Primal Nethers and Nether Vortexes are currently Bind on Equip on the PTR, instead of BoP (confirmation here), and this has sparked quite a lot of discussion; I just watched a debate scroll past in guildchat while in an instance.
To be honest, I like the change; it’s something I’ve been hoping for for a while. It puts the onus to get the nether on the person who wants something crafted. I realise it may affect people who’ve made a lot of money from crafting and charging a premium for their nethers, but there are other ways of making money.
Two things I’ve found problematic about nethers being BoP:
- guild crafters are expected to provide nethers for guildmembers who want things crafted, regardless of whether the nether (which has usually been ‘earnt’ on a guild run) is going to a cause that benefits the guild or not.
- it becomes hard to allocate BoP crafting patterns if they’re for recipes that require nethers; you have to try and assign the patterns to people who are reliably going to have access to nethers, without offending the crafters who don’t make the effort to do heroics.
This change cuts through all that: you provide the mats, the crafter makes it for you. If you don’t put the work in to get the nether, you don’t get the item made. The crafter is under no pressure to provide a nether, either. And, finally, if you want nether-requiring gear on your alts you can now go and instance for the nethers on your main, without having to take a badly-geared alt into a heroic and drag the group down.