From ~270 to 300, you need an extraordinary amount of Thorium Bars (something to the tune of 600 bars, I think). If purchased, this is a lot of money (at least 1200g on my server). However, farming it means a heavy time sink in the old world. Fortunately, I’ve been playing for a while and I have the money to spend on most of the materials… but what about someone that recently started playing and wanted Blacksmithing to be one of his professions?

This leads to an interesting change in Lich King. The starting Blacksmithing recipes (using Lich King mats) are available at 350 - 25 points less than the current max. By only leveling to 350 with BC mats, you avoid most of the pricey recipes that use tons of Primals, Eternium, and Khorium. If these recipes started at 375, imagine how expensive and time consuming it would be for someone to pick up WoW during Lich King and level up Blacksmithing?

Makes ya wonder if they’ll go back and add in some ~275 Blacksmithing recipes to make the grind easier. With my luck, they’ll do it as soon as I make the switch and use up that 600 Thorium.

I…I think I need to go take a walk or something.