| to be honest... I don't think it does =/ at least not anytime soon. The biggest problem with Blacksmithing is that its end products (weapons & armor) get recycled through the economy so even if something is profitable to make now, it will likely drop in price as more people buy it and sell it back to AH when they've outlvled it. The few perishable tools we can make are cheaper to buy in a town that you have decent fame in. Considering the current average lvl of NA players, demand for higher lvl JSE (the big reason to skill above 60, imho) is still based largely on the JPN players and already supplied by JPN crafters. It is likely that the majority of synthed items you can profit from is from making materials for other crafters to skill up off of (ingots, sheets, scales, chain, etc.).
Does this mean that blacksmithing not profitable? Absolutely not, however, the measure of how much is based on your server's economy. If you are a miner, blacksmithing is wonderful for turning iron ore into ingots. Similarly, if you are a goldsmith, you can turn silver ore into ingots and likewise with mythril (although it is rare to get silver and mythril in the quantities that would require someone to melt them into ingots unless they were keeping all 'semi precious' ore). This translates into higher effective carrying capacity (dependent on the yields you get) and on my server at least, an increase in profit over selling raw iron ore since iron ingots and sheets sell for more than the ore it takes to make them and require less AH space.
So far, I have not found profit beyond making Iron Sheets and my first 'money maker' was making Iron Ingots and selling them in stacks for up to 2.5k profit per stack. Stacks of Iron Sheets make up to 5k profit per stack. The profit is based on buying iron ore at the 'low price' since the 'high price' is usually set by higher lvl crafters making darksteel ingots and no profit can be made when considering ore at that price.
(All Bastok Prices on Kujata Server)
Iron Ore: 500-600
Iron Ingotx12: 28000
Iron Sheetx12: 32000
Fire Crystalx12: 1500-2000
Also, you can make a profit out of breaking down Beastmen armor, although the margin is result it not definite and you may also take a loss if you fail too often.
Goblin Helm: 400-600
Lightning Crystal: 100-150
Bronze Ingot: 100-300
Iron Ingot: 2200-2500
Steel Ingot: 3000-3500 (may have permanently dropped to 3k)
A Gobbie Helm+Lightning synth requires a minimum of 500 and up to 750 to acquire via AH and, if successful, results in a profit of -650 to 2500. I have both made and lost money on gobbie helms I'm not sure if i'm in the plus or minus range =/.
I've decided to put my blacksmithing on hold for awhile after losing ~50k in failed Iron Chain synths since no one buys Iron Scales on my server (reason being that Chainmail is not profitable to make anymore unless you're making Silver Mail from it). If you mine, I'd highly suggest getting to at least 16 skill so you can make iron ingots w/o synth support to aid in effective carry load. If you're rich or abhor mining, then I dont think blacksmithing will make you a profit =/.
-Lerican |