Greed/Disenchant Options

If there is an enchanter in your group, everyone has the option of Greed to receive the item as is, or to Disenchant and get the item's respective worth as Dream Shards, Abyss Crystals, Greater Cosmic Essences or Infinite Dust. I've come across too many instances, excuse the pun, of people misusing the Disenchant option during LFGs that I thought it's worth going over.

I've witnessed all range of players choosing to Disenchant items that Vendor for significantly more than the enchant mats are worth. Personally, I'd rather pocket the vendor price of 14g on a green weapon than the 5 dust I'll receive that isn't worth more than 6g.

These are the excuses I've heard so far when I point out that they're better off paying attention to the vendor price for an item before blindly clicking Disenchant...

"Oh but I'd still rather have the enchant mats." - You could buy even more enchant mats by vendoring for better gold.

"Not on my server. They are worth more." - Prove it. I have yet to see a server where Dust is still high or Shards are above 10g.

"It's easier to just always click Disenchant." - So be it. What else do you do because it's easier but less efficient in life?

"I get lucky on Disenchanting procs." - The human mind exaggerates probability in memory. We remember the highs but not the lows or vice versa to fit our own current delusion. Everyone's probability is the same over time.

If you're only doing a single LFG run a day for your Emblems of Frost, this may not add up to much. However, if you're ever running more Heroics, you'll want to change up your routine.

Breakdown
While everyone's server economies are different, there's a general range that most items fall into. On my server, Dust is 1.2g average, Shards are 6g, Essences are 14g and Crystals are 28g. This will fluctuate based on your AH but not by a percentage great enough to justify losing money. On most green/blue/purple quality items, Disenchant IS the superior profit option. But most ≠ always.

Items vendor for significantly more based on the item type and armor class. Plate vendors for more than cloth, weapons more than waists, etc. There are many addons that can give you a breakdown of an item's AH history, vendor value, disenchant/mill/prospect percentages are and more. They will tell you probability of an item turning into any of the enchant mats and how many of those items will proc on average as well. Use one and you'll never be guessing which option to choose during your runs.

The only situations that require a careful decision are those items that have a chance to proc both Dust and Essences. Since the price of these two items are so drastically different, you'll want to weigh the probability of getting Essences against both the Vendor price and Dust probability and proc amounts.

While less frequent, some people still don't pay attention to Bind on Equip rare items and choose Disenchant or even Greed followed by Vendoring the item. These should always be listed on the AH for a much higher profit. I generally get 25-30g for blue-quality BoE items and up to 100g for sought after pieces that are superior to others while leveling. Check out your AH for lvl70-80 rare BoEs and take note of those that sell well.

Shady Behavior
When items like Damaged Necklace(350g) or Book of Glyph Mastery(30g) drop, you can wait until the rest of the group has selected Greed and then Need, claiming it's for your profession. Unless they are looking up your profile online, they can't dispute otherwise.

On the end boss (or earlier bosses if you're confident you won't get vote kicked) you can just need on items that aren't worth Disenchanting since the consequence of being called a ninja post-run is minimal.

Depending on the price of Abyss Crystals on your server and if you are able to Need on an epic, you make slightly more gold over time. Being a group of 5, you have a 20% chance to win the roll on the item. Since Abyss are 28 on my server, (28g x 20% = 5.6g) I would make an average of 5.6 gold per run on the final epic. For those items that you can Need on, just check if the vendor price is more than 1/5 of your server's Abyss rate. If so, then Need if you're willing to risk a ninja reputation in your Battlegroup.

If you want to be even more shady, always Vote to Kick the lowest damage member of the group before pulling the last boss. There is no Heroic run where having only two dps is going to hurt your chances of success. This allows you a 25% chance to win final loots instead of only 20%.

When it comes to Heroic Trial of the Champion, Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection, it's important to note that loot is higher in item level. The epics are lvl219 and 232 in these Heroics. Since vendor values are based partly on item level, expect to see tighter margins here between the Abyss Crystal or Vendor choices.