World of Warcraft Guide: The Wonderful (and Profitable) World of Enchanting

Enchanting is a very popular profession. Everyone loves to have their gear enchanted to fit their needs. With so many different enchantments, of all sorts, Enchanting is one of those professions that is useful no matter what class you are. And it provides a good use for all that junk armor you've been lugging around.

Enchanting is, in a nutshell, the use of magical supplies to imbue armor and weapons with magical effects. These can range from special abilities, to stat increases. There are enchantments of use for every class, and finding the supplies can be easy enough.

To get the supplies for enchanting armor and weapons, you will need to Disenchant junk armor and weapons. First, find junk armor and weapons. These can be anything, as long as they have stats. You may have pieces of armor you found on a monster that aren't worth selling, or a piece that refuses to sell, or something from a friend that you don't need. It doesn't matter, as long as it has stats.

Then, you use the Disenchant ability that comes with the Enchanting skill. When you apply this ability to the armor or weapon, it will destroy the item, and extract the magical power in the form of dusts, essences and shards.

Dusts are the most common, and the least valuable, of the enchanting supplies. Armor will commonly give you these. Essences are somewhat more valuable, and a little rarer. Weapons will yield these more often than armor. Essences come in lesser and greater forms. A greater essence can be right clicked, and will turn to three lesser. Right click three lesser, and they will turn into a greater.

The rarest, and by far the most valuable, of the supplies are shard. Shards will only drop once in a blue moon from normal armor and weapons. But, if you get a higher quality piece of armor, you will be guaranteed to get at least one shard.

Most of the enchants you will be able to do will be armor enchants. Early on, these will imbue extra stats onto the armor you imbue it to. As you get higher, however, there will be some with more specialized abilities, like an enchant that increases your dodge rating. But by far the most popular of your enchants will be your weapon enchants.