Was It Worth It?

Since the test realms recently went up, I knew Blizzard's plans to modify the skill requirements for disenchanting were not far off. I decided it was time to shard some of my unused blues and epics taking up scarce bank space. Only one problem: My character didn't have Enchanting as a profession.

I've always been one to not mess with what works. My current professions, Herbalism and Alchemy, were a steady flow of money to fund my purchases and repair bills. I felt that ditching either of them for Enchanting would disrupt my momentum, even if it was just for an hour's worth of sharding. But instead of listening to my usual voice of reason, I decided it was time to take a gamble...

Immediately after untraining Herbalism, I felt the pain of having to farm hours for herbs I would just trash, but I looked forward to seeing bags full of shards to make the re-farming more bearable.

Unfortunately, I ended up getting shafted- 4 Nexus Crystals, 4 Large Brilliant Shards, and some dusts. Oh, and did I mention my server's current auction house prices are 80% (or less) of what they used to be? After I re-trained Herbalism, the magnitude of my previous action hit full force- I just gave up my weekend to farming... in return for a few shards.

What could I have been doing while I was running around for those five-plus hours, picking Peacebloom and Kingsblood, and later, the oft-farmed (and thus impossible to find) Gromsblood and Dreamfoil? I could have been making money at Tyr's Hand. I could have been farming instances with guildmates. Heck, I could have been out having a life (alright, this is a bit of a stretch). Point being, the entire time I was picking flowers, I had my palm on my forehead thinking, "What did I do...?"

Under better economic circumstances, and with a little better luck, maybe my reaction wouldn't have been so negative. But, after everything was made right (I'm once again at 300 Herbalism), seeing the half-bag worth of shards makes me feel like I traded my Ferarri for a spraypainted gold Honda.

Herbalism had its retribution on me, and the experience was sour indeed. I'm remembering better than ever why I live by the adage "If it ain't broke, don't untrain it."

If you were in my shoes- your profession wasn't Enchanting, you had a bag full of items you never used, and the patch was right around the corner- would you bite the bullet for the shards?