WoW Forever Blacksmithing Guide: Leveling 1-300

Blacksmithing in WoW: Forever makes mail and plate armor, weapons, sharpening stones and utility items, and it runs on bars and stone. Forever moved most of its recipes down the skill curve, so a Classic route keeps you on crafts that have stopped giving points. The route below runs from Rough Sharpening Stone to Radiant Leggings on Forever's own thresholds.

What to prepare before you level

Carry a Blacksmith Hammer bought from a trade supplies vendor, because equipment recipes require that hammer plus an anvil close by. Green Dye can be bought from Bombus Finespindle in Ironforge and from Tamar in Orgrimmar; Strong Flux is stocked by Blacksmithing Supplies vendors, whereas Weak Flux comes from trade supplies.

Take Mining alongside Blacksmithing and smelt the bars yourself; if you buy them at the Auction House they make up most of the profession's expense, while mining them yourself takes time. The WoW Forever Mining Guide covers the gathering side, and the WoW Forever Profession Kits Boost covers the material run if you would rather skip it.

Keep the grinding stones later steps consume: the Rough Grinding Stones from 35-50 go into the Runed Copper Gauntlets at 72-100, the Coarse Grinding Stones from 50-67 into the Silvered Bronze Boots at 132-147, and the Heavy Grinding Stones from 100-117 into the Golden Scale Bracers at 179-200.

Blacksmithing ranks and requirements

You can learn the next rank before your current cap fills, as long as you meet both requirements. Train Artisan before you pass 225, because crafting past that point without it gives no skill points.

Expert training costs 50 silver and Artisan training 5 gold.

Blacksmithing trainer locations

• Apprentice, Alliance: Dane Lindgren in Stormwind's Dwarven District, Groum Stonebeard at the Great Forge in Ironforge, Smith Argus in Goldshire, Tognus Flintfire in Kharanos, Delfrum Flintbeard in Auberdine, and Alphonse Dumas at Farholde Keep in the Riverglades.
• Apprentice, Horde: Ug'thok in Orgrimmar's Valley of Honor, Basil Frye in the Undercity's War Quarter, Thrag Stonehoof on Thunder Bluff's Lower Rise, Dwukk at the Razor Hill forge, Guillaume Sorouy in the Sepulcher and Gur'dok in Rog'mar.
• Journeyman: Therum Deepforge in Stormwind, Rotgath Stonebeard in Ironforge, Clarise Gnarltree in Darkshire, Snarl in Orgrimmar, James Van Brunt in Undercity, Karn Stonehoof in Thunder Bluff and Traugh at the Crossroads.
• Expert: Bengus Deepforge in Ironforge for the Alliance and Saru Steelfury in Orgrimmar for the Horde.
• Artisan: Brikk Keencraft in Booty Bay, who teaches both factions.

Night Elves have no trainer in Teldrassil or Darnassus and travel to Delfrum Flintbeard in Auberdine; Tauren leave Mulgore for Thrag Stonehoof in Thunder Bluff. Undead heading to Angus Hammerhand at Bandarion Keep should buy a hammer first in Deathknell or Brill, because nobody near him sells one. Skyborne on Zephras Isle use Aedi Thriceforged in Shen'dar Village for Apprentice and Daeann Steelwind in Valanaar for Journeyman, and both teach either faction.

One player on the official WoW: Forever forums reported that Brill has a blacksmithing building with a forge and anvil but no trainer, while two players put the run to the Undercity trainer at five minutes or less. Four players called the two untrained smiths there deliberate flavour rather than a problem.

Shopping list

These are the totals the route below uses, by bracket. Buy bars and stone on the Auction House or mine them, and pick up the flux and Green Dye from vendors.

The 1-300 leveling route

This WoW Forever Blacksmithing guide follows the client-data steps below; the counts are averages, and yellow recipes can take a few extra crafts for the same points.

The 225-234 recipe the route used to call Dense Weightstone is Dense Sharpening Stone in the client, yellow at 230 and grey at 235.

Rough Sharpening Stone turns yellow at 15, Runed Copper Gauntlets at 75, Green Iron Bracers at 165, Golden Scale Bracers at 185, Mithril Plate Pants at 205, Radiant Belt at 255 and Radiant Boots at 285. Once a recipe turns yellow, some crafts give no point at all, so budget extra materials for those steps.

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Plans for the last stretch

Plans: Radiant Belt needs Blacksmithing 235, Plans: Radiant Boots 265 and Plans: Radiant Leggings 280; all three are drop plans you can buy on the Auction House.

Magnus Frostwake in the Western Plaguelands sells Plans: Ebon Shiv, Plans: Ornate Thorium Handaxe and Plans: Huge Thorium Battleaxe, and Pexmit in Mount Hyjal sells Plans: Bold Dirk. Vargus in Silithus sells the Goregasher Grips plan at Friendly and Goregasher Support at Honored with the Cenarion Circle, and those crafts need a Master Forge. Quartermaster Miranda Breechlock in the Eastern Plaguelands sells Girdle of the Dawn to characters with Honored Argent Dawn reputation.

We'd buy the Radiant plans instead of grinding the vendor option: the only vendor plan that carries all the way to 300 is the Huge Thorium Battleaxe at 40 Thorium Bars a craft, and it is mostly yellow by the time you get there.

Blacksmithing recipes in Forever

Forever's client holds 441 Blacksmithing recipes, 197 of them new and 186 changed from Classic Era. 185 recipes turn yellow earlier than their Classic versions, nearly all by 25 points, so a Classic plan list stops giving points early.

Six former Blacksmithing recipes now belong to Leatherworking: Heavy Timbermaw Belt, Heavy Timbermaw Boots, Helm of the Great Chief, Invulnerable Mail, Storm Gauntlets and Wildthorn Mail.

The new armor families come in mail, then switch to plate after character level 40.

Much of the new leveling armor binds on pickup, so check before you plan a craft for someone else. One player on the official WoW: Forever forums reported the Green Iron Hauberk as an in-game bug after reaching the required skill and finding no way to craft it: "I did report it as soon as I seen it, was pretty bummed when I reached the required skill to make it and have no way of doing so."

Several crafted pieces are best in slot for their level:

• Prefect's Wristguards: learned at 225, best in slot from level 45.
• Thorium Poleaxe: learned at 260, best in slot from level 52.
• Dawnbringer Shoulders: learned at 265, best in slot from level 53.
• Titanic Leggings: learned at 300, best in slot from level 55.
• Lionheart Helm: learned at 300, best in slot from level 56.
• Persuader: learned at 300, best in slot from level 58.

New plans also draw on Pristine Leather from Skinning, Strange Dust from Enchanting and Sulfuric Acid from Alchemy, plus Azerothium and Legionite Bars. Justicar's Gauntlet, for example, needs 10 Steel Bar, four Heavy Grinding Stone, four Sandpaper, two Sulfuric Acid and four Globes of Water; Sandpaper is an Engineering reagent made from two Boxite and one Bolt of Linen Cloth.

Merchant's Favor comes from completed Waylaid Crates and buys profession plans priced at 30, 60, 90 or 120 Favor. The Enriched Thorium breastplate, helm and leggings plans cost 120 each and the finished pieces bind on pickup. Blacksmithing Certification costs 1,000 Merchant's Favor and permanently unlocks the account-wide title "the Blacksmith", which needs Blacksmithing 300 to display.

Blacksmithing camp objects

Campfires support profession objects that buff everyone resting nearby, and the Strength effect does not stack with Strength of Earth Totem.

The Sharpening Wheel gives 34 Strength at level 60. The Anvil is learned from Blueprint: Anvil, which drops from Gilnet in the Deadmines. Campfires explains how the campsite itself is built and shared.

Specializations

Forever keeps Armorsmith and Weaponsmith, with Axesmith, Hammersmith and Swordsmith as Weaponsmith branches. Your specialization decides which plans you can ever learn, so pick the equipment focus you intend to craft before you invest in plans.

Crafted raid gear

At Blacksmithing 300 you can make shoulders, gloves, legs and boots for five raid sets. The Paladin sets are Justice Battlegear for melee damage, Justice Armor for healing and Justice Battleplate for tanking; the Warrior sets are Battlegear of Glory for damage and Battleplate of Glory for tanking.

Crafted tier pieces are item level 61, require character level 60, and bind on equip, so you can sell the finished item. Each uses Malleable Essence of Nature from disenchanting raid equipment from Hyjal Summit or Barrow Deeps. They also share the Artisan's Tier restriction: you start with room for one, and Rousing Seed Pod raises the limit to two at Revered with the Guardians of Hyjal.

Legacy points and writs

The first time you reach Blacksmithing 150, 225 and 300 on your account you earn a Legacy point, and the Working Overtime perk adds up to 20% to your skill-up chance. Bountiful Harvest helps with scarce Mining materials.

Sealed Writs drop from enemies and open into random crafting orders, including the Pearl-Handled Dagger, Rough Bronze Leggings and Solid Sharpening Stone; you deliver the requested goods and the Writ to the NPC marked on your map, and you do not have to craft the goods yourself.

Writ turn-ins reward Azeroth Commerce Authority or Durotar Supply and Logistics reputation. The WoW Forever Alchemy Guide: Recipes and Leveling 1–300 covers the Sulfuric Acid side of the newer plans, and WoW Forever Professions covers profession work by skill range.