If you want to start making your own weapons and armor, either for yourself or for profit, the profession of blacksmithing is a very lucrative one. So, lets get started with this WoW Blacksmithing Guide.

It is best combined with a secondary profession of mining, if you really want to save money, but it can also stand on its own. If you do decide to mine, you won’t have to worry about purchasing blocks of metal for your recipes. Many players decide to take this route since it is cheaper.

However, since mining does take a great deal of time, you may want to start off with just blacksmithing. You won’t need to purchase expensive metal bars until later in your profession and if you wish, you can start mining then.

Let’s take a look at how to easily master the profession of world of warcraft blacksmithing with the least amount of effort.

Getting Started

First, you’re going to need to visit a trainer to get your apprenticeship. You can find these trainers in most large cities. If you’re having difficulty, just ask around with other players and you should be able to locate one without any trouble. You’re also going to need some basic items to get going.

To start off with you’re going to need coal, some grinding stones, different kinds of flux such as weak, strong or elemental and in some cases, materials such as gems or leather. For your first recipes though, you can just stick with the basics.

Once you have these items, you’ll need to get plans from your trainer to start making items. These plans will need to be purchased. If you don’t have enough money, you can quickly earn some gold by grinding to get all of the plans that you need. Now that you have your plans, you are ready to get started. In order to make any items, you’ll have to open your spellbook and click on Blacksmithing. It will give you the required recipes and walk you through the process of creating them.

WoW Blacksmith Guide – Advancing in Skill

To get from level 1 to level 25 in skills, you’re going to need to have 25 sharpening stones. These can be purchased, or you can easily find them if you want to save money. These will be required for all of your recipes while you are advancing to 25. Once you’re at this level, you’re going to need to have 40 rough grinding stones to take you to skill level 65. 10 coarse sharpening stones are necessary to go from 60 to 75. At this point, you’ll be ready to become a journeyman.

To go from 76 to 100, you’ll need to have 25 coarse grinding stones on hand. For 101 to 105, you’ll need to make 5 silver rods. This recipe will call for 10 rough stones and 5 bars of silver. If you are mining, then it shouldn’t be difficult to get the bars that you need. Otherwise, you’re going to need to either purchase them from a vendor or go to the auction house to pick some up.

Once you are making rods, you can sell these to other players. For example, Enchanters need a silver rod to get their special Runed Silver Rod, so there is quite a market for these. This is probably the first thing that you’re going to be able to sell. Now, to get from 106 to 125, you’re going to need to create 60 pairs of bronze leggings. This will require 120 bars of bronze. This can be made by combining copper and iron, or you can simply purchase the supplies that you need.

To get to 150, all you need to have are 25 heavy grinding stones. As you can see, there is a pattern here. All of the stones that you need are used in the recipes for the next item that you have to make to get to a new level. Before long, you’ll be making awesome items like these Flamebane Bracers.

If you’ve reached this point, you’re now an expert. It won’t get any easier, but you will be able to make items now that will have a much higher value. The time that you’ve put into learning your craft will now really start to pay off.

In world of warcraft, to go from 151 to 200, you’re going to need to make 25 bronze leggings which will require 150 bronze bars. At this point you can see why it’s a good idea to combine this profession with mining. It can get pretty expensive to purchase these bars and your profit margin will be a lot smaller if you’re not mining them on your own. You’ll also need to create 25 iron counterweights. These will require 50 coarse grinding stones, 100 iron bars and 25 lesser moonstones.

You’ll now need to get 110 solid grinding stones to progress to level 210. After you reach that point, you’ll have to make 5 golden scale bracers, which require 10 heavy grinding stones and 25 steel bars. To get to 225 and become an artisan, you’ll have to finish off by making 10 steel plate helms. This will require 140 steel bars and 10 solid grinding stones.

Once you’re an artisan, things get to be a lot more enjoyable. To go from 226 to 235, you’ll have to make 10 more helms using the recipe above. Once this is done, you’ll need to make 15 mithril spurs. This will require 60 mithril bars and 45 solid grinding stones. Now get 10 dense grinding stones to go up to 260 and you’ll be ready to move onto the next items which are 5 thorium bracers (60 thorium bars and 20 blue power crystals) and 20 thorium helms which will require 80 yellow power crystals, 20 star rubies and 480 thorium bars.

After you’ve hit 300, it’s up to you whether or not you want to continue. A lot of players may stop here just because it’s a little more difficult to get up to 375 from this point on. However, if you do keep going, you’ll finish your master blacksmithing and chances are the things you are making will be in high demand.

Making the Most Out of Blacksmithing

While you’re increasing your skills, it’s also a good idea to start making other items that you can sell. Hang out in the auction house and watch which items are in demand. Get the necessary materials and the recipes and you’ll be able to start selling these items on your own. This is a great way to make extra money to purchase the components you need for your skill levels to increase.

  

Popularity: 8% [?]

Enchanting is a very popular profession in WoW, but is also one of the most difficult to learn. However, it is certainly time well spent since you will be able to use these abilities regularly. Enchanters have the ability not only to enchant items, by adding special attributes to them, but they can also disenchant items. This comes in handy in numerous occasions in the game.

While enchanting is not for everyone, if you do have a good deal of patience and you think that this skill would be of use to you, it’s truly worthwhile to give it a try. With the right strategy, learning your enchanting profession doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, we’re going to make it really easy for you.

Getting Started

Once you decide that you’re going to get into learning enchanting you’re going to need to find a trainer to get your apprenticeship. This is very easy to do and they are available in many locations in larger cities. Once you have this done, you’ll also need to choose a secondary profession. Most people pick tailoring, but your options are pretty open. Keep in mind that you won’t need to do any gathering for your profession, so you won’t need to pick a secondary profession that is based around gathering, such as mining.

Now, you’re going to need an item to enchant as well as the recipe for enchanting it. If you do plan to disenchant an item, please remember that this will effectively destroy it. Unfortunately, once you do this, there is no way to take back your disenchantment, so use it carefully.

Enchanted Armor set

Enchanting

Let’s start the actual process of enchanting. We’ll be working on an Enchant Bracer which is worn on the wrist to deflect objects. For this recipe, you’re going to need strange dust and lesser magic essence. If you don’t already have these items, you’ll need to purchase them from the auction house or from a vendor.

Once you have the items you need, you can open up your spellbook and go to the enchanting window. Just follow the instructions and you’ll have your first enchanted item. Now, this is an item that is for level 1, so you’ll need to keep going to get up past 300.

Disenchanting

At times, you may need to disenchant an item to collect the special dusts and poweders that you need.  Open up your spellbook and select disenchant. Now move your mouse over to the item that you want to disenchant. It may take a few minutes to complete the process. Remember, there is no turning back once you start this process.

If you need to get dust and other items for your enchanting recipes, disenchanting items is probably the easiest and cheapest way to go about it. Here’s a quick guide to help you get what you need:

Dust – Green Armor
Essence – Green Weapons
Shard – Blue Items
Nexus Crystal – Purple Items (up to 60)
Void Crystals – Purple Items (after level 60)

What to Do With Your Skill

Now that you’re enchanting items, you’re going to need to do something with them. A lot of players like to trade enchanted items and this is the main reason that enchanting is considered one of the more social skills. You can also sell your items to other players or auction them off in the auction house.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Killer Guides’ Hunter Guide is a 241 page ebook intended to take you from a “huntard” to a real hunter.

I have a high level hunter myself and I must say this new version of the guide was really good. It is almost entirely up-to-date with Wrath of the Lich King, and I found myself agreeing with most tips, which is important because the last thing you want when learning a new class is backwards advice that sets you on the wrong path.

Most everything you’d expect is explained in the guide, from choosing a race, to choosing equipment, talents and learning how to play solo, groups and PvP, as well as vital info on pets and hunter quests.The author has done a good job of covering the new pet changes introduced in patch 3.0, and there’s a discussion on almost every tameable pet with pros and cons for various purposes. The same goes for pet talents.

There’s a separate leveling guide for horde and alliance from 1-80, which is a good reference if you find yourself getting lost. This is more of a general path, though, and not very detailed.

Something I found quite useful was the equipment guide which lists many items for levels 20-80, some of which are crafted, quest rewards, random world drops and instance drops. Something for everyone, in other words. It’s always fun to go hunting for new equipment.

As for the talents, the heart of a class, they are each described individually and rated for their usefulness in solo, groups, raids and PvP. There are also many good talent builds to choose from, like a leveling build, raid and PvP build and more. All the talents and builds are also up to date and include glyph recommendations that go well with each one.

The addons section is fine, the macros section is okay. The chapter on making gold, while good for a leveling hunter, is a bit minimalistic but does cover all levels.

A word about updates: they are included in the price, and this guide has been updated 9 times since I got the first version mid-2005. That’s some great service right there. However, since this guide is better suited for a leveling hunter, as opposed to an experienced level 80, don’t worry if a new patch comes along and tweaks the hunter somewhat… You’ll still be able to use virtually all tips in the guide, because new patches usually only change the end-game stuff.

Popularity: 10% [?]

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