World of Warcraft/Professions/Blacksmithing

World of Warcraft is a virtual reality online role-playing game, a great complexity wherein players have many professions to choose. There are ten primary professions from which a character can select.refWorld of Warcraft Professions/ref Every character is allowed to learn up to two of these main professions.

These professions can all be categorized into subsections of gathering, service, and crafting professions.refProfessions/ref The gathering professions are herbalism, mining, and skinning. The only service profession is enchanting. The crafting professions are alchemy, blacksmithing, engineering, leatherworking, tailoring and jewelcrafting.

Gathering
In the gathering professions, herbalism, mining, and skinning, a character collects raw materials either to sell, or to use for a complementary profession. The materials gathered to sell are generally sold at an auction house, a place where other players around the globe are able to bid on items in World of Warcraft’s virtual world. Players may also obtain a second profession that uses the raw materials in their craft.

Herbalism
In herbalism, a character gathers all different kinds of herbs from kelp to flowers. Herbs like Fadeleaf sell on the auction house for an average 27 silver coins.refFadeleaf/ref Herbs are used in the Alchemy and Inscription professions.brbrAlchemy is the profession in which potions are created through the use of herbs. It is cost-efficient to choose herbalism and alchemy together as a character’s primary professions, because then the player does not have to buy the herbs on the auction house for the alchemy profession, they need only collect the materials.refHerbalism Basics/refbrbr The Inscription profession also makes use of the herbs gathered by herbalism. The herbs are reduced to various types of ink in much the same way the Jewelcrafting profession prospects ore. The ink is then used to make assorted glyphs that offer skill enhancements such as reducing mana costs on specific spells or reducing cooldowns etc.

Mining
In mining, a character mines copper and gold, as well as other mythical ores in the World of Warcraft. The miner can also gather gems and diamonds that are very valuable. For example, silver ore sells for around 3 gold and 8 silver coins at the auction.refSilver Ore/ref These precious materials can be mined in any mine. A miner also learns how to smelt the ore, which they collect into pure bars of whichever metal they smelted. The miner can sell these goods, for some of the highest prices of any raw materials in the World of Warcraft. The complementary professions for mining are blacksmithing, engineering, and jewelcrafting.refMining Basics/ref Those three crafting professions all use the raw materials gathered by miners.

Skinning
In skinning, a character does not have to go out of their way to gather raw materials—thus making it a very time-efficient gathering profession. The skinner can skin any monster that they kill, as long as the monster is animal-like and not, for instance, a giant lava elemental. Despite the ease of obtaining the leather, the raw materials gathered by a skinner are still quite valuable. The complementary profession for skinning is leatherworking.refMinor Healing Potion/ref The leatherworkers require various leather to make their crafts.

Mount Breeding
The hunter is the only class with the ability to obtain the mount breeding skill. The skill is acquired from their hunter trainer, where they begin breeding their mount at level 70. This profession was added with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, but is only available with the collector's edition. Those players who were unable to acquire a collector's edition are unfortunately unable to have the mount breeding ability. Similar to the hunter's Tame Beast ability, the Tame Mount ability is almost identical. A player can choose an animal of any size, and as the player increases in level, the animal increases in size. The longer a player rides their mount, the faster the mount becomes. The mount also gains stamina over time. Thus, in the beginning, the mount will be fairly slow and will fatigue easily. A riding whip is used to increase the speed of the mount, but only for a period of time. The whipe must be equipped as a trinket, and has a 10 minute cooldown after the useage of its 5 charges.

Enchanting
An enchanter can enchant their own items as well as other character’s items. The enchanter will usually offer their services to others across the main chat channel. Other players will privately respond to the enchanter and they will do their business. The enchanter can increase attributes such as: strength, agility, stamina, intellect, spirit, critical strike rating, etc. The enchanter, to make their wages, usually adds a fee for the enchanting, besides the cost of the materials.

The enchanter, like a crafting profession, needs to have materials. The enchanter does have the option to opt out of gathering materials and just buy the enchanting supplies at the auction house, but that is a very costly way to do enchanting. The way to gather enchanting materials are by disenchanting high quality armor or weapons. These items are denoted high quality by their name in green (uncommon item), blue (rare), and purple (epic). The materials gained can then be used for enchanting. The materials that the enchanter gets from disenchanting these items can be sold at the auction house just like the materials from any gathering profession.

Crafting
The crafting professions all require raw materials collected by the gathering professions in order to make their crafts. These craftsmen start out creating cheap items, but as they grow in skill they can create some of the best products available in the virtual world, short of slaying a ferocious dragon in a dungeon or by doing some other arduous task.

Alchemy
In alchemy, a character creates potions for healing, replenishing mana (the amount of magical energy a caster possesses), increasing run speed, etc. Alchemy requires inexpensive and easy to acquire herbs at the starting levels of the profession. As an alchemist increases their skill level, they require more expensive herbs; the up side is, these more expensive herbs can be used to make more effective and more potent potions. For example, a low level alchemist creates a minor healing potion and can heal themselves for 70-90 health.refMinor Healing Potion/ref As they increase in level they learn can learn to make a lesser healing potion which heals from 140-180 health.refLesser Healing Potion/ref The alchemist can keep all the potions they create for their own use, but they can also sell some or all of them at the auction house.

Blacksmithing
In blacksmithing, a character creates weapons and armor from smelted bars of metal and in some cases the item that the blacksmith makes will also require gems or diamonds of some sort. Being a blacksmith is especially useful for a warrior or some other heavy armor wearing character. By being a blacksmith that character is able to make all their own armor and weapons. There would be nearly no practical use for a mage to be a blacksmith—since they can only wear cloth armor—except if they were to sell the products at the auction house. That is not always possible either, because certain items that a blacksmith makes in the higher levels of their craft are soulbound, meaning he cannot sell them at the auction house.

Engineering
In engineering, a character can create various gizmos and gadgets that do a variety of tasks. Engineers can create little toys to play with and even make jumper cables that have a chance to shock another character back to life.refGoblin Jumper Cables/ref The same materials that a blacksmith needs are what an engineer primarily needs as well. The engineering products sold at the auction house are targeted toward a smaller audience than the other craftable items from the other professions, because many engineering products require an engineering proficiency of a certain level depending on the quality and level of the item.

Leatherworking
In leatherworking, a character uses the leather from animal hides to create leather armor, quivers, armor kits, etc. This is a very practical profession for any leather wearing character, because they will be able to make their own armor. The armor kits that they make are useful to all. The lower level kits increase the armor points of a certain piece of armor. The higher level kits increase attributes from health to agility, depending on the exact type of high level kit. Mainly because of the armor kits, leatherworking is a marketable profession that reaches out to the general consumer.

Tailoring
In tailoring, a player crafts many different things using cloth. Such things include bolts of that specefic cloth, which takes a bundle of a type of cloth and compacts it into one bolt, spell thread that can be applied to a pair of leggings to improve spell power and stamina, and pieces of armor, which increase in quality as the profession skill is upgraded. The material that a tailor primarily needs is cloth. There is a wide variety of cloth to be found in the World of Warcraft. Cloth is obtained by killing many varieties of enemy npc's (non-player characters). The type of cloth depends on the level of the character’s foe. Such classes that benefit from this profession include: Mage, Warlock, Priest. These classes are only able to wear cloth armor, whereas all other classes can wear leather or better. Linen, Wool, Silk, Mageweave and Runecloth are all acquired in Azeroth, which consists of the Eastern Plaguelands and Kalimdor. Netherweave cloth can be acquired from the Outlands, released in The Burning Crusade expansion set. With the newly added continent of Northrend, released in the expansion set Wrath of the Lich King, players acquire Frostweave, which is used to level the tailoring profession from 375 to 450. Once a player reaches the maximum skill of 450, they become able to craft a brand new flying mount: A Flying Carpet.

Jewelcrafting
In jewelcrafting, a character makes jewelry such as rings and necklaces, as well as cutting out gems to put into armor or weapons. Jewelcrafting mainly needs the materials that a miner gathers—ore, bars, and various gems and diamonds. The jewelcrafter can be useful to themselves because they can wear their own jewelry and use the gems that they cut; however, the profession has a much broader scope than just to fit the needs of the jewelcrafter. The jewelry crafted, by the jewelcrafter, can be worn by any character regardless of their class. Also the gems that they cut are important for all characters that have higher level armor and weapons that can socket those gems. So, the items that the jewelcrafter makes appeal to the general consumer in the World of Warcraft.

Real-World Connection
The professions in this game may be fictional, but they parallel professions in a real-world economy. The gathering professions in the game are needed so that the craftsmen can create his crafts. The service profession is around to meets the needs of the character on an individual level, as well as enhancing the crafts of the craftsmen. As the characters grow in level they need better armor and weapons. So, it spikes the virtual economy and the gatherers gather, the craftsmen craft, and the servicer serves.

Researcher’s Thoughts
Nina Fefferman from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston says, “Virtual-world modeling could give valuable insights into… improving models and the accuracy of simulations.”refCoppola, Kim. Virtual outbreak: gaming has never been more serious. New Scientist 193.2592 (Feb 24, 2007): 39(3). /refbr /br / Professor William Bainbridge from George Mason University says, “Online virtual worlds, electronic environments where people can work and interact in a somewhat realistic manner, have great potential as sites for research in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, as well as in human-centered computer science.”refWilliam Sims Bainbridge. Science 27 July 2007: Vol. 317. Pg. 472/ref