Herding Elekks

So, unlike a lot of people, I actually do a certain amount of farming in part of my gold-making system. This is mainly because I still don't have a ton of capital, but it's also because I actually kind of like farming.

One thing I often farm for myself is Essence of Air. This is one of the elemental items from Classic WoW and is used in two major heirloom/twink enchanting recipes: Enchant Weapon - Agility (rogues, enhancement shamans, hunters) and Enchant 2H Weapon - Agility (cat and bear feral druids). Both of these recipes come from the Timbermaw Furbolg faction, and only require Honored reputation to get.

Back before I had an enchanter who could make these recipes, I often farmed Essence of Air and just sold it on the AH. On my server it can sell from anywhere from 60g to 125g per.

The reason it sells for so much is because it is kind of a pain to farm. The best place for Essence of Air is in The Crystal Vale in Silithus. This is a 55-58 zone. The mobs that drop the item are called Dust Stormers. They are around level 55. (If you are leveling 55-58 in Silithus, you'll want to know that a type of mob called Cyclone Warrior found further south in the zone also drops Essence of Air.)


A map of my farming location. I ignore the zone full of Earth elementals, and farm the air elementals and thorium

Before the Shattering, there would occasionally be a small elemental invasion event here on a semi-regular basis, and those mobs dropped Essence of Air at a much greater rate. However, that has been removed from the game, and now we are left with the air elementals that are always there. Farming for 30 minutes (the length of a Seal) usually nets me around 6 essences (I've gotten as few as 4 and as many as 10 in this time), but like all random drops, it's very RNG dependent.

However, keep in mind that I am not always farming the air elementals there during that time. While I'm in this location, I also mine every thorium node I see.


A short breakdown of what I might do with spoils from mining thorium:
uses: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Mining. Can also benefit from, but does not require: Skinning

1. Arcane Crystals I mined from Thorium nodes are sent with an equal number of Thorium Bars to my transmute spec alchemist to create Arcanite Bar. Arcanite Bar can be sold as is, or combined with Dense Stone by a Blacksmith to make Arcanite Rod.

2. Simple gems (Azerothian Diamond, Huge Emerald, Large Opal, etc.) looted from nodes mined are put on the AH for leveling jewelcrafters to buy and use in craftable jewelery.

3. Dense stone is sent to Blacksmith to be turned into Dense Grinding Stone. These are either combined with Arcanite Bar to make Arcanite Rod (see above), or can be turned in at the Darkmoon Faire for tickets to redeem for a chance at rare crafting patterns.

4. If I have more than 2-3 stacks of ore, at least half of the remaining thorium is smelted into bars and sent to Blacksmith. Blacksmith crafts Enchanted Thorium Blades. (This recipe also requires Enchanted Thorium Bar and Rugged Leather, which I usually just buy on the AH. If Dream Dust is too expensive to make your own Enchanted thorium, you can buy the 2 bars needed for each blade on the AH. Since making Enchanted Thorium can be used to level Enchanting, the bars are often available for cheaper than the raw mats.) These are then disenchanted into Greater Eternal Essence, or occasionally Illusion Dust, or more rarely a Large Brilliant Shard. These are either sold directly on the AH or used in heirloom/twink enchanting scrolls. (This is actually a fairly decent method for gold neutral to gold positive leveling of Blacksmithing from 300-340, by the way. This also allows you to almost entirely skip Outland mats.)

5. The remaining thorium is either smelted into bars or left as ore and sold on the AH. If I have a great deal of Thorium, I sell some as bars and some as ore simultaneously.

The Thorium Brotherhood is a faction from the original WoW game, and it used to be really tedious and expensive to get. Some people on Wowhead used to suggest that this rep should have been part of the Insane in the Membrane grind.

Except now it is both easy and worthwhile to take a little bit to get this reputation to at least Revered.

A lot of people in the blogosphere have discussed this, but the reason you want Thorium Brotherhood reputation is simple: +22 Intellect to weapon. Back when heirloom weapons were first introduced, the ideal enchants for the caster weapons were Spellpower or Healing Power. But with class mechanics changes from patch 4.0 forward, the +22 Int enchant is now the Best in Slot enchant for caster heirlooms. (Or casters in the 19 or 29 twink bracket.)

So, how do you get this reputation? There are two methods, and I'll discuss them both, as well as how to get the formula once you have the needed rep!

( read on... )

Enjoy your shiny new heirloom enchant!

I don't do a whole lot in the enchanting market, but getting my enchanter to 300 enchanting was a great decision! Here's what I'm making gold on:

Materials
Even if you aren't making gold selling the actual enchants, you can always make gold selling materials to people making the enchants!

- Large Brilliant Shard: These are used for a number of the best heirloom weapon enchants, and since The Shattering changed the level of Stratholme, these aren't as frequently farmed as they used to be. Right now, the best source of these is Lower Blackrock Spire and Upper Blackrock Spire. However, if you are like me and don't have an enchanter capable of soloing level 55-60 instances, look into killing The Behemoth a few times. He drops a BoE blue that always disenchants into a Large Brilliant Shard.

- Greater Eternal Essence: The recommended source for these if you have a Blacksmith is to just craft and disenchant Enchanted Thorium Blades. (Especially while leveling BS from 300-340 or so.) Your other option is to farm UBRS and LBRS for green drops.

- Small Radiant Shard: They don't sell for as much the others, but I've found I go through quite a few of them. The best place to farm these is now Scholomance.

- The drop rates for items like Essence of Undeath and Essence of Air, used in heirloom enchants, have dropped substantially. The prices aren't particularly high on my server, but check your own and see if they're worth farming. (Essence of Undeath can be farmed in Stratholme and Scholomance, Essence of Air can still be farmed in Silithus, although at a much lower drop rate.)


Formulas That Drop
Don't have an enchanter, but still want in on the heirloom/twink enchant gold? Here are some enchanting formulas:

- Enchant Weapon: Lifestealing. This is farmable off the Spectral Researchers in the first room of Scholomance. The drop rate is pretty good. Generally, the formula sells for about 20g on my server. In my experience, the formula has dropped at least once every time I've gone in to clear that room out.

- Enchant Weapon: Fiery Weapon. This drops off Pyromancer Loregrain in Blackrock Depths. If you're going to be in the area (farming The Behemoth, attuning to Molten Core, visiting the vendor in the Grim Guzzler, smelting some Dark Iron at the Black Forge), swing by and kill him. This recipe has about a 15% drop rate, and both the formula and the enchant sell frequently on my server.

- World Drops. Enchant Weapon - Crusader is (apparently?) now a world drop. It is also pretty much the best BoA weapon enchant for strength-using classes. The formula now sells for tons of gold. If you're lucky enough for it to drop for you, I'd recommend selling the formula. Enchant Chest - Greater Stats seems to be a drop from high level Outland mobs.


Scrolls I've Been Selling That You Might Not Be
- Enchant Weapon - Fiery Weapon. Is it the best enchant? No, but it's cheap. It takes just one Essence of Fire (super cheap with everyone who's farming Molten Core for Thunderfury/Sulfuras) and four Small Radiant Shards. On my server, this sells for about 75-85g per scroll.

- Enchant Gloves - Minor Haste. This is wicked on extremely low level characters. (I've heard of people enchanting one pair of white gloves with this and just passing them around to all their toons.) The materials are 2 Wildvine and 2 Large Radiant Shard. If you see these items cheap on your server, or just happen to have a few lying around, go ahead and craft one or two of these to test the waters on your server.


Scrolls that aren't selling
- Enchant Boots - Minor Speed. I thought this one might sell for low-level PvP twinks, but there are so few of them, it's not worth it to craft this, and no one else really cares. (PvP twinks who are slightly higher level may prefer some Outland level enchants which give run speed and stat boosts.)

- Enchant Weapon - Healing Power. Why? With the changes to class mechanics in 4.0, this (and Enchant Weapon - Spellpower) are no longer BiS for caster heirloom weapons. (More on this below!)


Enchants I don't have, but hear sell well
I have no experience trying to sell these enchants, but I thought I'd talk about them!

- Enchant Weapon - Mighty Intellect. This is the new BiS caster BoA enchant. The formula is BoP and can be bought from Lokhtos Darkbringer in the Grim Guzzler in Blackrock Depths if the purchaser has Revered reputation with the Thorium Brotherhood. Getting this level of rep with Thorium Brotherhood is not nearly as difficult/expensive as it used to be. Completely questing through Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes should get you either Revered or close to with the Brotherhood.

- Enchant Weapon - Agility and Enchant 2H Weapon - Agility. Again, with the changes to class mechanics, these are really good enchants. These can be bought from Meilosh in Timbermaw Hold if you have Friendly(2h)/Honored(1h) reputation with the Timbermaw Furbolgs. This is actually much easier than it used to be, and can be achieved largely through doing all the Timbermaw quests in Felwood. (And maybe the ones in Winterspring.)

- Enchant Cloak - Stealth. This is basically the enchant all melee will want for their heirloom cloaks if they bother to enchant them. The formula, sadly, requires Exalted reputation with the Cenarion Expedition in Outland, which means your toon will need to be part of a 70 PvE guild, or high enough level to solo the dungeons in Coilfang Reservoir. (This is possible for nearly all 85s)

- Enchant Cloak - Subtlety. This is the enchant casters will want to put on their heirloom cloaks. It requires Exalted reputation with either Thrallmar or Honor Hold, which means your toon will need to be high enough level to be able to solo the dungeons in Hellfire Citadel. (Possible for nearly all 85s.)

- Enchant Weapon - Mongoose is still beloved, and if Karazhan wasn't largely soloable for your enchanter's class in Wrath of the Lich King, if you've leveled that enchanter to 85, it is now. (Yes, even the chess event, although that takes a bit of strategy and a lot of luck.)

- I've also heard some folks talking about weapon enchants from Wrath of the Lich King, like Berserking, being good sellers, but I have no experience with people who use these enchants.


What low-level enchants are selling well on your server?