Garrisons and Professions: Spotlight on Blacksmith & The Forge

This post in one in a series of posts that will be in regards to garrisons and professions in Warlords of Draenor and how they interact with each other, and on their own.

Unlike previous expansions professions are much more involved this expansion, even if somewhat simplified at the same time.  Being tied to buildings in the garrisons it not only opens up more options but different options to either supplement a profession you already have or fill the role of a profession you do not have.

Note:  As warlords is still in beta, it is possible some of this information might change before the expansion is released.

Spotlight on Blacksmith:

List or all materials you will need to make all items in your blacksmith skill book:

Metals: Truesteel Ingot, True Iron Ore, Blackiron Ore.
Leather: Raw Beast Hide.
Cloth: Sumptuous Fur.
Elements: Sorcerous Earth, Sorcerous Fire.
Misc: Savage Blood. (from level 3 garrison barn building)

Crafted Armor:

All Crafted armor will have one main stat, stamina, and two random secondary stats, unless stated otherwise.  All armor and weapon pieces that are marked as BoE are part of the warlords crafted 3 limit, meaning you can only equip 3 crafted items for all professions combined.

Smoldering Greaves: Plate Legs, Item level 540, BoP
5 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore
Smoldering Breastplate: Plate Chest, Item level 565, BoP
 5 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 - True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore
Smoldering Helm: Plate Helm, Item level 585, BoP
5 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore
Truesteel Armguards:  Plate Wrists, Item level 640, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 1 - Raw Beast Hide
Truesteel Boots: Plate Boots, Item level 640, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 2 - Sumptuous Fur
Truesteel Breastplate: Plate Chest, Item level 640, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 10 - Raw Beast Hide
Truesteel Gauntlets: Plate Gloves, Item level 640, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 2 - Sumptuous Fur
Truesteel Greaves: Plate Legs, Item level 640, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 4 - Sumptuous Fur
Truesteel Helm: Plate Helm, Item level 640, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 5 True Iron Ore
Truesteel Pauldrons:  Plate Shoulders, Item level 640, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 10 - True Iron Ore
Truesteel Waistguard: Plate Waist, Item level 640, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 3 - Sumptuous Fur


Crafted Weapons:

Steelforged Dagger: Agility Dagger, Item level 630, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 - True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore
Steelforged Greataxe: Two Handed Strength Axe, Item level 630, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 - True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore
Steelforged Hammer:  Agility Mace, Item level 630, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 - True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore
Steelforged Saber: One Handed Strength Sword, Item level 630, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 - True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore
Steelforged Shield: Strength Shield, Item level 630, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 - True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore
Steelforged Aegis: Intellect Shield, Item level 630, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 - True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore
Steelforged Axe: One Handed Strength Axe, Item level 630, BoE
100 - Truesteel Ingots, 20 - True Iron Ore, 20 Blackiron Ore

Upgrades:

Steelforged Essence: Upgrade a blacksmith weapon from 630 to 640.
150 - Truesteel Ingots, 30 - Sorcerous Earth, 15 - Savage Blood
Greater Steelforged Essence: Upgrade a blacksmith weapon from 640 to 655.
200 - Truesteel Ingots, 40 - Sorcerous Fire, 15 - Savage Blood
Truesteel Essence: Upgrade a blacksmith armor item from 640 to 655.
150 - Truesteel Ingots, 30 - Sorcerous Earth, 15 - Savage Blood
Greater Truesteel Essence: Upgrade a blacksmith armor item from 655 to 665.
200 - Truesteel Ingots, 40 - Sorcerous Fire, 15 - Savage Blood

Enhancements:

Truesteel Grinder:  Reroll secondary stats on a 630 or higher BS weapon or shield.
100 - Truesteel Ingots
Truesteel Reshaper: Reroll secondary stats on a 640 or higher BS armor.
10 - Truesteel Ingots,  10 - True Iron Ore

Pets:

Soul of the Forge:  Battle pet.
50 - Truesteel Ingots, 10 - Sorcerous Fire

Misc:

Truesteel Ingot: Crafting Material (cooldown)
20 - True Iron Ore, 10 Blackiron Ore
Secrets of Draenor Blacksmithing - Currency (cooldown)
5 - Trueiron Ore

Learning Draenor Blacksmithing:

You will receive a quest early on from a draenei chest for alliance or a bladespire chest for horde that will start a quest line.  Once you've completed the small quest line you will receive Draenor Blacksmithing and Garrison Blueprint: The Forge, Level 1.

Draenor blacksmithing, once clicked on and learned, will boost your maximum blacksmithing skill to 700 and will teach you all of the following skills. Secrets of Draenor Blacksmithing and Truesteel Ingot, which you should start doing immediately as they are cooldown abilities, as well as Smoldering Breastplate, Smoldering Greaves and Smoldering Helm which are BoP items you can make to assist while leveling if needed.

All other blacksmith patterns listed above but not listed as being learned from the manual will need to be purchased with the currency you create from the daily cooldown for secrets of draenor blacksmithing.

If you have the forge in your garrison there will be Orgek Ironhand (horde) and Auria Irondreamer (alliance) whom you can purchases the plans from right there in your forge.  If you do not have a forge on your garrison you can travel to your hub near ashran and purchase the plans from the appropriate vendors there.

There are no items that you need both the forge and blacksmith ability to make so as a blacksmith you will be able to make everything with or without a froge, when the time comes for you to make that decision.

Once you have learned everything there is to learn, you can continue to make secrets of draenor blacksmthing to purchase a small pouch of coins.  It remains to be seen if this will be worthwhile come live but it is nice to see that there might still be a reason to keep doing the daily secret cooldown after the 58 days it would take to purchase all the patterns .

Spotlight on The Forge:

This section will contain two parts.  One if you have blacksmith as a profession, one if you do not.

If you have Blacksmith as a Profession:

Level 1 Forge:
Once you complete the small quest, mentioned above, that will award you the garrison blueprint for a level 1 forge and you will be able to build your forge.
A level 1 forge will take 1 hour to build and requires 150 gold and 50 garrison resources.
A level 1 forge allows you to produce 7 work orders at a time.

Level 2 Forge:
A level 2 forge requires you to have a level 2 town hall.
A level 2 forge requires you to have set up your talador outpost or be level 96.
A level 2 forge will take 1 hour to build and requires 300 gold and 100 garrison resources.
A level 2 forge allows you to produce 14 work orders at a time.
A level 2 forge allows you to assign a follower with the blachsmith trait to work there.

The blueprint for the level 2 forge is available for purchase, after you meet the requirements listed above, from Rezlak (horde) or Sparz Bolttwist (alliance) in your garrison town hall for 750 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the blueprints with an Outpost Building Assembly Notes item from Torgg Flexington (horde) or Kinkade Jakobs (alliance) at your ashran base.
Two copies of Outpost Building Assembly Notes can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Spires of Arak and Gorgrond.  This could effectively save you 1500 gold.

Level 3 Forge:
A level 3 forge requires you to have a level 3 town hall.
A level 3 forge requires you to have completed the [Working More Orders] achievement and be level 100.
A level 3 forge will take 1 hour to build and requires 500 gold and 300 garrison resources.
A level 3 forge will allow you to produce 21 work orders at a time.

The blueprint for the level 3 forge is available for purchase, after you meet the requirements listed above, from Rezlak (horde) or Sparz Bolttwist (alliance) in your garrison town hall for 1000 gold.

Work Orders:

Forge work orders require 5 true iron ore to produce and each order takes 4 hours to finish.  It will award you with a truesteel ingot and sometimes a sorcerous earth or a sorcerous fire.  Having a higher level forge , which allows you to produce more work orders, means you need to log in to check less often.  Orders will stack up if you are not online for a while and you will not miss out on anything. So if you have a 21 order queue you would only need to collect your products and place new orders every 84 hours, which is three and a half days, making this fantastic for those alts you sometimes forget to log into.

Working Follower:

Once your forge reaches level 2 you will be allowed to assign a worker to help there.  The worker must have blacksmith as a trait as not just any worker can be assigned to any building.  A follower working in any garrison building does not gain experience.  Consider leveling your follower first before placing them as a worker in one of your buildings.  Workers at the forge have a small chance to increase the materials you get when filling work orders, depending on their level, the higher the better of course.  Also, if you have a follower working at your forge you can speak to them to pick one of two 4 hours buffs.  Song of the Anvil which will make sure you endure no durability loss during its duration or Solace of the Forge which will sometimes summon a forge guardian to your aid while in the draenor open world.

Pros to having the profession:

Increased truesteel generation to make gear faster, chance for additional materials from work orders.

If you do not have Blacksmith as a Profession:

Most things will remain the same with a few notable exceptions.
You will not be able to build an forge on your garrison until you level your town hall to level 2.
Once you have a level 2 town hall you learn all level 1 profession building blueprints, so do not worry that you were incapable of doing the quest.
You will be able to make all rare armor with a level 1 forge.
You will be able to make all rare weapons with a level 2 forge
You will be able to make all epic armor with a level 3 forge
You will not be able to make any of the items to upgrade armor or weapons and you will not be able to make the pet.

Cons to not having blacksmith as a profession:

Slower generation of truesteel ingots, the requirement of having to have a certain level building to craft stuff, and not being able to craft your own gear upgrades.  While not horrible by any means, being a blacksmith offers more options.

Catching up or Switching to Blacksmith in Warlords:

Even as a level 1 blacksmith you can do the quest that will get you the forge blueprints for your garrison along with the draenor blacksmithing which when learned teaches you some items you can make.  Also, as a side bonus, even if you are a skill level 1, once you use the draenor blacksmithing item you will attain a max level of 700, meaning no need to ever go back to train up again.

The patterns learned, while being native to draenor do not need a high profession skill level to create. You can craft them, and all others you learn, at level 1.  Yes, this means you can craft the 640 gear and the items to upgrade it to 655 and then 665 at level 1 skill.  This means you can level up from 1 to catching up, through making patterns with just draenor based materials.

In addition to that there are many items you can find in the world that will help increase your blacksmithing and will speed you along up to skill level 600, where you will now be working on current content as the only things that will continue to give you skill ups.  All drops that start these skill gaining quests are dropped from random mobs and require a blacksmith skill level of 1, so you can start from the bottom up.  All of these are turned in at your garrison.

Punctured Breastplate: 5 skill ups, up to skill level 600.
Requires: 8 Blackiron Ore
Shredded Greaves: 5 skill ups, up to skill level 600.
Requires: 8 True Iron Ore
Mangeled Lord Sword: 5 skill ups, up to skill level 600.
Requires: 4 True Iron Ore
Battered Shield: 5 Skill ups, up to skill level 600.
Requires: 5 True Iron Ore, 5 Blackiron Ore
Soleless Treads: 5 Skill ups, up to skill level 600.
Requires: 2 True Iron Ore

Did you find this post useful?
Would you like to see more like this for other professions and garrisons buildings?
Is there anything you think should be added/updated?