Blacksmithing is a profession near and dear to me. Mining and blacksmithing were the first two professions I ever maxed in WoW, and it was a pricey endeavor.  I didn’t know where to farm the materials for Blacksmithing because there weren’t addons and the tons of resources. But today, with websites like wow-professions and wowhead, and addons like gatherer, getting to that max level isn’t nearly the chore it once was. Today I am not going into how to level your professions, there are already ample places to find that information such as the wow professions mentioned above. Instead, what I am showing you today is how to profit with blacksmithing once you get it maxed.

First I want to note that if you don’t already have a miner, I highly recommend you get one. You don’t need to have them on the same character,  but you should at least have one as it will make obtaining the smelted bars I mention much easier. There are many ways to get a blacksmith making gold quickly. I feel like the simplicity of blacksmithing makes it a wonderful profession. Most of the raw materials used in blacksmithing are in high quantity on most every server, and thus the methods are readily available.

NOTE: All pattern locations are listed at the bottom of the post.

Weapons and Shields

This one has two parts, so first lets talk about the shields. The shields you craft with blacksmithing are of heroic dungeon quality and are thus very nice to buy when you hit 90. They are a bit pricey to produce costing 12 ghost iron bars and 2 trillium, but they are well worth it, and are generally in very high demand. These will still be quite popular for some time as it is the best shield you can get your hands on pre-LFR.

Weapons for me have not done nearly as well. There are two ilvls of weapons you can make as a blacksmith, one being the 415 weapons which are rather expensive to produce (costing 2 spirits of harmony each) and generally easily replaced post level 87. The other weapons are ilvl 463 weapons which do better, but not great. These weapons cost 30-40 kyparite, 12-15 Ghost Iron Bars, and 5 Spirits of Harmony each. Simply due to the Spirits of Harmony cost, I do not make these weapons as I can get a better value from using them to make epic patterns. But always consult your local auction house before making your own decisions.

Belt Buckles

Belt buckles are a quick profit for blacksmiths. For this expansion, all we need is 1 living steel to make a belt buckle, and they are always in high demand. It is definitely worth noting that belt buckles sell fantastically well after the release of a patch. Any new content that brings new gear will increase your demand. I talk more about this concept in my post on preparing for patch 5.2.

Weapon Chains

Weapon chains aren’t AS popular as they have been in the past, but I still make sales on them regularly. I make sure to keep an eye on what they sell for and list when they are within my desired profit margins. These aren’t my bread and butter, but they do pull in decent profits weekly, and are definitely worth looking into. If you have a surplus of living steel, it is worth splitting some into weapon chains to spread out your market reach.

Shield Spikes

In my personal experience, these have not done so well in recent expansions. The materials cost is rather low; only being 12 Ghost Iron Bars, but so is demand for  these. The main enchant for the shield is only a few mysterious essence and an ethereal shard, so most people opt for the pary as opposed to the spikes. There can still be a slight demand for these for people cutting corners and getting an easy leg up, so it may be worth your time having a few ready to sell just to expand your reach. With the materials cost so low, its not like your investment will be too far gone to easily recover from a poor return, just don’t make too many.

PvP Gear

PvP gear is another great source of revenue for your blacksmith. With the notes on 5.2, we can see that blacksmith made pvp gear increases in ilvl automatically after the patch release, so you can always be competitive in this market even as gear levels increase. The materials cost for these pieces is extremely low relative to the usual selling price. I personally advertise in trade chat and only sell in full sets for these, but competition on my server is very fierce with 70,000+ level 90′s on just my faction. You can just as easily sell these sets in the AH and turn great profits. There are two sets of this plate, one has spirit for holy paladins, and the other is the generic plate dps set. Being only 8 ilvls lower than current honor gear, these sets are definitely worth the investment and thus, are very desirable.

Basic Tank Sets

Candy, these sets are pure candy. Anyone who levels up a plate wearing tank (60% of all tanks wear plate) generally need at least one of these peices to replace a lower ilvl slot in order to jump into heroics. Another great use of these sets is offspec, a lot of people want these to start an offspec set of gear for tanking. These sell great on my server and are always in high demand. I personally bought these first on my smith so that I could make them for myself. As far as the materials for these go, they will run you a bit more with every piece requiring at least one trillium bar to complete, but as with everything, research will do you a lot of good.

Skeleton Keys

Skeleton keys are a sometimes forgotten aspect of blacksmithing. Keys let us open lock boxes, and back in the day; special doors to hidden areas. I have not played around much by seeing if any of the keys can be used to open the mogue doors and chests that you can find in dungeons, but I imagine they can’t. Either way, for a blacksmith just standing around in a city, it could be worth your time to have a chat addon such as spammy sending messages to trade advertising you will open lock boxes. The keys are relatively inexpensive considering the materials are just 1 Ghost Iron Bar, and you could easily charge a flat fee for the service, or just ask for a tip of their choosing.

Epic Gear

The epic gear patterns are usually a great source of income assuming you have access to spirits of harmony regularly like through The Tillers. This is especially true if you can personally generate the other materials. I personally delve into this market but it can be a very hit or miss scenario, especially considering the high value of materials and the relative ease of obtaining the generic patterns. If you do your homework though, you could easily net a few thousand gold from certain patterns provided you can find buyers. This method becomes much better with the release of a patch, and if you can get your hands on a new pattern within the first few days, its a very easy flip, especially to raiding guilds. Make sure you read up on the patch note before hand and do your best to obtain the materials required early if you plan on this particular course of action.

Obtaining Recipes

For the MoP Blacksmithing patterns, most are sold in two locations:

The Klaxi Quartermaster sells:

• Living Steel Belt Buckle
• Living Steel Weapon Chain
• Ghost Iron Shield Spike
• 463 Weapon Patterns
• 476 Craftable Epic Patterns

NOTE: All recipes require honored Klaxi reputation and 20 Kyparite. This reputation is easily gained from questing through the area and completing Daily Quests.

The Respective Horde and Alliance MoP Blacksmithing trainers sell:

• Contender’s Revenant Patterns (PvP plate DPS)
• Contender’s Spirit Patterns (PvP plate Spirit)
• Masterwork Spiritguard Patterns (ilvl 450 tank gear)
• Masterwork Spiritguard Shield Pattern (Spirit Shield ilvl 463)
• Masterwork Lightsteel Shield Pattern (Tank Shield ilvl 463)

NOTE: All Recipes require 1 Spirit of Harmony to purchase each.

Synergy with Enchanting

I mention this purely for the sake of completion. I have had some success in this area, but the crafting time on Blacksmith made pieces can be quite high and thus making huge numbers can be a chore. But, it is possible to craft pieces such as the Contender’s Revenant Bracers which only require 5 Ghost Iron Bars, and disenchant them for profit. Since these pieces only give 1 Small Ethereal Shard, your profit entirely depend on 1 Ethereal Shard being worth more than 15 Ghost Iron Bars/30 Ghost Iron Ore. If this is the case, and you don’t have other options like “The Shuffle”, this can be an easy way to make a little gold. Usually the margins on this method are slim and not worth the time, but if you can get away with it and turn good profits, go for it. This is also not accounting for the Bountiful Bags guild perk.

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