Skill Progression for the Blacksmith

20 skill points are recommended to effectively train your blacksmith, but only 12 are necessary until creating end-game gear; initially hold off on the skills listed below but not shown in bold-face. Always invest as rapidly in possible in the skills that reduce research time and allow simultaneous trait research studies. Further invest in your blacksmithing skills as you level, keeping your material tier useful to your most advanced character's level.

Leveling Blacksmithing

To level blacksmithing as quickly as possible:

• if you have Champion Points, invest 30 points in The Tower to receive a 20% bonus to inspiration
• while questing always search the bodies for gear, save these for deconstruction by your crafter
• be sure to save all "Intricate" items you receive for deconstruction as these provide extra inspiration
• sell all "Ornate" items and use that money to purchase high level items (from guild stores) for deconstruction
• do the daily crafting writs

Deconstruction gives far more inspiration than creation and generates materials. Deconstruction inspiration from an item that you yourself made however only yields about 10% of what other items would. Inspiration received from deconstruction is increased with higher item level, with better item quality, and with "Intricate" items.

Testing at Summerset launch suggests that item drops usually grant approximately 33% more inspiration than items crafted by another character. The release notes stated one's own crafted items would have reduced inspiration (as has always been the case) but did not mention items crafted by another character which in past testing had given the same inspiration as dropped items. This may have changed long ago or may be a bug, I'm unsure so am just describing it here.

If you're saving items from questing to deconstruct them, you will need a plan for when your inventory fills. Firstly, destroy any white items with a value of 0 gold as they provide little inspiration anyhow. Then, if you have an alternate account you can manage inventory while questing through the mail system. Mail attachments to your alternate account and later use the "return to sender" option. Then retrieve the item from the mail system when at a crafting area.

If you choose to purchase items to level your craft, prices are not the only variable that affect which items are the right items to purchase for deconstruction; your crafting level matters due to the Inspiration Cap. The cap increases with inspiration boost, so 10% inspiration boost from ESO+, or 20% with regards to CP in The Tower, will raise the numbers shown below by the same percentage, making the same items useful regardless of what amount of inspiration boost you do or do not have.

Note that you will never receive the full calculated inspiration from Intricate items of the highest levels, just decide when it makes sense to purchase these items based on your budget and progress. The following table can help ensure you don't overpay for items due to the Deconstruction Inspiration Cap.

Another common method for leveling crafting is with a crafting buddy or alt:

1. Find someone who has the same number of skill points in Metal Working as you do.
2. The most inspiration per material is gained with daggers. Certain levels (6, 16, 26, 36, 46, CP 10, CP 40, CP 70, CP 90) yield the best inspiration/material ratio. So create daggers at the maximum of these levels which you can craft.
3. Then trade these with a buddy who has done the same.
4. Deconstruct the daggers made by your crafting buddy.

However the amount of materials involved may make sticking to deconstruction of accumulated loot preferable.

Writs

Daily writs provide a boost to inspiration upon delivery, always provide either an ornate or intricate item, and occasionally provide survey maps to help replenish your supplies.

Master Writs are available once you are completing top tier writs. It is said that your chance to receive a Master Writ increases based on your progress in trait research and with the motifs for which you know all chapters.

All About Materials

Metallic ores are found primarily near cliffs and rocky outcroppings. Since the One Tamriel update all zones scale with your character, half the material nodes scale based upon your skill points in Metal Working and half based upon your character level. Typically, three or four raw ore can be gathered per harvest and occasionally you will also find Regulus which is used in furniture crafting; the yield can occasionally be doubled (10% chance) with 10 Champion Points in The Lover constellation for the benefit of the "Plentiful Harvest" passive.

Also, occasionally blacksmithing nodes will drop a single unit of jewelers' dust.

These raw ores must then be refined at a blacksmithing table before being used to create an item. In this process, ten raw ore typically yields between seven and ten refined ingots and may also grant style or trait gems or improvement materials (the chance of this happening can be increased with Metal Extraction, one of the recommended skills).

Raw Metallic Ore Ready to Harvest	Creates Items of Level Range	Made from these Refined Ingots
	Levels 1 through 15	Iron Ingots
	Levels 16 through 25	Steel Ingots
	Levels 26 through 35	Orichalcum Ingots
	Levels 36 through 45	Dwarven Ingots
	Levels 46 through 50	Ebony Ingots
	CP 10 through CP 30	Calcinium Ingots
	CP 40 through CP 60	Galatite Ingots
	CP 70 through CP 80	Quicksilver Ingots
	CP 90 through CP 140	Voidstone Ingots
	CP 150 through CP 160	Rubedite Ingots

Tempers for Improvement

Every item you create will initially be white (standard) quality. You can upgrade an item's quality at any suitable crafting table. In the crafting interface, choose the "Improvement" tab then select the item to upgrade. Increasing item quality generates more base armor/damage and a greater effect for traits.

Upgrading the quality of blacksmithing items requires tempers. Using more tempers gives a greater percentage chance of success. There is also a skill (Temper Expertise) which reduces the number of tempers needed to succeed with each upgrade.

If you choose to attempt an upgrade but fail due to using too few tempers then the item will be destroyed and you will lose the tempers with which you attempted the upgrade!

Temper (image)	Temper Used for Improvement	Tempers for 100% Success with Temper Expertise Rank				Upgraded Item Quality
		--	1	2	3
-	Standard Item (as crafted)	-	-	-	-	Standard
	Honing Stone	5	4	3	2	Fine
	Dwarven Oil	7	5	4	3	Superior
	Grain Solvent	10	7	5	4	Epic
	Tempering Alloy	20	14	10	8	Legendary

Researching Traits

Researching traits is a very long process. Times to complete research increase dramatically as you progress, so start as early as possible!

Because trait research is common to other crafts as well, it is discussed in a seperate article which can be found here: Sunshine Daydream's Guide to Traits.