Question about "Epic" items.Follow

I have been hearing the word "Epic" a lot. I have heard of epic items, mounts, recipes/patterns and quests.

Coming from EQ I am used to "Epic" referring to one specific thing for each class but in WoW it seems to be more of a generalization. Am I right or are their multiple epic items for each class/race/profession? I have done a lot of searching and found a few epic items in the database but I am still somewhat confused.

If the term "Epic” is referring to specific things and not just a generalization, what should I be looking for as a gnome warlock who is working on herb/alch?

An epic item is a purple item. =p You don't hear it very often, but technically green items are 'uncommon' while blue items are 'rare'. Purple = Epic.

It has nothing to do with the Everquest meaning - i.e. something that requires massive effort to acquire through a long quest chain - but instead refers to the item quality. Greens are worse than Blues are worse than Epics, although this isn't always the case (some high-quality blues are better than epics, for example, and a lower-level epic is almost always outclassed by higher-level blues).

There's nothing inherently special about an epic either - it's purely a matter of item stats.

Epic items sell for a lot more money than other items. They have tehir name in purple and are "of superior quality". As an alchemist, I really dont think there are many(if any) epic recipies. However as you reach level 60 and progress into endgame(for now "endgame") you will se everyboss drop epics. Finding them is very rare so if you find one, sell it for lost of $$$.