The best armor is to keep out of range."
– Italian Proverb
If you intend to become a blacksmith, I suggest you wait until you GM Mining. First because your miner will provide you with the ingots you need (so expensive to buy otherwise). Second, because you will waste a LOT LESS ingots when smelting. The higher your mining, the more ingots will be returned to you when smelting armor. You should also start your character with 50 smithing.
Before you start smithing, make sure you always have a minimum of 5,000-10,000 ingots (ideally 20,000). There's nothing worse than running out right in the middle of a training session. And have tons of hammers/tongs ready.
| Skill |
Items to Make |
| 0% |
Buy skills from Blacksmithing NPC |
| 30% |
Dagger |
| 35% |
Cutlass |
| 52% |
Scimitar, bascinet |
| 55% |
Broadsword, katana, kryss, war axe |
| 60% |
Short spear, kryss, katana |
| 70% |
Platemail Gorget, katana, short spear |
| 116.4% |
Platemail Gloves |
| 118.9% |
Platemail Arms |
Items in italics should be given priority according to each level. When you stop gaining doing a specific type of armor, move on to another one listed in that skill level. You will gain faster if you vary the items you make. Don't be startled by the fact that platemail gorgets will take you from 70 to 116.4. It's not a typo.
Do not waste your colored ingots while raising this skill as they do not help raising your skill any faster.
The following chart made by Kazua displays what's the highest you could gain crafting a specific type of item according to your skill cap. Obviously, you cannot go beyond your skill cap but this is how you could potentially gain IF your char had that skill cap.
Special Items
With the Smithing BOD system, special rewards are granted to those who complete them. The most common are aimed at miners (sturdy pickaxes and shovels, mining gloves that increases that skill by 1, 3 or 5, gargoyle pickaxes and prospector's tool that increases the ore level by one in any given ore vein. The difference between the pickaxe and the prospector's tool is that with the first, an ore elemental will spawn at some point, which isn't the case with the latter). Harder BODs when completed will give powder of fortification (which when used on a weapon or armor, whether metal or leather, will increase the item's durability by 10. You can also get runic hammers. You do not need to be GM to use the hammers but the weapons crafted with them will have better stats if they bear the GM mark. The higher the color of the hammer, the more magical properties the weapon/armor crafted with it will have. The ore color used will also influence the type of resistances the item will have.
The other two potential rewards you could get are the ancient smith's hammer (ASH) or smithing powerscrolls. The ASH is particularly interesting for smiths as it greatly increases your chance of making exceptional plate armor well beyond the normal 5%. Like all tools, runic hammers will wear out and break after a certain number of use. Which is why the smithing scroll is even more interesting as it will increase your smithing cap beyond 100 (you will need to train your smithy to the new cap) and will therefore be permanent. The other upside is that the higher your skill, the better your chances of success when attempting to enhance items.
Last but not least, you could get a colored anvil. They only are eye candy. They do not grant any special powers or skill to those who use them.
