Table of Contents
- Introduction to Inscription
- Step by Step Guide to Leveling Inscription
- The inks that you will need, including which herbs you will need to make them.
- Where are the Trainers and Supplies
- Materials Guide
- Really Short Inscription Guide
- Milling Macro – Save some work with this macro
- Click here for an in-game Professions Guide
Introduction to Inscription
Updated for patch 4.3 & Mists of Pandaria
Inscription is the process of taking various herbs, milling them down to pigments, creating inks from those pigments, and then creating glyphs, cards, scrolls of stat buffing, and various other items. It’s a great way to add several small, permanent, buffs to your character.
What the glyphs do is enhance one of your character’s abilities in some way. For example, Glyph of Eviscerate adds 10% to your Eviscerate crit chance. Other glyphs change cooldown times, cut mana costs, increase ranges, and so on. See below for other items that can be created.
If you would rather have an in-game Inscription guide, along with one for all the other professions, helping you every step of the way and showing you where to go and what to do whether you’re farming (or buying) your own materials, then here’s the place to go.
Mists of Pandaria
- Zen Master Inscription
- Skill cap will be 600, train up at 500, level 80 is required.
- Prime glyphs are going away, major and minor will remain.
- Some glyphs will disappear, some will change, new ones will be added.
- Here’s a list of some of the new glyphs and Inscription items.
- Dugi’s in-game professions guide will make it all easy.
Inscription, Step by Step
Save all surplus inks. Unlike other professions, high level characters do have use for low level Glyphs, such as Pyroblast. If you’re leveling this skill to make gold then you will have need of all of the common inks. The rares are optional, though you will need them to level past 500+ (at least until Mists glyphs go live.)
If you have a bunch of Blackfallow Ink you can trade it to the Ink Trader (next to the trainer) for other common inks at a 1:1 ratio and for rare inks at a 10:1 ratio.
Skip to the => Start — 75+ — 150+ — 225+ — 300+ — 375+ — 450+
| Skill | Creates this | Materials needed per item |
|
1-75, Apprentice Inscription, Requires level 5, Train up at 50+ |
||
1-75 requires:
|
||
| 1-15 | Ivory Ink (make 45 inks) | Alabaster pigment |
| 16-35 | Scrolls of Agility or Strength | 2x Alabaster pigment Light parchment |
| 35-75 | Moonglow Ink (save all of this for your Minor Inscription Research skill) |
2x Alabaster pigment |
|
76-150, Journeyman Inscription, Requires level 10, Train up at 125+ |
||
76-150 requires:
|
||
| 75-80 | Midnight Ink | 2x Dusky Pigment |
| 80-90 | Vanishing Powder | Midnight Ink |
| 90-96 | Make any two: Hammer of Justice or Maul or Pyroblast or Serpent Sting | 3x Midnight Ink Light Parchment |
| 96-102 | Make any two: Evasion, Healthstone, Heroic throw, Lightning Shield, Psychic Scream | 3x Midnight Ink Light Parchment |
| 103-105 | Lion’s Ink | 2x Golden Pigment |
| 105-111 | Make any two: Divine Favor, Eviscerate, Fade | 3x Lion’s Ink Common parchment |
| 111-117 | Make any two: Slam, Fire Nova, Health Funnel | 3x Lion’s Ink Common parchment |
| 117-120 | Make one: Arcane Missiles, Healing Touch, Mending | 3x Lion’s Ink Common parchment |
| 120-126 | Pick one of the level 120 glyphs and make two | 3x Lion’s Ink Common parchment |
| 126-130 | Dawnstar Ink Train up to the next level |
Burnt pigment |
| 130-136 | Any of the skill level 130 Glyphs, make two. | 3x Lion’s Ink Common parchment |
| 136-142 | Any of the skill level 135 Glyphs, make two. | 3x Lion’s Ink Common parchment |
| 142-145 | Any of the skill level 140 Glyphs, make one. | 3x Lion’s Ink Common parchment |
|
151-225, Expert Inscription, Requires level 20, Train up at 200+ |
||
150-225 requires:
|
||
| 150-155 | Jadefire Ink | Emerald Pigment |
| 155-161 | Glyph of Evocation, make two | 3x Jadefire Ink Common parchment |
| 161-167 | Glyph of Gouge or Renew, make two | 3x Jadefire Ink Common parchment |
| 167-170 | Glyph of Shadowbolt or Lava Lash, make one. | 3x Jadefire Ink Common parchment |
| 170-176 | Glyph of Overpower or Rebirth, make two | 3x Jadefire Ink Common parchment |
| 176-180 | Royal Ink | Indigo Pigment |
| 180-186 | Make any two of the skill 180 glyphs | 3x Jadefire Ink Common parchment |
| 186-192 | Make any two of the skill 185 glyphs | 3x Jadefire Ink Common parchment |
| 192-200 | Make Glyph of Revenge or Voidwalker until you hit 200. Then train up. | 3x Jadefire Ink Common parchment |
| 200-205 | Celestial Ink | 2x Violet pigment |
| 205-211 | Glyph of Consecration x2 | 3x Celestial Ink Heavy parchment |
| 211-217 | Glyph of Sinister Strike or Smite, x2 | 3x Celestial Ink Heavy parchment |
| 217-220 | One of the skill 215 glyphs | 3x Celestial Ink Heavy parchment |
| 220-226 | Two Glyphs of Starfire | 3x Celestial Ink Heavy parchment |
|
226-300, Artisan Inscription, Requires level 35, Train up at 275+ |
||
226-300 requires:
|
||
| 226-232 | 2 of either Disengage or Ice Block | 3x Celestial Ink Heavy parchment |
| 232-235 | Either Crusader Strike or Dispell Magic | 3x Celestial Ink Heavy parchment |
| 235-241 | 2 of either Slice and Dice or Totemic Recall | 3x Celestial Ink Heavy parchment |
| 241-250 | Create either Glyph of Cleaving or Soulstone until 250 | 3x Celestial Ink Heavy parchment |
| 250-255 | Shimmering Ink | 2x Silvery Pigment |
| 255-261 | 2 of Desperation, Mutilate, or Shamanistic Rage | 3x Shimmering Ink Heavy parchment |
| 261-267 | 2 of either Bloodletting or Freezing Trap | 3x Shimmering Ink Heavy parchment |
| 267-270 | Glyph of Exorcism or Bone Shield | 3x Shimmering Ink Heavy parchment |
| 270-276 | 2 of either Fear Ward or Frost Strike Train up to Master at 275+ |
3x Shimmering Ink Heavy parchment |
| 275-290 | Ink of the Sky (pigments permitting) | Sapphire pigment |
| 290-295 | Ethereal Ink | 2x Nether Pigment |
| 295-305 | Scroll of Spirit VI |
Shimmering Ink 2x Heavy Parchment |
|
301-375, Master Inscription, Requires level 50, Train up at 350+ |
||
Materials required:
|
||
| 305-311 | 2 of Glyph of Pillar of Frost or Feint | 3x Ethereal Ink Resilient Parchment |
| 311-317 | 2 of Pounce or Rune Tap | 3x Ethereal Ink Resilient Parchment |
| 317-320 | 1 of Arcane Blast, Holy Nova, or Rapid Fire | 3x Ethereal Ink Resilient Parchment |
| 320-326 | 2 of Blood Boil or Sweeping Strikes | 3x Ethereal Ink Resilient Parchment |
| 326-330 | Darkflame Ink | Ebon pigment |
| 330-336 | 2 of Lacerate, Scourge Strike, or Windfury Weapon | 3x Ethereal Ink Resilient Parchment |
| 336-342 | 2 of Arcane Power or Rebuke | 3x Ethereal Ink Resilient Parchment |
| 342-345 | Either Ambush or Death Strike | 3x Ethereal Ink Resilient Parchment |
| 345-351 | 2 of either Raging Blow or Vampiric Blood Train up to Grandmaster at 350+ |
3x Ethereal Ink Resilient Parchment |
| 351-355 | Ink of the Sea | 2x Azure pigment |
| 355-360 | Scroll of Spirit VII | Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
| 360-365 | Scroll of Intellect VII | Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
| 365-370 | Scroll of Strength VII | Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
| 370-375 | Scroll of Agility VII | Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
|
376-450, Grandmaster Inscription, Requires level 65, Train up at 425+ |
||
You will need:
|
||
| 375-380 | Snowfall Ink | 2x Icy Pigment |
| 380-385 | Any two of the skill 375 glyphs | 3x Ink of the Sea Resilient Parchment |
| 385-386 | Northrend Inscription Research (1/day) | 3x Ink of the Sea Snowfall Ink 5x Resilient Parchment |
| 386-402 | Two of any skill 385 glyphs, discovered through Northrend Research | 3x Ink of the Sea Resilient Parchment |
| 400-405 | Scroll of Stamina VIII | Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
| 405-410 | Scroll of Spirit VIII | Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
| 410-415 | Scroll of Intellect VIII | Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
| 415-420 | Scroll of Strength VIII | Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
| 420-425 | Scroll of Agility VIII train up to Illustrious Grand Master |
Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
| 425-445 | Blackfallow Ink | 2x Ashen pigment |
| 445-450 | Scroll of Intellect IX | Ink of the Sea 2x Resilient Parchment |
|
451-525, Illustrious Grandmaster Inscription, Requires level 75, Train up at 425+ |
||
You will need:
|
||
| 450-460 | Mysterious Fortune Card | Blackfallow Ink Resilient parchment |
| 460-465 | Scroll of Stamina IX |
Blackfallow Ink 2x Resilient parchment |
| 465-470 | Scroll of Strength IX | Blackfallow Ink 2x Resilient parchment |
| 470-475 | Scroll of Agility IX | Blackfallow Ink 2x Resilient parchment |
| 475-480 | Inferno Ink | 2x Burning Embers |
| 480-490 | Etched Horn (+5 skill per item) or Origami Slime (+1 skill) | Slime: 3x Resilient Parchment Horn: 4x Inferno Ink Scavenged Dragon Horn* |
| 490-500 | Origami Rock (+1 skill) or Manual of the Planes (+5 skill per item) | Rock: 3x Resilient Parchment Manual: 10x Resilient parchment 2x Inferno Ink 2x Each Volatile Air, Earth, Fire, Water. |
| 500-510 | Runescroll of Fortitude or Origami Beetle. | Runescroll: 5x Inferno Ink 5x Resilient parchment Beetle: 3x Resilient parchment |
| 510-520 | Make five of any of the following (each awards 2 skill points: ) | |
| Vicious Charm of Triumph | 5x Inferno Ink Silver Charm Bracelet* 6x Volatile Life 6x Volatile Water |
|
| Vicious Eyeball of Dominance | 5x Inferno Ink Preserved Ogre Eye 12x Volatile Water |
|
| Vicious Jawbone of Conquest | 5x Inferno Ink Bleached Jawbone* 12x Volatile Life |
|
| 520-525 | Make one of any of the following (each awards 5 skill points: ) | |
| Notched Jawbone | 12x Inferno Ink Bleached Jawbone* 36x Volatile Life 12x Volatile Earth |
|
| Silver Inlaid Leaf | 12x Inferno Ink Silver Charm Bracelet* 36x Volatile Life 12x Volatile Air |
|
| Tattooed Eyeball | 12x Inferno Ink Preserved Ogre Eye 36x Volatile Life 12x Volatile Water |
|
* From the vendor in Twilight Highlands or from the Auction House.
Do it all in-game, track everything you need to make and everything you need to by or find. Dugi’s makes the whole process much easier. Plus, you can grab all those achievements you missed. Go here for more.
Go to => Top of page – Inks – Steps – In-game guide
Inks That You Will Need
Keep all of the Moonglow Ink and the Snowfall Ink that you make. You will need them for your Minor and Northrend Inscription Research. Inferno Ink is used with some of the Cataclysm items (Relics, books, but not the glyphs.)
The other rares can be kept or sold, depending on what you want to make.
As mentioned above: Any of the herbs in any group will do, you do not need to have a few of one and a few of another. Just gather whichever is easiest and/or buy the cheapest off the Auction House. You can use something like Auctionator to make shopping lists which will make buying easier.
Go to => Top of page – Inks – Steps – In-game guide
How Inscription Works
Basics
Glyphs come in three flavors: Prime, Major, and Minor. In addition to glyphs you can make books (off-hand items,) a few relics, stat scrolls, self-only shoulder enchants, enchanting vellums, and a few other items.
Most of the glyphs and such are learned from the trainers, but a number of other glyphs are learned via:
- Minor Inscription Research – Most of the minor glyphs are learned with this skill. The cooldown resets at midnight, server time. This also creates a couple of random low level scrolls. When you have discovered all the Glyphs that you can through this skill you will still be able to use it, but you will only create the scrolls.
- Northrend Inscription Research – Another research skill. The cooldown resets at midnight, server time. It works like the minor research skill, but higher level scrolls are created.
- Book of Glyph Mastery- These books are rarely dropped from Northrend mobs. They’re green and BoE and can be traded or sold.There was a rumor that the need for these books would go away in patch 4.2, but that was changed by Blizzard. You will still need to buy or find these books to get the Glyphs that are unique to them. Spend a ton of gold and learn a bunch of glyphs quickly, w/o the research cooldown. As of 4.3 there are 54 Glyphs that these books will teach. The books will not teach you any other glyphs. You will still need to do your daily research and read the books in order to get all available glyphs.
All Inscription recipes are either bought off the trainer or discovered through research or the books. It’s certainly possible that some glyphs or other Inscription recipes will appear as drops off some critter or boss, somewhere, someday. As of Cataclysm 4.3 this hasn’t happened, so maybe it won’t. Ever.
Go to => Top of page – Inks – Steps – In-game guide
Making Glyphs
The basic process to make a glyph, or any other inscription item, is this:
- Buy a Virtuoso Inking Set from the Inscription supplier.
- Buy a stack of the appropriate herb (see below for the herb lists.) You might also be able to buy the inks or pigments directly off the Auction House and skip the milling step.
- Mill the herbs into pigments.
- Process the pigments into inks.
- Grab a stack of the appropriate parchment from the Inscription Supplies Vendor or Trade Goods vendor.
- Make your items. Every glyphs costs three inks and one piece of parchment to make.
- Other items, such as Relics and Darkmoon Cards, will require additional mats, such as Eternal Life or Frozen Orbs or Volatile Whatever.
Installing your glyphs
The old way: To install a glyph you needed to buy, beg, borrow, steal, or create an appropriate glyph and then find a Lexicon of Power. Generally these are (still) located next to the Inscription trainers.
The new way: Just like an item enchant, you buy the glyph and “right click” it. You will permanently “learn” it by doing so. All glyphs learned will be listed on the “glyphs tab” of your talents window.
Below is your Glyph page as it will appear in Mists of Pandaria
To install a glyph just drag it from the right area to the appropriate slot in the left area.
Note the Dust of Disappearance at the bottom. This is required to change any installed glyphs. This means that you can reset your glyphs for any particular situation.
- If you’re level 80 or lower you can use Vanishing powder instead, also found at the same vendor.
- Level 86+ will require a Tome of the Clear Mind
Keep a stack in your bags at all times. Need a couple of glyphs for one boss, but others for a different boss? No problem, just swap them.
This also means that once they are learned you will not need to ever again buy those glyphs. Buy them all, learn them, and then swap back and forth as necessary.
Go to => Top of page – Inks – Steps – In-game guide
What Else You Can Inscribe
Like any other WoW profession there is more to Inscription than just glyphs. You can hop over to WoWhead for a complete list of glyphs and other inscribed items for your particular class, but here’s the short list:
- Glyphs, of course.
- Scrolls of <stat.> Scribes can create all those Agility/Int/etc. scrolls. Want a bunch of +100 Agility (or Int or Str or Spirit) buffing scrolls? Make them.
- Shoulder Inscriptions, like this one (self only)
- Hunters, change your pet’s name with a Certificate of Ownership
- Tomes, held in the “off hand,” such as Faces of Doom
- Vellums, which allow Enchanters to place enchants on scrolls, and then pass them around or sell them like any other scroll.
- Cards – Darkmoon cards of various levels can be made by Scribes.
- Relics – Just the thing for Paladins, Death Knights, and Druids. You will be able to make item level 377 PvP relics and i359 PvE relics.
Why Inscription is Cool
Why is Inscription cool? Let’s see…
- Relatively cheap to level – You won’t need exotic items, such as TrueGold, and you can level the entire way from 1 to 525 for less than the materials cost of some Engineering items. Pretty much the only thing you’ll need is herbs and supplies from the Vendors, but see #2.
- Cataclysm relics and items will require some Volatile items (Earth, Water, etc.) and some require other items which can be found on a vendor in Twilight Highlands. Alliance vendor, Horde Vendor. Access to the vendor will require you to do enough of the Twilight Highlands quests to get portal access to Storm or Org. Alternatively, you can often buy them off the Auction House, usually at a small premium.
- Glyphs are cheap enough to make that you can make and learn all the glyphs for your class, probably for less than 500 gold.
- Tomes, cards, shoulder inscriptions. and more.
- It can be a decent money making profession.
Where is Everything Located?
To train up to skill level 525 see the Inscription Trainer in any of the Azerothian capital cities. You don’t need to do any special recipe quests, just buy the recipes and skill promotions from the trainers. Ask one of the city guards for exact directions.
Materials Needed for Inscription
To make any of the ink needed for Inscription yu will need to have some herbs, which is why Herbalism is the perfect companion skill for Inscription.
- The herbs are milledinto pigments, and each milling requires five herbs. Each time you mill a 5 stack you will receive 1 to 4 (usually 2 or 3) common pigments and you might receive a rare pigment. The latter is used for the special inscriptions, such as cards. Generally any stack of 20 herbs will yield 10 pigments (5 inks) and one or two rares.Note that higher level herbs will give a slightly higher quantity of pigments than lower level herbs. For example, Cinderbloom gives 1-3 Ashen Pigments and Whiptail gives 1 to 4. You will also need a higher level of skill to mill the higher level herbs.
- You then process the pigments into inks (you will pick up the ink creating skills from the trainers, there is a different one for every ink.) It takes two pigments to create one common ink, and usually one pigment to create one rare ink (some rares will require two pigments.)
- Once you have your inks you will need parchment to create your glyphs and other items. All parchment papers can be bought from the Inscription Supply vendor next to the trainer.
The cool thing about the herbs required is that you can use any of the herbs from a set of herbs, rather than just one herb. To create Midnight Ink, for example, you can use any of these herbs, five at a time: Briarthorn, Bruiseweed, Mageroyal, Stranglekelp, or Swiftthistle. Use whichever is cheapest or easiest to buy/gather, the drop rate of the pigments is exactly the same for each of the herbs in a set.
Note: You don’t need all of the herbs from a group, any of the herbs from a group will do. So use whichever is cheapest. Also notice that you don’t need exotic herbs, such as Fel Lotus or Frost Lotus. See the next section for the herb lists.
Each glyph will require three inks to create and will award three skill points (if it’s orange to you.)
All glyphs only require one piece of parchment. Items such as Tomes will require more materials, and a few items require mats that aren’t inks or parchments, such as the Frozen Orb, required by Faces of Doom.
The new relics, such as Tatooed Eyeball, will require items that are either dropped by various mobs or which can be bought from a vendor in Twilight Highlands (you have to do some of the TH quests to get access to these vendors.) In addition, you will need some of the Volatile Air etc.
These mats also appear on the Auction House at, usually, higher prices.
Still, making these relics will cost you a tiny fraction of what it costs to make high end Blacksmithing or Engineering stuff.
Keep an eye on pigment and ink prices, too. Sometimes they’re cheap enough to be worth your while. My personal targets for buying are:
- herbs – 1g each, 20g per stack (yields about 5 inks)
- inks – 4g each, 80g per stack
- pigments, 2g each.
This works out to a cost of about 12g per glyph. Whether or not you’re gathering your own herbs, buying the pigments and inks can save a lot of clicking.
Go to => Top of page – Inks – Steps – In-game guide
Leveling Inscription
Leveling Inscription is just about the same as leveling any other crafting skill. Buy a bunch of mats, camp the trainer, buy whichever skills are available, train the skill while it’s orange (if possible,) and so on. Same here, with a couple of differences.
(Dugi’s Professions Guide will make all of this, and leveling any other profession, easier. )
The step by step guide is here. (or scroll down.)
- Inscription skills go from orange to yellow to green to gray very quickly. So the typical routine will be to buy a skill, level your skill by five points, then buy a new skill and level the new one for five points, and so on. Note:Since Cataclysm all the crafting skills have various items that will award different amounts of skill points per creation. For Inscription:
- All Glyphs award three skill points each, while orange, so you will usually be making two at a time for your 6 points.
- Scrolls, inks, misc items, shoulder enchants, cards, etc. award one point each.
- The skill level 475+ books and relics award 2 points each.
- The general routine is this:
- Grab your new skills
- Grind up your hebs and make the appropriate inks. (Keep an eye on the Auction House, you might be able to find pigments and inks for cheap with any luck.)
- Pick a glyph to make and make two
- Keep an eye on your skill level
- Every five points, usually, you will get your new skills.
- repeat until 500, after that you will be making relics and such.
- Which glyphs to pick as you level? It doesn’t matter. They all cost the same and give the same number of points. Pick the ones that you or your friends can use or that you can sell. You can use your own Auction House research for the selling part, or use an addon like the tycoon gold addon. Remember that they gray out very quickly.
- When you get near 500 skill you will need the inferno inks (burning embers) from the Cata herbs. You will no longer be able to level by making glyphs. It’s not awful, since the items you will be making return 3 to 5 points each. These items also sell decently well and are far cheaper to make than the other high end crafted items from the other professions.
- If you’re bored of crafting you can make money by selling the inks. Blackfallow ink will get your costs back and Inferno Ink will make you some money.
While it sounds expensive to buy a ton of herbs, keep in mind that you can probably level Inscription from 0 to 400 for less then the cost of a few advanced points of something like Enchanting or Blacksmithing and all the way from 1 to 525 for less than the cost of one MechanoHog.
Go to => Top of page – Inks – Steps – In-game guide
Milling Macro
This macro will save you a lot of clicks:
/cast Milling
/use Name of Herb
Just add in the names of the herbs you’re using. There is a limite to how many lines you can have in one macro, so if you end up milling lots of different herbs you will want two or more macros.
You could call this macro, “tier1:”
/cast Milling
/use peacebloom
/use silverleaf
/use earthroot
If you’re using Cataclysm herbs then you would use something like this:
/cast Milling
/use Cinderbloom
/use Twilight Jasmine
/use Azshara’s Veil
/use Whiptail
/use Stormvine
Note: All stacks of herbs in your bags have to be in multiples of 5: 5, 10, 15, 20. If they’re not then the macro will be unable to continue. For example, if you have two Cinderbloom herbs left over then you will get an error message that says something like, “not enough herbs…” regardless of how many stacks of any other herb you might have.
Also, If that stack of 2 Cinderbloom comes first in your bags, before larger stacks, then it will stop the macro. So either put those 2 herbs in the bottom of your bag or send them elsewhere. All your herbs should be in stacks of some multiple of 5.
In-game Professions Guide
I’ve made a ton of gold (see pic) with inscription since it went live, one month before Wrath was released. (Since the 3.1 patch that number is much higher, I bounced off the old gold cap.) As far as I’m concerned it’s a pretty killer money maker.
One of the things that will make your Inscription leveling even faster than the above guide is an in-game guide. Everything you need to know will be presented in a small window in your game screen. It will also show you all the mats you will need and where to farm them if you don’t want to buy them off the Auction House.
The guide also includes all of the other professions. Want to do Inscription and then level some other profession? You’re covered.
Think of the convenience and all the time you will save by not having to bounce back and forth to a web based guide. Go here and grab your Dugi Professions Guide, now. Before you level up another profession.
By the way, that same guide also comes with an achievements guide. You can level your professions and then earn a pile of achievements. Pretty cool, huh? Get it here.
