General information | Blacksmithing ESO guide, tips

Last update: 11 May 2016

Blacksmithing allows you to crate items from various types of metals - the end products are Heavy Armors and weapons for melee combat. What is interesting, Blacksmithing offers no shield crafting - all the shields in the game are made out of wood, and are able to be crafted through the Woodworking branch.

Blacksmithing, however important for every class (because majority of players tend to fight in melee range), it will come in handy especially, if you plan on making your character a tank - the possibility of creating a marvelous weapon and heavy armor is not to be underestimated. Below you will find a table describing all the abilities available to you in the Blacksmithing branch.

Icon	Name and Rank	Description of the ability	Requirements
	Metalworking I	Allows you to make and use Iron Ingots.	Blacksmithing 1
	Metalworking II	Allows you to make and use Steel Ingots.	Blacksmithing 5
	Metalworking III	Allows you to make and use Orichalc Ingots.	Blacksmithing 10
	Metalworking IV	Allows you to make and use Dwarven Ingots.	Blacksmithing 15
	Metalworking V	Allows you to make and use Ebony Ingots.	Blacksmithing 20
	Metalworking VI	Allows you to make and use Calcinium Ingots.	Blacksmithing 25
	Metalworking VII	Allows you to make and use Galatile Ingots.	Metalworking VI
	Metalworking VIII	Allows you to make and use Moonstone Ingots.	Metalworking VII
	Metalworking IX	Allows you to make and use Voidstone Ingots.	Metalworking VIII
	Keen Eye: Ore I	Ore in the world will be easier to spot if you come within 20 meters of it.	Blacksmithing 2
	Keen Eye: Ore II	Ore in the world will be easier to spot if you come within 30 meters of it.	Blacksmithing 9
	Keen Eye: Ore III	Ore in the world will be easier to spot if you come within 30 meters of it.	Blacksmithing 30
	Miner Hireling I	A Miner Hireling will send you various types of ores and/or other items connected with Blacksmithing once a day. The items are delivered when you are logged out.	Blacksmithing 3
	Miner Hireling II	A Miner Hireling will send you various types of ores and/or other items connected with Blacksmithing once a day. Possibility of getting more ore and better items. The items are delivered when you are logged out.	Blacksmithing 12
	Miner Hireling III	A Miner Hireling will send you various types of ores and/or other items connected with Blacksmithing once a day. Higher possibility of getting more ore and better items. The items are delivered when you are logged out.	Blacksmithing 32
	Metal Extraction I	Increases the chances of extracting Blacksmithing ingredients while deconstructing an item.	Blacksmithing 4
	Metal Extraction II	Greatly increases the chances of extracting Blacksmithing ingredients while deconstructing an item.	Blacksmithing 22
	Metal Extraction III	Maximizes the chances of extracting Blacksmithing ingredients while deconstructing an item.	Blacksmithing 32
	Metallurgy I	Reduces research times by 5% and allows the research of two items at once.	Blacksmithing 8
	Metallurgy II	Reduces research times by 10% and allows the research of two items at once.	Blacksmithing 18
	Metallurgy III	Reduces research times by 20% and allows the research of three items at once.	Blacksmithing 28
	Temper Expertise I	Increases the chances of improving an item with tempers.	Blacksmithing 10
	Temper Expertise II	Greatly increases the chances of improving an item with tempers.	Blacksmithing 25
	Temper Expertise III	Doubles the chances of improving an item with tempers.	Blacksmithing 40

Explanation

As you can see, there's a plethora of abilities to choose from (and it's only a single branch of crafting!), which is why you should be extra careful on which of them you should spend your skill points, in order to spare some on other skill lines.

The absolutely mandatory are three of them:

• Metalworking (obviously all the way to the 9th level, to gain access to all the metals available in the game)
• Metallurgy - the research times in game mount up to ridiculous levels (if you want to be able to use all the traits for a single item, you will need to spend real-time DAYS to do so!), and that is precisely why you much spend all 3 points in this ability, to greatly reduce the research time itself, as well as be able to research 3 items at once. Without this one you can simple forget about becoming a successful crafter.
• Temper Expertise - upgrading the items is, besides the sole process of creating them, an extremely important aspect, as it allows you to drastically enhance a given item - be it the values of the item itself (the damage of the weapon, or the armor value of a piece of armor), a trait or even an enhancement put on an item through the Enchanting process. By increasing the chance of a successful improvement, you basically reduce the number of Tempers (will be explained later on) required in the process. That is precisely why this ability is so important. The whole process of upgrading an item will be explained later.

An ability worth noting is the Keen Eye: Ore, which, after investing a point in it, will make the nearby (the distance is dependent on the level of the ability) ore nodes more visible (they have a slight glow), allowing you to notice them a lot easier. A single point in this ability is more than enough, if you have at least basic ability of perception and are aware of your surroundings.

If you want to keep yourself busy with Blacksmithing a little bit more seriously, you should invest in the Metal Extraction as well - the ability increases the chances of getting various Blacksmithing components, as well as Tempers (which are quite hard to find through other means) through the process of deconstructing items, and the more "free" components (and Tempers) you are able to get for your crafting branch, the better.

The last ability, Miner Hireling, can be completely omitted - getting a few units of ores (or a Temper, though it is quite rare) may be tempting, but, most of the time, it is simply reduced to a situation, when you get a small number of ore, which you can find on your own in a matter of a few minutes. If you don't have anything better to invest points into, you can think about this ability - otherwise, forget about it and never, ever think of investing anything in it.