leveling, rant
iTZKooPA on Monday, August 18, 2008 - 18 Comments Tags: Alt, Rogue, enchant, enchanting, gold, leveling, rant 
So you have finally hit level 70 on your alt, or perhaps it is your main. As you begin to run the 5-man content while trying to get into Karazhan and doing PvP in between it dawns on you that most of your gear lacks enchantments. Whatever shall you do?Most players will quickly look-up what materials are required for class-appropriate enchantments, only to be shocked or annoyed at how much the enchantments will cost them. For this discussion we will focus on weapon enchants, generally the most expensive and often the most important.
Being a melee class character - a Rogue to be exact - Mongoose is the best enchantment, its tooltip reads "to occasionally increase Agility by 120 and attack speed slightly." Yum. But here's the catch, the materials are expensive, costing:
- 6 x Void Crystal
- 10 x Large Prismatic Shard
- 8 x Greater Planar Essence
- 40 x Arcane Dust
Not to mention the fact that you have to find someone to do this for you, which may cost you a little extra.
Well maybe Mongoose is a bit nuts, after all you did just hit 70 and are likely to replace your gear soon. So how about Executioner which will allow you "to occasionally ignore 840 of your enemy's armor." Not to shabby in this day where bear tanks easily have over 16,000 armor. Materials for this one? Not much different:
- 6 x Void Crystal
- 10 x Large Prismatic Shard
- 6 x Greater Planar Essence ( - 2 GPE)
- 30 x Arcane Dust (-10 AD)
- 3 x Elixir of Major Strength (+3 Elixirs)
This begs the question, to enchant or not to enchant?
The benefits of such should be readily obvious, you get a boost in selected stats but at what cost? A character in my predicament, just hit 70 with some basic Karazhan and PvP gear, will easily replace much of their gear in a the coming weeks. So should they waste all of those mats on a high end enchant? Probably not and the drawbacks aren't horrible.
Lower stats mean lower DPS in my case, or lower healing or crappier tanking in other cases, but not matter what the reduction is by an incredibly small percentage. Of course, we cannot forget the endless ridicule that may ensue fromguildmates or persons in your party. Avoiding the constant teasing could make the decision for you.
There is one other route, a compromise of sorts. Instead of getting a high end enchant like Mongoose or Executioner on my Emerald Ripper - an item easily replaced - I will get a medium grade enchant. Therefore I have SOMETHING which will help me avoid some ridicule while gaining SOME stats but not "wasting" obtuse amounts of gold on mats. One could argue that I should just save that gold to put into the high end enchant later, but then we get into a vicious cycle and I hate those. As for my Merciless Gladiator's Shiv? Well, it won't be replaced nearly as quickly as the Ripper, so Executioner it is.
This was my first post here at ProjectLore.com. Was it good for you?
Reader Comments (18)
I found it pretty simple to decide whether to enchant or not. If it was from Kara or up, I enchanted it with a nice enchant. If it wasn't, then I didn't bother. Of course it helped that i could enchant my own gear at 375 Enchanting, but I still think its a good rule of thumb.
Now this wouldn't necessarily apply to every piece of Kara gear. For example, I enchanted my Uni-Mind Headdress one week, then got my T4 helm the next. If you see a better drop directly in your future, don't bother. But lets say I hadn't enchanted my Staff of Infinite Mysteries. That would be a loss of 40 spell damage, and I may not have had the spell damage required to go with my guild and down Void Reaver, continuing to improve my gear.
A quick tip if your planning to get a mid-level enchant: find someone at 350 or below to give it to you. The generally don't need tips and they are actually gracious, as you are helping them level enchanting.
By the way, good first post iTZKooPA
Couldn't agree more with this article!!
Good call and especially helpful to those who haven't been playing long!!
It's simple economics. If you can afford to, sure why not. Afterall, by the time you can run a number of dailies, raising gold is not a complicated task.
Although obviously if you think you might get something drastically better within a short period of time, that no longer makes economical sense. Question is how long do you want to wait for something better to drop for you?
Unless you happen to be an enchanter with a load of stocked up mats to spare... In the end the answer is really "it depends".
Yeah thx for this artical it will help me when I get to 70
btw who are you? New staff to Projectlore or something?
@Grant:
Yes, I started today.
Thanks for the comments guys.
Good first post, buddy. I like Gilnid's idea; that's a good way of looking at it, I'll be using that measuring stick I think!
Look forward to hearing more from you, iTZKooPA, even though I have an intense hatred for Gnome Rogues and random capitalization =D
yea, i misread your name, you will be forever known to me as ITK Palooza.
As a healer, if you want into kara, it is a nescessity when starting out to beef up your heals as much as possible.
Back when i was RL, i would demand everyone keep their weapons enchanted - if you prepare and are aware, it is VERY easy to get mats ready.
While levelling 60-70, do not vendor ANY GREENS. AH ones with good stats (Monkey, Bandit, Soldier, to name a few) and get the rest DE'd by a friend (if you dont have a friend who is an enchanter, go make one!).
This will give you a solid stockpile of Planars / Dust.
With a half decent group, a decent amount of kara loot will be DE'd, so Void Crystals can be obtained - and remember, 1xVoid Crystal, can become 2xLarge Pris. Shard :)
also, Voids DE out of Heroic epics also, so you can get a headstart, if you get lucky on rolls, or if your running with your guild and let them know you need them.
Just a quick point on the statement about druid bear-form armor: It’s not uncommon for a druid in PVP gear to have 16k armor in any spec (feral/bal/resto) without even specing into the improved armor (Thick Hide). Bear tanks are another story, they can easily get close to the armor cap or more (30k+ armor) with just teir 4 and some badge gear, that’s a bit more than your 16k estimate. :)
Back to the enchants…
Mongoose on both hands as a rogue.
Executioner on 2-handers for warriors.
If you’re cheap do savagery (70ap) or Agility, but you might as well save up for the best and skip the middle step.
How do you apply to be a writer for PL?
The default answer should always be yes, always enchant. The choice is what enchant to use. In most items their is a simple side-grade or alternate that you can use if you are soon to be replacing the item in question. Start farming and gathering the mats too, as when the upgrade drops, you'll want to use it at its highest potential asap.
In an ideal world no 70 who runs instances should be without enchantments and upgrades on their gear. Its like going running without sneakers and an ipod.
Good article - good information - but since you asked if it was good and that it's your first article I'll critique a bit more.
The second sentence is a run-on and I noticed a couple typos. I would read over it a few times before you publish the next post.
Otherwise, like I said... good stuff. Keep on writing. I'll repeat John's question : How do you apply to be a writer for PL?
I would be interested in writing as well as that is my general job to begin with, I'm a writer by trade anyway so why not get to write for something I'm crazy about rather than long ass novels that might or might not get published and little contests and magazine's here and there? Though I suppose you would have to live in LA?
I always DE when I'm out with my guild and let them know when I'm saving up to get a good Enchantment. That's what I did for my main and what I'm gonna do for my twink here soon, she's almost there! ^^ Though I also had a friend that would do it for me, an ex boyfriend but that's a long story, and so that was a big help when he was trying to get his Pali healer points.
I would say... enchant only when you need to if you don't have the loot for it. Plus once you get to the instances there are a lot of drops that will help you out, so if you can handle being slightly down there in DPS then do it, though not if you're a healer. If you're a healer do everything you can to get your stats up, pronto, you are the glue that holds a team together, same for the tank.
But if you have the loot, if you've planned ahead like a good little WoWer then you should be good.
When you ding 70, dps don't have to really bother with enchants, and to a lesser extent, healers. The 1st step is Heroics, then Kara - and both can get in if the guild is there to support them.
Tanks, however, are a different story. They MUST enchant each blue piece of gear they get, then the 1st drop from kara, then the badge piece that replaces it, etc..etc.
If you roll with a tank in blues in heroics or kara, you can often tell he/she knows what they are doing if they are fully enchanted. If not, /leavegroup.
Well....I would say that enchants is rly important.....especialy weap enchants.....Its rly sweet to have alot of enchants.....Like....I think that maybe 100-200 (Im enha shamy) of my atp is from enchants....its rly sweet
@The people who wanna try their hand at writing:
You can apply for spec guides at the bottom of the frontpage.
Try Having 2 healer classes. I have a Shaman and a Druid healer and i have spent over 1200g each on only the Bracer +30 heals, Gloves +35 heals and the wep +81 heals. Not to mention that 455g each on the leg enchant +66 heals and +20 stam. thats 1655g + Tips on 4 enchants for 1 char . I also have a prot war and a warlock. Expensive
I have a question. I'm a feral druid and practically live in cat/bear form. My GL is an enchanter and has been getting some awesome weapon enchants that make me want to say 'pleeeaassee enchant my weapon NOW!'. Only thing is I'm not sure if a weapon enchant would really work for me when in cat/bear form. Can you still lifesteal, or whatever, even if you're not actually hitting them with your staff? Is it worth getting your weapon enchanted if you're going to be in animal form ALL the time?
Thanks,
-Swift-
Swift, atm only options for 2h weapons for cat/bear druids are +35 Agility (first choice), or Savagery (70ap, cheaper, but 2nd choice).
Potency (20 strength on a 1h weapon) is also reasonable, but only if you have a 1h weapon, and happen to want strength.