Thursday, May 20, 2010

Don't automatically automatically DE




A common mistake that everybody (even myself) makes from time to time is always hitting the auto DE when doing random heroics. It's a great tool and saves a ton of time and inventory space usually, but it can cost you a lot of gold over time. Ever since it's inception, the prices of shards have plummeted drastically down to as low as 2g and the prices of crystals have mostly become very stable at 30g high end with a normal 25g buying price. I'm almost positive that 99% of every server out there has these materials in the same general price range. However you might be on that one random server that this doesn't apply to, in which case you can just ignore most of my advice today, but only today!

When going through you're daily heroic, lets say that it was UK and on the first boss the blue wand drops. There's an enchanter in the group. The auto DE feature looks mighty appealing. But first, why don't you check the vendor price on it? That's 11 gold from a vendor while the shard you'd get from the DE roll is 5g at BEST. Congrats, you just doubled your potential money by spending 3 seconds to mouse over the item and read the vendor price on the tool tip. There's a very large number of blues to be found that are better off in the hands of a vendor rather than an enchanter. Mostly these are weapons and shields that vendor for up to 15g a piece, but there's a few select armor pieces that are worth vendoring as well.

As for abyss crystals, I haven't seen many epics with a power vendor price more than the crystal, but there's a few I'm sure. Most notably is the spear and 2h axe from H ToC 5 along with the caster staff in heroic PoS. Though in their cases, the 1-4 gold you can get past the price of a crystal might not be worth it on your server. But if yours is anything like mine and you can get crystals for 25g and under fairly easily, definitely power vendor them purples. If you happen to be leveling a new alt and gearing them in chain heroics and the like, make sure to keep this in mind.

Also if you just happen to be questing for lore master or leveling up in general, keep an eye on the vendor price of the greens you pick up that are BoE, especially weapons of any kind. For me, my buying price of greater cosmics is 15g, maybe maybe as high as 16 if I'm desperate. But when I see a green at a 13g vendor price and is likely to give me 1.5 LESSER cosmics, well, that goes to the vendor. You'll find tons and tons of greens that you should vendor and not disenchant across all of northrend and sometimes even outland. Not so much in outland though as the price of dust is almost always 2.5g a piece and that's a ton of gold you can get from DE'ing those greens.

So keep all of this in mind when you're out and about doing stuff to things. You might find your pockets a little bit heavier on the way back.


Thanks for stopping by!

4 comments:

  1. This is quite true. Since the introduction of the DE feature I have only been greeding on everything and then taking the time to DE if worth it. Asides from more gold in the pockets, I like to see what I looted in an evening of wow instead of just a bunch of shards and dusts...

    Good Day,
    Mulegirl

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  2. I'm always amused watching people hitting DE when a blue staff or two-hander drops. Really? Really? You could buy 10 shards with that gold. Greens I will DE always, because dust and essence are priced way above the vendor prices and you have a shot at 7 dust in most cases. Our going price is about 1.75-1.99g per dust and 12-16g per essence. When you have a chance at 2-3 Greaters, it adds up.

    Excellent tip for people on the quest junk, I usually consult WoWhead to see what it disenchants to if it's at that ilvl cusp. But otherwise, I always mouse the vendor prices.

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  3. As a rule of thumb, I greed on blues and DE the greens. One of my level 80's is leveling enchanting, so I'm trying to stockpile northrend enchanting mats for when I'm in that level range of enchanting (340 currently and hating life)

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  4. @ Mulegirl
    I'm the same way in that I like to actually see what I got, not just a bunch of numbers and piles of stuff. For some reason adding that touch of extra work helps to cement it a bit better in my mind and lets me keep track of it all a bit better.

    @ Zero
    The basic rule of thumb is if you're in a heroic, auto DE every green. The 'high level' greens are the ones that give lots of DE mats and that's all you'll find in a heroic. But mobs in the world are the ones you'll want to double check to make sure.

    @ Ice
    I always check on blues since I almost never run heroics on my enchanter these days. Hell some BoE's are worth it to DE or vendor as nobody buys them. Basically any lower level blue that's BoP is vendor food I believe.

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