Enchanting Guide

What profession type is Enchanting?
mary. It counts against your 2 profession limit.
Service oriented really. You don’t have any product. You enhance already existing product.

What’s good about Enchanting?
You can enhance already good items to be even better, adding stats, defense, effects, and (on weapons) particle (glow) effects. Overall it allows people to customize their gear and stats to either strengthen their good attributes or lift up some that their lacking in.

What’s not so good about Enchanting?
- To get most of your components for enchants you need to disenchant (destroy) green and blue items.
- Enchanting is a service so you can’t really use the auction house for selling your skill. You’ll just have to call out in the trade channel or yell in the area that you’re doing enchantments and what kind of stuff you can do.
- As you level in enchanting you’ll find you need higher level gear to disenchant, which makes it more expensive. You’ll spend a good bit of your early levels being poor.

Disenchant, what’s that?
You get this skill at level one as soon as you tell the trainer you want to be an enchanter. It doesn’t actually have a number attached to it so even at level 1 you can break down a level 50 item into it’s enchanting components.

Components?
These are the components you use to weave your enchantments. I’ve found that there are 4 categories of items when it comes to enchanting.
- Dusts
- Essences
- Shards
- Misc.

Is there any rhyme or reason to these components?
For the most part you get dusts from disenchanting armor, essences from disenchanting weapons and shards are a rare disenchant. Also, blue items are guaranteed to drop *a* shard and purple to drop multiple shards. The miscellaneous items are usually stuff that’s procured through another tradeskill (potions – alchemy, ore - mining, etc).

So at skill level 1 I can get components to do top level enchantments?
Yes, however you won't be able to use those components until your enchanting skill rises to levels where recipes require them. Right around level 100 is where you'll find that you start needing shards then shortly after you'll start getting recipes that require astral essences instead of Magic essences. It slowly phases in then slowly proceeds, after that, to phase into the next level material.

My lesser magic essence says something about combining into a greater magic essence. What's with that?
Essences come in two versions per tier. Greater and lesser. A greater essence is just 3 lessers combined into 1. Yes you can get greaters off of a disenchant and in general I've found that combining lessers into greaters saves on space. But fear not, you can convert from lesser to greater and back again with no drawbacks.

What’s the deal with the “rods”?
These are like a reagent but they’re not consumed when you enchant something. The un-enchanted rods are procured from a blacksmith and then you enchant them (you get the recipes for them through the trainers. About every 50 points is when you get a new rod then start getting enchants that require that specific rod.

Can I be rich being an enchanter?
Well, probably at the upper levels. Low levels can only add +1 to a stat in a few armor categories. Not until you reach the 90’s can you start enchanting weapons. Even then, many people don’t want to spend the money on your enchant unless it makes their weapon glow.

How do I know what to price my enchants at?
This is going to be a good question (and a matter of perspective) for the foreseeable future. You’re components can’t be sold so there’s really no measuring stick in game outside of what people will pay. Be ready to be flexible but at the same time keep track of what the overall value of the items are that your disenchanting. This should give you a relatively good baseline.

What sells well?
Minor beast slayer is the first enchant you get that is a pretty good money maker. I didn’t have one sale until I got this formula (it’s a drop off of some mobs), definatly buy this one. Glow effects are a big demand. Me personally I go for the stats, but glowing weapons are just “cool”.

Can I stack multiple enchantments on an item?
No, only one crafted ability can be on an item at one time. This includes other professions such as leatherworking (armor patches) and blacksmithing (sheild spikes) as well. So if you go to enchant that shield and you notice a sheild spike already on there you might want to ask them if they're sure they don't want it anymore.

Man this is one seriously long FAQ, you know?
Yes, I like to type.

Ok you sold me. I trained in masochism, I mean enchanting, how do I do it now?
Well first off you need to stock up on enchanting components. Go to the vendor and buy some dust, maybe some wood and, if you’re lucky, some lesser magic essences or get yourself some green weapons/armor and disenchant them. Now press “P” and click on the enchanting. Open your inventory screen then select the enchantment you want and click enchant then click again on the equipment you want to enchant. If you’re doing this for someone else just have them open a trade window, place the item they wish enchanted in the “Will not be traded” window. Select the enchantment they want and click enchant, then click again on the item in the trade window. The text there should turn green. Once you both click accept he should get an enchanted item in his inventory and you should get a skill up.

Can any class be an enchanter?
Yes. Because we’re dependant upon drops, it’s fairly easy for anyone to be an enchanter. I just chose druid for the RP feel of it. Seemed illogical that a warrior would dabble in magically affecting gear. But that’s just personal preference.

Can I enchant soulbound items?
Yes. Just have the customer place their soulbound item in the will not be traded window.

Can I disenchant soulbound items?
Yes and No. You basically can only disenchant items in your own inventory. Other people will have to just sell (waste) their soulbound green+ items. There was a request to be able to disenchant other people's soulbound items, but the thread has dropped into obscurity.

Does enchanting make something soulbound?
None of the enchants that I’ve used so far has done that. However most folks have a good bit of gear that’s already soulbound.

Is there any level requirements for Enchanting or the Engineer levels?
- Apprentice - level 5.
- Journeyman - level 10.
- Expert - level 20.
- Artisan - level 35.
(Thanks Hokuspokus who thanks Bregar)

Ok I'm doing great getting skill up there, where do I find trainers to further the profession?
- Beginning Trainers: Can usually be found in the city you go to after leaving the newbie training grounds or major faction cities (Ironforge, Orgrimmar, Stormwind, Darnassus, Undercity, and Thunderbluff). If in doubt ask a guard in the respective city.
- Artisan Trainers (For training in Expert):
Kitta Firewind in Elwynn Forest (Tower of Azora) (A)
Hgarth in Stonetalon Mountains (H)
- Master Trainers: (For training in Artisan: Annora in Uldaman (within instance, near bats) (A/H) to get to her you go right from the "Raiders of the lost ark room". After you go right there are 3 passages you go right past a pit full of non-elites then there is a fork and go right once more. There you will fine another pit full of non-elite scorpids you have to kill them all before the trainer will come out.

What other profession should I take with Enchanting?
It's really up to the player. Many say take leatherworking, tailoring or blacksmithing as you can make green items. The downside is you have to buy your resources (leather and ore) off of other players os you're really at the mercy of the market. Leatherworking is the preffered because the resources are easier to come by (read cheaper). Many enchanters (such as myself) are mostly (or completely) funded by their guild. So in my case I took a supplying profession (skinning in my case but Herbalism and Mining work good too) to help other folks in the guild with their tradeskills.

You got something wrong on this FAQ and therefore are obviously just a newb when it comes to enchanting. How do I tell you how much I think you suck?
Email me at yousuck@Idontcare.com (apologies if this is actually a website, lol) or better yet just respond to this thread and I’ll try to keep it as up to date as I can.