The Master BLACKSMITHING List for EverQuest

 

The Guide to Blacksmithing (1.0)

Blacksmithing is the art of creating tools from the primal elements of the earth - Ore, Water and Fire. Talented blacksmiths can create weapons, armor and other useful items. Before you undertake your work as a smith, you will need a forge and ore. Place your raw materials upon the forge, one object by slot max.  

On Finding Ore:  

You can find Ore in Steamfont, Freeport, Neriak, Highhold Pass, maybe more.

Best Race/Class

I am a Human Bard, and haven’t had very much trouble advancing my skill (My Intelligence is only 82).  Bards make nice Smiths for a few reasons.

  1. Charisma, Charisma, Charisma; Bards have nice charisma. Charisma is important when dealing with NPCs. The better charisma the lower your costs will be.  (Players couldn’t care less what your Charisma rating is, but perhaps using a bit of natural charisma…)
  2. Strength.  Ore isn’t lightweight (around 15.0 each!).  Being a Plate Class, you’ll need to find Strength Buffing items eventually, so why not start off looking.  Your first song is a strength song too!
  3. Charisma is a good thing to have, as well.  The higher the better.  Not Charisma records, nor Charisma Johnson, but real CHARISMA.
  4. Once you reach level 6, you get Selo’s Accelerando, which lets you walk with ANY encumbrance (I’ve had a weight ratio of 2500 / 100 before, and could still walk to the forge!! [Albeit a bit slowly])
  5. It isn’t that hard to go out and kill all those monsters to gain those needed levels. Besides, if you get desperate, just group, everyone loves a Bard.  The choice is yours, you are the one who has to role-play your character (and if you don’t role-play, I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE)
  6. What has eight letters and sounds like “YARISMA?”  That’s right, CHARISMA!  You need it.  You love it.
  7. Widely accepted race.  Try entering other cities as an Ogre, Troll, or Dark Elf and find out what I mean.
  8. Did I mention CHARISMA?  (Not like you’ll be the kings of charisma…perhaps the sultans of swing….)  

Other possible races for Blacksmiths: High Elf / Erudite = High Int = Less time for skill rise.  Also, if you choose a class that allows for the gate spell, you could set your bind right next to the forge and not worry about having to move with all that weight. (Keep in mind that Erudites are not well liked in towns other than Erudin for their snobbish behavior.  This means you’ll have higher prices for materials)  

I’ve found that Freeport is the best city to smith in because it has 5 forges and all the shops, which provide ore, file molds and armor molds.  I, myself, only stayed in Freeport until level 65, then moved back home to Qeynos for the Armor stages (Metal sheets and armor molds are sold in the Cottage in Qeynos Hills).  

Things to attain or find prior to beginning your career as a Blacksmith

This is assuming that you choose to begin Smithing at the onset of the game; I didn’t begin my smithing career until level 21 (I had LOTS of Trade Skills to train in, being a true jack-of-all-trades Bard)

  1. Training Points – It makes things SO much easier in the long run by skipping to a Skill level of 21 (The max possible in the Training Hall).  So get out there and slay those lovely snakes, bats, rats, and the occasional Decaying Skeleton (Depending on the city you start in) until you hit level 5 (Or go to 6 if you’re a bard, and want to use the Selo’s Accelerando tactic described earlier).  Then go train all the skill points you can into Blacksmithing (21).
  2. A Forge – (Valley Forge or Geordi LaForge will not work here)  You can find these in most cities (Freeport has 5 of them, Qeynos 3, I think).  The Forge is a necessary component in Blacksmithing, it’s where you will combine your raw materials and use your Skill and expertise to create your masterpieces.  All you have to do is Left click on the Forge and you’ll get the creation window (Assuming no one else is using it at the time).  Freeport is notorious for having lines of players waiting to use the forges).
  3. Blacksmithing Books – Some people seem to think that you need to have these in your inventory while Blacksmithing to make it work.  Might as well, they’re cheap.  All you will need at first is The Basics of Blacksmithing, and A Guide to Weapons and Armor.  You can pick up the Dirge of the FireForge as well, if you want to make weapons eventually.  There are some newer books that talk about Plate Armor and the newer additions to the game, but you won’t need those until after you become a master Blacksmith.
  4. Materials – There’s a whole slew of items (and whole items to slew…er…slay…er…whatever) that can be combined in the forge by blacksmiths to create new things, just take a look at my list to see some examples.  The most common Materials that you’ll use are: water, a mold, & ore.  To find Ore, you’ll need to find where in the city it is available, usually in a Weapons Shop somewhere (There is NO ore in Qeynos OR Qeynos Hills, at least I have never seen any available from anyone).
  5. Inventory Space – buy some backpacks, actually, buy 8 backpacks; the more room you have in your inventory, the fewer trips to the store you’ll have to make.  You’ll want to have backpacks to put in the bank later for all the nice things you find out in Norrath.  

I hope you’re all set, because now were going to jump right in there and start smithing, your Guild master cannot teach you any more (Assuming you put the full 21 skill points in it).

I know of two ways to raise your skill, I’ll start with the longer, less expensive method.  For the shorter, MUCH more expensive way check below.

The easiest and most direct way you can go is to start by making metal bits. To make metal bits, buy "a small piece of ore" from a vendor (actually buy about 60 [three stacks] of them). Take 2 bits, 1 flask of water (found at an inn) and place them in the forge. Make sure you have used 3 slots. That means do not stack the small ore pieces when placing them in the Forge - put them in separate slots.

Hit the combine button and voila - you have metal bits.  Metal Bits should already by trivial to a blacksmith of your skill (You can’t further your skill by creating this item) Whoopdedoo, tough luck; you’re going to be making a WHOLE lot of these following this method.  These are the basis for all other low level blacksmithing and they’re not sold in stores (Unless you use the secret method of checking their other inventories).

I cannot stress strong enough that you MUST put the ore in TWO SEPARATE SLOTS, DO NOT STACK THEM IN THE FORGE.  I get more darn messages in the game from people who stack their ores in the forge and wonder why they’re not ever making anything.

Ok, move onto making scalers. This is where you get to start using Molds.  Both molds AND scalers take up a whole slot in your inventory, so you can see how having many backpacks can come in handy.  To do this place 1 metal bit, 1 flask of water, and 1 scaler mold. Hit combine and you have a scaler.  Make scalers until your skill is at 41.

Move onto Sheet Metal for the next step.  Sheet Metal is easier than scalers as they don’t have a mold to buy.  To do this place 2 Small Bricks of Ore and 1 flask of water into the forge and hit combine. Sheet Metal will take you through level 56.

Next up is Lanterns.  Lanterns are made with a Lantern Casing Mold, a bottle (Stackable), and one flask of water.  The lovely lantern will take you through a smithing skill of 68.

Time to make Skewers. Skewers are used by Bakers to make Kabobs.  You’ll be on Skewers for a while.  Make skewers until the message reads trivial item.  These will take you all the way through Master Smith Level and beyond. (Woohoo, you can now make Banded with some failure and start making some money!)  Skewers take you to a skill of 115.

/sigh.  If you don’t have the cash to just make hundreds of pieces of Banded Armor, you get to keep playing with your metal bits.  The next phase in your training is to make Pots.  Just check the ingredient list above for how they are combined.  Pots will take you up to skill level 122.

Lastly, you should now make Sewing Kits until you reach a skill level of 135.  The needle and thimble molds you need to make these are sold in North Ro.

Whoopee, you have now finished all of the smaller tasks in your training as a Blacksmith.  The only thing you can do to raise your skill now is to make Banded Mantles until Skill of 155 where you can start making Ornate Chain Mail for lucky folks.  The chain mail will take you up to 190 or so where you can finally start working on Fine Plate Armor.  Phew, wasn’t this fun?

Sum-Up of Smithing Training

  1. Metal Bits till 21
  2. Scalers till 41
  3. Sheet Metal till 56
  4. Lanterns till 68
  5. Skewers till 115
  6. Pots till 122
  7. Sewing Kits till 135
  8. Banded till 155
  9. Ornate Chain till 190
  10. Fine Plate till 242
  11. Racial Armor till the END OF TIME

The Richest Blacksmith

This is a quick way to become a master Blacksmith; it requires that you have much more money than the other, longer way (Roughly 300-400 pp)

This can all be done in Freeport. Just check the materials list for ingredient combinations.

Train 20 points in to smithing... This makes bits trivial. (At 21 I believe)

  1. Make Steel Boning until trivial. (41)

  2. Make Sheets of Metal until trivial. (56)

  3. Make Gorgets until Trivial (102)

NOTES: