| A few answers . . .
#1: Blacksmithing gets you lots of stuff. As a primary skill, it gets you swords, daggers, knives, kukris, scimitars, falchions, two-handed swords, claymores, axes, great axes, baselards, knuckles, claws, baghnaks, some shields(the others are woodworking-based), scale mail, chain mail, plate mail, that funky vest/subligar-type armor, padded armor, and ingots, sheets, chains, and scales made from metal. And some other crap.
As a secondary skill, it's used in various bolts, arrows, lances, spears, and . . . some other stuff. Even a few leatherworking things. And some other stuff I'm probably not thinking of at the moment.
#2: In order to get steel at level 30-odd blacksmithing, you have to get it the slow, cheap way(getting it from gob helms/mail), or the quick, expensive way(buy it off the AH by the stack). I did a little of both. Making steel ingots using the 50-55 skill synths is just a bad, bad idea all around. Anyone at that skill level can make quite a bit of steel as the HQ synth for fire crystal + 4xiron ore. In fact, I get so much steel that way now that it's annoying the hell out of me. I keep winding up with steel that I don't need. I need iron by jove, so give me iron! *) |