The vicious race for Primal Nether
Primal Nether is one of the items on nearly every crafter's most wanted list. This primal is used in 77 tailoring, leatherworking and blacksmithing recipes, including most of the BOE epic gear available and the blacksmith's upgradable weapons. (And apparently one boot enchant. Woo!) However, Primal Nether is a bind-on-pickup item that's hard to farm. It has a small chance to drop off the last boss during normal level 70 instances, and a 100 percent chance to drop during the last boss of heroic modes.
As you may imagine, this has caused some problems for people with hard-to-find BOE recipes. The crafter has to farm the primal nether themselves, even if they have people who are willing to buy their items and supply the rest of the mats. This does let the crafter charge exorbitant prices for their items, but it's hard on the leatherworker/tailor who wants to make cheap armor for their friends or guildmates, particularly since they may be rolling against five other people for the one primal nether drop in the heroic instance they're running.
As a leatherworker friend of mine said, "I have three recipes and like 15 people waiting in line for the items. Getting heroics for one is a pain, and they don't drop that frequently in normal." It's also tough for people who want to have their items crafted for them, because they'll be standing at the back of my friend's 15-person line and probably paying a hefty surcharge for her time.
So what to do? Making primal nethers BOE would make them the new Pristine Hide of the Beast -- everyone would roll on them just to make some extra cash in the AH. My leatherworking pal suggested that the Nethers should also have a 30 to 50 percent chance to drop off of other bosses in Heroic mode instances, so they'd still be tough to get but not as dependent on five people who all want one item making it to the end of an instance without ripping each other's throats out. Another possibility would be to use Primal Nether as an enchanting-like item. You could trade all your mats to the crafter, they could craft a "unforged" or "unsewn" item, and you could use your own soulbound Primal Nether on the item in the "Do Not Trade" window to make it into your epic. Or, of course, it could be fine the way it is.
Have you had trouble getting Primal Nethers, or are you enjoying the new mechanic? As an alchemist, I personally don't know too much about them -- I just pass and let the crafters fight it out.
