Blacksmithing

Is Blacksmithing worth taking?

Yes, if you wear plate or mail. Warriors and Paladins first. It earns Legacy Points at skill 150, 225 and 300, and it makes gear that is genuinely competitive rather than a stopgap.

The hard evidence at the current cap: 17 of the 22 Blacksmithing items in level-20 best-in-slot lists are new Forever items, and Guard's Silvered Chain Helm at skill 95 is best in slot for six Warrior and Paladin specs.

The advice that comes with it is worth repeating: "Use Blacksmithing to fill useful gaps in your equipment rather than slowing down your leveling route to craft every available recipe."

What it pairs with

Mining. Unchanged — Blacksmithing eats ore and has no other feed.

What Forever changed

• A whole new armour economy at the trade camp. 60 plans bought with Merchant's Favor, in role-templated families: five mail lines at skill 45–125, then five plate lines at 175–250. One piece per stat profile per slot — the tank version carries Defense Rating, the healer version carries Spell Damage and Healing. These are Bind on Pickup: you cannot buy the power, you have to take the profession.
• New blacksmith-only weapons that double as your tool. Mithril Blacksmith Hammer at skill 195 and Arcanite Blacksmith Hammer at 270 both "serve as a Blacksmith Hammer" and are real weapons. No vanilla equivalent.
• Two crafted tier sets at skill 300 — Justice and Glory — with set bonuses. They need Malleable Essence of Nature, which only comes from disenchanting drops in the two new raids, so you need an enchanter in your orbit.
• New level-57 and 58 plate uses new Forever materials — Legionite Bar, Heavy Thorium Bar and Azerothium Bar. Do not build a shopping list from a vanilla guide for these.
• All five Weightstones lost their cloth component. They now cost only the stone.
• Profession perk, new and not vanilla at all: "various stat-boosting belt buckles and Repair All, a cooldown to repair all of your gear for free." Skill level, cost and values are not published.
• Certification at skill 300 for 1,000 Merchant's Favor unlocks the account-wide title "the Blacksmith".
• Only 6 of 437 recipes changed their reagents. Blacksmithing's existing costs are essentially untouched.

Specialisations

Armorsmith, Weaponsmith and the three Master sub-specialisations — Swordsmith, Hammersmith, Axesmith — are all present in the beta client and wired into the live skill line, with their vanilla descriptions intact. The spec-gated plans are still in the data too: Persuader, Arcanite Champion, Corruption, Heartseeker, Masterwork Stormhammer, Hammer of the Titans.

Everything else about them is unknown. Skill level, whether they are still mutually exclusive, what switching costs. No guide site mentions them at all, and being present in the client proves they were not removed — not that the system is live. The beta caps professions at 225 and characters at 20 to 30, and every specialisation sits above that, so no tester can reach one.

Levelling it

1. 1 → 75 — Rough Sharpening Stone (~26), then Rough Grinding Stone (~74)
2. 75 → 150 — copper and bronze armour
3. 150 → 225 — Green Iron Bracers → Golden Scale Bracers → Mithril Plate Bracers → Steel Plate Helm
4. 225 → 300 — the published route is 59 crafts of Huge Thorium Battleaxe

Shopping list to 225: 494 Copper Bar, 432 Bronze Bar, 419 Steel Bar, 234 Iron Bar, 176 Coarse Stone, 174 Rough Stone, 150 Heavy Stone, 120 Mithril Bar, 30 Citrine.

The bottleneck is 260 to 300 and it is brutal: 2,360 Thorium Bar, 1,416 Dense Stone, 814 Mithril Bar, 354 Rugged Leather, 90 Truesilver Bar and 30 Star Ruby. That is the largest bar requirement of any profession by a wide margin.

These counts ignore Working Overtime, the Legacy perk worth up to +20% skill-up chance — budget fewer crafts if you have it.

What is not known

Every specialisation parameter. Belt buckle and Repair All details. What 70 of its recipes actually make. Real gold costs — there are no prices before launch. And whether any vanilla recipe was removed: no source publishes a removal list, so "nothing was removed" is not a claim anyone can make.