Posted April 29th, 2005 by Messiah
Blacksmithing is a primary profession in World of Warcraft that takes metal and turns it into valuable armor and weapons. What’s even more valuable is their ability to add sockets to belts for everyone and sockets to their own bracers and gloves. Blacksmiths are renowned for their ability to forge some of the better weapons and armor in the game and even utilize recipes in the biggest dungeons to create some of the better gear in the game.
Blacksmithing works for any class. Before, you would only get use out of the BoP weapons and armor if you were a metal wearer/wielder (Warriors and Paladins for instance). Now the big draw is the ability to add a socket to your gloves and bracer which can give very nice bonuses when you use high quality gems. However, the majority of the craftable items are for classes that wield sharp weapons and mail/plate armor.
Are you a miner? Mining is a great compliment to Blacksmithing since Mining can mine metal to be used in most of the Blacksmithing recipes.
To learn blacksmithing, you will want to find a Blacksmithing Trainer. Trainers are available in every major city and can be located by simply asking a guard. The trainer will teach you blacksmithing for a small fee and then every 50 – 75 skill points you’ll return to increase your rank from Apprentice all the way up to Grand Master. See the chart below for more information on levels.
| Rank | Skill Levels |
| Apprentice | 1-75 |
| Journeyman | 50-150 |
| Expert | 125-225 |
| Artisan | 200-300 |
| Master (The Burning Crusade) | 300-375 |
| Grand Master (WotLK) | 375-450 |
You can unlearn blacksmithing at anytime on your skills tab. Though if you drop it now and pick up later you will lose all of your skill points you’ve gained.
We have a blacksmithing leveling guide from 1-375. Look for 1-450 very soon!
Click here to get to power leveling blacksmithing!
Blacksmithing is a production profession which means that you level up by going to a nearby forge and creating items to gain skill ups. Orange items will give you a skillup each time you craft them. Yellow items will give you a skillup most of the time. Green items will give you a skillup every now and then. Grey items will never give you a skillup. There isn’t a way to fail making a recipe in World of Warcraft.
Creating items is simple. You’ll need the resources required for the recipe and the recipe learned (either bought from a trainer or obtained somewhere in the world). You’ll also need an anvil which is located in all major cities and many outposts. While near an anvil, you’ll want to open your blacksmithing skill out of your spellbook and select the item you want to craft. Then click on “create” and within seconds you’ll have the item.
<protip>It's important to only skill up on items that are low in materials and/or sell well to the vendor or the auction house. Otherwise it can be very costly to raise the skill if you just level up on whatever you find.</protip>
Many items sell very well on the Auction House. Don’t forget that when you’re leveling your skills up!
Production professions aren’t very profitable, with the exception of some items. They’re mostly utilized by guilds to create items needed for progression (like Titansteel Armor). You can, however, make Eternal Belt Buckles which do sell well.
The items that sell best right now are the Titansteel tanking set (needed by new tanks to get defense capped), Eternal Belt Buckles, and the BoE gear created by the Ulduar recipes. Titanium Plating can also sell fairly well.
Blacksmithing is mostly about creating useful gear for you and your guildmates and socketing. Blacksmiths can add sockets to three pieces of gear. They can add a belt socket for anyone. They can also create sockets in their own gloves and bracers. This gives two additional sockets that would never have existed if it wasn’t for Blacksmithing. You’ll need 400 Blacksmithing to add sockets to your own gear and it’s worth it. If you place two Bright Cardinal Rubies into the two new sockets you’ll have 80 additional attack power. This is akin to Inscription’s ability to add 80 additional attack power with their enchants, however, this adds more flexibility and you can always take Inscription as a second primary profession.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that if you take Jewelcrafting that you’ll automatically come out ahead when using the BoP jewels. BoP jewels are unique equipped (at 3) so you won’t be able to equip them in each slot. Even with more slots you still won’t benefit. That’s not to say socketing isn’t amazing as is.
These two abilities can be trained at the trainer and allow access to certain weapons or armor that can only be crafted if you train one or the other. It’s important to note that WotLK doesn’t emphasis the two skills anymore so your choice won’t majorly affect anything.
You can only have one additional secondary profession. Which one should you pick? Well…
Well that’s everything there is to know about blacksmithing! Now get out there and start hitting the anvil.
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