Blacksmithing
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Man at Arms makes Frostmourne
If you haven't started watching Man at Arms, the awesome webseries where weapons from movies and video games are recreated by master blacksmith Tony Swatton, I have to wonder why not. The real draw of the show is that they go out of their way to make functional replicas, even when that's impractical - the weapons Swatton and his team create actually can be used, and usually are used at the end of the episode. This week, after a round of voting, we finally get to see Swatton's take on Frostmourne, the infamous runeblade of the Lich King. Now, as far as I can tell they haven't mastered the necromancy that made Frostmourne so dangerous, but they did make a sword you can cut stuff up real good. Keep your eyes peeled at the end for a guest appearance by Michele Morrow at the end. I won't lie, I'm still a little bummed we didn't get a Gorehowl. But this is a heck of an impressive build. I really think Blizzard should commission an Ashkandi from Mr. Swatton. And then give it to me.
The puzzling problem of professions in endgame
I have a confession to make: There are five jewelcrafting mounts and one engineering mount that were introduced with Mists of Pandaria, and I have yet to make any of them. I have a tailor at max level tailoring, but she hasn't made a single Royal Satchel. I have a leatherworker who hasn't even touched any of the patterns introduced this expansion. In fact, the only things I seem to be making with any kind of regularity are cut gems, and glyphs for my alts. Why? Because the return on investment for any one of the mounts introduced is too low. I don't have the gold to randomly fling at things like mounts that will be used once or twice and then forgotten about. As for the tailor, the pattern for the Royal Satchel is locked behind the absolute, hands down, worst reputation grind in the new expansion -- and there's no way to get around that. I either have to log on every single day to grind out dailies that give an absolute pittance of reputation, or try to solo Warbringers, which is next-to-impossible for several classes. In short, none of these things are worth my time or gold. As a result, the majority of my professions have been completely unused for the majority of the expansion. And I have a sneaking suspicion I am far from the only one, here.
A beginner's guide to WoW's crafting professions
We've talked about WoW's gathering professions, but now that you know gathering, it's time to talk about what to do with the materials you've gathered: craft. World of Warcraft has eight different crafting professions -- alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting, engineering, leatherworking, tailoring, jewelcrafting, and inscription -- which means that a wannabe crafter has plenty of options. So follow along as we walk you through your WoW crafting choices. Alchemy What does it do? Allows you to create a variety of potions, elixirs, and flasks, as well as transmuting certain items into other items. Most of an alchemist's skills involve providing buffs for anyone using their brews: potions provide an immediate benefit (like restoring your health), elixirs provide buffs for an extended period of time, and flasks provide buffs that last through death. Do I need any gear? Crafting potions will require herbs and different types of vials. Do I get any extras? Alchemists have access to the passive ability Mixology, which doubles the duration and increases the effect of flasks and elixirs they use. High level alchemists have access to a number of useful trinkets and, if they also study Archaeology, can learn to transform into a Sandstone Drake. Why take alchemy? It's definitely useful to be able to make your own potions: you'll find you're never lacking for them. And paired with herbalism to gather herbs, you'll be entirely self-sufficient. However, you might also take alchemy purely out of interest in high-level trinkets or the Sandstone Drake.
Gold Capped: How to make cheaper Enchanting materials
WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make gold on the Auction House. Check out Basil's gold making podcast, Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! One awesome side effect of the latest patch's new PvP gear is a way to make Enchanting materials much more cheaply. Since all the new gear is iLvl 458 blues, they disenchant into an Ethereal Shard. Sometimes two of them, although that is probably from the guild perk. By far, the most popular profession to use to craft this type of gear for disenchanting is Tailoring. Windwool Cloth is cheap and plentiful, and 20 of them make a single Crafted Dreadful Gladiator's piece that can be DEed. The best pieces to make are the ones that take 4 Bolts of Windwool Cloth: Crafted Dreadful Gladiator's Cape of Cruelty or Prowess Crafted Dreadful Gladiator's Cloak of Alacrity or Prowess Crafted Dreadful Gladiator's Cuffs of Accuracy, Meditation, or Prowess Crafted Dreadful Gladiator's Drape of Cruelty, Meditation, or Prowess After these, the materials start going up. That doesn't mean you can't use them, just that you'll have to live with a higher cost than all your competitors.
Gold Capped: Leveling blacksmithing just got easier
WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make gold on the Auction House. Check out Basil's gold making podcast, Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! The PTR for patch 5.2 has a real treat in store for people who want to powerlevel Blacksmithing: you will now be able to get to 500 skill without having to wait for those rare old-world materials to show up on the Auction House! If you are level 85 and up, all you have to do is visit your Blacksmithing trainer in your faction's shrine (the same one that sells recipes for Spirits of Harmony), and they will offer you a fast-track path straight to 500 skill. The way it works is that you will be able to train patterns that take only Ghost Iron Bars to make grey items, and once you get up to 500 skill, there's a quest to make a Ghostly Skeleton Key. At the time this article was written, the data-mined recipes on the Wowhead.com PTR site seem to indicate that it will take a lot of ghost iron to complete. Of course, this might receive a rework before it hits live.
Lichborne: What do I do at level 90? And 2 other burning death knight questions
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. Reading a guide is all well and good, but sometimes, even after you read, you still have questions or need clarification. This week, I've taken 3 questions I see death knights ask a lot at various places around the web, and provide some advice and clarification. Why don't tanks need so much hit and expertise? If you've been reading the column, you've probably noticed that I have de-emphasized hit and expertise when discussing blood death knight tank gear and strategy. This is for a very good reason. Certainly, active tanking is the rule of the day in Mists, which means in theory that tanks should want hit and expertise so their abilities land. In theory, if your Death Strike doesn't land, you don't get the healing or the blood shield, right?
Lichborne: Level 90 primary professions for death knights
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. This week, we'll cover the personal benefits of the primary professions for death knights at level 90. Many of the perks and benefits are the same as they've been at levels 85 and 90, but there's stronger versions, of course, and a couple other changes that are worth covering. This guide will focus primarily on the self-buffs and bind on pickup rewards, though many professions will, of course, have its own BoE things that all death knights will want to make use of, so consider that when you pick your professions.
Remixing the Stormwind Guard for transmogrification
There are few NPCs in WoW more iconic than the Stormwind Guard. Even if you're Horde, it's hard not to like the striking contrast of blue and silver metals paired with the golden lion's head emblem. OK, so maybe not if you're Horde, but I digress. I've always loved the look of the Stormwind Guard, yet when it comes to transmogrification, I find the look is a bit outdated for my own character. The older armor models just don't hold a candle to the new ones in the game, and I like for my character to keep up with the latest stuff coming out. So I thought to myself, "Why not mix it up and make an outfit inspired by the Stormwind Guard?" I imagine this is what it would look like if a member of the Stormwind Guard decided to become a PC instead of an NPC. Very breaking the fourth wall, right? OK, maybe no to that one too ...
Transmogrifying an homage to Bolvar Fordragon
Bolvar Fordragon is one of the coolest figures in Warcraft lore (check out our Know Your Lore: Bolvar Fordragon for a detailed rundown). While he was once a noble lord of Stormwind, Bolvar's story throughout the course of Wrath was an epic tale of nobility and heroism in the face of damnation. Today, we're going to create a look based on Bolvar. No, not the extra-crispy, end-of-Wrath version -- and not the shining vanilla-era Bolvar, either. And definitely not the in-between Bolvar that is comprised mostly of Alliance PvP gear. While I was looking at olden-days Bolvar, I realized his look could not be recreated; his armor is pretty unique, and it isn't something players can obtain in game. But as I was looking at Bolvar then and Bolvar now, I had a idea. What if we take a little of Bolvar's fate and apply that to the look of the shining hero of yesteryear? Take that distinct, filigreed, gold and silver plate look and tarnish it just a little, a reflection of what Bolvar's been through in the course of his lifetime?
Transmogrifying your way into the Stormwind Guard
If you've spent any time in Stormwind at all as an Alliance player, you're likely well familiar with the Stormwind guards that respond to emote commands. And if you're a Horde player who's stormed the walls of Stormwind, then you're definitely familiar with the Stormwind guards, although not in a friendly capacity. The uniform of the Stormwind guard is an iconic look that's been around since vanilla -- classic steel plate armor with blue accents, a shield emblazoned with the Stormwind lion, and the iconic plate helm all make up the look of the Stormwind guard. With transmogrification, you can morph yourself into one of these classic uniforms as well. Even better than that, almost all the pieces of this particular outfit can be crafted via blacksmithing, without need for endless farming. Though donning this set as a Horde player won't make the guards any less hostile, if you've ever wanted to try and fool people into thinking you're an NPC, it's incredibly easy to do.
Gold Capped: Chaos Orbs to become tradable in 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Chaos Orbs, currently soulbound, are BOE on the player test realm for patch 4.3. Blizzard said that this would happen at some point, and since this is literally the last point before the end of Cataclysm, it's happening next patch. Currently, only crafters who can use them can even roll on them. Once they become BOE, anyone will be able to roll on them. If this feels unfair, remember that tradable loot (even BOE gear) is greed only. Whether you use it or sell it, it's worth what someone would pay for it. If you decide to use it yourself, you're in essence paying what someone else would have bought it for.
Gold Capped: Selling PvP and leveling gear
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! If you can make blue PVP and leveling gear, you can make a lot of gold. Blacksmithing is one of my most profitable businesses, and almost all of the money I've made is from that gear. Sure, belt buckles are great cash when there's no massive undercutting war, but every night a couple of people kit out their plate alts with my Hardened Obsidium gear or start a PVP set with my Bloodthirsty Pyrium gear. There are three professions that you can use for this market: blacksmithing, leatherworking, and tailoring. All three of them have gear that is appealing for alts and new characters; however, be aware that some of this gear is made by people leveling the trade skill and isn't worth making.
Firelands crafting recipe drop rate nerfed
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! The recipes that drop from trash in Firelands have had their drop rate nerfed in a recent hotfix: Hot fixes notes The rate at which crafting recipes drop has been greatly reduced. source This makes sense from a design perspective; these patterns take some pretty rare boss drops to be made and produce gear on par with normal mode Firelands boss gear drops. On most realms, everyone who is getting the recipes is trying to sell them -- at first, for a lot; however, I've been picking them up for a tenth of what they were being listed for yesterday. One of the interesting artifacts of this system before the nerf was that the people most likely to get the recipe were people farming reputation by doing trash runs. The people most likely to be able to craft the items were the ones in the more organized and progression-minded raiding groups. Now that the drop rate has been reduced, in a few weeks when more guilds are making it farther into the instance, it's possible that more recipes will drop into the laps of raiding guilds than trash PUGs. Click past the jump for a list of the recipes that are affected.
Gold Capped: Stockpiling for patch 4.2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Patch 4.2 is going to bring with it a whole new tier of craftable gear, all of it better than the current craftable gear. The ilvl378 gear all takes Living Embers, which are purchasable for valor points and drop from Firelands raid bosses, but the ilvl365 stuff only takes Chaos Orbs. One way or another, everyone is going to be wanting to get this stuff crafted, and that means there's an opportunity for gold makers. If you can gather or buy the materials, crafting these and selling them on the auction house will likely be a brisk business. If you can't, though, you can still stockpile the mats now (while they're cheaper) and sell them after the patch. Let's look at the different tradeskills that will be seeing some heavier than normal demand.
The OverAchiever: Mountain O' Mounts from professions
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. Today, we are convinced that archaeology's RNG won't apply to us. There are a number of interesting (and by interesting, perhaps I mean "occasionally very expensive and likely to drive you insane via RNG-laden accessibility") mounts available from professions, though for some of them, you'll have to be a practitioner in good standing before you'll ever be able to learn them. Regrettably, I am the bearer of some very bad news this week concerning the Vial of the Sands for all those of you who like circumventing the highest costs in the game. Also read: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain O' Mounts Mountain O' Mounts in Outland Mountain O' Mounts in Northrend Mountain O' Mounts in 5-man dungeons Mountain O' Mounts in raids Mountain O' Mounts from achievements Mountain O' Mounts from PvP
How to turn ore into Heavenly Shards
There has been a recent surge of ore supply at ridiculously low prices on quite a few realms. Since grinding up that much ore takes so much time and since the prospected value of ore is having the rug pulled out from under it in patch 4.2, a lot of people are wondering if they have any alternatives. Here's how to turn 24 stacks of ore into a stack of Heavenly Shards with nothing but a blacksmith and an enchanter: Step 1 Smelt 16 stacks of Elementium Ore. Step 2 Smelt 8 stacks of Obsidium Ore. Step 3 Use the obsidium to craft 2 stacks of Folded Obsidium. Step 4 Craft 20 Stormforged Shoulders (or legs). Step 5 Disenchant into Heavenly Shards. Crafting Stormforged blue gear for disenchanting can be one of the cheapest ways to get Heavenly Shards, if ore prices are low enough. Also, other than disenchanting, all the steps here can be done by your character whilst you make dinner. Smelt all, smelt all, craft all, then craft all. The market for the shards is very deep, and as you post more of them at a lower price, the number bought spikes up faster than other markets (from scroll-makers stocking up, presumably). The calculation for your cost is quite straightforward: 16 Elementium Ore plus 8 Obsidium Ore is your cost for a single shard. On my realm, most days, that means I never pay more than 42g, and usually less than 34g. Since Heavenly Shards hover between 40g and 80g, I can usually sell anything I don't use for scrolls for 60g fairly quickly. The price for ore is likely to reduce after patch 4.2 hits, so don't make anything you can't use or sell before (or immediately after) that. Maximize your profits with more advice from Gold Capped as well as the author's Call to Auction podcast. Do you have questions about selling, reselling and building your financial empire on the auction house? Basil is taking your questions at basil@wowinsider.com.
Gold Capped: Goodbye, level 84 crafting alts
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! When Cataclysm launched, it brought with it a new design for low-level crafting alts. In order to progress to the most desirable items, players had to get access to a "trader" NPC located in a phased area of the Twilight Highlands. This could not be done until level 84. A lot of auctioneers leveled a lot of alts they otherwise wouldn't have just so they could max out professions. I, however, was not one of them. And my laziness (or prescience?) seems to have paid off, because as of patch 4.1, all the previously locked profession content is now available from your friendly local profession trainers!
Addon Spotlight: Work harder with GnomeWorks
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, GnomeWorks is to trade skills what fire was to cavemen. These past few weeks have been very good in the old email box for suggestions for addons to be featured on Addon Spotlight, so keep those recommendations coming. In the next few weeks, I've got a recommendation spotlight planned as well as a grab bag. Also, there is an idea kicking around in my head about a "my first addon" spotlight, where new addon developers pitch their addon and we talk about it constructively. What do you guys think? Today's Addon Spotlight is one of those "long time coming" pieces; people were utterly shocked over the fact that I had not talked about GnomeWorks before. Well, there is a good reason for that -- GnomeWorks is still in its alpha development stage. As far as profession windows go, prior to Cataclysm, an addon of this type was almost required. The sorting features and customization options on the default profession window was lackluster at best.
Gold Capped: How to farm Maelstrom Crystals
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house, and Insider Trader, which is all about professions. Email Basil (new address is basil@wowinsider.com; old one no longer works) with your comments, questions or hate mail! The Maelstrom Crystal used to be disenchantable from an easily crafted epic. This was hotfixed, and the prices have unsurprisingly shot through the roof. People still want their gear enchanted, however, and for some reason these things keep appearing on the auction house. Where are they coming from? How can you get them? This article will discuss the current cheapest methods for getting them.
Lichborne: Professions for level 85 death knights
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. Join World of Warcraft's first hero class as we head into a new expansion and shed the new kid on the block label. With your death knight at level 85 and all kitted out for raids, there's one more step you can take to make your death knight the best he can be: Learn some professions. A profession can provide self-buffs that nudge your DPS or suvivability up to the next level. It can grab you a lot of extra gold on the auction house (or drain all your gold, depending on which profession you take and how you choose to level it). Finally, it can provide you with some cool toys. This week, we'll take a look at WoW's professions to see which ones are tops for a death knight.
