WotLK Goal #2: Gather Mats to Level Blacksmithing
Written by Brian on August 24, 2008 – 10:01 pm -My first goal - reaching Exalted with the Alliance factions - is coming along pretty well. I’m roughly 18000/21000 with Darnassus, and slightly further behind with Exodar.
Clearly I need some other goals, or I’ll run out of things to do before Lich King is released. I might have to go back to raiding… /shudder
Enter goal #2: Gather the mats necessary to level blacksmithing. Currently, my Paladin is a Miner and Engineer. I chose Engineering in BC because the Goggles were insane, and I love the flying mount. Mining was a logical choice to complement Engineering and provide materials.
I currently have a Rogue (Miner/Skinner) at level 66. He should be level 70 by the time that Lich King is released, providing me with another gatherer. He’s also a better gatherer than a Protection Paladin - he can kill things more quickly, and stealth into caves to quickly snag up mining nodes.
It seems logical, then, to ditch mining for another crafting profession. I thought about Inscription, but I’m not sure what the benefits are or if they’re worth it. Enchanting was a possibility… but I think Blacksmithing is the way to go.
Blacksmithing Benefits
In Lich King, every profession is going to have some kind of benefit. This is intended to persuade people to keep gathering professions, rather than opt for two crafting professions. In BC, the BoP items available through professions like Blacksmithing and Engineering far outweighed the gains (for a raider) of a gathering profession like Mining.
Mining, now, will grant the miner a +35 Stamina Boost. Not bad. Is Blacksmithing going to present something better?
All of the end-game BoP patterns are yet to be seen, but we can assume there will be some good ones. Aside from that, there are still some benefits that should match the stamina boost offered by Mining.
Blacksmiths have two abilities to add sockets to their own gear - Socket Bracer and Socket Glove. From what beta testers have said, this is indeed a self-only enchant, so only Blacksmiths will have these extra sockets. (Note: There is also an ability Socket One Handed Weapon, but it appears that this can be used on anyone’s weapon; it is not a Blacksmith only buff)
BoP patterns notwithstanding, the major benefit of Blacksmithing then is two extra gem sockets. They are colorless, so you can socket them with whatever you want. How much can we expect to gain from these sockets? A lot.
The rare quality stamina gem - Solid Sky Sapphire - offers +24 Stamina. Two of these would yield 48 Stamina. That definitely beats out the Mining bonus. In addition, you can itemize as you wish, mixing Stamina, Strength, and Defense rather than maxing only one stat.
Gathering Mats
It seems clear to me that Blacksmithing will be superior to Mining for a raider, despite Blizzard’s attempts to boost the appeal of gathering professions. That leaves the un-fun part… gathering all the mats.
For the most part, I’ll be buying them from the Auction House. I’ve made a few brief forays into the old world to gather some Iron, Mithril, and Thorium, but I really don’t want to farm them all myself. I wish this stuff wasn’t so expensive.
I took a look at a Blacksmithing Guide I found, and it seems pretty well put together. Based on its suggestion, I’ve calculated I’ll need the following materials to get to 350 blacksmithing:
- 90 x Rough Stone
- 24 x Coarse Stone
- 150 x Heavy Stone
- 60 x Solid Stone
- 5 x Silver Bar
- 5 x Gold Bar
- 5 x Truesilver Bar
- 310 x Copper Bar
- 120 x Bronze Bar
- 230 x Iron Bar
- 190 x Steel Bar
- 240 x Mithril Bar
- 600 x Thorium Bar
- 155 x Fel Iron Bar
- 120 x Adamantite Bar
Oi, that’s a lot of mats…
At least I don’t have to grind to 375. Several of the Lich King patterns are available to make at 350, so I won’t have to grind through the most expensive part of Blacksmithing.
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November 8, 2008
It’s interesting that Blizzard is making WotLK BS patterns available at 350. That’s huge, huge gift to people leveling BS after Wrath is released. 350 to 375 in BS is absolutely brutal. The last ten points cost 100 to 150G each.
275 to 300 BS is also pretty rough, but more easily obtained now, as the bugs in Silithus aren’t elite anymore. In addition, we can farm the Thorium on higher level toons, so that makes it faster as well.
I’m pretty excited to see what Blizzard is doing with BS in the expansion. In addition to the BoE Bracer and Glove sockets and the BoP Weapon socket, I’ve also seen a Belt socket, that I think was BoE. It’ll be nice to have some money making options with BS again.
I’m definitely glad I don’t have to grind to 375. I had thought about making Stormherald for Ret PVP, but it’s not worth the mats _and_ grinding those 25 points.
As for the sockets, the bracers and gloves are both self-enchants at the moment (according to beta commenters on Wowhead). You won’t be able to make money off them, but it also gives a nice reason to keep blacksmithing permanently.
BoP epics are nice early on, but they’ll eventually be outdated. Two extra sockets (and three if the weapon is self-only) is well worth it.
Well I have already got an engineer 375/miner 375 on my hunter and blacksmith 371/miner 375 on my paladin.
I disagree that the engineering helmet is better… unless you get the v3 drop recipe.
The Merc Gladiator helm is easy to get and is still a viable pve tanking helm due to resilience also adding 1% crit mitigation for 39 points… whereas its 60 points of defence rating for the same 1%.
I am glad I took BS to 371 so far.. At the moment I am making rare/epic items to sell on AH just to farm money ready for the further grind to 450. I got a lucky Fel Hardened Maul recipe drop from a trash mob on Quel’Danas and making those for 1500g a pop on AH is great.
Ragesteel Spaulders sell well too providing you don’t overprice them.
You can still level to 375 using Ragesteel Spaulders or Enchanted Adamantite Belt…. they are all orange to 375.
When I took up engineering, Arena was still in its infancy (Season 1), and the Tankatronic Goggles were pretty much the best tanking pieces you could get early on.
However, I would consider the Tankatronic Goggles a much better piece than any of the Merciless Helms for tanking.
The Lamellar Helm does offer some int and spell power for threat, but it is severely lacking in mitigation. Assuming you have 490 defense (and as a Paladin you should be stacking defense rating anyway to maximize your avoidance), the crit mitigation from the resilience is wasted. That means you’re giving up 1.2% to dodge, and about 0.6% each to dodge, block, parry, and miss - a total of 3% avoidance and 0.6% to block - for ~40 spell power.