I have successfully leveled enchanting, engineering, EVEN jewelcrafting to post-275 (I would not mention alchemy, tailoring, LW and all the gathering professions as they are EASY - I leveled all these professions post-275 long before my toons can reach Outland), but this evil blacksmithing -- DAMN BS!!!

The first thing is MITHRIL. LOTS and lots of mithril. OK you can mine them and they are not too rare. But BS's demand on it is crazy!!! No, I'm not just talking about armorsmith - I'm talking BLACKSMITHING in general - if you're talking about armorsmiths you probably need around 600 more MITHRIL for the quests. And the cheapest mithril ore / bar I've ever seen on my server is around 50s - at least 300g extra you armorsmiths!!! The only "yellow" plan at 270 needs at least 14 mithrils - that's compared to engineers who can make mithril-gyro shells that need 1 mithril bar!!!

The second thing is - thanks to all who recommended Mithril Spurs for 261-275 - Mithril Spurs are not learned from trainers but they are from world drops!!! A mithril spur plan has gone up to 45g on my server (I got mine for 30g and I'm tired of waiting for the price to go down after a week). Mithril Spurs are green at 270. I made 5 mithril spurs (meaning 20 mithril bars + 60 solid stones spent) just to get ONE god-damned BS point from 272 to 273!!! And tell you what, mithril spurs DO NOT STACK, and they are for use by BLACKSMITHS ONLY. You can imagine how good the sale of it could be. Lots of supplies but not much demand. Mithril spurs sold for 20s each on my server god-dammit!!!

The ironic thing is that I have quite a lot of thorium and dense stones - but I cannot use them much before 275 - the only plan I've got requiring thorium is thorium armor - which requires a SAPPHIRE which is rather rare. Look at engineers and jewelcrafters who can make thorium shells and thorium settings using rather small amount of thoriums (1-2 bars I think. Besides, thorium settings can be used later on) - the first thorium thing I make in BS takes 12 thorium bars dammit!!!

And for all you armorsmiths and weaponsmiths - many of the blue / epic things you make are BoP - so even your friends / guildies can't enjoy the fruit of your hard work.

So guys, if you are thinking about taking up BS - think again. You'll get your epic / flying mounts much earlier if you picked another profession.

It's no use even if Blizz nerf the BS requirements in the future. Money spent is spent. The rest is for education.

Lastly, I have never cursed anything Blizz ever done to WoW. No, not a single time (even they put silly things in here and there from time to time). But take this -- F**K BS!!!

You think that is bad. That is NOTHING compared to the grind from 360-375. Try 8 felsteel bars per helm that you could sell for 80-120G for the bars but only about 25-40G for the helm. 65G per point to 370....thats 650G from 360-370. The last 5 I can't imagine as I have been told that the felsteel helm goes green and that means who knows how many to get your last 5 points. Maybe you get lucky and an epic pattern drops, otherwise you have to buy one for 500-2000G to make items to get you there. Tehn of course you better be revered with some faction to get nethers so you can even build the items. BSing SUCKS!!!! By far the hardest and most expensive to level to 375. Easily cost you 2000-3000G to level all the way, even if you farm 80% of the mats.

Let me tell you this, above poster has blown it completly out of proportion.

Felsteel bars average price - 10-13g

360-370 - Felsteel gloves, stay orange till 370, 6 Felsteel bars to make

370-375 Felsteel helms, stay orange till 375, 8 felsteel bars.

Well being a former BS myself, I must say I agree that is suck bigtime.

I have choosen enchanting instead and keeping my mining. I keep gathering ore to sell at AH and the enchanting allows me to disenchant any gear i pick up when farming the lower instances.

If I need some special armour or weapon i ask a BS to craft it for me. Normally that dosen't cost me much since I ask a guildie

I dont know if others bother to do this or have the time, but i have an alt that is an enchanter, so all that crap i make (the fifteen mith spurs for instance) that wont sell for %^&*, i send to him to de.  Selling the mats can be pretty profitable when the stuff u bs is not. Its worked well for me so far. 

I do think BS is just what it says...  abunch of Blizz BS!!  I have kept may BSing skill thus far, 260, because I have found the idea of makeing my own really nice armor/weapons appealing but the amount of mony I am haveing to spend in order to accomadate the LvLing the skill is CRAZY.  I try to mine alot of my mats but like was already said the Mithril needed to get past that portion of lvling is Nuts!!  AND i AM SURE THE NEXT LVL'S WONT BE ANY LESS AMOUNT OF METAL AND EVEN MORE EXPANSIVE TO BUY.  I sure wish bizz would correct this major issue.  costing more to make items than what you can sell them for is just wrong. 

Nanobreaker first off Amen Thulghost was on the Money!  Just becuse your server has a better Econemy then his Does not mean Amen is Blowing it out of Proportion.

theres only 1 easy way to lvl from 200ish and up one is already have another toon 375 Mining that second toon pays 70% of the cost,

And if you have a miner maxed out with a 375 JC then you have it made! the JC Prospects your Adamantite and your Fel iron and you Auction off the gems to make good money. that can pick up the Slack for all the off hand items to craft and i dont mean just BS. IE: i made about 6000 in under 2 weeks doing that on my server undercutting all Gems by at least 2 gold. and i vendor off all the smaller gems becuse they are not worth the trouble of Auctioning them.

Lastly if your a Weaponsmith watch for the weapons that use only bars of Adamantite or fel iron or thorium  the Rapier realy helped me out and they sell pretty good to a vendor or DE them if you have an Enchanter.

truly it takes so many mats for mith spurs butcmon blacksmithers THIS IS A KEWL PROFESSION LEARN TO LIKE IT!!! who cares bout the mats :P jus keep lvlin and dont bring yourbs up cause when people say bs,it really is bs

Dead end to say the least. ive gotten my BS to 350 on my warrior alt, took sword smithing b4 BC, and when i finally get the skill up to make that first epic, i look at the Fireguard and realize it's junk for a tank!!! sure the stam and agi are nice, but there is no def reting, shield block or anything that would make me want to spend the time to farm mats for when a simple blue will be a much better weapon for mitigation.
  WTH!?!?!

im only lvl 145 in BS and im looking up in lvls to see wat i can make in the future and the stuff is CRAZY theres TOO MANY mats needed the drop% on them is crazy NOTHING HIGHER THAN 10% out of 100!?!? their CRAZY its insane. i mean really how often does 1/10 come around again ITS CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a 375 BS and I also have a 375 Miner that has A Netherwing Drake mount......yes it helps but in NO WAY does it cut down on the cost of LvL'ing your BS'ing!

What I found to help becuse i have 2 lvl 70's  Combining the Other Professions my BS can lvl Slightly a Little faster.

Just a Hint if you combine Mining alot of Adamantite and Fel Iron  then use your JC to Prospect all this! Vendor the small Gems and dust then Auction all the Larger gems Talasite nightseye ect this Gold will help pay for all the extra things  IE: 5200.G for your flying mount  toping off your Professions  300 and up :)

in 2 weeks doing this i made over 7000.g  i got my flying mount & my BS is 375 + i have Axe Mastery with a Realy nice Axe to start me off.  i Hope this tip helps some ppl good luck.

have realized smithing is slow.  So i created an alt.
Alt is an enchanter, and has mining as second profession.  Chanter helps farm ore for blacksmith.

All the blacksmith does is create items for the enchanter to breakdown.  Thus, the blacksmith gains xp, and the enchanter does not have to go broke buying mats.

Enchanting is a high paying profession if you dont have to buy mats.

I can mail unused weapons from bs to chanter, chant them, and then send back for use.  Any drops not used get sent to chanter for breakdown.  I was able to move my chanter from 0 to 75 in one hour. 

The problem with Blacksmithing is that the items we make are practically useless to anyone else.  NO item that a BS makes should be BoP and the items should be of true value to others rather than useless because some white or green item is better than the blues and purples we can make.  If BLizz would give us owrthy items to create it would be a worhtwhile profession to have.

I tell all others who ask me to stay as far away from BS'ing as you can as it is a money losing proposition.

Well, in my opinion, it all depends on how much free time you have on your hands for professions anyway. If you stick to the small stuff to lvl 70 when there isn't much of anything that can challenge you, then thats the best time to work on maxing your profession(s).

The thing that makes BS'ing tough is that people tend to grind and dump.  When you grind by making too much of one thing, and dump the results on the AH, you are killing the profession for everyone.  It's not meant to be a profession where you grind/grind/grind to get to the max and then only make the high end stuff!  I've made fortunes off of Pearl-handled daggers.  You can make them for a few silvers, buying all the mats, and turn them around for 3gp+ on the AH.  I'm not saying everyone should switch to making Pearl-handled daggers, but take a look on the AH before you start crafting.  See what isn't there and make one or two of each pattern that isn't available and list them at a high price.  Sure, some of them won't sell right away, but if you keep 30-40 items on there at relatively high prices, eventually most of them will sell and you will make out like a bandit on them.  I hate when I get on there and see that some fool has just dumped 5 Shining Steel Breastplates on there for 5 GP apiece....rather...I love it...because I usually buy them all and relist them at 15-20 gp apiece and make some quick easy loot.  You have to figure out what the max folks will pay for something is, and try not to make that thing when someone else is dumping (you can't ALWAYS buy up all the dumped items).  A good example of one broken market seems to be Heavy Mithril Breastplates.  They should sell a lot higher than they do, but people grind and dump them like crazy.  At first, when I saw people listing them at like 2gp apiece, I tried buying them....quickly realized my mistake when I relisted at 20gp apiece and 24 hours later there were 10 more of the things on there listed at around 5gp.  So, I no longer make or buy Heavy Mithril Breastplates. 

At any rate, you grinders out there (not naming names, but you know who you are) should think twice about BS'ing.  It's not the profession for you, the Mithril Brotherhood should just deny anyone who gets that far in less than 4 or 5 months :)

But for the rest of us who like to play the market and are patient enough to not get ticked off just because we can't go up 20 pts in our profession every day, it's a great and fun profession, with potentially large cash if you learn how to make what the market is calling for rather than just what you need to raise your skill.

...to add to that last post...I do agree with those folks that are complaining about all the Weoponsmith/Armorsmith items being BoP.  That REALLY ticked me off when I realized it.  Sort of makes both those lines useless, as even I will likely only use a few of the items you make in them.

The other comment I had was, if any profession is a load of crud, i'd say Enchanting is.  I mean, the fruits of your labor aren't even really visible on the AH!  Sure, you can see something is enchanted if you mouse over it, but who looks that closely at every item to see if it is enchanted!  Blizzard should definately look at adding some sort of other indication on the AH that things are enchanted...even if it is just some flag to the right or left of the item in the main search screen of the AH indicating that some enchantment is present.  At least that would give people a clue that they should look more closely at the item.  Right now, I have an enchanter who is almost entirely supported by my BS.  And I'm thinking about dumping him.  Because the only reason to enchant my BS items before auctioning them is to set the price higher, but only a few times have I been the highest priced (and only enchanted) item and sold before the non-enchanted, cheaper items.  And I have no intention of sitting around advertising on the trade chat 24/7 like many of the enchanters do.

OK first off u need to think nothing free and easy look at tailoring easy to lvl but everything is CRAP from there u want good u gotta pay for it second 270+ do thorium bracers helps alot third i hate how every BS is complaining bout oh cost and shit heres an i dea u dont like it either get mining and farm ur ouwn damn mats or go grind for lots of $$$$$$$$ for ur mats. if u want to lvl fast take LW tailor enchanting alchemy, if u wantquality, BSing all the way

I agree 100% that the BoP weapons and armor should be BoE (not to mention that they tend to be replaced after a few Kara runs as they really aren't THAT special).

What I do not agree with is the Auction House surfers that do not go out and mine the items themselves and complain about the costs of skilling up.  I understand that some people do not have the time to farm.  I certainly don't have alot of time but I can't have it both ways.  If you are in a heavy raiding guild, just raid and leave BS behind until they nerf the mat costs.  If you aren't then you have a bit more time to go out and farm or do dailys and buy the materials.

Wanna have fun, save some time, get mats, and wind up with two high level characters?

Handy Tip #1:  Try not to select a comsumption skill for an alt until your bank is full.  Give it mining/another gathering skill.  You can switch it over later after you have obtained a large pile of metals and stone.  Since it has no consumption skills it will not drain resources.  I have Five out of ten characters with mining.  Great way to make a few gold with zero overhead.

Handy tip #2:  I used to just mine what I passed by as I quested or grinded with my main.  I just kept shipping the mats to my alts.  Plus, if you are grinding EXP, target areas that have good drop rates for the key plans you need like Mithril Spurs.  My smith was 35 when he hit 300 (though I don't recommend that as he would have gained skill off of the items that he made for the armorsmith quest when he hit L40).

autually i found Bs very enjoyable this skill is recommended for the patient ones, From my exsperiance people who like to travel and do mining in there spare time is pretty fun. Although Enchanting and blacksmithing are just the same..
u make enchantments so does the iron counterweigh and sharp stones and weightstones.

Also if you are really patient and watch your skill go up
most of the time people will ask for weapons, now you would like a blacksmith to make u a weapon or a enchanter to dissenchant without a blacksmither the only way to get your enchanting up is to get em off Ah or drops wich are a 13.0%- drop.

Although i agree the rocks are pretty rare.

Thanks for listening.

Marcak.

this is VERY true...

I'm boosting my lvl 67 warrior BS today cause i want to get the Stormherald (omfg im so screwed to get all the mats), and ive spent over 650g from lvl 260 (where we need to farm Core of Earth, Breath of wind or Heart of flame wich goes for like 15-20g EACH on my serv), to lvl 300!!

i dont even wanna think about the next few lvls but i hope i get some nice fel iron plans cause fel iron is good to farm...

Be prepared to spend a few thousand gold to get 360, and even MORE to 375!

Just go enchanting or alchemy... its just not worth it

making the wrong items possibly? i leveled up mine to 300 now i did mine ALOT of thorium and you can buy thorium plans for thorium armor in gadgetan for around 10 to 40 pieces of thorium per plan. I am makin a whole suit just to see what it would be like to fight a caster with full resists plate. plus Blood Elves 5 resists to all trait and paladin auras

go to gadgetzan and buy mithril plans try the boots or blet first something small dont take much the bigger pieces take crystals from un'goro crater and rugged leather from EPL drops of the dogs the most

My dear sir saphire is not kind of rare you just didnt mean near enuf if your stuck having to mine alot i suggest you set your hearth in EPL as i did and mine there for about 5 days straight make a couple loops while lfg for a group plenty of rich thorium veins to lvl up your mining as well to over 330ish need about 500 thorium really to sit and make thorium plate and u can sell them on AH or in trade to disenchanters, or ask a guildie to and sell the mats or keep them. GL once in Outlands its soo ez and soo rich with veins youll wish u had done it earlier. Also there are plans for something other than mithril spurs those are a joke go to the thorium brotherhood for quests to get other plans i beleive there is some plans in silthus as well as EPL.

Umm yah its a pvp weapon im gatherin mats for it cause its uber for a ret paly nice hit rating it has and the proc is gonna be soo awesome. ATM im using Legionfoe and i have 26% crit rating and i havent been 70 too long just done alot of pvp which doesnt mean ur ready for pve unless you dont catch much agro at all in roics. This sword is gonna pwn the gnomes

The very end game products are very rare noone wears them, but the second stage is not soo bad, you need to farm exaclty as it says to in nagrand primal airs drop the breath of winds, fire elemntals i killed alot of these in un'goro while farming the crystals, and core of earth is the easiest to come by kill the rock guys in nagrand, and you can mine them once they die.  its not hard at all DPS spec but if u do low damage plan to afk tank all day or get a guildie to help. :) its by far not a dead end new tanks need felsteel helm, chest, and other pieces to get rdy to tank for heroic instances. Also healadins will want khorium plate for healing, its got good stuff and i beleive they are also a blue item pretty sure you can sell it for what its worth. same with tanking gear isnt much better than those in low lvl instances alot of defense gear is obtained through quests. group quests, and instances.

I agree with the title except if you take macesmith for the one-hander and your a raiding fury warrior. Dragontrike is better then S3, best weapon til SW except for Warglaives.

And everyone complaining about BS and leveling from 360-370 doesnt farm for drops. I farmed the khorium belt and ragesteel shoulder plans and although the khorium belts were rather expensive to make, the ragesteel shoulder are only like 100g if u buy all the mats, and as of level 372, the shoulders are still orange to make! I farmed fel iron just doing quests and not really only going around to get it, and by the time I was ready to make all the fel iron items I had over 200 bars in the bank. Ragesteel shoulders are like 12 fel iron (not felsteel) 2 primal fires and 2 scroll of strength V. Thats not bad AT ALL to level to 375. So quit complaining and start getting some nice BS plan drops and have at it and all the sudden all the epic armor or weapons is at your mercy.

I made it to 370 Armorsmithing fairly easy, I didn't do it overnight though and I did spend quite a bit in auction because I was too impatient to farm minerals but it wasn't too bad. I haven't gotten too far into the other trades yet but I am having a lot more trouble with enchanting then I did with Blacksmithing. The only reason I haven't gotten to 375 yet is because I don't have the other felsteel plans yet, only the gloves, but now that I have my flying mount that shouldn't be a problem.

add in 8 khorium bars for those ragesteel shoulders... i left the most expensive item out haha