So, you want to be a blacksmith: 1-300 guide.
#1
So....

I said I would be doing a Blacksmithing guide, and I have done it. I want to thank everyone on the net who has done a blacksmithing guide before me, and I want to thank them for not keeping it up as time has progressed, and more recipes have become available at trainers, and more recipes are available in game. Without all of you, this guide would never have been written.

This guide was compiled, edited, designed as I took up mining and smithing on my DK. I hit 300 blacksmithing by mining all of it until late in the mithril stage. I was able to max out my mining along the way, and completed the 300 portion of both by the time I was lvl 63.

Keep in mind that this guide was written with the idea that you will be doing this on a higher level character, who has the ability to farm/buy ore in quantities. I have cut out as much of the old thorium grind as possible. Mainly because Thorium sucks to find. For this guide you will typically need more materials than what you see. You need to understand that to keep this inexpensive, and as low impact on mats as possible, you will sometimes be skilling up on green recipes (tried to keep that to just stone items)

This first post will be the 1-300 portion of the guide. I'm sure from there you can figure out 301-450, but that guide is coming with 350-450 coming after I see the changes to smithing recipes in 3.0.8, and I acutally get to 350 on my DK.

Sadly, to get to 300 quickly, without a lot of mats, you will not be making a lot of items that sell well, or DE into nice items. I normally vendored all of my craftable items until I hit 200's. I was able to sell some of the mithril pieces, and I have an enchanter who blew up all the thorium. I then sold all the enchanting mats.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apprentice Blacksmith: The Stone Age. You can get all the way to 75 on just stone. This cuts down the copper you need. The copper you mine (if a miner) will be used later to make bronze.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1-25
Rough Sharpening Stones
1x Rough Stone

-> This is just to skill up. If you want to use the stones you can, but you can normally just vendor them.

25-65
Rough Grinding Stones
2x Rough Stone

-> You will be using these later. DO NOT VENDOR THEM until you have a blacksmithing skill of 125.

65-75
Coarse Sharpening Stones
1x Coarse Stone

-> Another vendor as you make thing. It's just here for the skill, you don't need to worry about keepgin them for anything.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Journeyman Blacksmith: The I finally get to craft some gear age. This phase of Blacksmithing seems to fly by.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

75-100
Coarse Grinding Stones
2x Coarse Stones

-> You will need some of these stones later. Don't vendor them until you have a skill of 200.

100-105
Silver Rod
1x Silver Bar
2x Rough Grinding Stone

-> This is a great skill up for blacksmithing. If you are mining as you go, save all of your silver ore until you get here, and make ALL of the rods you can until they go grey or you are out of silver. You can easily cut down the next step by having extra silver on this step. I don't recommend it as a "you must make this until 110" because the skill ups can be shaky from 105-110, and we are trying to level quickly. Just make all that you have if you are a miner.

105-125
Rough Bronze Leggings
6x Bronze Bar

-> You finally get to make some gear! This at first seems like a lot of bars, but every copper/tin you smelt together to get bronze yields 2 bronze bars.

125-150
Heavy Grinding Stone
3x Heavy Stone

-> You will need these later on. Don't vendor them until you have a skill of 200

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expert Blacksmithing: The "Yes, this does start to take a while doesn't it?" age.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

150-155
Golden Rod
1x Gold Bar
2x Course Grinding Stone

-> Reusing materials that you already skilled up on is great. I personally had a hard time getting the Gold as I was mining, so I stuck with the 5 skill points here. If you have more, make all that you have. Nothing like cheap skill ups.

155-165
Green Iron Leggings
8x Iron Bar
1x Heavy Grinding Stone
1x Green Dye

-> This is the first time that you have to buy something from a vendor to skill up. You normally will not find Green Dye at the smithing supplier, go check out the tailoring supplies or trade skill vendors for the dye.

165-190
Green Iron Bracers
6x Iron Bar
1x Green Dye

-> Again with the green iron. these are just skill points, and don't sell well. Vendor vendor vendor.

190 - 200
Golden Scale Bracers
5x Steel Bar
2x Coarse Grinding Stones.

-> Steel. Steel is the result of Iron and Coal being smelted. Coal can be purchased at vendors or looted from mobs.

200-210
Solid Grinding Stone
4x Solid Stone

-> More Stone. You get a lot of skillups from working with stone. Keep these until you hit 300 just to be safe, even though you really wont need them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Artisan Blacksmithing: The "I CAN'T BELIEVE I NEED ALMOST A STACK OF ORE FOR A SKILLUP!" age.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

210-230
Heavy Mithril Guantlet
6x Mithril Bar
4x Mageweave Cloth

-> Yes I know that these take mageweave. Yes I know that Mageweave is expensive. Do you want to know the alternative? It requires FAR MORE materials. This was the first time I looked at the old guides and said FORGET THAT!. Less ore, add in cloth. Remember, I said that this guide was for higher level characters? Go farm it. Easy places to get mageweave without much time: Jintha'Alor: Hinterlands Zul'Farak: Tanaris

230-250
Heavy Mithril Breastplate
16 x Mithril Bar

-> Other guides had you relying on getting a BoE pattern off the auction house at this point. After 2 weeks, I finally saw one, and it was up for 500 gold. Forget that. It's cheaper to go this way. Yes, it's a lot of mithril, but it's great smith to skill ratio. You could make mithril scale pants instead, but I warn you, it goes yellow a LOT faster. This is a great way to get the points, and the 320 mithril is a bargain compared to the alternatives. There is nothing like wasting 14 mithril on the pants over and over to not get a skill.

250-260
Dense Sharpening Stones
1x Dense Stone

-> You will need 20 - 30 stone to get to 260, but it's pretty easy.

260-280
Thorium Belt/bracers
8x Thorium

-> This was great. I'm so glad that they added these to the trainers. Skill up on them until you hit 280. These are easy skill points, but you will have a couple that don't skill you. It's not a horrid trade off to the alternative of starting imperial Plate sooner. If you can, get these DE'd and sell the mats.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The imperial Plate way: Go to Gadgetzan in Tanaris. There will be a Dwarf who is afilliated with the THorium Brotherhood standing there. He will give you a quick quest to read and accept, and then offer you the plans at various costs. Just buy the bracer pattern for 10 thorium bars.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

280-300
Imperial Plate Bracers
12x Thorium Bar

-> You could actually sell this item and recoup some of your money, which makes it nice to skill on. Or, you can DE them and sell the mats as well.

And that's it. You now have 300 blacksmithing. If you notice, I didn't cover the specializations (armor/weapon - smith) That's because in WotLK, it's not a huge perk anymore, and the beginning quests really interfere with the powerleveling of the profession. If you want to do them,

Armorsmith:

4x Ornate Mithril Helm
2x Ornate Mithril Boots
1X Ornate Mithril Breastplate

If you want to get all the patterns along the way for yourself, You do quests for the NPC in STV to get the first round of patterns which you need to complete the quests in Gadgetzan to learn these patterns. or you can find an old school BS to make them for you. patterns. This will take another 250 or so mithril to get completed if you want to do it for yourself. Personal Opinion? Do it once you are 80.

Weaponsmith:

4x Moonsteel Broadsword: Pattern sold by a vendor in BB
4x Massive Iron Axe: Sold by multiple vendors in STV
2x Heavy Mithril Axe: Trainer taught
2x Big Black Mace: Trainer Taught.

This is the more "expensive" way to go, but the easier of the two.
nobody ever slaughtered an entire school with a smart phone and a twitter account – they have, however, toppled governments. - Jim Wright
Reply
#2
300-350. This was a breeze as compared to any other stretch of Blacksmithing short of the first 75 points.

Again, I didn't sue a lot of purchasable patterns, preferring to stand and afk craft to my hearts content. I did end up going to shat during the process and bough a couple of patterns in Lower City to make it go quicker. Here is the path I took to 350:

300-310
Fel Iron Plate Gloves

4x Fel Iron Bar

This is a great pattern, and with the influx of Death Knight's you can actually sell these and make a little gold back on the item. If you can't sell them on the AH, they vendor for an 'ok' amount.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

310-315
Fel Iron Plate Belt

4x Fel Iron Bar

Another 4 bar pattern that is pretty easy to make, and will sell decently. Again, if it doesn't sell well, just vendor it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

315-320
Fel Iron Chain Gloves

5x Fel Iron Bar

The first 5 bar pattern that you need to make. These will probably not sell that well, but you can vendor them as you make them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

320-330
Fel Iron plate Boots

6x Fel Iron Bar

This is a great set of boots, and should sell well on the AH. If not, vendor or DE them as you should get better than 1 Dust per pair blown up.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

330-340
Adamantite Cleaver

8x Adamantite Bar

This recipe is a limited supply one, sold by Aaron Hollman in Shattrath City, Arras in the Exodar, or Eriden in Silvermoon City.

Yes, that's a LOT of adamantite. Yes, that can be kinda pricey. BUT, these are guaranteed skill ups. Nothing will make you scream more than blowing mats on items that don't get skill ups when you have this much invested in it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

340-350
Lesser Rune of Shielding

1x Adamantite Bar


This is another cheap item to make, however it will not always give a skill point. Plan on making up to 20 of them to get your skill points. It is however far cheaper than any other option.

This recipe is sold by Mari Stonehand in Wildhammer Stronghold for Alliance players and by Rohok in Thrallmar for Horde players.

Yes, I know that I said nothing hurts more than getting an item that doesn't skill up. Think about it like this. If you have bad luck like me, and have to burn 4 stacks of adamantite to get the skill ups to get to 350, you would have at max got to 345 on cleavers if you skilled up on every single cleaver.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Now, if you have picked a specialty by now, you can get a couple of cheap skill points by using your BoP craftables at 330. I went armorsmith, and made 2 chestpieces for skill ups.



If your server is like Terenas, you will be able to find Nodes in outland fairly easily. Stick to the hilly/rocky areas of the map. By now, most of the DK's are through, and you wont have a lot of competition.

If you find that you have a lot of competition, by the ore. REPEAT: Buy the ore. Remember that outland bars take 2x to make a bar, and that you will be able to find the ore (*if your realm is like terenas) far cheaper than the ore : bar ratio should be. By the time I was 67 on my Death Knight, I had 350 mining and blacksmithing, and was prepping for the jump to northrend.
nobody ever slaughtered an entire school with a smart phone and a twitter account – they have, however, toppled governments. - Jim Wright
Reply
#3
reserved for 350-450

nobody ever slaughtered an entire school with a smart phone and a twitter account – they have, however, toppled governments. - Jim Wright
Reply
#4
For what it's worth, Tiga has all the patterns for both the weaponsmithing & armorsmithing quests. So you can have me craft the items for you w/o the hassle of having to quest for the patterns.

Cheers,
~FragB)

P.S. That means you can use the BoP AS/WS items that are available for leveling with.
Hardcore Diablo 1/2/3/4 & Retail/Classic WoW adventurer.
Reply
#5
I will keep that in mind. I would like to do the Armorsmith line. Will get you mats

Thanks Frag.
nobody ever slaughtered an entire school with a smart phone and a twitter account – they have, however, toppled governments. - Jim Wright
Reply
#6
Quote:I will keep that in mind. I would like to do the Armorsmith line. Will get you mats

Thanks Frag.
Not to be too much of a pain on this, but currently the armorsmith line quite poor and almost useless compared to what is available in the in the weaponsmith lines. You may want to take another look at the value of going with what is an almost useless blacksmith specialization. This is coming from player with a level 80 warrior armorsmith. For myself there was pretty much nothing of value from the armorsmith portion of blacksmithing past about half way through the tBC content.
Reply
#7
Quote:Not to be too much of a pain on this, but currently the armorsmith line quite poor and almost useless compared to what is available in the in the weaponsmith lines. You may want to take another look at the value of going with what is an almost useless blacksmith specialization. This is coming from player with a level 80 warrior armorsmith. For myself there was pretty much nothing of value from the armorsmith portion of blacksmithing past about half way through the tBC content.

I don't get it - what do the specialization choices even matter beyond perhaps using a few recipes to skill up? Nothing in Northrend belongs to one specialty or the other.
Jormuttar is Soo Fat...
Reply
#8
Quote:I don't get it - what do the specialization choices even matter beyond perhaps using a few recipes to skill up? Nothing in Northrend belongs to one specialty or the other.
Nothing,eh?
~FragB)
Hardcore Diablo 1/2/3/4 & Retail/Classic WoW adventurer.
Reply
#9
Quote:Nothing,eh?
~FragB)

You know, now that you mention it...I did happen to click on a weapon trainer sometime recently and noticed a few untrained green/blue recipes. I learned them for grins without really looking to see what they were about or what level.

Carry on =)
Jormuttar is Soo Fat...
Reply
#10
210-215: Golden Scale Bracers. 5 steel bars and 2 heavy grinding stones.

215-235: Make Mithril Scale Bracers. It's a vendor bought pattern from either Aerie Peak in Hinterlands for Alliance or Stonard in Swamp of Sorrows for Horde. 8 mithril bars, and it goes yellow at 235. 160 mithril.

235-250: Mithril Coif (trainer bought). 10 mithril bars, 6 mageweave cloth. Total mithril: 150. 90 mageweave.

You can also get the points between 235 and 240 from the bracers -- I got it without losing a single skill point, but as it's uncertain and the difference in price is 30 mageweave and 10 mithril bars, the coif is the surer way.
Earthen Ring-EU:
Taelas -- 60 Human Protection Warrior; Shaleen -- 52 Human Retribution Paladin; Raethal -- 51 Worgen Guardian Druid; Szar -- 50 Human Fire Mage; Caethan -- 60 Human Blood Death Knight; Danee -- 41 Human Outlaw Rogue; Ainsleigh -- 52 Dark Iron Dwarf Fury Warrior; Mihena -- 44 Void Elf Affliction Warlock; Chiyan -- 41 Pandaren Brewmaster Monk; Threkk -- 40 Orc Fury Warrior; Alliera -- 41 Night Elf Havoc Demon Hunter;
Darkmoon Faire-EU:
Sieon -- 45 Blood Elf Retribution Paladin; Kuaryo -- 51 Pandaren Brewmaster Monk
Reply
#11
Quote:210-215: Golden Scale Bracers. 5 steel bars and 2 heavy grinding stones.

215-235: Make Mithril Scale Bracers. It's a vendor bought pattern from either Aerie Peak in Hinterlands for Alliance or Stonard in Swamp of Sorrows for Horde. 8 mithril bars, and it goes yellow at 235. 160 mithril.

235-250: Mithril Coif (trainer bought). 10 mithril bars, 6 mageweave cloth. Total mithril: 150. 90 mageweave.

You can also get the points between 235 and 240 from the bracers -- I got it without losing a single skill point, but as it's uncertain and the difference in price is 30 mageweave and 10 mithril bars, the coif is the surer way.

Thanks for that. I went on a trainer list so that you could do what I did:

Afk for long periods of crafting:)

I will take a loot at that. cutting out the breastplate for the coif and shifting the mageweave from the gloves to the helm might not be a bad trade off.

And yeah, I'm going to be going armorsmith for the conquest chest and legs. They seem tailored to a DK pretty nicely:)I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him. I'm not planning to rocket through content to get him ready to raid now, and right now, I don't see myself changing mains. He is quickly becoming my favorite alt though (poor hunter alt has to compete now).
nobody ever slaughtered an entire school with a smart phone and a twitter account – they have, however, toppled governments. - Jim Wright
Reply
#12
Quote:Thanks for that. I went on a trainer list so that you could do what I did:

Afk for long periods of crafting:)

I will take a loot at that. cutting out the breastplate for the coif and shifting the mageweave from the gloves to the helm might not be a bad trade off.

And yeah, I'm going to be going armorsmith for the conquest chest and legs. They seem tailored to a DK pretty nicely:)I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him. I'm not planning to rocket through content to get him ready to raid now, and right now, I don't see myself changing mains. He is quickly becoming my favorite alt though (poor hunter alt has to compete now).
One thing to remember is the easiest method for specializing is to do the Way of the Weaponsmith (become a weapons smith) and then swap to Armor smithing. It's way less mats and you can incorporate making the items you need for the quest into the guide. I think it cost me like 20g to swap from Weaponsmith to Armorsmith at level 66.

-WimpySmurf
Gracile 85 DK wowarmory
Faible 83 Pally wowarmory
Wimpy 82 War wowarmory
Zwakke 80 Sha wowarmory
Reply
#13
Quote:Nothing,eh?
~FragB)

Yeah, my warrior's still using those for DPS set.:D
--Mav
Reply
#14
Thanks for the good info. I just started playing again after a year or so break and this shed some light on the path I was leaning towards.
'Me not that kind of Orc' - lazy peon
Reply
#15
If you are near or around 375, you might want to try to get Plans: Reinforced Cobalt Chestpiece. It drops off of Venture Co. Excavators in Sholazar Basin.

Currently the materials for it is only four cobalt bars. This changes next patch! It's going to become eight cobalt bars and two crystallized water. If you want to get as much as possible out of this, now's the time to strike. We don't know when the patch hits.

It is red from 375 all the way to 415, making it possibly the best way to grind Blacksmithing until 420, when it goes yellow. I got from 375 to 425 (where it goes gray) making nothing but these. I got a friend who's a Miner/Enchanter to mine cobalt ore for me (and I was mining a great deal myself) and got the entire bunch disenchanted afterwards.
Earthen Ring-EU:
Taelas -- 60 Human Protection Warrior; Shaleen -- 52 Human Retribution Paladin; Raethal -- 51 Worgen Guardian Druid; Szar -- 50 Human Fire Mage; Caethan -- 60 Human Blood Death Knight; Danee -- 41 Human Outlaw Rogue; Ainsleigh -- 52 Dark Iron Dwarf Fury Warrior; Mihena -- 44 Void Elf Affliction Warlock; Chiyan -- 41 Pandaren Brewmaster Monk; Threkk -- 40 Orc Fury Warrior; Alliera -- 41 Night Elf Havoc Demon Hunter;
Darkmoon Faire-EU:
Sieon -- 45 Blood Elf Retribution Paladin; Kuaryo -- 51 Pandaren Brewmaster Monk
Reply
#16
added 300-350 just crested 350 last night. Go me!
nobody ever slaughtered an entire school with a smart phone and a twitter account – they have, however, toppled governments. - Jim Wright
Reply
#17
Quote:If you are near or around 375, you might want to try to get Plans: Reinforced Cobalt Chestpiece. It drops off of Venture Co. Excavators in Sholazar Basin.

Currently the materials for it is only four cobalt bars. This changes next patch! It's going to become eight cobalt bars and two crystallized water. If you want to get as much as possible out of this, now's the time to strike. We don't know when the patch hits.

It is red from 375 all the way to 415, making it possibly the best way to grind Blacksmithing until 420, when it goes yellow. I got from 375 to 425 (where it goes gray) making nothing but these. I got a friend who's a Miner/Enchanter to mine cobalt ore for me (and I was mining a great deal myself) and got the entire bunch disenchanted afterwards.


I have cleared 12000g in 3 weeks since I've gotten this pattern. Buy Cobalt, make, D/E, Sell mats. The gravy train is over soon so even if you just want cheap mats this is the best return on any craftable I've seen.
Reply
#18
Unfortunately cobalt is extremely expensive on Earthen Ring, my home server. I cannot do that.:(
Even if you just grind cobalt, it's a great way to make money.
Earthen Ring-EU:
Taelas -- 60 Human Protection Warrior; Shaleen -- 52 Human Retribution Paladin; Raethal -- 51 Worgen Guardian Druid; Szar -- 50 Human Fire Mage; Caethan -- 60 Human Blood Death Knight; Danee -- 41 Human Outlaw Rogue; Ainsleigh -- 52 Dark Iron Dwarf Fury Warrior; Mihena -- 44 Void Elf Affliction Warlock; Chiyan -- 41 Pandaren Brewmaster Monk; Threkk -- 40 Orc Fury Warrior; Alliera -- 41 Night Elf Havoc Demon Hunter;
Darkmoon Faire-EU:
Sieon -- 45 Blood Elf Retribution Paladin; Kuaryo -- 51 Pandaren Brewmaster Monk
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 4 Guest(s)