Blacksmithing

Tools of the Trade

Blacksmithing Specializations (4)

1. Armorsmithing

Armorsmithing improves your skill at making plate armor, and provides access to the Everforged armor recipes. It’s split into three paths:

  • Large Plate Armor =  breastplates / pants / shields
  • Sculpted Armor =  helms / shoulders / boots
  • Fine Armor = gloves / bracers / belts

The base node improves skill for all plate armor, and gives you the ability to increase ilvl via optional reagents (enchanted crests). The secondary nodes increase skill for that subgroup of armor, and adds the ability to use embellishments, missives, and finishing reagents. Opening up a 3rd layer node will teach you the recipe for the Everforged armor piece for that gear slot. 

2. Everburning Forge

Everburning Forge is a new way to grant you Multicraft, Resourcefulness, and Ingenuity. You’ll be able to craft your own Everburning Forge, which is a temporary buff that gives you more bonuses based on the number of knowledge points you have in each of the nodes. Creating an Everburning Forges has CDs similar to a transmute – you start with 5 charges, and if used, they will regenerate over time. You can get more charges & faster regeneration by investing points in the base node. Investing in the secondary nodes will improve the buff that the forge gives you.

3. Means of Production 

Means of Production improves your ability to craft profession equipment, alloys, finishing reagents, and consumables. Learning the specialization will teach you the rare Blacksmith’s Toolbox recipe. Each secondary node improves one type of crafting:

  • Tools of the Trade: increases your skill with profession equipment. Unlocking this node teaches you the rare quality Blacksmith’s Hammer recipe. You can further specialize via the tertiary nodes:
    • Trade Tools: improves skill for profession tools, and allows you to add missives and finishing reagents.
    • Trade Accessories: improves skill for profession accessories and allows you to add finishing reagents.
  • Stonework: increases skill for whetstones & razorstones (temporary buffs for weapons & profession tools). You can further specialize into weapons vs. tools via the tertiary nodes, which also teach you how to add finishing reagents.
  • Fortuitous Forges: increases skill for alloys & finishing reagents. You can further specialize via the tertiary nodes:
    • Alloys: increases skill for creating alloys, allows you to use finishing reagents for alloys
    • Frameworks: increases skill for framework reagents, and access to the Forged Framework recipe.

4. Weaponsmithing

Weaponsmithing improves your ability to make weapons, and provides access to some of the Everforged & Charged weapon recipes. The secondary nodes are broken down into hafted vs. bladed weapons, and each of those has 2 subnodes. 

Here’s a list of all the TWW weapons organized by which section of the Weaponsmithing tree buffs them. Recipes unlocked in this spec are noted below with 🔓 followed by the subspec & amount of points you need to spend in it.

  • Blades applies to 8 weapons and unlocks 6 recipes
    • Short Blades 
      • Daggers
        • Everforged Stabber (agi) -🔓Short Blades (0)
        • Everforged Dagger (int) – 🔓Short Blades (15)
        • Siphoning Stiletto (agi) 
      • Fist weapons
        • Charged Facesmasher (agi/str)
    • Long Blades
      • 1h swords
        • Everforged Longsword (agi/str) – 🔓Long Blades (0)
        • Charged Hexsword (int) -🔓Long Blades (15)
      • 2h swords
        • Charged Claymore (str) – 🔓Long Blades (10)
      • Glaives
        • Everforged Warglaive (agi) -🔓Blades (15)
  • Hafted applies to 7 weapons and unlocks 4 recipes
    • Maces
      • 1h maces
        • Everforged Mace (agi/str) – 🔓Maces (0)
      • 2h maces
        • Charged Invoker (int) – 🔓 Maces (15)
        • Charged Crusher (agi/str)
    • Axes & Polearms
      • 1h axe
        • Charged Runeaxe (agi/str)
        • Charged Slicer (agi/str)
      • 2h axes
        • Everforged Greataxe (agi/str) – 🔓Axes & Polearms (0)
      • Polearms
        • Charged Halberd (agi/str) -🔓Axes & Polearms (15)

The base node of Weaponsmithing improves skill for all weapons, and gives you the ability to increase ilvl via optional reagents. The secondary nodes increase skill for that subgroup of weapons, and adds the ability to use embellishments, missives, and finishing reagents. Access to weapon recipes is (mostly) scattered across the tertiary nodes. 

Things to Note

  • Profession tool recipes are no longer unlocked via the Weaponsmithing tree – they’re in Means of Production. For a while, there was an error in the Weaponsmithing tree text that said it would help your skill with tools as well as weapons, which was never actually the case. The text has since been updated.
  • Maxing out any tertiary node in armor or weaponsmithing allows you to repair that item with your Earthen Master’s Hammer, a Blacksmithing specific item that repairs armor you can craft, for free. 
  • If you are making armor, weapons, or tools, you only need to invest in a single specialization – there’s no longer any cross-spec skill points for those items.

Suggestions

There are a lot of beneficial and profitable approaches to Blacksmithing. The only wrong spec to start off with is Everburning Forge – that’s for fine tuning your crafting after you get yourself well established in a different spec. Note that creating the Everburning Forge object is a fantastic way to skill up when you’re at/over 60 skill- cheap mats, you don’t have to rely on a craft order, and you get a charge to make another every 2 hours.

Weaponsmith Build

Weaponsmithing spec is probably the most useful/profitable, because it can create valuable items for all classes. It’s largely the same as in DF, except it no longer affects tool production.

For Weaponsmithing, the Blades subspecialization is a bit better than Hafted. Blades covers slightly more weapons, unlocks more recipes, and contains fewer 2h recipes, which folks might be reluctant to spend 2 sparks on until later in the season. The one pre-embellished weapon, Siphoning Stiletto, is in the Blades tree, and you should keep an eye on if it’s in the BiS list for rogues or enhancement shammies.

Toolsmith Build

Blacksmithing can craft 8 different profession tools/accessories, and those are always in high demand early in the expansion. For this you’ll be investing in Means of Production.  

Some important milestones on this path:

  • Opening the Means of Production spec will teach you the rare blacksmith’s toolbox accessory
  • Opening the Tools of the Trade secondary node will teach you the rare blacksmith’s hammer
  • Opening the Trade Tools tertiary will allow you to specify stats on tools via a missive 

Unlocking the stuff above will cost you 20 points. In the early phases, the only other thing that matters is getting your skill high enough to make rank 4 gear with top quality mats.

Profession gear recipes, other than the two you can learn from this tree, are bought from a vendor for 150 Artisan’s Acuity each. Getting them all will take a while, since Acuity is a time-gated resource. Plan ahead –  make sure the recipes you buy map to where you’re putting your skill points (tools vs. accessories).

Armorsmith Build

When you unlock this specialization, you immediately get to pick a subspecialization to unlock. Which should you pick first?

Subspec/Slot Prioritization Chart
Large Plate
  • chest
  • legs
  • shields ✨
Sculpted
  • feet 💗✨
  • shoulders
  • helms
Fine Armor
  • hands
  • wrists 💗
  • belts 💗
KEY:
  • 💗: slot is non-tier and favored for embellishing, so demand is higher
  • ✨: slot overlaps with pre-embellished recipes (Beledar’s Bulwark – shield, Sanctified Steps – boots) 
  • italic: this slot has a smaller market than plate armor (you’re adding 2 shammy specs, but removing all plate dps specs)

If you ignore the embellished recipes, the top choice would be Fine Armor. But keep an eye on the BiS lists for plate wearers & resto/ele shammies- both embellished pieces look pretty good at first glance. I’d save Large Plate until last unless the embellished shield recipe is easy to get & in high demand.

I would recommend learning all the different armor recipes by maxing the main node in Armorsmithing and then each secondary node before you focus on one type of armor (120 points).

Alloy Forger Build 

This spec sets you up to be the supplier for other blacksmiths. If you prefer selling on the AH to dealing with folks in trade chat, this could be for you. Alloys will most likely be pretty expensive, so if you’re able to craft them early & well, you could make a lot of gold. 

To go this route, start with the Means of Production primary spec, and invest in the Fortuitous Forges & Alloy subspecs, like this (80 points). Don’t stop investing in skill until you’re spending miniscule amounts of concentration per alloy craft. Unlike an armor/weapon smith that can blow lots of concentration making one big thing infrequently, you need to spend as little as possible per craft to mass produce. I’m not sure what the numbers look like, but if you get your skill to a point where your alloys are a higher quality than the materials that go in them- sweet!

Everburning Forge would be a good second spec to pick up after you max out your skill for alloys. It will help you mass produce more efficiently – as long as you remember to use the buff before crafting. Once you get this it’s worth saving up your mats for large single buffed crafting sessions, rather than doing a bit here and there. The Ignition Satchel bag could be worth picking up – it gives you a bonus to your Everburning Forge.

Stonework might be OK, but profits for frequently used consumables tend to be very small after people get their crafters skilled up. It will probably be easier to buy whetstones & razorstones off the AH.

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