WoW - armorsmith or weaponsmith?

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dogbyte_13

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 21, 2004
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im getting my warrior up there in blacksmithing and was wondering which the better path would be? armor smith or weapon smith? each has its benefits but i cant really decided, anyone have any experience with these professions? also looking for cons and pros of each, thanks.
 
A long time ago, I remember weaponsmith being the much better choice, because you can always find better armor in the raids then you could eventually make if you got all the parts and stuff.

Maybe that's changed, though.
 
both are a waste of materials and therefore gold.
get two farming skills, sell everything.
and buy what you want armor and weapon wise or get it from raids.
 
Depends on what spec you're going for. I, myself, am a 375 hammersmith on my Shaman. You have to keep in mind that a lot of the weapons you can make are interchangeable with the pvp weapons you can purchase with honor and badges. I made the Dragonmaw on my Shaman, and it's paid off big time, but I could also purchase a near equivalent weapon with PVP badges.

You're a warrior though, so weapon speeds aren't an issue like they are with enhancement shamans (WF has a 3s hidden cooldown). If you are going:

Prot - Sword only. It's fast, has good stats and it has hit rating. PVP weapons are too slow for tanking. They work, but faster weapons are better for tanking. You won't find a comparable tanking weapon until late tier raiding. One thing to note here, the sword is One-Hand usable, allowing you to offhand it for dps usage if you ever replace it. The hammer and axe are mainhand only.

Fury - Dragon Hammer hands down. Most of a Fury warrior's dps comes from white damage, so the haste proc on the hammer, which works on both weapons, wins hands down. The Dragon hammers don't have the stats that the axe and sword do, but the haste proc more than makes up for it. Trust me, this weapon is a beast. It also looks amazingly badass.

Arms - Hammer or Sword; just depends on what weapon specialization you want to use in the Arms tree. With Arms, you're going to be using the 2handers here obviously. Do you want Stun (Mace) or Double-Attack (Sword)? Don't underestimate the fear resistance and strength proc that the sword has, but mace warriors tear it up in pvp.

I would shy away from Axe Smithing. The axes just don't offer enough of an advantage over the S1 items or the other smithings to make it worthwhile.

As for armorsmithing, they're great pieces, but not enough of an advantage to use over what you can buy with pvp currency. Obviously as a warrior, you're not going to use chain, so having half the items currently available to you already useless seems like a waste. That, and there aren't any tanking pieces. It's all dps stuff.

So quick rundown, if I were you, if I were:

Prot - Sword Smithing
Arms/Fury - Hammer Smithing

Keep in mind, they're allowing Primal Vortexes, which are necessary for the tier3 smithing items, to be purchasable via 15 badges of justice. Primal Nethers, which are necessary for the Tier2 smithing stuff, will be tradeable.
 
Monkey God said:
both are a waste of materials and therefore gold.
get two farming skills, sell everything.
and buy what you want armor and weapon wise or get it from raids.
Click to expand...

this. i made a new character around thanksgiving and i just hit 62 the other day (i'm real casual, my brother started a couple weeks after me and is already 70 with his full s1 gear). I went with herbalism and skinning and had enough gold at both 40 and 60 to buy my mounts, and by 70 ill have enough to buy the slow flying mount. if you really want to tradeskill, do it at 70, but plan ahead and make one of your gathering skills matter. For example, if you want to do alchemy then level with herbalism and skinning/mining and drop skinning/mining at 70. if you stayed out of the ah (seriously, stay out of the ah except to sell) while you leveled, you'll have enough money to get an excellent jump on a new tradeskill.
 
Armorsmith sucks compared to some of the weapons you can make with a weaponsmith, my Shaman has the lvl2 hammer and it is very fucking sweet, on a warrior i see alot using the 2h Axe and Sword, rarely see the 2h Mace.
 
I would not worry about what spec you are for this, and just go with what you think is fun. All of the craftable weapons and gear are basically crap now since it is so easy to PVP for weapons and gear. Even the Stormherald (mace spec weaponsmith) it getting long in the tooth with Season 4 PVP gear coming up soon.

Having said that, if you are completely on the fence, go weaponsmith. You can make the Rank 2 weapon fairly easily, and once WoW 2.4 comes out, the Rank 3 weapon will be really really easy to make since Nether Vortex's will be BOE. Spec Arms/Fury, mace spec, get some gear, find a healer, and go rip people apart in PVP.
 
Back in the summer of '05 I found that all the armor and weapons you could make could always be replaced by dropped armor/weapons. I wish I had just picked up farming skills. :-(
 
Monkey God said:
both are a waste of materials and therefore gold.
get two farming skills, sell everything.
and buy what you want armor and weapon wise or get it from raids.
Click to expand...

agreed. get two farming skills, i went herbalism/mining and IMO it was worthwhile .. if you want something that isn't farming though, theres always enchanting (its been profitable for me, just watch the markets and know what to buy)
 
Enchanting is also the only profressional where the perks (ring enchants for enchanters) work with every gear, every spec, at any place in the game. Next up for useful professions would be Jewelcrafting, since the BOP gems you can make are better than any gems you can get.

BS, ENG, and Alchemy all provide you with gear that goes in a slot, and if you find something better, you are screwed. Also not many people will want you to craft stuff for them. Blizzard has really screwed up crafting professions.
 
Back when I used to play (05-early 06) the best way to do it was farming skills. Mining/herbalism was the hot combo of the day. Skinning was so-so but its advantage was because it was easy to come by. Mining and herbs on the other hand were difficult to aquire in nice stacks unless you knew exactly how to find them and even if you do, tons of other players already camp doing the same thing.

Making money is tough. Just wait till you go hardcore raiding...all your money will be spent on repairs like mine was...
 
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