Inscription Guide 1-525

With Inscription you can make glyphs to use or sell and give yourself some sweet shoulder enchants. There's one catch, Inscription uses Herbalism supplies, which means you're either going to have to farm with Herbalism :( or buy your stuff off the Auction House.

This Inscription Leveling Guide is updated for the most recent patch and Cataclysm.
While leveling Inscription with this guide, you will make Glyphs with Inks & Parchment. The ink comes from milling (another Inscription skill) through herbs (more info in below in this guide). You will need Cataclysm if you intend on leveling beyond 450 in Inscription. This Inscription Leveling Guide will tell you step-by-step the best way of leveling Inscription with the least gold.

Milling

Milling gives you 2-3 Pigments per 5 herbs, so all my estimates for leveling in this guide are based on that figure. For reference, here are the herbs and associated Pigments:
  • [Alabaster Pigment] level 1-10 herbs: Bloodthistle, Peacebloom, Silverleaf and Earthroot
  • [Dusky Pigment] level 10-20 herbs: Briarthorn, Swiftthistle, Bruiseweed, Stranglekelp and Mageroyal
  • [Golden Pigment] level 20-30 herbs: Wild Steelbloom, Grave Moss, Kingsblood, and Liferoot
  • [Emerald Pigment] level 30-40 herbs: Fadeleaf, Goldthorn, Khadgar's Whiskers, and Wintersbite
  • [Violet Pigment] level 40-50 herbs: Firebloom, Purple Lotus, Arthas' Tears, Sungrass, Blindweed, Ghost Mushroom, and Gromsblood
  • [Silvery Pigment] level 50-60 herbs: Golden Sansam, Dreamfoil, Mountain Silversage, Plaguebloom, and Icecap
  • [Nether Pigment] level 60-70 herbs: Felweed, Ancient Lichen, Dreaming Glory, Mana Thistle, Netherbloom, Nightmare Vine, Ragveil, and Terocone
  • [Azure Pigment] level 70-80 herbs: All Northrend Herbs. Goldclover, Tiger Lily, Adder's Tongue, Fire Leaf, Icethorn and Lichbloom.
  • [Ashen Pigment] level 80-85 herbs: All Cataclysm Herbs. Cinderbloom, Stormvine, Azshara's Veil, Heartblossom, Twilight Jasmine, and Whiptail.

Leveling Inscription

While you use this guide leveling Inscription you should craft the widest variety of Glyphs possible and sell them for gold or share with your friends. So when this guide suggests a specific Glyph, there might be several Glyphs that require the same materials and have the same chance of leveling Inscription, craft whichever you or your friends need the most.

Estimated Herb List

The following numbers are rough estimates for leveling Inscription all the way to 450 with this guide.
  • Inscription levels 1-75: 6-7 stacks of level 1-10 herbs ie) Silverleaf
  • Inscription levels 75-100: 4-5 stacks of level 10-20 herbs ie) Bruiseweed
  • Inscription levels 100-150: 8-9 stacks of level 20-30 herbs ie) Kingsblood
  • Inscription levels 150-200: 9-10 stacks of level 30-40 herbs ie) Fadeleaf
  • Inscription levels 200-250: 12-13 stacks of level 40-50 herbs ie) Sungrass
  • Inscription levels 250-300: 7-8 stacks of level 50-60 herbs ie) Dreamfoil
  • Inscription levels 300-350: 9-10 stacks of level 60-70 herbs ie) Felweed
  • Inscription levels 350-425: 24-26 stacks of level 70-80 herbs ie) Goldclover
  • Inscription levels 425-525: 50-70 stacks of level 80-85 herbs ie) Heartblossom

Apprentice Inscription (Leveling guide: 1-75)

For this part of the leveling guide you'll only need the recipes from the Inscription trainers in the big cities (Stormwind, Undercity, etc) From level 1-75 you are going to need 60 Alabaster Pigment, which can be milled from about 6-7 stacks of Silverleaf (or any other lvl 1-10 herb.) Don't waste your time gathering these herbs yourself, just spend the gold on the Auction House. 


Journeyman Inscription (Leveling guide: 75-150)

For the next step of this leveling guide you'll need 21 Midnight Ink (42 Dusky Pigment) to get to level 100 and 45 Lion's Ink (90 Golden Pigment) to finish leveling to 150. You can mill these pigments from 4-5 stacks of Bruiseweed and 8-9 stacks of Kingsblood (see the pigment list above for alternative herbs) 



Expert Inscription (Leveling guide: 150-200)

For this part of the leveling guide, you will need to make about 42 Jadefire Ink (84 Emerald Pigment), which will require milling through 9-10 stacks of level 30-40 herbs (ie Fadeleaf). 


Expert & Artisan Inscription (Leveling guide: 200-250)

To keep leveling to 250 with this guide, you'll need 60 Celestial Ink. This will take 120 Violet Pigment which you should get by milling through 12-13 stacks of level 40-50 herbs (ie Sungrass). Sungrass isn't cheap, and neither are any of the other herbs while leveling through the 200s. 


Artisan Inscription (Leveling guide: 250-300)

You'll use Shimmering ink until level 300; you will need 35 which will take 70 Silvery Pigment milled from 7-8 stacks of level 50-60 herbs (ie Dreamfoil) to continue leveling to 300. This is another expensive step, even if there are enough herbs on the Auction House you're going to get gouged gold. 


Master Inscription (Leveling guide: 290-350)

Leveling to 350 with this guide will take 90 Nether Pigment which will require milling through 9-10 stacks level 60-70 herbs (ie Felweed) to make the 45 Ethereal Ink you need for levels 300 to 350. Felweed has is relatively cheap on most servers so you should be able to get the majority of your milling done with Felweed. The other herbs are going to be more expensive. 


Grand Master Inscription (Leveling guide: 350-425)

For this leveling guide you will need 125 Ink of the Sea to reach level 425, which will require 250 Azure Pigment. You'll need to mill through at least 24-26 stacks of Northrend herbs. This comes down to having a lot of gold. Some of it you will get back, but not all of it. 

 

Illustrious Inscription (Leveling guide: 425-525)

In order to reach 525 Inscription you will need a lot of Inferno Ink which will require you to mill tons of level 80-85 herbs. Estimates range from 50-70 stacks of these herbs.