World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

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.

Getting Started

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.

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.

Leveling Guide

We have a blacksmithing leveling guide from 1-375. Look for 1-450 very soon!

Click here to get to power leveling blacksmithing!

Skilling Up

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!

Making Money With Blacksmithing

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.

Socketing

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.

Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing

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.

Secondary Professions

You can only have one additional secondary profession. Which one should you pick? Well…

• Mining: A fairly obvious choice. Mining will allow you to mine metal for your various crafts. This is a skill best picked up when you first start Blacksmithing. Why? All the metal you mine while leveling Mining up will let you level Blacksmithing up too. When you’re at the max level you may find farming gold and buying metal a better option than obtaining the metal yourself and instead picking up another primary profession that will boost your DPS/healing/tanking ability.
• Inscription: A good choice if you can get the herbs to level it. Why? Well, you get a massive boost to your shoulder enchant. That doesn’t have much bearing on Blacksmithing but it does help boost your character.
• Jewelcrafting: You can only have 3 Jeweler’s Gems on at any time and those can go into sockets you already have. So is it a benefit to have Jewelcrafting? Yes. The jewels can be a big bonus and prospecting metal can make metal more profitable if you have a mining alt.
• Tailoring: The various cloak weaves are helpful, but it doesn’t supply anything to boost Blacksmithing itself.
• All Other Professions: They don’t help or hurt blacksmithing, so it’s up to you if you want them. Mining can save you cash and you can always sell metal or you can get another profession that boosts your characters stats. It’s all about your playstyle.

Well that’s everything there is to know about blacksmithing! Now get out there and start hitting the anvil.