Disenchanting
Disenchanting is the process of transmuting armor or weapons of uncommon, rare, or epic quality into magical elements (crystals, shards, essences, and dusts), which can then be used in enchanting recipes. Only enchanters gain the ability to 
[Disenchant], which is the primary source of enchanting ingredients. Disenchanting can also provide Enchanting skillups as high as 70 skill.
Use with care, this process destroys the target item permanently!
Do not disenchant from a full inventory! The disenchanted item will still occupy a space and you won't be able to pick up any materials unless you already have a partial stack.
Required Enchanting skill
Note : this table is pre Battle for Azeroth and needs to be updated for the changes in levels. Skills are now split across continents.
Enchanting skill determines what item levels a player can disenchant.
| Skill | Item Level |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1-20 |
| 25 | 21-25 |
| 50 | 26-30 |
| 75 | 31-35 |
| 100 | 36-40 |
| 125 | 41-45 |
| 150 | 46-50 |
| 175 | 51-55 |
| 200 | 56-60 |
| 225 | 61-99 |
| 275 | 102-120 |
| 325 | 130-150 |
| 350 | 154-182 |
| 425 | 232-318 |
| 475 | 372-437 |
| Skill | Item Level |
|---|---|
| 25 | 10-25 |
| 50 | 26-30 |
| 75 | 31-35 |
| 100 | 36-40 |
| 125 | 41-45 |
| 150 | 46-50 |
| 175 | 51-55 |
| 200 | 56-60 |
| 225 | 61-97 |
| 275 | 100-115 |
| 325 | 130-200 |
| 450 | 288-346 |
| 525 | 417-424 |
| 550 | 425-463 |
| Skill | Item Level |
|---|---|
| 225 | 61-95 |
| 300 | 100-164 |
| 375 | 200-277 |
| 475 | 300-416 |
| 575 | 420-575 |
Epic items lower than iLevel 61 fall within the ranges for Uncommon/Rare items
For more detailed percentages, quantities, and iLevels associated with each material, see the disenchanting tables.
Disenchanting materials
The type and quantity of materials produced from disenchanting varies by item type (armor or weapon), iLevel and quality. The following general rules can be used:
- Dusts usually come from uncommon armor (75%) and weapons (20-22%).
- Essences usually come from uncommon weapons (75%) and armor (20-22%).
- Shards come from rare equipment (~100%), epic equipment iLevel 55 or less (100%, 2-4x), and rarely from uncommon equipment (3-5%).
- Crystals come from epic equipment iLevel 56+ (100%) and extremely rarely from rare equipment (~0.5%).
For more detailed percentages, quantities, and iLevels associated with each material, see the disenchanting tables.
Disenchantable Items
Only (but not all) armor and weapons of only uncommon, rare or epic quality are disenchantable.
There are next general exceptions:
- Archaeology armor and weapons
- Faction reputation vendor-purchased armor and weapons
- Consumables, e.g. Twilight Trappings
- Wands crafted by an Enchanter
- Tabards
See non-disenchantable armor and weapons on Wowhead database.
Disenchant loot option
Since patch 3.3.0, if an item of uncommon quality or above drops for a party that includes an enchanter of appropriate skill, the players will be given a Disenchant roll option along with the usual Need, Greed, and Pass options.
A Disenchant roll works like a Greed roll, except if the player wins the roll (by the usual rules: rolling higher than anyone else who rolled Disenchant or Greed, with nobody rolling Need), they will be automatically given the materials from disenchanting the item, instead of the item itself. This requires no intervention from the enchanter. The name of the player whose skill was used to disenchant the item is written in the chat log.
Enchanters have no control over auto-disenchanting for other players in the party, and cannot disable it.
This option was removed in patch 8.0.1 alongside the rest of the Need/Greed/Disenchant/Pass loot system.
See also
- Disenchanting tables for results and probabilities by item type and level