Spirit Dust

Enchanters now have a daily cooldown that allow them to create a Sha Crystal from 5 Ethereal Shard. For the time being in MoP, it looks like enchanters will be able to up and down convert all their materials at will, albeit with losses, except for the daily CD on Sha Crystals.

Up-Converts:
5 Spirit Dust = 1 Mysterious Essence - [spell=116497]
5 Mysterious Essence = 1 Ethereal Shard - Ethereal Shard
5 Ethereal Shard = 1 Sha Crystal - Sha Crystal

Down-Converts:
1 Sha Crystal = 2 Ethereal Shard - Sha Shatter
1 Ethereal Shard = 3 Mysterious Essence - Ethereal Shatter
1 Mysterious Essence = 3 Spirit Dust - Mysterious Diffusion

The losses on the items from down-converting are quite hefty, especially from the Sha Crystal down to Ethereal Shard. If a player was to take 125 spirit dust, they could up-convert all the way to a Sha Crystal, but breaking it back down would only yield 18 spirit dust back, for a staggering 14.4% efficiency rate.

Currently there are no recipes with Small Ethereal Shard or [item=74251], and the item ID for lesser mysterious essence is the same as Mysterious Essence, so there may be a shift in enchanting norms come MoP.

You can get some extra Spirit Dust per day in a fast way. There are some special type of seeds which provide crafting materials by planting and harvesting them at Sunsong Ranch (next to Tillers hub) in Valley of the Four Winds.

On harvest
[item=89233] provides Mote of Harmony.
[item=89197] provides Windwool Cloth.
[item=85216] provides random MoP herb. Could be any herb, even Golden Lotus.
[item=85217] provides random MoP enchant materials (mostly Spirit Dust).
[item=85215] provides random MoP minerals (mostly Ghost Iron Ore).
[item=89202] provides Mist-Touched Leather.

These seeds can be bought from [npc=58718] at Halfhill Market for a cost of 90 silver each. Note, you need to be Revered with [faction=1272] in order to buy them.

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• Disenchanted from Uncommon (green) items with an item level of 364 - 437 (Required level 83 - 90)
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• Can be up-converted to a Mysterious Essence using [spell=116497] (requires 5)
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• Can be grown using [item=85217] on the Halfhill farm
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Here is a table showing the likelyhood of obtaining Spirit Dust through disenchanting:
 

Uncommon Armor

Uncommon Weapons

Item Level

Result

Item Level

Result

429-437

85% chance of 2-5x

429-437

85% chance of 3-5x

416-428

85% chance of 2-4x

416-428

85% chance of 2-5x

391-415

85% chance of 2-4x

391-415

85% chance of 2-4x

378-390*

85% chance of 1-4x

378-390

85% chance of 2-4x

364-377

85% chance of 1-3x

364-377

85% chance of 1-4x

(this is non-inclusive of [spell=83966])

*An exception to the rule is that crafted iLvl 384 bracers have a 95% chance of disenchanting into 1-2x Spirit Dust.

Items that disenchant into Spirit Dust are found from:

Questing Zones

Crafting Professions

Dread Wastes

Blacksmithing

Krasarang Wilds

Jewelcrafting

Kun-Lai Summit

Leatherworking

The Jade Forest

Tailoring

Townlong Steppes

Valley of the Four Winds

 
Other dusts you may be interested in:
Strange Dust (Vanilla)
[item=11083] (Vanilla)
[item=11137] (Vanilla)
[item=11176] (Vanilla)
Light Illusion Dust (Vanilla)
Arcane Dust (Burning Crusade)
Infinite Dust (Wrath of the Lich King)
Hypnotic Dust (Cataclysm)
Spirit Dust (Mists of Pandaria)
Draenic Dust (Warlords of Draenor)