Insider Trader: Some disenchanted evening
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling and using player-made products.
A handful of my guildies and I rerolled early this week on a new-to-us server for a new-to-us type of game play (and yes, I'm exhausted from the whole "Just let me do this last turn-in over here, oh and here are the last six mobs for that collect quest, and then I gotta train, and then top off a few points in fishing ..." thing until 2 a.m. – I'll be needing all the Night Dragon's Breath Dip I can get to make it through the tail end of the work week). I can verifiably report that we have indeed discovered the promised land: a mature, friendly and humorous server population. (And no, I won't tell you which server we chose. This community is mine, all mine!) Although our intrepid little group plans to group all the way up together almost exclusively, I'm sure we'll be picking up the occasional PuGger. But somehow, I don't think we'll run into many problems with loot whiners -- the players here seem to have specced for level-headedness.
On some servers, though, the atmosphere's not so holly-jolly. Mole hills blow up into mountains (and indeed, volcanos) before you can say "Who's in on this drop?" Today, Insider Trader takes a look at an issue that's left many an enchanter completely scratching his head: who disenchants items nobody needs during an instance run – and who gets to keep the results?
Let's set the scene: Your mage enchanter is PuGging away in an instance. The group kills the first boss, who drops a blue item that nobody needs or particularly wants. What happens next?
Do you keep quiet about being an enchanter, roll for the drop, and disenchant it later to get the shard?
Do you disenchant the drop for everyone on the spot but insist on keeping the shard, since you're an enchanter and that's your "gathering" profession?
Do you DE the drop and roll for or otherwise distribute the shard?
Many long-time players consider this issue a long-dead horse – but newer players are often perplexed at the issues involved and unsure of how to handle the etiquette of DEing in instances. Let's let actual players speak to the issue, with perspectives from various players (quoted from a recent DEing thread on the official forums), condensed here for your consideration.
What's the issue?
Miners roll for nodes when their is more than one in the group. Ever see two enchanters roll on who keeps a shard? -- Bason of Malygos
You don't roll on mining nodes. You don't roll on skins. You don't roll on herbs. Anybody have a good solution? ... Shouldn't you get a double roll or something? -- Holyfire of Llane
I will freely break items for friends to use for personal use in getting enchants, or I'll put 'em in the guild bank. But I do not like giving stuff to people so they can sell it in the auction house, thus flooding the market and reducing profits on what is a very costly trade skill to level up ... -- Corrinth of Drak'Thul
If you keep quiet about being able to DE this is fine, but if later on a enchanting recipe drops, people are gonna be like "Hey, you didn't tell us earlier you could shard blues," and suddenly everyone greeds the enchanting recipe, because it takes all of three seconds to shard something. -- Tribalx of Altar of Storms
Honestly, if I was in a group with someone who said "Yeah I can DE it, but I get first shard" or something similar I'd say, "Cool, I'll enjoy vendoring it for 3g while you and your greedy self get nothing. -- Iyaknowstuff of Llane
You all killed the mob. All shards do NOT belong to you alone. -- Mate of Proudmoore
Bottom line is, NOT helping out, or offering to provide assistance to your group that costs you nothing, will certainly get you remembered. Trust me, people will notice, and remember. You'll wonder why that guild you app'd to didn't accept you, or why you're having more trouble getting into a group than you used to. -- Thalenia of Uther
What's the solution?
PUGs, I ask if there's a DEer. If not, I offer the service but the first shard is mine, no roll. Rest of them are handed out at the end to people that didn't get a useful boss drop. -- Myrdoch of Argent Dawn
1. Blue drops. No one wants it. Enchanter rolls need and disenchants the item. Group rolls for the resulting shard(s). Or ... 2. Blue drops. No one wants it. Enchanter refuses to provide a service to the group. Everyone rolls need (or greed) and the item is given to someone to sell to the vendor for gold. If the Enchanter wins the roll on the item, he/she gets to DE the item for their own use. -- Daenrys of Draka
DE everything for them and say you will random all the shards at the END of the run. If someone ports out quick after the last boss dies (this actually happens fairly often) then you have an extra chance at winning the roll. -- Durkon of Eitrigg
I've had plenty of enchanters do the whole 'I'll just DE now and we can all roll later' thing, then either leave the group early with all the shards or d/c and never come back. Not once when I've had an enchanter do this did we end up rolling for the shards. As an enchanter on one of my characters, I know it's a friggin' pain to deal with DEing and distributing shards after bosses ... But, on the other hand, if you make it known that you can DE but won't do it for the group, you just look like a douche ... -- Luciorra of Shadow Council
It's just a nice thing to do for all of us. DE blues, whoever wins cannot roll again and eventually most people win something even the enchanter (I call that the enchanter tax!). Also don't forget you can DE greens for others at the end of the run for a small fee or some of the mats, work your profession and it works for you. -- Captnavarre of Dragonmaw
It all comes down to this: You have a one in five chance either way to get the item, whether it is a item or a shard. By sharding it, you have taken an item from being 5-10g at a vendor and turned it into 25G-30g at the auction house. ... Also, tell people you are trying to level enchanting and you would be surprised how often they will let you keep the shard. What goes around, comes around. -- Kapadons of Korialstrasz
Insider Trader's Lisa Poisso is a writer, when she's not DEing drops for guildies' personal mats stashes.
