As the World of Warcraft patch 4.3 release date nears, and parts of the patch completed testing and are ready for background downloading, I’m starting to work through patch changes for you. I’m looking specifically at how they will affect us as gold gamers.
Maelstrom Crystal Shatter
We’ve seen an enchanting shatter before with the Abyss Crystal Shatter. Blizzard typically introduce this to correct the problems they make by filling a dungeon with purple epic loot drops instead of a more balanced selection of epics, blues and greens.
Abyss Crystal Shatter < infinite dust, cosmic essence
Maelstrom Crystal Shatter < 2 heavenly shards
Maelstrom Shatter and Bountiful Bags
I can’t log on WoW at the moment so I can’t check. Could a reader with PTR access kindly check whether bountiful bags guild perk works with shatters. Any extra heavenly shards would always be welcome!
To Shatter or Not To Shatter?
That is the question.
Once 4.3 is live you should shatter if the selling price of heavenly shards is more than half the value of a maelstrom Crystal.
If in doubt, keep it raw.
Patch 4.3 Availability of Maelstroms
In patch 4.3, all cata heroics plus ZA/ZG will become equal in terms of jp/vp rewards.
Also new 5 man heroics will give epic loot, which disenchant to maelstroms.
Stockpile for 4.3?
With any patch, there is an initial surge of players upgrading gear. New gear, new armor, needs new enchants. We can’t predict the RNG of which armor drops first so either keep a small stock of the most popular scrolls, ready for auctioning at AH, or keep your ench mats raw.
Gold gamers over 500k
If you have spare gold, if you’re looking for an investment, just scoop up low-lying ench mats ready for 4.3, but be aware that values will slowly decline over the course of the patch. These are for immediate resale.
If you’re under 100k, I don’t think its worth the risk. Play ball with Blizz, and get your maelstroms from heroics and trading honor and jp.
Keep shuffling for dust and essence, and keep your eyes open for under-priced shards and crystals. Good luck.
Posted by
About the Author
The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande. With many level 100s, 9 years expertise in making gold, 10 garrisons, 16k achievements, 1505 days played, and over 18m gold earned. The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing World of Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling snatch lists, and farming gold making.
