
Master Blacksmith - Specialising and hunting for unique Plans
Friday 1st February 2019 • by fendor


When Classic releases you will hear a lot of people saying things like this. Blacksmithing is one of those professions that get always discarded because "it will slow you down!" or "there is no useful items for the end-game crafted with blacksmithing, so why bother?".Blacksmithing is non-optimal for warriors. You should choose alchemy+herbalism if you want something useful for raiding. Or even better, don't learn any profession aside first aid, they will all be a time sink. A money sink. And you could also risk having fun and we don't like you having fun.
In my opinion these arguments have one thing in common: they take it for granted that you have to be efficient in WoW; that you have to level fast, that you have to rush to the end-game, that you have to 'beat' it. Everyone will have their self-imposed objective at the end of the day, but even after killing Kel'Thuzad at the end of Naxxramas, there's no game screen telling you "Congratulations, you won!" or anything like that.
You have to play in a way in which you will have fun: and I will show you why blacksmithing is one of the most enjoyable professions that Classic will have to offer. Blacksmithing is not a means to an end, it's a journey in itself and will take you far across Azeroth searching for plans and resources to improve your trade. In vanilla, smithies were well known on their servers for their particular niche crafts and the profession goes well beyond reaching 300 skill level.

Every capital city has an apprentice:
- Basil Frye for Undercity
- Thrag Stonehoof for Thunder Bluff
- Ug'thok for Orgrimmar
- Dane Lindgren for Stormwind
- Groum Stonebeard for Ironforge
- Guillaume Sorouy in Silverpine Forest
- Dwukk in Durotar
- Smith Argus in Elwynn Forest
- Tognus Flintfire in Dun Morogh
Bear in mind that there are no blacksmithing trainers in Teldrassil because... well I guess it's a tree, there's not much ore there or something. If you want to have your Night Elf learn blacksmithing, you will have to travel all the way to Darkshore to Delfrum Flintbeard
Journeyman (up to 150)
Again, aside from Darnassus, every capital city has a journeyman:
- James Van Brunt for Undercity
- Karn Stonehoof for Thunder Bluff
- Snarl for Orgrimmar
- Therum Deepforge for Stormwind
- Rotgath Stonebeard for Ironforge
- Traugh in the Barrens for the Horde
- Clarise Gnarltree in Duskwood for Alliance
Now we start coming short of trainers that can teach skill caps and standard Plans:
- Saru Steelfury in Orgrimmar for the Horde
- Bengus Deepforge in Ironforge for the Alliance
- Galvan the Ancient in Stranglethorn Vale for both. This will be a pivotal NPC for a lot of quests, so keep his location in mind!
Once you have reached Artisan things diverge a little bit:
- Brikk Keencraft in Booty Bay is a neutral trainer and the only one that will teach you recipes without needing a specialization. Unfortunately, he only teaches you up to skill 275. After that, you will need a specialization of your choice to proceed.
- Okothos Ironrager in Orgrimmar is the Armorsmith trainer for the Horde
- Borgosh Corebender in Orgrimmar is the Weaponsmith trainer for the Horde
- Grumnus Steelshaper in Ironforge is the Armorsmith trainer for the Alliance
- Ironus Coldsteel in Ironforge is the Weaponsmith trainer for the Alliance
Sticking only to these trainers will not benefit you much. In fact, even the most skilled trainer won't teach you anything past 275 skill level if you don't have a specialisation - so it's time to take a look at your next step.
This is where the fun begins. There is no best path to choose so make a decision and stick to it! Before planning out what specialisation you want to take it might be worth jumping to the hunting for plans section to have a look at what items you want to eventually be able to craft. This section will describe the actual process of gaining a blacksmithing specialisation.
NB: As of 1.9 they did introduce a way of switching your smithing spec by spending a bunch of

Weaponsmithing

The quest requires level 40 and at least 200 blacksmithing skill and the following items to be turned in - you could simply buy them from AH, as per all the item in the following quests, but a real blacksmith would never do that ;-)
- 4 x Moonsteel Broadsword. This is not taught by any trainer, you have to find Plans: Moonsteel Broadsword, that is on limited supply in Stranglethorn Vale from Zarena Cromwind
- 4 x Massive Iron Axe. This is not taught by any trainer, you have to find Plans: Massive Iron Axe, that is on limited supply in Stranglethorn Vale from Jaquilina Dramet or Vharr (this is Horde only)
- 2 x Heavy Mithril Axe. Thaught by Blacksmithing trainer at 210
- 2 x Big Black Mace. Thaught by Blacksmithing trainer at 230
Doing a little breakdown on materials (thanks to Wowwiki for this) you will need:
- 86 x Iron Bar
- 56 x Mithril Bar
- 32 x Coal
- 28 x Heavy Leather
- 16 x Gold Bar
- 16 x Heavy Grinding Stone
- 16 x Strong Flux
- 12 x Lesser Moonstone
- 8 x Shadowgem
- 4 x Citrine
- 4 x Solid Grinding Stone
- 2 x Thick Leather
- 2 x Black Pearl This will be probably the harder item to farm, they are pretty rare. I suggest you to farm them at the turtles in the shore north to Raventusk Village in the Hinterlands




That's all. Just turn in these items and you are done.... Where do you train these recipes you said? Well, this is the hard part. You see, only one person in the whole Azeroth knows the secrets of the Ornate Mithril, and he will not teach them to the first person that he meets, right? If you want to learn the required recipes like a real blacksmith would do and not just run to the AH, bear with me a little longer:
- The first step is completing The Old Ways for Horde or The Origins of Smithing for Alliance
- You will be directed towards Stranglethorn Vale and, after a while, the quest The Mithril Order will bring you to your master, Galvan the Ancient
- He will offer you three quests - if you want to proceed until the end of the chain, you will need to complete ALL OF THEM, even if a follow-up is given after just completing one:
- Smelt On, Smelt Off requires 40 x Iron Bar and 40 x Mithril Bar, and will reward you with Plans: Ornate Mithril Pants
- The Great Silver Deceiver requires 40 x Mithril Bar and 5 x Truesilver Bar, and will reward you with Plans: Ornate Mithril Gloves
- The Art of the Imbue requires 40 x Mithril Bar and 4 x Citrine, and will reward you with Plans: Ornate Mithril Shoulder
- Yes, that's a LOT of Mithril Bar (120 bars!) and, if you have been paying attention, you will see that NONE of them are items required for The Art of the Armorsmith. This is because Galvan the Ancient is a bit sadistic, and taught you half of his recipes and the other half to Galvan's Finest Pupil, Trenton Lighthammer. He knows what you need!
- So, at this point, head to Gadgetzan. You will have three quests available, and every one of them will teach you one of the required items:
- A Good Head On Your Shoulders requires 2 x Mithril Coif and 1 x Ornate Mithril Shoulder, and will reward you with the ability to craft Ornate Mithril Helm
- The Mithril Kid requires 2 x Heavy Mithril Breastplate and 1 x Ornate Mithril Gloves, and will reward you with the ability to craft Ornate Mithril Breastplate
- The World At Your Feet requires 2 x Heavy Mithril Boots and 1 x Ornate Mithril Pants, and will reward you with the ability to craft Ornate Mithril Boots
- The whole Ornate Mithril set has no direct bonus, but it has some really cool effects: if you equip all of it you will have +4% dodge (!!!) +3% critical strike (!!!) and an awesome effect for PVP, that can remove many nasty effects. And all of them BEFORE level 45!
- After all of this work you can go back to the beginning, turn in the items, and it's done! You are an armorsmith!
- One important note: all the quests, aside from The Art of the Armorsmith for Horde and The Art of the Armorsmith for Alliance, are doable from every blacksmith, EVEN A WEAPONSMITH! This could be useful for having extra recipes and because doing these quests also rewards you with two cool trinkets, Glimmering Mithril Insignia and Signet of Expertise
Whichever path you chose, now you are ready to hunt the appropriate Plans!
Here we are, to the juicy part. I will not list EVERY recipe you can find (it would be silly to even try) but instead highlight the ones that are most profitable/interesting/funny. Everything from here on is highly subjective, every comment/correction/addition is gladly welcome in the comments!
Notable drops

Plans: Mithril Spurs is a world drop from mob between levels 40-50. It's a great recipe for 2 reasons: it's awesome to level up blacksmithing with a little number of Mithril Bar AND it's always good to have a little speed boost when mounted :-)
Plans: Thick Obsidian Breastplate dropped by The Prophet Skeram in AQ40 (so probably not available as soon as Classic release). It has a cool proc with a pop-up a spell-shield, very handy.
Plans: Black Grasp of the Destroyer dropped by Moam in AQ20 (so probably not available as soon as Classic release). A cool proc, useful probably for hunters, that steals mana from the enemy.
Plans: Sageblade is a world drop (world bosses, raid trash) that requires Master Swordsmith to be learned, and it's a good sword for casters.
Plans: Invulnerable Mail is a world drop (world bosses, raid trash) that requires Armorsmithing to be learned, it's really rare and a good money-maker for the cool proc.
Plans: Persuader is a world drop (world bosses, raid trash) that requires Master Hammersmith to be crafted.
Plans: Arcanite Reaper is the sole reason why a lot of people decide to go down the Axesmith path, since it's needed to craft it. It's probably one of the most iconic weapons of the game, and for a reason: in the first day of Vanilla it was one of the strongest weapons in the game! The plans are dropped by Bannok Grimaxe, a rare mob found in the lowest part of LBRS. Since it's not always available AND the droprate is not very high, it can requires more than 50 runs to see one, so stick at it!
Plans: Stronghold Gauntlets is a world drop (world bosses, raid trash) that requires Armorsmithing to be learned, it's really rare and a huge money-maker, since these gauntlets make you IMMUNE to disarm. I think there's nothing more to say :-)
Plans: Titanic Leggings is a world drop (world bosses, raid trash) that requires Armorsmithing to be learned, it's really rare and a huge money-maker, since the stats on the leggings are awesome.
Plans: Lionheart Helm is a world drop (world bosses, raid trash) that requires Armorsmithing to be learned, it's really rare and a huge money-maker, since it's one of the best DPS plate helms in game.
I put this group at the end, since it has not really use (the stats of the items are not really anything) but being able to craft it was a sort of status quo because the recipes were damn rare! I'm talking about the Runic Plate "set" that is composed of:
- Plans: Runic Plate Leggings This is the only guaranteed drop, from the Scarlet Smith
- Plans: Runic Breastplate These are dropped by Strashaz Myrmidon (or Tidelord Rrurgaz) on Alcaz Island
- Plans: Runic Plate Helm These are dropped by https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=4364 on Alcaz Island
- Plans: Runic Plate Shoulders These are dropped by https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=4366 on Alcaz Island
- Plans: Runic Plate Boots These are dropped by https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=1836 in Heartglen. There are only 6 of these mobs in the main fortress, so be prepared for a long grind (even longer than the others!)
- The mobs in Western Plaguelands are around 55-57 level elite, while on Alcaz Island they are 59-60 level elite, so you will probably need a group to effectively farm these recipes. Only for the true completionist!


In LBRS there's a secret quest, that will start once you find some human remains
Lorax in Winterspring also has a cool quest for blacksmiths: after listening to his tale it will give you The Demon Forge. Head then to UBRS and look for Goraluk Anvilcrack. Kill him, use https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12848 on his corpse and get the nearby Unforged Rune Covered Breastplate. In exchange, you will receive Plans: Demon Forged Breastplate (and some greenies also)
Killing the Twilight Hammer NPCs in Silithus will often drop Encrypted Twilight Text. You can turn them in in Cenarion Hold for reputation with the Cenarion Circle OR you can go to https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=15194 and complete True Believers (the repeatable version is Still Believing). After 24 hours from completion you will receive a mail in-game: it will have some random goodies attached. If you are VERY lucky you can get one of these 3 plans. This is the ONLY way to get them:
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=20554
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=20553
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=20555
- At the moment of this writing the requirements in the tooltip are WRONG because they were nerfed in later expansions, stick with what I wrote
- https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=7653 for 20 x Thorium Bar will reward you with https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12688
- https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=7654 for 40 x Thorium Bar will reward you with https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12700
- Imperial Plate Bracer for 20 x Thorium Bar will reward you with Plans: Imperial Plate Bracers
- Imperial Plate Chest for 60 x Thorium Bar will reward you with https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12705
- Imperial Plate Helm for 50 x Thorium Bar will reward you with https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12701
- Imperial Plate Leggings for 60 x Thorium Bar will reward you with https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12715
- https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=7659 for 20 x Thorium Bar will reward you with https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12687
- So in total you will need 270 Thorium Bar, and to craft the whole set you will need an additional:
- 218 x Thorium Bar
- 8 x Star Ruby
- 2 x Citrine
- 12 x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=8170
- 2 x Aquamarine
- This is a good tanking set for starter, and one that requires no skill except farming a lot of Thorium! Also, it wears really cool on Alliance.
- All the halves are NOT a guaranteed drop, so don't worry if you don't find them at your first try.
- Bottom Half of Advanced Armorsmithing: Volume I, dropped by Goraluk Anvilcrack in UBRS, and https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18780, dropped by King Gordok in Dire Maul, will compose https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18769. Once created the volume it will start https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=7649 that will end at https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=14368 at Dire Maul library. You will be rewarded with https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12727
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18781, dropped by Crimson Hammersmith in Stratholme (to spanw him you will have to collect the Blacksmithing Plans before Cannon Master Willey in the living side of the instance), and https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18782, dropped by https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=11622 in Scholomance, will compose https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18770. Once created the volume will start https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=7650 that will end at https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=14368 at Dire Maul library. You will be rewarded with https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12726
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18783, dropped by Black Guard Swordsmith in Stratholme (to spawn him you will have to collect the Blacksmithing Plans before the first ziggurat on the undead side of the instance), and https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18784, dropped by https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=10584 in LBRS (to spawn him you will need a https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12533 and https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12534 then, after the spider section, you will have to put them on top of Urok's Tribute Pile), will compose https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18771. Once created the volume will start https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=7651 that will end at https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=14368 at Dire Maul library. You will be rewarded with https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12725
- To create all the pieces you will need a grand total of:
- 24 x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12360. These will require the help of an alchemist. You can provide him 1x Thorium Bar and 1 x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12363 and he can generate the bar. Unfortunately, this transmute is on a daily cooldown, so alchemists tend to make you pay for this
- 60 x Enchanted Thorium Bar. For these, an enchanter is required: with 1x Thorium Bar and 3 x 1x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=11176 (provided by him) you can generate one bar. Again, it will be costly (not as costly as the https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12360, but still costly)
- 10 x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=7076. These are best farmed from the Stone Elementals in north-western Silithus
- 10 x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=7080. A good place to farm these are the lakes in Eastern Plaguelands
- 3 x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12364
- 3 x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12800
- 2 x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12799
- 2 x https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12361
- These are great pieces for tanking since they start to stack some defense(+26 in total) and you can make good money selling them, since usually not too many people bother grindings the volumes.
Notable vendors

Every respectable Blacksmith should increase his reputation with The Thorium Brotherhood to access https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=12944. He resides in the Grim Guzzler in BRD, and when talking to him you will be able to see only the items you can buy with your current level of reputation. He has a ton of recipes for blacksmiths:
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=17051 - Requires Armorsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=17060 - Requires Master Axesmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=17052 - Requires Armorsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=17059 - Requires Master Swordsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=17049 - Requires Armorsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=17053 - Requires Armorsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19208 - Requires Weaponsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19209 - Requires Weaponsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19211 - Requires Master Swordsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=20040 - Requires Armorsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19207 - Requires Armorsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19206 - Requires Armorsmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19210 - Requires Master Hammersmithing
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19212 - Requires Master Axesmithing
- As you see all of this require certain kind of specialization!
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=22209
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=22768
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=22766
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=22767
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=22214
- Some of these requires raid material (https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19726 from Zul'Gurub and https://classic.wowhead.com/item=22202, that are mined from https://classic.wowhead.com/object=181068 and https://classic.wowhead.com/object=181069, that appears when you kill Anubishat and other mobs in AQ). All of them requires a certain level of reputation with Cenarion Circle, so even if the vendor is not available, it could be good to start farming the reputation (at least up to revered).
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=22219, the only craftable shield by a blacksmith in the whole game, and with a great proc: it has a 5% (!!!) chance of silence the enemy that attacks you with a spell for 3 second
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=22221
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19776
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19778
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19777
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19779
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19780
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19781
- All of them requires a certain level of reputation with Zandalar Tribe and materials that are found only inside ZG (https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19774 and https://classic.wowhead.com/item=19726).
There are 3 Argent Dawn Quartermaster that sell blacksmithing recipes, and they are https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=10856, https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=10857 and https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=11536; they will sell 2 of them, and they will require reputation with Argent Dawn:
https://classic.wowhead.com/npc=11278 is another vendor you will have to unlock in order to buy these recipes:
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=8030
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12823
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12819
- https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12703
This vendor is actually a ghost, so you will need a special trinket to see him (he resides in Caer Darrow, in the blacksmith near Scholomance). In order to obtain the trinket you will need to start https://classic.wowhead.com/quest=5382. Finishing the whole chain will let you have https://classic.wowhead.com/item=13544. Equipping it will let you see all the ghosts in Caer Darrow.
And that's it! I hope this guide was informative for you and that you choose blacksmithing as one your professions in Classic. I'm convinced it will be your favourite. Any comments, ideas, feedback etc. just reply to this thread!


Hydraxian Waterlords - RP - EU
- Fendor - Tauren Shaman
- Ildebrando - Dwarf Hunter
- Osandiron - Dwarf Priest

Bookmarked for my endgame hunter :) Great job on this fendor.
I think that I will be taking Armorsmithing personally so that I can make some nice mail pieces and explore the world a bit which goes along with the hunter playstyle.
I already crafted Sulfuras back in late WOTLK by solo farming MC on my paladin so I’ve experienced that already (even if it wasn’t as epic and didn’t require huge amounts of cooperation etc).



This is awesome! I swear if I wasn't playing a Warlock I'd be excited about trying out Blacksmithing.

That was the whole point :-) Thank you very much!


Hydraxian Waterlords - RP - EU
- Fendor - Tauren Shaman
- Ildebrando - Dwarf Hunter
- Osandiron - Dwarf Priest

Dammit fendor, this does not help my doubts about levelling professions! AAAAIII wanna do everything!
Maybe I should level TWO warriors?
Excellently written!


Thanks for this -- I hadn't planned on going blacksmithing when Classic hits, but now you've got my heart set on armorsmithing.


This is simply the best and most comprehensive guide on vanilla blacksmithing. BIG thanks for the great work!

This excellent guide is the reason why I’ve decided to play a warrior blacksmith in classic.
Thank you for your exceptional contribution to the classic community!