The blacksmith allows you to make equipment: weapons and armor. Leveling the blacksmith is an interesting process: instead of paying a flat fee to advance in skill levels, you pay a smaller amount to increase his experience by 20%, unlocking a couple additional plans along the way. This takes place four times; on the fifth purchase, you are jumped to the next level, allowing access to a whole new tier of items. As an example, the blacksmith starts with five apprentice-level crafts available; each investment of 2,000 gold adds two more apprentice-level recipes and 20% to the XP bar. Once you’ve spent 10,000 gold, you reach level 2 and can start creating journeyman-level items, which require a higher level to wield (and have better stats). The blacksmith can be leveled this way up to level 10, but the costs become very high around level 5 or so.
At this level, each 20% gain begins requiring several “Pages of Blacksmithing”, which are very rare drops. Of course, once you’ve leveled the blacksmith and learned the appropriate plans, you’ll still need to gather the materials to craft the item you want.
All crafting materials are found by salvaging (in WoW terms: disenchanting) other magical items. This essentially gives you another chance at good gear. Even if you don’t get a good weapon drop, simply salvage all the bad weapons and have the blacksmith craft you one! Of course, some of the magical bonuses on the crafted weapons are random as well, so it may takes several crafts to come up with a good combo. The jewelcrafter uses a much simpler interface and less complicated mechanics. Instead of creating entirely new items for you, he just enhances existing items. His services include adding gem sockets to your armor, combining your gems to create stronger versions of them, or removing gems from sockets so they can be reused. Leveling him is much quicker and cheaper than the blacksmith. Instead of the step-by-step process, a simple flat fee (and later, some Pages of Jewelcrafting) will advance your JC to the next level, unlocking the next level of gem combinations. I speak more about Artisans and how to use them effectively in my Crafting guide that comes free with with my Diablo 3 Currency Guide.
