Guide to Raising Blacksmith Skill 1-450

When learning Blacksmithing on a new character, if you keep your skill at 25 plus five times your level then you will always be able to make items you can equip at their minimum level. Outside of the items you make because you want to, or to fulfill the Blacksmith quests, there are a series of minimum-material or minimum-cost items you can make to advance your skill, mostly consisting of stone, misc. items, and some low-material armor items.

Apprentice Blacksmithing Path:

This is done mostly with stone, saving your copper and bronze bars until later except when you need to equip yourself or your friends or clients. Make Rough Sharpening Stones (turns green at 15 and grey at 55) until you reach 25 and learn Rough Grinding Stones. (Save and use those Sharpening Stones as a combat buff.) Make Rough Grinding Stones (turns yellow at 45 and green at 65) until you reach skill 65, keeping them for use later in making other items. Make Coarse Sharpening Stones or Coarse Whetstones until you reach 75 and are a Journeyman. Copper items useful as skillups include Copper Bracers (2 copper bars, green at 20), Copper Chain Pants (4 copper bars, green at 50) and Copper Chain Belt (6 copper bars, green at 75).

Journeyman Blacksmithing Path:

At 75 you learn Coarse Grinding Stone, which are yellow when learned. Make those until they turn grey at 100 and save them for making further items. Turn any tin and copper into bronze bars but save them. Make Silver Rods until they turn green at 105 (and sell them to Enchanters) then make Rough Bronze Leggings (with your saved bronze bars) until 125. At 125 you learn Heavy Grinding Stone. Make these until they turn grey at 150 and keep them for making other items. If you are able to learn the Deadly Bronze Poniard dropped plan at 125 then you can make and sell it at a profit until it turns green at 155 and grey at 185. The Patterned Bronze Bracer (green at 150) is required for a Badlands quest. At 145 you learn to make your first rare (blue) item, the Shining Silver Breastplate (green at 175) which sells well.

Expert Blacksmithing Path:

Beginning at 150 make Iron Buckles, which do sell, until they turn grey at 155, and then the profitable Golden Rods until they turn grey at 160.
Golden skeleton keys are green at 160 and grey at 170. The Iron Shield Spike (which can sell) is learned orange at 150, turns yellow at 180, green at 195 and grey at 210. Another profitable drop is the Iron Counterweight, learned orange at 165, goes yellow at 190 and grey at 210. You may want to equip yourself and friends with the Green Iron Set and that will provide some skillups. The Green Iron Helm, learned at 170, often sells well as one of the first uncommon helms available.

At 200 you learn Solid Grinding Stone so make those until they turn grey at 210 and save for later use. To get from 210 to 225, make Golden Scale Bracers to 215, (save these for the Mithril Order quest), then make Steel Plate Helms to 225. I highly recommend doing the Mithril Order quests at this time to get skillups while you do them. You might also be able to sell the Golden Scale armor set, and the Moonsteel Broadsword is required for a quest in Duskwallow Marsh. A number of expert weapons and armors are saleable, including the rare Green Iron Hauberk at 180 (green at 205, grey at 230).

Artisan Blacksmithing Path:

At 225 make Steel Plate Helms (yellow at 235, green at 245), if iron is easier to get. If mithril is easier to get then make Mithril Scale Bracers (yellow at 235) or (if you can get the plan) Mithril Shield Spikes (these sell steadily and turn yellow at 235 and green at 245). At 235, if you can get the plan, make Mithril Spurs to 250 (turns yellow at 255, green at 265). At 250 make Dense Grinding Stones until they turn grey at 260 (save for later use). For full details on 235-260 see my summary on page 18.

The Heavy Mithril and Ornate Mithril armor items are good for their level, so you can also skill up some on making the mithril items for the Mithril Order quests. The Ornate Mithril Boots are popular with warriors for their remove root effect and they (and the Ornate Mithril Helm) turn green at 265. You can go back to Mithril Spurs (which are readily saleable) until they turn grey at 275 and also make the Imperial Plate Belt and Shoulders at 265, Bracers at 270, and then Helm and Boots at 295. (The Imperial Plate Armors are salable, unlike the Thorium and Radiant resist-all armors.) If you are relearning Blacksmithing and do not have access to the Imperial Plate plans then use the Radiant and Thorium armors. If Thorium is hard to come by then consider the skill 260 specialty rare BoP leggings or weapons, which use Mithril and sell to vendors or disenchant well. For full details on 260-300 see my summary on page 14.

Specialty Path:

As an Armorsmith or Weaponsmith you can skill up making the items for your specialty Quest. Be sure to make them as soon as you learn them, and save the items to turn in for the quest, so you get your skillups. You can skill up with rare armors such as Truesilver Gauntlets until they turn green at 245 (or grey at 265) and Truesilver Breastplate until it turns green at 265 (or grey at 285). You can also gain skillups with rare weapons such as the Shatterer, Phantom Blade, Blight and Truesilver Champion, as these are also saleable.

Master Blacksmithing Path:
You become a Master Blacksmith (and Master Miner) in either Honor Hold or Thrallmar in Hellfire Peninsula, allowing you to rise to skill 375. If you can gather extra thorium before going to Outlands, the best items to stockpile for and use to level up initially, as they are saleable, will be the Imperial Plate Armors, Elemental Sharpening Stones, Darkrune Armors, Ironvine Armors, and Enchanted Thorium Blades. These can take you as high as 325.

Once you get to Outlands, mine or buy Fel Iron and make Fel Whetstones and Fel Iron Rods to 310 (the rods use more fel iron but sell for a profit). (For all of the items with only a 10-point range until grey, that tenth point has a very low chance of a skillup, so you will do better to get that last point with something else.) The uncommon Fel Iron Chain and Plate sets and Fel iron weapons can then also help get you to 325, although their saleability is iffy.

At 325 make Lesser Rune of Warding until they go grey at 335 (you can sell them or use them yourself). If you can get the primals, you can make the rare Adamantite Plate Bracers and Gloves, as they should be saleable, and your specialty rare breasplate or 1H & 2H weapons. Otherwise make Fel Iron Breastplates to 340. At 340 get the plan for Lesser Ward of Shielding and make it to 350, when it goes grey. At 350 (and Honored with Cenarian Expedition) you can make Adamantite Whetstones, Sharpening Stones, and Rods to 360, also your skill 350 specialty BoP epic weapons or armor to get the last point or two to 360. (Check the Auction House to see if Adamantite Rods sell for a profit.)

At 360 you can now make Eternium Rods to 375 (learned orange at 360, yellow at 365, green at 370, gray at 375). (Allow for 3-5 failures to get skillups. ) When WotLK releases there will be a number of cheap Cobalt plans to make.

Grandmaster Blacksmithing: Skilling up from 350 to 450:

At 350 (and Honored with Cenarian Expedition) you can make Adamantite Whetstones, Adamantite Sharpening Stones, and Adamantite Rods to 360, also your skill 350 specialty BoP epic weapons or armor to get the last point or two to 360. (Check the Auction House to see which Adamantite items sell for a profit.) At 360 you can now make Eternium Rods to 375 (learned orange at 360, yellow at 365, green at 370, gray at 375). (Allow for 3-5 failures to get skillups.)

Or you can start in on the Cobalt items, beginning at 350 with the Cobalt Skeleton Keys, the Cobalt Triangle Shield, a cheap tanking shield likely to be popular, along with the Cobalt Shoulders and Bracers. The Cobalt set may be popular with new Death Knight Tanks looking for cheap tanking gear and they reach level 70. At 370 you get the Cobalt Gauntlets, Legplates, and Helm. At 375 you have the Cobalt Chestpiece. Those will take you to 395. You no longer need to make any of the rare or epic level 70 items to skill up, although the rare armor sets may still sell well. Demand will be low for the costly epics. Those i the mid 70s can also try to get the 4 BoP dropped Reinforced Cobalt armor plans, which only require 4 cobalt bars to make and skill 375.

Skill 395 begins the rare plate armor sets with the Tempered Saronite plate armor set. These rare armors are quite competitive with drops and will be popular in the initial leveling frenzy. You get belt and leggplates at 395, boots and breastplate at 400, helm and shoulders at 405, bracers at 410, and gauntlets at 415. The rare Brilliant Saronite set also starts with belt and legplates at 395, bracers and gauntlets at 400, shoulders and boots at 405, and breastplate and helm at 415.

At 400 you learn to add a prismatic socket to your braces and gloves. If you have multiple bracers and gloves this can get you several skillups. Adding a prismatic socket soulbinds the item and you can only add 1 prismatic item to a given item. The prismatic socket does not affect an existing socket bonus and does not conflict with enchantments.

After socketing your gloves and bracers, make the rare sets to 415, beginning with the ones you need for yourself. At 8 pieces per set, you can get 16 skillups just by making these 2 sets for yourself (if you are a Paladin), or you can pick whichever is either cheapest or selling best to make. Remember that a piece that sells for a profit is better than one that uses less materials but sells for a loss.

At 415 you learn the popular Eternal Belt Buckle, which sell readily. Make those to 425, using some for yourself. Then make Titanium Rods to 430, if these are profitable. At 430 make yourself some Titanium Skeleton Keys. Finish getting to 440 with the two PvP rare armor sets (Savage Saronite and Ornate Saronite) and the other non-set rares (such as Dauntless and Righteous). The three epic Icebane frost-resist armors, learned at 420 and 425, can be quite profitable and get you to and beyond 440. At item level 213, they are prized by tanks raiding Naxxramas.

At 440 you can make the Titansteel epics and those take you to 450. There are no plans above 440 at this time, so there may no rush to get to 450. (I ran myself to 440 and stopped, skilling up slowly after that as I make money from making and selling the Icebane epics. )

The exact cost will vary highly by server and by demand for what you make. Following the above path, and working slowly to 450 via the highly profitable Icebane epics, I have just about broken even. During that time I have seen the prices vary widely on my server, both for materials and for finished goods.
There is no one best path up because it depends on which dropped plans you get ahold of, which specialty you take, and which items you can make for guildmates or sell that give skillups, which will vary by guild and server. It also depends on whether you learn every plan going up or only the bare minimum because you are trying for a truly lowest cost or fastest power-leveling runup to 375. The path I outlined is a fairly optimal approach but it does include obtaining some dropped plans at the right times.

The faster you try to skill up the more it will cost you because you are likely going to have to vendor much of it. The market can only absorb so much of any one item. Whenever possible, spread out the items you make over time or make a variety so that you do not overload the market. If you want to minimize cost by selling your items, look at the Auction House to see which desirable green or blue items that give skillups are lacking or in short supply and go for them, bypassing those that are in large supply already. Remember that an item that costs 2 g to make is better than one that costs 1 g to make if you can sell the first for a profit but the second sells for a loss. You can have one of your characters be an Enchanter and disenchant any green item that won't sell, since you can usually then sell the resulting reagents for more than the vendor would pay for the original item.