Blacksmithing 101: Weaponsmith + Dark Iron spoiler

(Servers are down, so i finally have time to write another gold mine *chuckles*)

Weaponsmithing, What? How? and Why?

Weaponsmithing is the second evolvement of Blacksmtihing. It can be learned along with Armorsmtihing at Level 40 with a minimum of Blackmsithing 225.

Personally i chose Weaponsmtihing mainly cause everyone takes Armorsmithing and its really too mcuh of a bother when some of the best loot items in the game are Armor's, and not weapons.

Where to start:
From the weaponsmith trainer you will learn 4 different plans, all 4 different types of weapon.

• 1st: The Shatterer - 1H mace "Chance on hit: Disarm"
• 2nd: Phantom Blade - 1H sword "Chance on hit: Decrease Armor"
• 3rd: Blight - Polearm "Chance on hit: Poison Target"
• 4th: Truesilver Champion - 2H sword "Chance on hit: Holy Shield on Caster"

Now these four items all takes speciel components, besides an extraordinary amount of gems, truesilver and mithril.

Core of Earth
The Shatterer needs "Core of Earth" some say the drop chance for these is around 1/125. They can be gotten from high leveled elementals in Badlands (+45) and you will find them in two seperate camps South-West on the map. Or you can do multiple Maraudon runs and kill the roaming elementals inside the Instance. you should get about 2-4 pr. run. Each Shatterer needs 4.

Breath of Wind
These rare components are needed for 2 of the 4 items: Phantom Blade and Truesilver Champion. They are dropped of the Gusting Vortex's in the Taranis desert middle (+43) and are frustraitingly rare. Though killing the roaming earth elementals will automtically sawn 1 Gusting Vortex, it could take an hour just to get 1! Breath, that is if your hunting alone.
The middle of Taranis is a pretty big area so Have Patience! or go home again.

Ichor of Undeath
This, somewhat disgusting, component is dropped from +level 50 Undeads in the Plague Lands. They, on the other hand, are pretty frequent dropped and only needed for the weapon Blight. Which is why you will see many of them on the Auction House at ridicuilessly low prices (Don't ruin the market, give to friends or sell to vendor instead) we're talking 3-10g.
Reason for this is because its by far the easiest item to make of the 4, though also the less wanted.

Geez! This sounds imposible!
But wait, there's light at the end of the tunnel. See blizzard made these components hard to get to prevent Solo farm / Auction House spam. so whats the trick? Don't go alone! i cannot stress this point enough, if you go alone you might aswell turn around. Bring a friend and the drop chances will increase by 40% (estimated increase after take timer on solo/group hunt)

Now for something a little different:
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After these four there's only one way to go, and thats usually level 60 if you want to be really prepared for the plan hunt as most are in +55 instances.

The next step in "weaponsmths only" is Blackrock Depths and the infamous Dark Iron. It should be said up front that if you aren't dedicated you should just leave this alone! Dark Iron can ONLY be; Mined, Smelted and Forged inside Blackrock Depths.
So unless you have the time and patience for this, drop it and move on.
Though for those who does go through with it, I have two words for you:

Epic Plans!

This does involve mining and donating houndreds apon houndreds of Dark Iron Ore's to a Dwarf inside the Instance , but you will get thé sweetest fire resistant armor + weapnos. Who knows, you might even make it to Main Tank in the Molten Core raids with these items.

So, for you I've dug up a little guide to help you solo mine 60 Ore's/Hour:
http://www.koden.org/wow/dark_iron_ore_mining_guide.php

Notes:

• 1) You have to make it far in to the Black Forge where the Dwarf is, hand him 20 Dark Iron Ore's, 10 Truesilver Bar's and 2 Star Ruby's before he will teach you to smelt Dark Iron.
• 2) The Black Forge is the ONLY place in the game so far, where you can smelt Dark Iron (Near MC entrence)
• 3) The Dark Anvil is the ONLY place where you can forge Dark Iron items, and its protected by Lord Incendirus (spellcheck?) who's a level +55 Boss.
• 4) You will need to donate Dark Iron's to the Dwarf at the forge, and gain standing with the Thorium Brotherhood, before he will start making Recipes available for you.

Back to the initial topic:
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Once you've hit Blacksmithing 300 and a fully educated Weaponsmith you can start your travel to Wintersprings.
In the neutral Goblin town you'll find the 3 weaponsmtih specializers:
Axe, Hammer, Sword.
Before you can become a Axe/Hammer/Sword-smith, you need to do a quest for them, each involves a +level 60 dungeon run, but you'll recive a plan apon completion, and all of these items are by far suppirior to what else you might get your hands on at the item's level.

Thats almost but not entirely the last step for us weaponsmiths.

Now begins the INSANELY expensive hunt for Arcanite!
Arcanite Bar's can only be transmuted by Alchemists and require: 1 x Arcane Crystal (Rare drop from Rich Thorium Veins ONLY) and 1 x Thorium Bar. Transmution has a 2 day cooldown pr. Bar.

For arcanite is cruicial in the next many Plans as Arcanite weapons are thé final step. I'm sure you have all heard about the Arcanite Reaper? supposedly the best "non-epic drop" axe available, and will happily sell itself on the Auction House for +700Gold.

Most of these end-level drops comes from Blackrock spire, though i have yet to encounter the Reaper myself, but have seen the sword version; Arcanite Champoin.

In conclusion: Look Blacksmthing up on www.thottbot.com and PLAN AHEAD! you really don't want to find out later that you have made the wrong choices cause once they're done, there's no going back.

For all you blacksmtihs out there - Happy Hunting!