Introduction
I write this guide to clarify several misconceptions included within
some of the most common blacksmithing aids available. Many portray blacksmithing
as a very worthless skill, which is not true. Others offer appropriate
skill levels for making certain items that are preposterously low, forcing
would-be masters to lose hundreds of platinum more than they should. Hopefully,
I can help with this. Here is a documentation of my experiences in blacksmithing,
during which I lost very little money.
Section 1: Your Character
There are two ways to go about blacksmithing. First, you can use
your primary character to advance in the skill. If you do this, you will
be able to auction your created items while hunting for experience, and
waste little time. This is often the most desirable option for a higher
level character, especially a wizard, magician, necromancer or enchanter.
The higher intelligence and wisdom, the more efficient the skill becomes.
As an alternative, you can create a new character to be your tradesman.
For melee classes that do not use intelligence as a primary skill, this
is your best choice. I wanted to blacksmith as a level 12 warrior with
an intelligence, wisdom and charisma of 76, so I created a new character.
If you wish to create a new character, your best bet is probably a High-Elf
Enchanter. The base wisdom, intelligence and charisma are naturally very
high for this race/class combination, requiring little stat-enhancing equipment
to master the skill.
Section 2: Getting Started
If you created a new character, get him up to level 3 or 4 and make the trek to Freeport. Level 4 would be best, as enchanters get the gate spell at that level, but is not necessary. I would suggest putting every practice point you earn into blacksmithing. If you plan to use the enchanter to go beyond level 4, most likely to take up jewelry, then you can work up your skill to 20 without practice points. Below is a list of the shops in Freeport that sell the items you will need. Also included is a list of forges:
Groflah's Forge, North Freeport
All sizes of ore, sharpening stones--your primary stop for beginning smithing
Jade Tiger's Den, North Freeport at entrance to the market area with the bank
Flasks of Water
Armor by Ikthar, East Freeport
Sheets of metal, molds for banded armor
Trader's Holiday, East Freeport
Merchant: Tislan
Molds for non-armor items
Merchant: River Alemaker
Bottles
Inn near South Gate, East Freeport
Flasks of Water
Forges:
East Freeport
Outside Armor by Ikthar (while facing the sign, on the right side) - Always in use
Outside Gord's Smithy, in the poor district of East Freeport--the area lower than the rest of the city - rarely in use
West Freeport
In the Freeport Militia House, near the only door to the balcony - almost never in use
Near monk guild? (unconfirmed) - never seen it, don't know
North Freeport
Outside Groflah's Forge - sometimes used
Outside a shop near the bank; facing the bank (from under the outdoor roof) on the left - sometimes used
It is very possible to start in other cities, but many lack some
components necessary to get from skill 1 to 200. Qeynos, for example, sells
no pieces of ore, and the closest place to buy sheet metal is in Qeynos
Hills. I do not know of any city other than Freeport that sells everything
needed.
Section 3: Beginning Smithing (Skill 1-27)
Before doing anything else, purchase the two blacksmithing books
available at Armor by Ikthar. Although not all recipes are correct, they
are very handy as reference guides. The recipes for all items not included
on this page are found within the pages of these two volumes. Unless you
put several practice points into the skill, the only way to get to skill
27 without losing more than one or two platinum is to sharpen rusty weapons.
Up until skill 20 or 21, putting a rusty short sword or rusty dagger and
a sharpening stone in a forge and clicking combine will increase your skill,
change the item from 'rusty' to 'tarnished', and lose you little more than
a few copper per attempt. Also, failure at this stage does not destroy
the weapon; only the sharpening stone disappears, which only cost you 3
copper in the first place. HINT: For those of us who are just slow, control-clicking
a stack of items will select just one of them. No more sliders. I could
have halved the time it took me to get to skill 60 or so by knowing this
little trick. Once you get to skill 21, you must use rusty scimitars, rusty
spears, etc. I found rusty scimitars most effective. Costing about 8 silver,
I could sharpen them and sell them back to the vendor for about 7 silver,
5 copper. Also, it only took about twenty of them to skill up to where
they became trivial. There is a shop somewhere in Freeport that does not
run out of rusty weapons, but I cannot find it again, try as I may. You
may just have to kill lots of Orcs, or buy from other players for more
than than they can sell to the vendor for. Not too painful, and you're
already up to skill 27.
Section 4: Boring Smithing (Skill 28-41)
Now, you create two things. Metal bits are generated by placing two 'small pieces of ore', UNSTACKED, and a flask of water in the forge. If stacked, you will lose everything you put into the forge, worth about 1 gold. (At skill 28, these are very trivial, meaning they will not increase your skill, but your success rate should be fairly good.) Metal bits are used to create every item in the entire trade that is not a piece of armor. The other item is created when 'metal bits', a 'scalar mold' and a 'flask of water' are combined in the forge. If entirely successful, the return product is twofold: a 'file' and a 'large container lid mold'. If partially successful, only the file will result. If very unlucky, you will not be rewarded with any product for your efforts. On a full success, you will make a profit of about 1 gold. On a partial success, you will lose about 5 silver. On a failure, you will lose about 1 gold, 5 silver. Scalars become trivial at skill 41, I believe, so to continue you must move on.
Section 5: Smithing Made More Boring Than Ever Before (Skill 42-65)
At this point, you will be making lanterns. In order to make a lantern,
you will need 'metal bits', a 'bottle', a 'lantern casing mold' and a 'flask
of water'. Combining these will either result in a 'lantern' or total failure.
Although a few low-level players will buy a lantern from you for a little
more than the store will, don't count on it. Make and sell back until skill
65. It may be that lanterns trivialize at 60 or 70, but whenever they do,
move on to the next phase.
Section 6: Finally, I can make armor! Sort of. (Skill 65-90)
At skill 65, you will be able to make banded gorgets and bracers,
but it is not recommended for skilling up. To make these items, put the
appropriately sized mold in the forge along with a 'flask of water' and
a 'sheet of metal'. This is the point in your blacksmithing career where
you will burn the most money. For skilling up, skewers are your best friends.
They do not trivialize until skill 115 (wow!), so your success rate is
not very high at all. The mold costs about 8 silver, so a fail will lose
you a little less than a gold and a half. No matter how high your charisma
is, you will never profit at this stage, even at 200 skill. Live with it.
You may end up losing up to 50 platinum (although I doubt it) to skewers.
You will make some of it back selling banded gorgets and bracers to lower
level players or higher level shamans who need them for their class-specific
armor quests. You should charge about 3 or 4 pp (platinum pieces) for gorgets
and 4 or 5 pp for the bracers.
Section 7: Even more armor. And even more skewers. (Skill 90-115)
Once you are 'excellent' at the skill (skill 90), you will be able
to make boots without failure most of the time. Add them to your auction
list. Continue with skewers for a little while. As an alternative to skewers,
I went to Kelethin and gained experience in Greater Faydark, and when I
went to sell, I made banded gorgets and bracers to skill up. I filled up
a few backpacks in the bank while auctioning them to PCs very cheaply.
I ended up selling gorgets in bulk for 2pp (1pp, 1gp cost) and bracers
for 3pp (1pp, 4gp cost), making a nice profit while skilling up and gaining
experience. There is a bandit camp between the Lesser Faydark zone and
Kelethin that is rarely camped and excellent experience for levels 5 through
8. Sit there and wait for armor orders if you wish. At skill 105, bracers
and gorgets become trivial. At skill 110, you should add helms, masks,
and possibly belts to your auction. Note that these require two sheets
of metal. At skill 115, skewers become trivial.
Kelethin
Merchant Linolyen at top of PoD Lift on left of trunk:
Metal sheets, all armor molds
Forge:
After ascending the 'newbie lift', or 'first lift', go to the ramp
(go straight and a little right) that leads to a higher platform. Go up
the ramp and there will be a forge beside the tree trunk. It's sometimes
used, so if you don't want to wait, go to Felwithe and look around.
Section 8: You Go Your Own Way (Skill 115-200)
At this point, I imagine the best way to skill up is to make banded
boots, which are not yet trivial at skill 123. Continue with banded until
tunics and cloaks become trivial. There are other items to make to increase
skill, such as forged weapons, but the molds for these are only found in
certain cities. Kelethin sells everything needed for banded, so you can
stay in the Butcherblock/Faydark area and still be just 1 zone away from
a forge and materials. NOTE: Both cities mentioned here sell medium-sized
molds only. Small molds can be obtained in Kaladim, and large molds can
be acquired in Halas, Grobb or Oggok. I am unsure as to the location of
the vendors in the three cities mentioned for large armor, but at least
one of them does sell the items you will need.
Section 9: Banded Armor Specifics
Item Recommended Skill Sheets of Metal
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gorget (Neck) 65 1
Bracer (Wrist) 65 1
Boots (Feet) 80-90 1
Mask (Face) 105-110 2
Sleeves (Arms) 105-110 2
Helm (Head) 110 2
Mantle (Shoulders) 110 2
Belt (Waist) 110 2
Leggings (Legs) 125-130 3
Tunic (Chest) 125-130 3
Gauntlets (Hands)* 125-130 2
Cloak (Back) 130-140 2
*Banded Gauntlets have been added to the game fairly recently, and
I heard reports from a fellow blacksmith that at skill 150 they were still
extremely difficult to make. I attempted them myself, and succeeded one
time of two tries. Combining these two sources, I assume I had a little
good luck and list the recommended skill as about the same as tunics.
Section 10: Above and Beyond
The blacksmithing skill is one of the most diverse trades in the
game, creating armor, weapons, and components for nearly every other trade
skill in the game. Neither a tailor nor a tinkerer can survive without
a blacksmith handy -- a tailor needs studs for advanced types of leather,
and a tinkerer needs skewers for their most well known item, the compass.
For a character with an uncommonly high intelligence, wisdom or charisma,
this skill will take very little money. Intelligence determines how quickly
you skill up, wisdom determines the success rate, and charisma determines
profit, the gap between cost to make and sell-back price. With any of these
skills particularly low, the price of mastery and the amount of time it
takes to get there will be greatly increased. There are very few characters
who have put the time into becoming a master smith, but its final product
is unmatched by any other trade except for jewelcraft, which takes upwards
of a few thousand platinum to perfect. With a little luck, you shouldn't
need much more than 100 or 200pp to take blacksmithing to skill 100, at
which point you can make your investment in the trade come back as profit
several times over.
-Greatsmith, High-Elf Enchanter on the Xegony Server
E-mail me at
Sumproduct@aol.com OR eqxegony@yahoo.com
with ANY complaints, questions, comments you may have about blacksmithing and I will do my best to answer or respond as quickly as possible.