Quick Guide: Blacksmithing in 5.2

Well folks I had planned to do a quick Blacksmithing guide once 5.2 went live and it's taken a bit more time than I expected. You see, in order to kill the guy who drops the item that starts the quest chain you have to open the fourth phase on Isle of Thunder. Basically your server better be grinding those dailies. It's like the Firelands Invasion sort of thing, only progress is server based like the opening of AQ.

So I finally get to the fourth phase, kill Itoka and no drop. I checked some of the comments on Wowhead and apparently he isn't always dropping it like he's supposed to. I'm not sure if that is because someone else pulled him first (he's a daily quest mob btw) or what. Perhaps he only drops one and another BS grabbed it. Anyways....quick run down here of how things go.

• Open fourth phase on Isle of Thunder and make sure you've done all the solo scenarios to that point.
• Kill Itoka.
• Loot Strange Metal Ingot and begin the quest, Lightning Steel.
• Go through the door just northish of you.
• Read the book and complete the quest.
• Win!

Special thanks to dlbert2000 for the screenies! They were better than mine.

Couple things about killing Itoka. That link takes you right to his abilities page. He's a nasty little mini boss so bring friends. He has an AE lightning attack called ring of Thunder with a pretty large radius, run out when you see the cast bar. Column of Thunder you can just step out of when he drops it on the ground. Pretty much you're going to be moving this whole fight, between avoid his sparks and running out of the other abilities. He'll pop a shield around himself himself during the fight, this a great time to heal up and get mana or whatever you need. Then you'll kill the little guys channeling the shield to break it. While I've never tried to solo him, people say it's possible but it's a super pain. So yeah....stick with the bring friends strategy for the easiest kill.

Once you complete the quest you'll get the Notes on Lightning Steel. The notes contain the plans for lightning steel bars as well as plans for a number of sexy weapons. These weapons are 463 and are "reborn" versions of Burning Crusade Mastersmith weapons. Once you make the ilvl 463 weapon you then learn the next level up. It will be ilvl 476, learn a new pattern and then the final weapon is 502. The down side? It will take a TON of mats and time to get all three weapons. Basically you'll get higher level weapons from Throne of Thunder raid long before finishing the final weapon. Lightning steel is a main ingredient and it's one bar every 24 hours and they're BoP, unlike living steel. So....It's only useful for transmog. And of course selling to people who transmog at extortionate prices.

Personally the work involved in crafting these means I'll be making them for myself only and maybe a few very close friends. If I'm still around once next xpac hits that might change but for now I'm hording my lightning steel. I certainly hope that Blizz might allow us to proc extra bars during. Aaahhh I can dream!

Cloaks for Cloudkeeper's Legplates

A comment was recently posted on Cloudkeepers Legplates asking about cloaks for that particular set. I thought of several blue cloaks with gold borders. Well after trying these cloaks on, I decided that most won't work. The blue is too bright. So I started from scratch and went through every cloak in the game. I found several types of cloaks that work well with this set. Yellow, Blue, White, Gray and Fancy. Might be a bit of information overload, on the other hand, I do want to offer a selection so that you can fit your own style.

Also some of the cloaks listed may be of different lengths. And you can't just pick a cloak, go to Wowhead and click "same model as" since you'll get a TON of cloaks in all different colors. I've tried to select the easiest of each cloak to acquire for either faction. One of the cloaks is Alliance though. Too bad Blood Elves can't wear Stormwind Capes!

From left to right:

The Vintage Satin Cloak is a random green drop which you should be able to find on the AH. Of for an eventual sure drop hit the Underbog for Cloak of Healing Rays

Blightcloth Cloak is made by tailors. If you prefer a short cloak try the Bright Cloak which can be found on the AH.

Insignia Cloak is another one of those wonderful and easy to acquire lowbie AH items. Or just farm Scarlet Halls and Scarlet Monastery.

My favorite of this grouping is Tapestry of the Frozen Throne. Good luck getting it. It has an extremely low drop rate from the Captains Chest at the end of Halls of Reflection. However, for a short version of this cloak you can look for Patched Cape which drops off high level 60's.

From left to right:

Suede Cloak is a nice handy green drop. If you are Alliance, you can get this in long, short and split depend on which version of the Caretaker's Cape you purchase from Illiyana Moonblaze in Ashenvale.

The Abjurer's Cloak is best found while farming rare spawns in Tanaris if you can't manage to find it on the AH.

The Shattershore Cloak is a quest reward. Luckily it has the same graphic for both Horde and Alliance.

And the PvP cloak! Pretty much go to a PvP vendor for you faction and dressing room his cloaks until you find this one. One set is season 11 Ruthless. Or you can just have a tailor make you a Vicisou Embersilk Cape. If you have points to spare I'd just buy one though.

From left to right:

This is my favorite of the white ones, the Bonelink Cape and it's easy to acquire of find on the AH. Run Dire Maul or Razorfen Downs and you should see one drop.

The Gossamer Cape is another easy green drop. I personally don't care much for the red in the border but it has a crisper appearance than the other cloaks.

Reanimator's Cloak drops of any number of mobs in Drak'Theron Keep. Since it is BoE you may also find it on the AH.

And of course the Cape of Stormwind is purchased from the Stormwind faction vendor in, you guessed it, Stormwind. WARNING: Taurens, do NOT attempt to purchase!! It is Alliance only.

From left to right:

My favorite of this set, there are only two cloaks with this graphic. Shroud of the Citadel from Sapphirion in 10m Naxx or Drape of Icy Intent in the Rare Cache of Winter from 25m Ulduar. In order to access the Rare Cache you need to burn Hodir down before he smashes it.

The easiest two of this cloak to get (no green AH one sorry!) are from Ebon Blade Faction or a Sholazar quest. Post-partum Aggression rewards Cloak of the Deadliest Game. Or you can purchase the Dark Soldiers Cape once you reach honored with Ebon Blade.

A Leatherworker can you make you the Shifting Cloak.

And the Opulent Cape is a nice AH green! Or a common drop in Zul'Farrak.

From left to right:

Ooops! Small problem. Wowhead doesn't have this particular cloak in it's database! /cry Going by it's item number, it is most likely a Cata item that was never used. However you can get close to the same effect with Dreamcrusher Drape, a split cloak with the same colors. I'm hoping that we might see this cloak later in MoP. I feel like I've seen it before but can't find another quite like it.

The Cloak of Tranquil Cloud drops of any of the rare spawns in Vale of Eternal Blossoms. You can purchase a pointy version of the cloak from the Shado Pan. The Sagewhisper's Wrap is available at honored.

My favorite. I might have to design a set specifically for this cloak. The Nanoprecise Cape is a Cataclysm cloak that can now be purchased with Justice points.

And last but not least Cloak of the Iron Council drop off the Iron Council (surprise surprise!) in 10m Ulduar. The other option would be the Shroud of Redeemed Souls from the nasty caster sisters in Sunwell Plateau.

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Well I hope this provides enough to get you started! While not all these cloaks are "perfect" most of them look decent with the set and if all else fails, use one until you can finally get that one raid drop cloak. I would personally probably go with the Cloak of the Iron Council with this set, although the Shroud of the Citadel would be a close second.

I also discovered some fun variations of this set posted on WoW Role Play Gear. I designed this set around the shoulders and legs for a friend of mine. Noelani designed her sets around the Truesilver Breastplate. She has some more ideas for shoulders, boots, etc.

Happy transmogging!

Transmog in Patch 5.2

There are some exciting changes coming up in Patch 5.2, rumored to be released March 5. Many of these center around the Blacksmithing tradeskill and weapon transmogrification. I am personally looking forward to these changes because some incredible new graphics will be made available once again and you will have greater options of weapon transmog to match your gear.

Speed level blacksmithing with current materials

Return of the Master Crafter weapons such as Blazefury /drool

Reclassification of one hand and two hand Weapons

Levling Blacksmithing

They plan on making it possible to level your craft using current materials, much the way you can now level cooking without having to go back and farm bear flanks and mystery meat. I discovered this while checking through Wowhead News for more information on the old BC Master Craft weapons. I recently dropped skinning on my paladin and have started leveling blacksmithing. It's a pain. I have to go back and farm copper, mithril, iron and so on. Once 5.2 hits you'll be able to level blacksmithing with just ghost iron. Here's a quick little video I found on YouTube that covers the gist of this change.

This video was made closer to the beginning of testing. I just checked PTR and there is no quest to pick up. You simply learn the training projects from the trainer. I'm working on a more in depth post for the whole blacksmithing thing in 5.2.

Alright, next question, how does this affect the Auction House? I know for a fact that there are people crying their eyes out that this will nerf their AHing profits. People who farm lowbie mats and then AH them. Well...IF this is available to 90's only then people who are leveling up their lowbies will still farm mats to level their tradeskills. Also this is for level purposes only. That Ornate Mithril set I want for my Death Knight? I'm still going to have to get the mats and pass them on to my favorite blacksmith. This change only covers leveling. It does not replace any of the old world recipes.

So to sum up, what do you want to do in prep for 5.2 and black smith leveling? FARM GHOST IRON!

Master Craft Weapons

Back in Burning Crusade, they added the Master Crafting. You could specialize in hammers or swords or maces and what you would get, is a freaking cool weapon. You could upgrade that weapon into an even cooler looking weapon and they were BoP so that you could be one of the few who had that weapon. Too bad you couldn't make a killing selling them on the AH however. Well those quest lines and the corresponding weapons were removed from the game some time ago. This caused a great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when transmog was introduced. There have been many requests on the forums, on Wowhead comments and in general for these item skins to be reintroduced to the game. Well wish granted!!

Wowhead gives a basic run down of all the weapons being "brought back" and how to obtain them. Blacksmithing will have its own discovery system much like Alchemy. Blacksmiths will create a Lightning Steel Ingot and in doing so have the chance to learn an unknown pattern, including some of the old Master Craft weapons. This item may or may not have a 24 CD. It most likely will (which will suck imo) but we can keep our fingers crossed until the patch comes out. These items will BoP so they will be for Blacksmiths only. Hooray for the new BS speed leveling option! I just dropped skinning on my pally and started leveling BS so she could make the Dawnsteel shoulders as shown in my Cloudkeeper Legs transmog post.

So once again to sum up, what do you want to do in prep for 5.2 and blacksmith crafting? FARM GHOST IRON!

And last but not least... Weapon RecLassification

On the PTR you can now transmog swords into axes, axes into maces and so on. You can do this for both one and two hand items. You of course can't transmog a one hand with a two hand items however. Many of the item that were classified specifically as main hand or off hand are now simply one hand. BRAVO!! I had a heck of a time in Cata farming for the right weapon so I could transmog it to match my gear. I'd find the perfect hammer and then an upgrade would drop, like Souldrinker. Then it was back to the drawing board to either find a new transmog set or a new weapon.

Here is my current two handed axe. On the PTR I transmogged it into The Oathkeeper a two handed hammer. I used The Oathkeeper with my Sapphirium pally tier set. All I can say is hoooray for this change!! I'm a fan to two handed swords personally, and I don't care to use a hammer or an axe usually. There are so many amazing two handed swords. The only problem is even if it is a two hander it still looks tiny on a Blood Elf.

Current in live the Bronze Mace is a main hand weapon. Well I transferred my Blacksmith to the PTR and made one. (Good luck finding a weapon on the PTR auction house, BTW) On the PTR it is now a one hand weapon. I also made it, equipped and transmogged it to a sword. So you CAN xmog maces into sowrds and vice versa etc. The main hand / off hand restrictions have been removed on many of the weapons.

So to sum up, farm a ton of ghost iron, level your Blacksmithing and dust off that sword you've been saving and be ready to change your axe!

Sexy Plate Transmog - Red & Gold

Well this is the last set of sexy (skimpy) transmog "recipe" sets - as they call them over at WoW Roleplay Gear. All of these sets are BoE greens than can be found grinding certain dungeons or zones. You can put together plenty of unique and individual sexy outfits but this covers the plate pieces that come in full sets. Some of these sets will have a single recolor that doesn't have a full set like the Warior's Embrace It's a black and gray recolor of the Glorious Breastplate.

	Warlords Iron This set is actually the same as the Warmaul set which is also plate. The recolors listed are all mail. I used the Brackenshell Shoulderplates and Belt of the Fallen Emperor with this set.	RECOLORS Radiant Mail - Orange Lord's Mail - Silver
	Glorious Plate this is one of the more sought after sets and can be difficult to acquire. Try farming Ahn Qiraj, Dire Maul and Silithus. I used the default shoulders this time instead of switching them.	RECOLORS Lofty - Gold & Green Vanguard - Blue & Gold
	Bloodfist Plate The two recolors for the set are the same. Both red/red set while this set is gold with red. I used the Drake Talon Pauldrons with this set instead of the default.	RECOLORS Darkcrest - Red Boulderfist - Red
	Shattered Hand Plate This set has a robotish feel to it and isn't as pretty as some others. However a lot of the pieces are good for mixing and matching.	RECOLORS Grimscale - Bluish gray

Oh yes, just an FYI, the chest pieces look a LOT different on males!! Happy transmogging!

Do You Have A Transmog Blog Pyckles?

Why yes, yes I do! A guildie asked me that during down time in Heart of Fear last night. He was looking for a new set for his tauren and apparently my site came up on Google. Sundevils figured there couldn't be too many "Pyckles" out there so he guessed it was me. It made me feel warm and fuzzy that someone stumbled across my blog until I realized that my last post was in November of last year. I have the second part of Sexy Plate Transmog in draft stages but haven't finished it yet. So I'm posting a quick update to let everyone know I'm still around. I'll work on putting the finishing touches on the second half of Sexy Plate this weekend.

On a side note, I'm wearing the Jade plate transmog set currently. You can see it my background image or in the Sexy Plate Transmog post. I mean hey, Pyckles are green right?!

Since we were discussing taurens, I'm going to take a moment and post my favorite Tauren plate set. This also looks smashing on female orcs and dwarves. It's one of the Northrend sets. There are four color schemes to this set, red, green, blue and gold. Each of the sets have a myriad of pieces so it's actually an easier set to acquire. Many of colors will mix and match quite well. Try switching a few pieces around to see how they work. Coincidentally you can easily find a set to match any tauren skin color as well.

In this picture he's sporting the Bloodcrush Cudgel and the Wrathful Gladiator's Shield Wall. Both have the same dark red with accents of a glowy fluorescent green that really sets off the red in the gear. There lots of good weapons that go well with this set. Happy hunting!

Sexy Plate Transmog Sets

There are numerous sexy plate sets for females in World of Warcraft. Most of them are from Vanilla with a few from the Burning Crusade. For the most part these are all farmable green "recipe sets". Recipe meaning they're designed to fit together. Most of the recipe sets also have recolors. So if you see one up there that you like, but want it in a different color, chances are good you'll be able to find it. The one thing I have changed out in the picture of each of these sets is the shoulders. The recipe shoulders suck. Why? The random green shoulders rarely looked good. You had to raid for the good ones. And frankly, cool looking shoulders are of the utmost importance in making your set stand out.

	Revenant Plate The shoulders used in the picture are the Justice Bearer's Pauldrons although the Soulforge should work just as well.	RECOLORS Templar - Gold with Blue Emerald - Green Thorium - Red Runic - Multi
	Warleader I simply used the set shoulders here. There are some extra options for the recolors, for example the Wyrmslayer Spaulders match the Brutish set perfectly.	RECOLORS Exalted - Black and Gold Brutish - Burgundy and Bronze Enchanted Adamantite - Purple and Silver
	Jade My personal favorite. Took me months to put this set together. I use Skybreaker's Pauldrons with my set.	RECOLORS Tyrant - Antique Gold and Red Saltstone - Silver and Burgundy
	Conquerors I used the Lightforge Spaulders since the gold matches perfectly. The Conqueror's set is also a good mix n match set to complement other gold sets.	RECOLORS Bloodscale - Pinkish Red Ornate Mithril - Black Blue Purple
	Hyperion One of the coolest sets in game. I used the (H)Spaulders of Manifold Eyes in the screenshot.	RECOLORS Imbued Red and Blue Commanders - Orange Burgundy Enchanted Thorium-Black, Gray and Gold

Some notes about finding recolors. Some you just know about because you've seen them. Quite often if you look up a set on Wowhead someone has listed all the recolors in the comments, especially if it's a popular set. If not, you can select the chest, and then use the "same model as" sort option on Wowhead that will allow you to see other chests that use the same model. Quite often you can find that chest in a new color and chances are good there's a full set in that color.

While I'm not always a big recipe set fan, I like my look to be unique, it can be fun taking a recipe set and finding different pieces to match for a personalized look. Some of the recipe sets are not full sets, they're missing gloves, shoulders, a belt or something, so they can get a challenge to finish out. Happy hunting! I'll have the rest of the "sexy" plate transmog recipe sets up soon. With full lists of their recolors of course!

Pink Plate Transmog in MoP

Yes, indeed. Thank you Blizzard. I'll start out this post by saying that Mist of Pandaria has exceeded my expectations. And I am tickled pink that Blizzard responded to a forum request for pink plate armor. Oh yes! PINK plate!!! It's been a year since I posted that and I know that a few others have posted asking about pink transmog as well.

The MoP pink set is very classy in my opinion. Definitely not trashy or tacky and the pink is not eye glaring. I admit it could be a bit sexier (show a bit more skin) but that's not a huge draw back for me. I did worry a little bit about finding a matching sword and shield but after playing around with WMV I did find a couple that match. As I update my WMV files (more about that later) I'll add some options.

It's called the Inner Serenity set. The pink is a recolor of the blue and silver. Very cool looking set. That brings us up to three plate sets with pink. The Bloodscale, the Avenger and now this.