Quick question.
I took a break from WoW mid-S1 and just came back this week. I understand that there is a higher drop chance for Splintered Spark of Shadowflame until players have caught up. So my question is, how many Splintered Spark of Shadowflame am I supposed to have as of this week?
Also, I never got around to doing the last Tyr’s challenge for Sparks of Ingenuity before I took a break. Is there any point to finishing it now?
5, or 2 full sparks and a half
probably not
As far as I can tell, Sparks of Ingenuity are completely obsolete now.
Thanks for the replies! 
Unless youre a crafter and can make yourself some quick 405 gear to catch up since hes missing half a seasons worth of gearing 
Hmm … I guess it’s a few ilvls better than season 2 greens and if you have completed the quest line on one character, alts who haven’t started it can get the sparks instantly.
Ok, fair enough, if you have mats to burn and want to hit the ground running, I suppose maybe there is a niche use.
Yeah if you craft and aren’t maxxed, the recipes that use sparks of ingenuity are usually a decent skillgain, other than that probably not really worth it.
Also, once you are caught up, I believe that splintered sparks of shadowflame do not drop at all, you can only get 1 per week, it comes from the Loamm Niffen rep quest bag 100% of the time, or if you haven’t done that, the following week you would have the chance to get it elsewhere.
Exactly what I did, burned some sparks of ingenuity on alts to make otherwise cheap +3 skillup recipes to finish up my enchanting.
3 from drops. 1 from the weekly. 1 from the one-time quest.
Where do the splinters drop from… I’m able to get the half one from the weekly but where do the other 4 drop from? Normal raid? LFR? Myth +? Almost impossible to get into M+ or M normal with ilvl 414 gear. No one will touch you? Do you still get loot from bosses if you LFR already for both instances for the week?
Splinters drop from Raids/M+, and a few other places (https://www.wowhead.com/news/blizzard-announces-spark-of-shadowflame-catchup-mechanics-alts-and-new-332723)
If you’re having issues getting invited to M+ groups, use your own key and do +2s, you should be able to get groups. Don’t try to join a group for a key you haven’t completed a key within a couple levels of, I notice a lot of people with 0 rating applying to keys over +4, and regardless of perceived skill or gear, a 0 rating indicates no knowledge of the dungeon mechanics. At least, that’s how I perceive it. And “2.6k io alt, trust” doesn’t help, ever. 
If you’ve done an LFR boss already, you won’t get any loot from it on subsequent kills until resets.
I have a character that I do nothing on except random heroics and LFR, I’m not exactly sure how but that character has caught up on sparks completely by doing those things so they probably came from the heroics I did for the 5 dungeon weekly.