It's pretty obvious that you won't be able to take advantage of the socket after dropping Blacksmithing.

It's also pretty obvious that you'll still be able to use the gloves after dropping Blacksmithing (without the gem active), although, it doesn't really matter if you can't; does it?



If anyone cares:
As a Warrior i'll be keeping Jewelcrafting and Blacksmithing in WotLK, unless Warrior Glyphs blow my socks off. I think they'll work well together (blacksmithing giving sockets, JC filling them).


Apologies if this has already been discussed, but i'd like some more info on the Blacksmithing specific perks though, information about it seems to be spread about everywhere.
- quote from this thread's OP

So im guessing Weaponsmiths socket weapons to everyone, Armorsmiths socket belts to everyone while only blacksmiths (any type) benefit from both glove and bracer sockets?

Also, looking at wowhead and mmo champ spells lists, i only see "Socket One-Handed Weapon", what happens with 2h weapons? Reason i ask is as a dual wielding warrior, if for example we're able to put 2 sockets into a 2h weapon, that would benefit us greatly!! (imagine DW Apolyon, 6 sockets plus 4 from BS, 10 sockets = 200 strength).

@Polishedhead:

* We know that BS will have the ability to socket one-handed weapons. From the recipe, it looks like a casted ability, similar to Enchants that have to be done through the "Will not be traded" window. That being said, it will be available to all players.

* We know that BS will be able to create Belt Buckles, which are used items, similar to Armor Patches, Spellthreads or Leg Armors. These Belt Buckles will add sockets to Belts. They are not BOP, so it will also be available to all players.

* We know that BS will be able to socket gloves and bracers. Similar to the weapon socketing, it looks like a casted ability, but the wording indicates that it can only be used on the BS's own gloves and bracers, making this a BS-specific perk.

* We do not know if two-handed weapons will be socketable, either as a freely-available ability or a BS-specific perk.

* Blizzard has stated that one of their ideas was to give Armorsmiths the ability to add a second Meta socket as an additional sub-profession perk. However, those are simply words at this point. Nothing like this currently exists in the beta, nor has there been any announcements regarding perks for the Weaponsmith subprofession, or the Sword/Axe/Macesmith sub-sub-professions.

I certainly hope you are wrong on points one and two. The entire purpose of blacksmiths being able to add sockets to gear is gone if its BoE, simply because it ends up being something every serious player _has_ to have, unlike ringenchants for enchanters which actually gives meaning to roll the profession. Gloves and bracers remain though, but I'd personally like to see weapon and belt buckles only, restricted to the respective specs since it adds meaning to the different specs beyond progression(the BS items stopped being good around BT).

No one likes getting a new item and _having_Â*to contact a BS about a socket. On the other hand a BS loves getting a new weapon being able to socket it and add something to it not everyone else can. It adds a sort of achievement, and personally that's the feel I hoped they were going for when BS sockets first was announced

One reason for them making everything accessible for everyone obviously is income for the professions, but isn't that what we have the BoE items for? I have personally in this expansion made tens of thousand's gold on crafting BoE's alone, so for me it already fulfills the "job" part of a profession and I'm sure the situation is the same for other people who put some effort into their professions

How is the belt buckle any different to a leg patch or an enchant? It's just another consumable for Blacksmiths to sell.

From what I've read on the beta forums, the belt buckle recipie is already in and it's tradeable.

Blacksmiths already have two additional socket slots and presumably one meta socket, having 4 sockets + 1 meta borders on overpowered

Hmmm, I actually like that, it's what happens for enchant and gems, don't see why it would be different for blacksmiths. It differentiate people from organized guilds where a quick letter to the appropriate tradeskill master will get you necessary mats and craft...

As of TBC, Blacksmithing lacks 2 things:

A. Product which is constantly in demand - whenever a Rogue gets a new pair of pants, he buys a new Leg Armor from his neighborhood LW. Whenever any other toon gets a new piece of gear, he buys a new enchant and/or gems from his local Enchanter and/or Jewelcrafter.

B. Profession-specific perk - Enchanters have Enchanter-only ring enchants. Jewelcrafters have Jewelcrafter-only gems. These bonuses are separate from any specific gear, since anything outside of Sunwell patterns will be obsoleted eventually.

The lack of A is being addressed by weapon and belt sockets. Whenever a player gets a new weapon or belt, he purchases a belt buckle or has a socket punched into his weapon from his Blacksmith guildie.

The lack of B is being addressed by glove and bracer sockets, since only Blacksmiths can have (or benefit from) them.

I don't see what your issue is, since these are addressing glaring weaknesses in Blacksmithing as it currently exists in Live.

(B) can be divided into two different areas.
B1 is a normal piece of gear that replaces or can be replaced by normal drops. The stormherald and frozen shadoweave fall into this category. They're good, but they're just pieces of gear, and they get replace eventually.
B2 is strict enhancements to your character which augment your character in ways that someone without the profession does not have access to. Superior armor patches fall into this category, since while they're replacing an armor patch that someone else has access to, neither armor patch get upgraded. Ring enchants, extra meta slots, drums, tailor nets, and JC-specific gems fall into this category.

There are a few that fall in-between. For example, the alchemy trinket replaces a normal trinket spot but offers a unique ability. I would say that falls squarely in B1 since the "unique" ability has an exact mp/5 equivalence, making the piece, in theory, upgradeable. While it's really good, it's basically at T6-SW what FSW was at T4: really good by cheating itemization, but still eventually replaceable.
The engineering helms also fall in the in-between, since they offer assloads of normal stats, plus some wierd bonuses like motes, stealth detection, and binoculars. However, I would say that the two could be cleanly divided since you could upgrade the hat to one with better stats and swap out the engineering hat for extracting motes.

Blacksmithing currently has nothing of note in categories A (weapon chains and sharpening stones) or B2. It has face-rocking things in B1, which makes it good at the low-end and even lasts until the mid-end, but B1 is by definition replaceable. The weapon and belt sockets fall into category A, the glove/bracer sockets fall into B2, rounding out the profession by filling in both things it was missing.

The wonky thing, though, is that blacksmithing doesn't actually improve the item itself--it allows a JC to improve it. I think it's a little unrounded for BS to only give more work to JC. Not that it's entirely unhealthy, if adding a socket costs a lot more than filling it (since JCs make money off non-BS sockets as well), but that dependency is very unique. I don't know how the player dynamics will shake down on that, but in order for BS to make money off it, certain gem slots have to be exorbitantly more expensive, for the same benefit. It might be nice for a few non-gem-slot belt buckles to make the profession more stand-alone.

That isn't true and that wouldn't be equal. 2 sockets bonus (bracers + gloves) for blacksmiths roughly balance out against the 2 ring enchants. eg. 2 40AP ring enchants vs. 2 extra 40AP red gems. Both cases are exactly 80AP gained.

If anything, just getting 2 bonus sockets from blacksmithing is already superior to the enchanting bonus since you have a far greater selection of stats to choose from with gems, many of which scale with kings.

3-4 blacksmith only gem slots would make it the best min/max profession by far.

I wouldn't say by far. With the few inscriptions we've seen so far, an extra one of those is a very large boost and that cannot often be replaced by pure stats. Tailoring seems to be giving both spellthread and some sort of cloak enchant which again seem to be unique. In fact Enchanting with just providing ring enchants seems to be being left behind. An extra metagem/inscription/unique cloak ability seems far better than just plain stats.

I think the biggest thing that is kind of going with what you say; ring enchants don't scale. The one cloak enchant I saw looks like it will scale with haste, many of the meta gems obviously scale, and many of the glyphs will scale with various stats. Enchanting seems like it will not be as good as it is right now. Perhaps Blizzard will do something like it is with the other professions and require enchanting to use the enchant, while giving the ring enchants a boost. For instance, a percentage increase rather than a flat number. Now that would make enchanting worth considering in the end game.