I have two guides to go by, the "In Power Hour Guide" and the "Out of Power Hour Guide". Be sure to follow the correct guide! These guides tell you what to make when, using your modified (not real) skill.
In Powerhour Guide
| Skill Numbers | What to make during PowerHour |
| 0 - 24.3 | Buy from an NPC |
| 24.3 - 36.8 | Cutlass |
| 36.8 - 44.2 | Kryss |
| 44.2 - 49.1 | Katana |
| 49.1 - 56.5 | Spear |
| 56.5 - 59 | Plate Gorget |
| 59 - 62.7 | Plate Gloves |
| 62.7 - 66.4 | Plate Helm |
| 66.4 - 68.9 | Plate Arm |
| 68.9 - 75.1 | Plate Legs |
| 75.1 - GM | Plate Chest |
Out of Powerhour Guide
| Skill Numbers | What to make out of PowerHour |
| 0 - 24.3 | Buy from an NPC |
| 30 - 40 | Mace |
| 40 - 45 | Maul |
| 45 - 50 | Cutlass |
| 50 - 55 | Scimitar |
| 55 - 60 | Kryss |
| 60 - 65 | War Fork |
| 65 - 70 | Short Spear |
| 70 - 75 | Spear |
| 75 - 80 | Plate Gorget |
| 80 - 85 | Plate Gloves |
| 85 - 90 | Plate Helm |
| 90 - 97 | Plate Legs |
| 97 - GM | Plate Chest |
My Diary to GM Blacksmith in 3 Days
| Hour | Start | Finish | Ingots Used | Avg./Skill Pt. |
| Day 1 | ||||
| 1 | 50 | 72.9 | 4603 | 23.1 |
| 2 | 72.9 | 75.8 | 3098 | 106.8 |
| 3 | 75.8 | 78.2 | 3145 | 131.0 |
| 4 | 78.2 | 80.4 | 2762 | 125.5 |
| 5 | 80.4 | 81.7 | 3690 | 283.8 |
| 6 | 81.7 | 84.1 | 3510 | 146.3 |
| 7 | 84.1 | 86.4 | 4052 | 176.2 |
| 8 | 86.4 | 88.3 | 4469 | 235.2 |
| Day 2 | ||||
| 9 | 88.3 | 92.3 | 6988 | 174.7 |
| 10 | 92.3 | 93.3 | 4951 | 495.1 |
| 11 | 93.3 | 93.9 | 4818 | 803.0 |
| 12 | 93.9 | 94.6 | 5367 | 766.7 |
| 13 | 94.6 | 96.0 | 5417 | 386.9 |
| 14 | 96.0 | 96.6 | 5282 | 880.3 |
| 15 | 96.6 | 97.4 | 5877 | 734.6 |
| Day 3 | ||||
| 16 | 97.4 | 99.3 | 6892 | 362.7 |
| 17 | 99.3 | 100.0 | 2315 | 359.0 |
My goal was to gm smithing as fast as possible without worrying about how many ingots I used. Using this method I used a whopping 77,434 ingots! A good portion of these came between hours 10 and 15. In these 6 hours I only gained 5.1 points and used 31,712 ingots! I would not advise this method to everybody, but if money really is not a concern and you want to gm it fast, this method will work for you! Just remember to use the "In Powerhour Guide" when you are in powerhour and the "Out of Powerhour Guide" when you are out of powerhour.
Another semi-conservative method would be to work your smithing up to the 90's in and out of powerhour as the gains are still good. If you take a look at my diary, you will see that once in the 90's the ingots used per .1 skill skyrocket! So once you get into the 90's only work blacksmithing during powerhour. I would take an educated guess to say that if you follow the guides and can get to 90 in two days and then work one powerhour per day thereafter it will take between 6-8 days to gm total.
Another conservative, proven method to gm smith is to only work while in powerhour using the guide I provided. This method will take about 10-14 days to gm and takes between 40,000-50,000 ingots. Many people use this method to conserve ingots.
RULES TO GOOD SKILL GAIN:
#1 Don't waste any precious minutes of your powerhour! Have everything ready before your powerhour starts and if your powerhour starts right when you log on, use another character to get everything ready. When blacksmithing you should have 5-10 sledgehammers ready to use and all the ingots ready to go in a secure container right by your forge and anvil.
#2 Always fill your backpack up to about 400 stones weight before you empty it out. This saves time in the long run from stopping and starting something new. Just run your macro until you see your weight get to about 400, you can carry up to 420 sotnes no matter what your strength. When blacksmithing, run the macro and stop it when you get to 400. Then, smelt everything back to ingots and start over.
#3 Always macro in a less popular sub-server! This is a trick that many people do not know. Each server (ours being Pacific) have sub-servers throughout the land. You can find the sub-servers on uo automap, they are represented by dotted lines. Each sub-server distributes the same number of skill gains per hour. If there are more people macroing and trying to gain skill on one server compared to another you will gain less skill at the busier sub-server. I own a house on fire island and this is where I did all my macroing. I guarantee I gained more skill, being on a less popular sub-server, than somebody working the exact same skills at the exact same time in the Britain Bank sub-server. Also, time of day plays an important part here, too. If you are macroing when everybody else is macroing you will gain less skill compared to macroing during off peak hours.
#4 Use UOAssist! This program offers a free 7-14 day trial period and cost $15 to buy! This program saves you so much time and mouse clicking! For example, a person without using a macro will double click the sledgehammer, click swords on the menu, click katana on the menu again, click ok, target the ingots. With UOAssist you hit one key and it attempts the item in about 3 seconds, you don't see any targets, menus, nothing! You get sooo many more attempts in per hour and do sooo much less clicking! I use UOAssist Loop with my characters which is a free utility to make UOAssist run over and over again without stopping until you tell it to. It is LEGAL to use these programs as long you are watching your macro run. It is ILLEGAL to use these programs unattended!
How to create a UOAssist blacksmith program
***NOTE*** Due to the recent publish, and the new gumps for these skills, UO Assist doesn't work for it. They are currently working on fixing that (uoassist) to make it capable to macro.
