Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing is a profession and is the art of forging items out of metals, minerals, and other trade goods. Blacksmiths utilize bars of metal unearthed and smelted by the mining profession along with various trade and magical goods to produce their wares.

A blacksmith can create melee weapons, armor (mail and plate), trade items used as ingredients by other professions (such as rods for enchanters) and keys used to unlock a variety of items in the world. Additionally, blacksmiths can craft items that when applied to weapons can provide temporary (and in some cases, permanent) buffs to items.

While they can create a variety of items, they strangely cannot repair these items when damaged, and must still use the services of a repair vendor.

In general, blacksmithing mainly benefits mail and plate wearing classes for the unique armors that can be created. However, most (if not all) classes can use a good deal of the weapons produced by blacksmiths. Ideally, blacksmithing would be paired with mining as a second profession. Mining is not a prerequisite for the blacksmithing profession.

As of patch 3.0.2, Blacksmiths can now permanently place a socket on their own bracers and gloves at skill level 400 (see Socketing below).

Training as a Blacksmith
Blacksmithing is taught by various blacksmithing trainers located throughout the world. Prospective blacksmiths must be level 5. Initial training costs 10 copper, granting the Apprentice level with a potential skill of 75 and access to apprentice blacksmithing plans taught by trainers or found throughout the world. Most recipes require the use of a blacksmith hammer and anvil, however, some (such as Rough Sharpening Stone, for example) do not.

The following are the required levels and potential skill of each stage of the profession:

Grand Master is only available after installing the expansion Wrath of the Lich King.

Illustrious Grand Master is only available after installing the expansion Cataclysm.

''Note: Since Patch 2.3 all blacksmithing trainers teach up to Artisan level blacksmithing. Weaponsmithing and armorsmithing are taught by trainers in Ironforge and Orgrimmar. Weaponsmithing specialists reside in Everlook. Master level blacksmithing can be learned from respective trainers located in Outland.

Advancing as a Blacksmith
Crafting items is the only way to progress through the stages. Plans will appear as one of four colors in the profession window, with a certain chance for a skill up (gaining a point):

As your blacksmithing skill increases, plans will change from orange to yellow, yellow to green and green to grey. Only by finding higher skill plans can one continue to progress through the stages. Approximately every 5-10 points, new plans will become available to learn. These can be learned from trainers, looted from corpses, given as quest rewards or purchased from vendors or the auction house. All plans have a requisite blacksmithing skill to be learned and produced. Additionally, some plans cannot be learned until you have a certain reputation level with a given faction.

A blacksmith of level 60 and skill 350 can become a Grand Master for. Trainers are available in each of the 4 arrival ports in Northrend.

Blacksmithing Specialization
As of WoW patch 4.0.1 the blacksmithing specializations of Armorsmith and Weaponsmith have been removed from the game. However, there is an article to preserve the information relevant to the now-deprecated Blacksmithing Specialization.

Socketing
Blacksmiths can now add sockets to their own bracers and gloves, available at 400 Blacksmithing.



A player must maintain at least 400 Blacksmithing or the socket will become inactive.

At level 420, blacksmiths can also create Eternal Belt Buckle, which can be traded to non-blacksmiths and used to create a socket in level 60 or higher belts, up to a maximum item level of 299. At 525 skill, blacksmiths can create Ebonsteel Belt Buckle, which functions identically to the Eternal Belt Buckle but is usable on belts at or above item level 300.