The Warlocks Den - WoW Warlock Discussions

Intro text by lilsteele

Why should I enchant my gear?

Enchanting your gear is an important step towards getting your warlock ready for instances and raids and later to perform at the highest levels in heroic dungeons and 10 & 25 man raids. Let me toss a few numbers at you. Taking all best in slot enchants, without the profession only enchants, you gain 244 spellpower, 62 crit rating, 23 haste rating, 12 hit and 35 spirit.The profession specific enchants add the equivalent of 30-40 spellpower on top of that, per profession! Not using this potential to improve your gear is almost as bad as forgetting your weapon or 2-3 pieces of gear in your bank.
Another comparison:
Unsullied Cuffs were the best and hardest to get bracers when Wrath first came out. Without enchant, they are not better than Azure Cloth Bindings with the +30 spellpower enchant on them, an item that is easily obtained from farming heroic Violet Hold.


How can I enchant my gear?

The enchants for most item slots are done by enchanters. If you are not an enchanter yourself you need to find an enchanter that is able to make the enchant you would like to have. Enchants can be made via the trade window, you don't have to give the item to the enchanter to have it enchanted. However you have to give him the enchanting materials, so I recommend letting a friend do it.
Since Wrath of the Lich King, enchanters can also enchant so called "vellums" and create enchanting scrolls. You can buy these enchanting scrolls and use them to apply the corresponding enchant on your gear. Note that each scroll can only be used once. If you are lucky you can find these scrolls sold for less than the price for the required materials, since enchanters use the scrolls to level up their profession.
There are a few enchants that are produced by other professions. You will find this indicated in the list below.
Finally head enchants and shoulder enchants are bought directly from the quartermasters of certain factions.To be able to buy them you will usually be required to raise your reputation with the respective faction to a given level, e.g. revered or exalted.


Which gear should I enchant?

The short answer is: All your gear, for the reasons given above.
A longer answer: For most item slots there is a second best enchant that is considerably cheaper or easier to obtain without loosing too many stats. You can choose that enchant if you find yourself short on gold or you think the item is not worth it. As a rule of thumb I would get the cheap enchant for green and blue gear and for gear that you expect to replace soon. Get the best enchant for everything else. Most people do not enchant their gear as they level due to the frequency it will be replaced at. Some notably exceptional gear might be worthy of the enchants however, as you will keep them for several levels.


How can I get those enchanting materials?

The most common enchanting mats are
Abyss Crystals
Dream Shards
Greater/Lesser Cosmic Essence
Infinite Dust
The easiest way is to buy them from the auction house. You can save a lot of money if you keep all your green and blue bind-on equip drops that you get while levelling through northrend, and have them disenchanted by some friendly enchanter. Green items will disenchant into Infinite Dust or Cosmic Essence, while blue items yield Dream Shards. If you run instances and heroics regularly with an enchanter you further have a chance to get a Dream Shard or two at the end of each run, even Abyss Crystals are possible if the final boss drop is passed on by everybody. There is a new option available whenever you are running heroics with an enchanter in the party. You may select 'Disenchant' on the loot roll window to automatically receive the enchanting mats if you win the roll against other players.


How do you rate the enchants?

We rate the enchants solely based on how much they increase your dps. Enchants like Lightweave Embroidery that have random procsare harder to rate. We try to estimate their value based on empirical data if possible.


So what enchants do you recommend?

The following is a compendium of enchants and item enhancements for the raiding warlock. All item links are to WowHead. The source you can get these enchants for is green when anyone can get it and yellow when it requires a particular profession. PvP sourced enhancements are red. An item listed as (source: Vendor - Dalaran, 440 skill, 4 shards) indicates that the recipe is available in Dalaran for an enchanter to purchase for dream shards, and requires 440 skill to enchant. If an item requires reputation with a faction, the rep level is color coded for honored, revered, and exalted. Costs are listed where available / applicable. What you can swindle your local enchanter for is up to you.


Head

Arcanum of Burning Mysteries is pretty easy to get, and is the best head enchant out there. Tabard of the Kirin Tor helps to get the rep up in heroics. I'm tempted to rate the Arcanum of Power higher on the list due to the hit rating. The only reasons I did not were the difficulty of getting the item (unless you already have the rep, or have friends that want to run BC dungeons in the Tempest Keep area), and the ease of getting hit capped with quest greens in Northrend. However, if you need the +Hit then by all means go for it. You probably won't miss the 8 spellpower or 20 critical strike rating, especially as Affliction.

- Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (source: Kirin Tor – Revered, 150g)
- Arcanum of Dominance (source: Vendor – Wintergrasp, 40 shards)
- Arcanum of Power (source: Shat'ar - Revered, 100g) One historical note, this used to be called "Glyph of Power".


Shoulder

Greater Inscription of the Storm is the shoulder enchant of choice unless you're a scribe. Professions offer 37 to 39 spell power over the basic enchants. It's a pretty long grind to exalted with Hodir. I've seen six dailies you can run (up from two or three at lower rep levels) for 250 – 500 rep per quest. They do not have a tabard to grind rep with. Getting honored isn't too hard after the massively huge quest chain to unlock this faction. The questing starts with They Took Our Men! at K3 in Storm Peaks.

- Master's Inscription of the Storm (source: Inscription only, 400 skill)
- Greater Inscription of the Storm (source: Sons of Hodir – Exalted, 100g)
- Inscription of Dominance (source: Vendor - Wintergrasp, 30 shards)
- Lesser Inscription of the Storm (source: Sons of Hodir – Honored, 75g)


Back

Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed is the best enchant unless you are a tailor. There is much debate over Lightweave vs +23 Haste. On tank 'n spank fights, Lightweave Embroidery wins out, for sure. On short, high movement fights, it's not as strong (probably ties with Haste + some other profession's bonuses). While not the best cloak enchant, Enchant Cloak – Wisdom works well when combined with Bracing Earthseige Diamond (also -2% threat) for days when you're pugging tanks in Naxx (trust me, it hurts a lot!).

- Lightweave Embroidery (source: Tailor only, 420 skill)
- Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed (source: Vendor – Dalaran, 430 skill, 4 shards)
- Enchant Cloak – Wisdom (source: Vendor – Dalaran, 440 skill, 4 shards) The threat reduction is -2%.


Chest

Enchant Chest – Major Spirit is the best chest enchant for maximum spellpower. Thanks to Rhyahn for pointing out the slight edge given to this enchant on EJ's forums. While still a good option, Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats is more well rounded, and only comes up 1 spellpower short for the deep demonology specs -- but for a lot more gold.

- Enchant Chest – Major Spirit (source: Trainer – 320 skill)
- Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats (source: Vendor – Dalaran, 440 skill, 4 shards)
- Enchant Chest – Super Stats (source: Trainer – 370 skill)


Wrist

Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower is the best enchant for the wrists unless you're into leatherworking.

- Fur Lining – Spell Power (source: Leatherworking only, 400 skill)
- Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower (source: Vendor – Dalaran, 440 skill, 4 shards)
- Enchant Bracers - Greater Spellpower (source: Trainer - 395 skill)


Hands

If you're hit-capped, grab up an Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower. If you need the hit rating, go for Enchant Gloves – Precision. It's a pretty fair toss up here, but gemming +Hit is a little cheaper on DPS.

- Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower (source: Trainer – 360 skill)
- Enchant Gloves – Precision (source: Trainer – 410 skill)


Waist

Eternal Belt Buckle (source: Blacksmith, 415 skill) Made by blacksmiths, enjoyed by everyone. This gives you a (or an extra) gem socket for your belt. It is a colorless socket, so you can use this for the extra spellpower, extra hit rating, or to meet a meta gem's requirements.


Legs

Brilliant Spellthread is the enchant to get since it comes bundled with spirit at no extra cost. If it hurts when you PvP, try out the Sapphire Spellthread. The tailor only versions are just insanely cheaper.

- Brilliant Spellthread (source: Tailor, 430 skill) or Sanctified Spellthread (source: Tailor only, 405 skill)
- Sapphire Spellthread (source: Tailor, 430 skill) or Master's Spellthread (source: Tailor only, 405 skill)


Feet

If you need the hit rating, Icewalker wins out. If you're trying to max out your Demonic Pact Buff, go for the Spirit. Otherwise, hit up the speed/stam enchant.

- Enchant Boots - Icewalker (source: Trainer – 385 skill)
- Enchant Boots - Greater Spirit (source: Trainer – 410 Skill)
- Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality (source: Vendor – Dalaran, 440 skill, 4 shards)


Rings

Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower (source: Enchanting only, 400 skill) This nets you 46 spellpower, and is a slightly better upgrade over some other professions (by 1 spellpower).


Weapon

Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower and Enchant Weapon – Black Magic are the top two enchants right now. Put Enchant Weapon – Exceptional Spellpower on if it's not a purple raid drop. You could put the accuracy or weapon chain enchants on for better hit rating, but you are giving up way too much spell power to do it.

- Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower (source: Vendor – Dalaran, 440 skill, 10 shards)
- Enchant Weapon – Black Magic (source: Vendor – Dalaran, 440 skill, 10 shards)
- Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower (source: Vendor – Dalaran, 450 skill, 10 shards)
- Enchant Weapon – Exceptional Spellpower (source: Trainer – 395 skill)
- Enchant Staff – Spellpower (source: Trainer – 385 skill)
- Enchant Weapon – Accuracy (source: Vendor – Dalaran, 440 skill, 10 shards)
- Titanium Weapon Chain (source: Blacksmith, 420 skill)

__________________
Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints.