Gnomesblight, master swordsmith Death Knight

Having reached a mining skill of 400 with Gnomesblight, my Death Knight, my stock of fel iron ore seems sufficient to get back to an anvil to craft some armour to hone my blacksmithing skills. Carefully selecting the more complicated patterns I have been taught I find that my smithing skills improve steadily to the point where I can learn how to make runes of warding out of adamantite at a skill level of 325. Grabbing and smelting some of my store of adamantite ore in to bars I make a number of runes of warding until I reach that magical blacksmithing skill of 330. I have finally reached a goal of my smithing skills, being able to craft an item that is useful and an upgrade to my current equipment, the Stoneforged Claymore of the master swordsmith. All I need to do now is be taught how to make one.

I speak to the weaponsmith trainer in Shattrath City, who has been overlooking my current progress, and he would be happy to teach me how to make a Stoneforged Claymore except that I need to be a master swordsmith to craft one, not just a weaponsmith. I kind of knew that already, having seen it being a requirement long before I was skilled enough to make one, I just assumed that I would be told how to become a master swordsmith when the time came. After all, I was guided quite thoroughly when it came to choosing between specialising in armour or weapon smithing, even being pointed to the trainers standing not twenty feet away from me at the time.

With the Shattrath City weaponsmith trainer reluctant to help me become a master swordsmith I head back to Ironforge, where my choice to become a weaponsmith was made and all the helpful advice previously was offered. I go to talk to the weaponsmith trainer as well as the general blacksmith trainer, but neither have anything new to tell me even though the weaponsmith trainer also tantalisingly has the plans for the Stoneforged Claymore, if only I were a master swordsmith. This is disappointing, as I really don't have any clues as to how to become a master swordsmith.

I haven't spent all my time mining ore and making useless items of armour just so I can look at a pattern for a decent sword that I cannot make, so I resort to the only option I consider to be left. I look up the blacksmithing profession in WoWWiki, where it helpfully tells me that I need to head to Everlook in Winterspring to talk to a specific trainer. It is breaking immersion and even perhaps arguably cheating to look up this information on the internet but I was otherwise left standing in Ironforge scratching my head about how to learn a pattern I strived so hard to reach.

I don't quite understand why there don't seem to be any clues about where to go to learn to become a master weaponsmith. It doesn't help that I have visited Everlook many times in my varied adventures and encountered the three trainers in passing, but when I have wondered who they are and tried to talk to them as a non-blacksmith they tell me to get lost. They don't give any indication that they are specialist blacksmithing trainers, so that I could remember the information just in case it should become relevant later. The whole path seems particularly perverse considering that the idea of a specialist weaponsmith doesn't seem to exist beyond the Burning Crusade, with the later plans available only requiring the character to be a general weaponsmith. It must be easier just to scrap the idea of sword/axe/hammersmiths at this point.

Despite my obstacles I am grateful for the general community support that is readily available. With the information learnt, I travel to Everlook and talk to the trainer who proclaims me a master swordsmith, thankfully bypassing the quest that is now mostly irrelevant. A quick hearthstone trip back to Shattrath City allows me to learn how to craft the Stoneforged Claymore and, before too long, I have my new, mighty sword equipped. Huzzah!

All that is left now is to mine enough fel iron and adamantite to reach a blacksmithing level of 350 and, I believe, I will be able to make use of the new cobalt plans available in Northrend, perhaps even in synchronicity with my Death Knight reaching 68th level.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: blacksmithing, death knight, gnomesblight, mining, mmorpg, professions, weaponsmith, world of warcraft