Blacksmithing 525 Illustrious. Are You Ready?
by Paul Rone-Clarke on May.22, 2010, under Warcraft
Blacksmithing is one craft profession Warcraft that really swings in popularity from one year to the next.
It produces plate armour and decent weapons. Plate armour is perhaps the most sought after armour type as two of the classes that use it are the most equipment reliant – Warriors and Paladins.
When Warcraf was originally released there were a glut of Warriors and Paladins taking the dual professions of Blacksmithing with Mining. In this way they hoped to gain some self sufficiency as far as equipment went. Blacksmithing was very popular. Will this still be the case with Cataclysm and Illustrious 525 Blacksmithing?
However, as more instances were added to the end game, it became apparent that the armour you could craft with your profession was inferior to the end game instance drops, and Blacksmithing slowly lost it’s popularity.
Initially there was an expectation that some bind on pick-up recopies for end game epics would allow the profession to stay at least some usefulness in the end game, but these were few and far between.
However, as each new expansion pack is introduced, the new profession levels mean that there is a temporary surge in interest again for the items that Blacksmiths craft – both to level up – and for the first tier instances that are added after the expansion. This lasts perhaps six weeks, possibly on some servers up to twelve before fading again.
Blizzard, the developers, have been asked about this in the past. It seemed a little unfair as other professions such as Alchemy and Enchanting have a market that is always viable for players no matter what their characters level and performance. But nothing has really changed. Most of the new recipes make items that are BoP themselves, and therefore can only be used by the character that crafts it.
In short, blacksmithing is a strange profession. Having value at the high end for only 20% of each expansion’s life cycle, but retaining some usefulness to those still in the levelling process throughout the game.
The best advice is – if you currently have a Blacksmith at 450 – level them like crazy once Cataclysm arrives, then make the most of the new end game profession items for as long as they last, then quickly switch down to make armour for players levelling up new Worgen or Goblin characters.
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