Managing the economy

Blizzard manages the in-game economy regularly to control and help combat inflation. I want to show a direct example of this kind of manipulation so that it may illuminate how announced changes are processed by a Goblin for their true value.

Lets look at: Enchant Gloves - Greater Blasting

This enchant grants 16 critical strike rating for 30 Illusion dust and 1 Dream shard. Not an amazing enchant, perhaps desirable by some people. What you should note is that it is currently not available by any trainer or drop in the game.

It exists in the game files in case Blizzard decides that there are too many Illusion dusts on servers, which are devaluing the markets with their supply. It has the highest amount of Infinite dust cost in it's recipe of any enchant, and clearly exists to remove large quantities of the stuff off of servers. It's like a price nuke for all of Blizzard's servers if they need to use it.

Abyssal Shatter also exists, which is the same thing but for Abyss Crystals. These will only be implimented in the game if supplies of these items inflate servers on a worldwide scale and Blizzard decides it needs a method to remove them. You see many items enter the game to control such markets.

They are always introduced as 'To promote raid Synergy™, now you don't need a priest to bring Fortitude buff' etc. etc. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, it's just important to see these things for what they are.

Hope this helps you read patch notes profitably rather than 'features'.