Blacksmithing 1 to 300

Like any profession there are always difficulties entailed. I've found that Engineering and Blacksmithing are the two hardest professions for myself. After searching for a blacksmithing guide I've found very little in the way of helpful content. I first based this guide off of information gathered from www.wowhead.com using the updated level ranges for professions. I've tested this up until 275 on one of my own characters and hope to test it again on another once I hit 70 with another character. I'm looking for feedback to see if there are any possible ways to smooth it out or if there are better options because of material costs.

I've tried to minimize the materials and patterns involved based on availability. Most of the stuff in the guide until you hit 215 you will learn from a trainer. I tried to avoid as many world drop patterns as possible, but there weren't many options outside of the ones that I did choose.

First item that you can't receive from a trainer are the Mithril Scale Bracers pattern. This pattern can only be bought from two vendors, one for each faction and is carried in limited supply. Alliance will find Haggran in Aerie Peak and Horde will find Gharash in Stonard.

Next are the two uncommon drops, Thorium Belt and Thorium Bracers, of which you should be able to find both reasonably cheap in the Auction House if you're not lucky enough to have already farmed them up yourself. I placed two of the patterns in the same leveling range because they will both offer the same amount of points and are nearly identical in materials cost, this way you're hopefully not trapped waiting and watching the auction block for a long period of time. I will recommend that you choose the Thorium Bracers over the Belt simply because it remains at the orange skill level until 275 where as the belt will turn to the yellow skill level at 270 but will will remain so much longer than many other items, still offering the necessary points. If you can only find the Belt pattern I suggest you have a few extra materials ready because we all know there is the potential for a skill-up drought, this is the only part in the guide that you might have this problem. Once you've finished these as long as you're level 50 or higher you should be able to proceed unhindered to the Imperial Plate all the way to skill level 300.

Lastly are the Imperial Plate items, they can only be received from a quest line found in Gadgetzan, Tanaris by speaking with Derotain Mudsipper who will offer you the opening quest called A Blue Light Bargain. You must be level 50+ and have a Blacksmithing skill of 265+ to start the Imperial Plate Armor chain. After which time Derotain will offer the quest aptly named Imperial Plate Boots and Imperial Plate Bracers, in return for a small pittance of Thorium he will offer you Pattern: Imperial Plate Boots and Pattern: Imperial Plate Bracers as a reward.

-- List of Materials --

- Mining -
* 145 Rough Stone
* 530 Copper Bars
* 290 Bronze Bars (145 Copper Bars & 145 Tin Bars)
* 230 Iron Bars
* 100 Steel Bars (100 Iron Bars & 100 Coal)
* 150 Heavy Stone
* 360 Mithril Bars
* 5 Dense Stone
* 810 Thorium Bars

- Skinning -
* 20 Medium Leather

- Vendor -
* 35 Green Dye

- Drop -
* 90 Mageweave

- Gathered -
* 80 Red or Blue Power Crystals

Note: You will need an additional 30 Thorium Bars to complete the two Imperial Plate Armor quests to receive the patterns, this brings the total number of Thorium Bars to 840.