Crafting for fun and profit
One of my readers recently said that it’ll be interesting to see how the blacksmithing plans compare to faction rewards. Or to tanking gear in general, I say! This is part 2 of my WotLK pre-raid and pre-heroics gear guides. Part 3 will look at gear from normal level 80 instances and the last part will be me looking, comparing and posting a gear guide similar to my old pre-Kara guide. Please note that Tankspot already has extensive gear guides out there. Me, I just love planning ahead. I always loved the gear planning, so I am having a lot of fun with this. 
But today, crafted gear! I am looking at three professions in particular to see what they can do for us: blacksmithing, engineering and jewelcrafting. I am especially curious about blacksmithing, to see if it’s less disappointing than in TBC. I am currently at blacksmithing 400 myself, just got the ability to socket my gloves and bracers, and the state of blacksmithing finds me pretty happy so far!
Head:
What can I say, engineers win the head-piece game again. The goggles are very nice and offer a meta socket plus expertise. Are they good enough to be an engineer just for the goggles? I don’t think so. In the long term blacksmithing just offers more at the moment. But they are fine goggles. The Tempered Saronite gear is insteresting as you get most of this while still in your mid-70s. This provides a great headstart in the defense game.
Neck:
That’s a pretty lovely necklace that jewelcrafters can make if they have purchased the design from Tiffany Cartier. I don’t know about the mats yet, I have no idea if Frozen Orbs will be excessively expensive on servers, but the mats don’t seem that bad at all.
Shoulders:
As with all the Tempered Saronite pieces, I really only have one complaint: that there had been room in the item budget for anything else than defense.
Chest:
Wrist:
Gloves:
Waist:
Legs:
Boots:
Rings:
More Jewelcrafting goodness. The blue ring is probably a lot better for druid tanks, but might serve in a pinch. The steep def cap might necessitate the need for def on both rings though. The epic ring is most certainly very nice.
Trinkets:
A bunny is the stamina trinket this go-around, which makes me giggle like a girl. Oh wait, I am one. 
It’s a lot of stamina, but the on-use effect makes me blink a bit. I guess you could use it for extra mobility. The sockets are nice of course. All in all not that strong for a profession BoP.
Edit: Aha! Thanks to Veneretio I found that there’s a second trinket that’s more tanking oriented. It definitely makes more sense than the bunny. Love the crab.
Second edit: The biggest stamina trinket out there is BoE and made by engineers. 81 stamina is a lot, and the proc sounds very interesting. That would be a solid bunch of threat, on fights where health > avoidance. Very nice! Thanks for the tip, Krushchev!
Shield:
My favorite blacksmithing addition so far has been the ability to make shields. And not only shields per se, but shields that kick ass stat-wise. Nummy!
Ranged Weapon:
This nice gun will make engineers rich, despite us getting Heroic Throw. The stats are too good on this baby.
Summary:
The ideal tank in my world is an engineer who has close friends that do blacksmithing and jewelcrafting. You can supply all mats for all the great BoE gear that the other two professions can make, and still enjoy your OP goggles until you start raiding. However, blacksmiths got really boosted, and the ability to socket gear is really sweet. The crafted gear will be quickly replaced once you get into heroics and raids, but they will see you ready to tackle those without endless instance runs waiting for specific drops.
I am confused though that there are no specific BoP pieces for weapon- and armorsmiths, did they ditch this? Also, why can we not make at least one tanking weapon? Puzzling.
See also:
Don't Look Up
Volunteer Work
50 Fish
Looking For Multitudes
For Jewelcrafting trinkets, along with the Ruby Hare, I’d suggest taking a look at the Monarch Crab (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44063).
I like both, but the Crab is a bit more tanking focused. Sadly, it is BoP too.
not coding´s last blog post..Level 80
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admin Reply:
November 25th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I already added it as Veneretio pointed me toward that trinket on Twitter. Don’t know how I missed it. Also, don’t know how I missed your blog, good stuff there.
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Arghhh, you are so fucking awesome.
I love youuuuuuuuuuuu. .>; <333333333333333333333333333333333
-Hump;
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I cant wait to make the new engineering goggles. Need about 35 more points in Engineering to make them
Where do you get the orbs from? Do those drop in raids or what?
Darraxus´s last blog post..Prot….the elite soloing spec
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admin Reply:
November 26th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Frozen Orbs are the Primal Nether equivalent in WotLK. They drop off each final boss of the heroic instances and you can purchase them for 10 Emblems of Heroism (heroic badges) per orb.
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Great summary again Kadomi.
One thing that I have also found great about leveling Blacksmithing is the aility to flesh out a DPS set from my items. The items do frequently get replaced with drop and quest rewards but I am hooked on the feeling of making something for myself.
You also mentioned that we have no BoP armoursmith items. Their is some DPS type ones at skill level 415 from memory. Blue and useable at 78. Already made the pants, only takes 4 saronite bars and 2 earth thingamajigs. So cheap skill ups. Also sells for 9g at exatled.
I am also hoping some more plans will start to drop in future patching providing raid BoPs.
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mavfin Reply:
November 26th, 2008 at 7:07 am
I think even Blizzard isn’t sure what they’re doing about Armor/Weaponsmith stuff yet. They did assure us that they’re not ‘complete’ yet, but other than that, I don’t know.
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I am confused though that there are no specific BoP pieces for weapon- and armorsmiths, did they ditch this?
Yes, they did ditch this. Or at least greatly scaled it down. There was a Blue forum post in the last month or two explaining that players had the perception that they were being forced to go weaponsmithing for epic BoP weapon X, or tailoring for epic BoP armor Y, and were unhappy about being forced into specific professions. To remove the feel that you are forced, blizzard wants to tone down the epic BoP rewards.
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admin Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Sucks a bit for people who invested the time to pick their specialization back then. Does anyone remember the hoops they made you jump through to become armorsmith?
However, I understand the thought of getting rid of OP BoP gear., because I thought the BoP tailoring gear was beyond OP. It forced many people into tailoring because there was no comparable gear that dropped.
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As far as Stam trinkets go, I think the engineers have the market on that again with the Sonic Booster: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40767
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admin Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Holy moly, what an impressive trinket, and it’s BoE. Will edit to add that one.
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I think the worst thing about the BS crafted peices is that its just pure defense and doesnt add any dodge/block/parry. I use some of htem for now to hit cap but I am constantly in need of lots of healing – I’m sure it’ll get better when I get upgrades but as of right now I’m fighting with the def cap
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Khrushchev Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Not to nit-pick, but Defense adds all of those. It increases your dodge, block, and parry (and your chance to be missed). I think point-for-point only pure Dodge is better than Defense.
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admin Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 9:20 am
While defense overall adds to avoidance, I would prefer more balanced tank gear as well. I think blacksmithing will be awesome to get you started and def-capped, and then you can replace the gear one by one for more balanced items, with dodge, expertise, hit added on.
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Spand Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Well, its actually depends. On low level gear you would want to stack dodge for avoidance as opposed to defense. However, at some point the diminishing returns on dodge will be so great that the spread of defense will make it better (and will continue to be from that point forward).
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Caboose Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Well, I stacked the blacksmithing items and hit 540 def rather easy – now I’m losing some of that I’m scrounging around to find more def based gems ect. I dont mind. I much prefer the avoidance stats that the new items are giving.
Yes – I knew Defence gives all avoidance but having more gear which gives +dodge/block etc would be better in the long run – Stacking def should only be done till def cap.
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I’m still a little disapointed with BS, though I love the personal sockets ofc, i just feel that the weaponsmith weapons are terrible compared to say a faction reward at honored (well mabye not but on par, i just don’t think that a BoP sword should be worse than a low end faction reward) and once again Armorsmithing caters only for DPS.
I agree we have got some nice starter bits, but there is nothing that makes me feel compleate, like sharpening stones, chest bonuses, proper epic tanking weapons and mabye the odd bit of other gear which might be handy (see. bracers of the green fortress).
I thought it was amazing to begin with, but the more I level the more i realise there are quest rewards which are better/cheaper for such a little upgrade, people are not going to want to pay that.
And in honestly i made a mint from BS due to knowing alot fo rare plans on my server and being a BS willing to craft his wares, it was shaky still not it just doesn’t feel solid at the moment.
Oh well back to mineing my money.
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One thing I see what not discussed is the PvP set that can be crafted to use at level 78. I am about halfway through 77 now and intend to make the set at 78 to take for a spin on the battlegrounds.
I may also carry it with me to jump into should I feel like to horde slapping.
Hopefully all the resilience pays off.
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admin Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I don’t really PvP, so I only mentioned the gear that is classic tank gear with def.
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Well I ran around a couple of BGs in my new PvP set last night.
I must say having 300plus resilience does seem to help. I am damn hard to kill.
Had a fun moment when I swear I spell reflected a shaman knockback spell.
Anyhow, for those of you liking the odd BG or world PvP I recommend grabbing a set.
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6 good tanking epics that are BOE from crafters: Tempered Titansteel Shield Wall, Treads, Helm, the Shotgun, Titamium Earthguard Ring and Necklace. I have the first 5 and will have the Necklace today or tomorrow. Being able to start level 80 raids and heroics with a jump start on epics is why I diligently did dailies and farmed ore in the last couple months before WoTLK came out. Not only does the gear help me out but it is also a boon for our guild to start raids with a solid MT.
Tankette´s last blog post..DPS makes a big difference
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