MoP Classic Inscription Leveling Guide 1-600

This MoP Classic Inscription leveling guide will show you the quickest and most efficient way to level your Inscription skill up from 1 to 600 in Mists of Pandaria Classic.

Shopping List

The shopping list for Inscription works a bit differently than for other professions because of Ink Traders. You can buy all low-level inks from them in exchange for Ink of Dreams. This is the MoP ink, made by milling Pandaria herbs, or you can just buy it directly from the Auction House.

Ink Traders

You can trade Ink of Dreams at Moraka in Orgrimmar or Sarana Damir in Stormwind to get older inks used for leveling.

Because of this system, there are a few different ways to level up Inscription, depending on what's cheaper or more convenient on your server.

Two Ways to Level

There are two main ways to get materials for leveling Inscription:

  1. Buy inks from Ink Traders: The fastest method. It can be expensive, but sometimes it's cheaper than buying herbs and milling them, depending on your server's economy.
  2. Buy herbs and mill them into inks: Slower, but often cheaper if low-level herbs are affordable.

There’s also a third option: milling Pandaria herbs. This requires Inscription 500, so it only works if you already have a high-level Scribe. It can be the cheapest method if older herbs are expensive, but it's more of a niche option for players leveling multiple characters.

Buying Herbs or Inks

Below is a breakdown of the approximate herbs or inks needed to reach 1-600:

  1. The first row in the table shows the total number of herbs needed. These don't have to be all from the same type.
  2. The second row lists the herb types you can use.
  3. The third row shows what pigments you'll get from those herbs.
  4. The fourth row shows how many Ink of Dreams you'll need to trade for the inks required.

Since prices vary by realm, there's no single best option. Go row by row, search for the herbs, and compare the cost of buying herbs versus just buying Ink of Dreams and trading it for what you need.

Total Ink of Dreams needed

If you have the gold and don’t want to bother with any of this, you’ll need:

That will cover all the inks needed for 1-425.

Quantity Herbs you can Mill Milling Results Buying Inks
120x Earthroot, Peacebloom, Silverleaf Alabaster Pigment 34x Ivory Ink, 40x Ink of Dreams
110x Briarthorn, Bruiseweed, Mageroyal, Stranglekelp, Swiftthistle Dusky Pigment Verdant Pigment 27x Ink of Dreams
170x Grave Moss, Kingsblood, Liferoot, Wild Steelbloom Golden Pigment Burnt Pigment 60x Ink of Dreams
180x Fadeleaf, Goldthorn, Khadgar's Whisker, Dragon's Teeth Emerald Pigment Indigo Pigment 60x Ink of Dreams
240x Arthas' Tears, Blindweed, Firebloom, Ghost Mushroom, Gromsblood, Purple Lotus, Sungrass Violet Pigment Ruby Pigment 60x Ink of Dreams
120x Dreamfoil, Golden Sansam, Icecap, Mountain Silversage, Sorrowmoss Silvery Pigment Sapphire Pigment 60x Ink of Dreams
180x Felweed, Ragveil, Terocone, Ancient Lichen, Nightmare Vine, Netherbloom, Mana Thistle, Dreaming Glory Nether Pigment Ebon Pigment 60x Ink of Dreams
440x Icethorn, Lichbloom, Fire Leaf, Fire Seed, Tiger Lily, Adder's Tongue, Deadnettle, Goldclover, Talandra's Rose Azure Pigment Icy Pigment 100x Ink of Dreams
140x Cinderbloom, Stormvine Ashen Pigment Burning Embers -
220x Desecrated Herb, Green Tea Leaf, Fool's Cap, Rain Poppy, Silkweed, Snow Lily Shadow Pigment Misty Pigment -

Milling

Milling is an ability you get when you learn Inscription. Milling can be used to mill 5 herbs for 2 - 4 pigments, and then you use the pigments to turn into inks.

Milling Macro

Use this macro to mill your herbs.

/cast Milling
/use Peacebloom

Just replace the herb in the macro with the herbs you want to mill. You can also add more herbs to the macro if you want.

Inscription Trainers

Horde trainers:

Alliance trainers:

Leveling MoP Classic Inscription

1 - 75

Virtuoso Inking Set and Light Parchment are usually sold by the Inscription supply vendor near your trainer.

You can use SHIFT + LEFT MOUSE to buy more than one Parchment. Light Parchment stacks up to 100, so start your typing with 1 and then hit two 0.

75 - 126

Learn Inscription Journeyman. (Requires level 10)

Multiple Glyphs and Scrolls at the same skill ranges

There are many Glyphs and Scrolls at different skill ranges with the same amount of materials needed, so when you see Glyph of ..., you can choose between more recipes that are orange to you and require the same amount of materials.

  • 80 - 101
    7x Glyph of.... - 21 Midnight Ink

    Learn new recipes if you haven't already, and make any Glyph that is orange to you. Glyphs turn yellow after 10 points at this stage, so don't queue up all 7 at once. Keep learning new recipes and switch to a different Glyph when needed.

  • 101 - 105
    39x Lion's Ink - 78 Golden Pigment

    Make any orange Glyph if you did not reach 105 by making these.

    Ink Traders: Buy 60x Lion's Ink and make Orange Glyphs until 147. Then you’ll have to make yellow Glyphs since there are no orange ones for those levels. Make around 3 to 6 yellow Glyphs to reach 150.

  • 105 - 126
    7x Glyph of ... - 21 Lion's Ink

    Make any Glyph that is orange to you. Your aim should always be to make glyphs while they are orange. Glyphs turn yellow after 5 points, then learn new recipes and choose another Glyph.

126 - 200

Learn Inscription Expert. (Requires level 20)

  • 126 - 129
    It's important to stop making this recipe at 129! You won't have the benefits of multiple skill-ups if you pass 129!

    Turn your Burnt Pigment into Dawnstar Ink. If you didn't mill your herbs and you don't have Burnt Pigment, you can make any Glyph that is orange to you.

  • 129 - 147
    6x Glyph of ... - 18 Lion's Ink

    Make any Glyph that is orange to you. Glyphs turn yellow after 5 and 10 points here, so you must keep learning new ones.

  • 150 - 155
    42x Jadefire Ink - 90 Emerald Pigment

    Ink Traders: Buy 60x Jadefire Ink and make Orange Glyphs until you reach 195. When you reach 195, start making yellow Glyphs. Make 5-9 to reach 200.

  • 155 - 197
    14x Glyph of ... - 42 Jadefire Ink

    Make orange Glyphs. You have to keep learning new ones every 5 points.

    Turn all your Indigo Pigment into Royal Ink at 175 if you have any.

  • 197 - 200

    Make Arcane Tarot until you reach 200.

    Make any Glyph that is YELLOW to you if you don't have Royal Ink. There won't be any orange Glyps for this part.

200 - 290

Learn Inscription Artisan. (Requires level 35)

  • 200 - 205
    42x Celestial Ink - 84 Violet Pigment

    • Ink Traders: Buy 60x Celestial Ink and make Orange Glyphs until you reach 245, then make 5-8 yellow Glyphs until you reach 250.

  • 205 - 247
    14x Glyph of ... - 42 Celestial Ink

    Make Glyphs until they turn yellow, then learn new ones.

    Turn all your Ruby Pigment into Fiery Ink at 225.

  • 247- 250
    Make one Book of Stars if you have enough Fiery Ink. Otherwise, make any Glyph that is yellow to you.
  • 250-255
    20-35x Shimmering Ink - 40-70 Silvery Pigment

    If you mill your herbs, you will probably need fewer Inks because you will make a few Ink of the Sky from your rare pigments between 275 - 295.

    Ink Traders: Buy 60x Shimmering Ink and make Orange Glyphs until you reach 292, then make 3x Scroll of Stamina VI until you reach 295.

  • 255 - 276
    7x Glyph of ... - 21 Shimmering Ink

    Make Glyphs until they turn yellow, then learn new ones.

  • 276 - 290
    14x Ink of the Sky - 14 Sapphire Pigment

    You have to make more orange Glyphs if you didn't mill your herbs or if you don't have 14 Sapphire Pigments.

Master Inscription

Visit your trainer and learn Master Inscription. (Requires level 50)

290 - 350

  • 290 - 305
    45x Ethereal Ink - 90 Nether Pigment

    Ink Traders: Buy 60x Ethereal Ink and make Orange Glyphs until you reach 355.

  • 305 - 350
    15x Glyph of ... - 45 Ethereal Ink

    Make Glyphs until they turn yellow, then learn new ones.

Grand Master Inscription

Visit your trainer and learn Grand Master Inscription. (Requires level 65)

350 - 425

  • 355 - 376
    7x Glyph of ... - 21 Ink of the Sea
  • 376 - 379
    Snowfall Ink - Icy Pigment

    Use all the rare pigments available. Keep the extra Snowfall Ink for Northrend Inscription Research. You will need to research to learn most "Northrend" glyphs.

  • 379 - 385
    2x Glyph of... - 6 Ink of the Sea
  • 386 - 400
    15x Any Discovered Major Glyph - 45 Ink of the Sea

    This one will be green for the last few points, so you might have to make more.

    It seems in MoP Classic you can now discover glyphs with Northrend Inscription Research that use different types of Ink. So if you get unlucky with RNG and discover a glyph that doesn't use Ink of the Sea, you’ll need to mill more herbs to reach 400. But those glyphs actually stay orange up to 400, so you’ll end up using fewer inks overall. (Still trying to figure out how this works)

Cataclysm Inscription

Visit your trainer and learn Illustrious Grand Master Inscription. (Requires level 75)

425 - 480

  • 465 - 471
    2x Glyph of Colossus Smash - 6 Blackfallow Ink
  • 475 - 480
    Turn all your Burning Embers into Inferno Ink. If you don't have any Burning Ember, skip this part and start making the next recipe.

480 - 500

There are a couple of Origami recipe drops you can farm for this part that are very cheap to make, so you could save a few hundred gold by doing them. The recipes aren’t too hard to get, but you’ll need to farm some mobs in Vashj'ir and Deepholm. If you don’t want to bother with that, you can skip this part and just make the Glyphs and Scrolls listed below.

Before you go farming, check if these recipes are already sitting in your bank or bags. You might have looted them earlier when your Inscription skill was too low to learn them and then forgot about it. They won’t drop again if you already have them in your inventory or bank.

First, go to Vashj'ir – Kelp'thar Forest and kill any mobs until you get Technique: Origami Slime (zone drop). The drop rate is pretty high, so don’t get confused by Wowhead data.

Craft Origami Slime until you reach 490.

Then go to Deepholm and kill Twilight Bloodsmith mobs until you get Technique: Origami Rock. This is also a zone drop, so other mobs in Deepholm can drop it too. Learn the recipe and craft Origami Rock until you reach 500.

MoP Classic Inscription

Visit your trainer and learn the new MoP Classic Inscription skill. You don't have to go to Pandaria to learn the new MoP Inscription skill and recipes. You can learn it from any of the trainers in the old capital cities.

Pandaria Inscription Trainers

If you're looking for the MoP trainers in Pandaria, you can learn it from Inkmaster Wei in The Jade Forest or Lorewalker Huynh (flying required) in Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

502 - 600

  • 502 - 540
    54x Ink of Dreams - 108 Shadow Pigment

    Turn all your Misty Pigment into Starlight Ink.

    You will probably reach even 545 by making the Inks, then stop making them and only make more if you need them.

  • 541 - 595

    18x [Any Orange Glyph] - 54 Ink of Dreams

    If you have more than one recipe available, make different ones to make them easier to sell.

    Out of the 36 Glyphs, a few require different types of ink. If you discover one of those but only have Ink of Dreams, you can trade it for any other ink at Ink Traders!

    If your goal is to craft one of the epic Inscription items like the Inscribed Serpent Staff, it's better to stop making Glyphs at skill 560. You'll reach 600 just by crafting the materials needed for the epic items (like 20 Scroll of Wisdom). The staff itself also gives 30 skill points when you craft it.

Darkmoon Faire Free +5 Profession Skill

Check your Calendar in-game to see if the Darkmoon Faire is open. The event is available every two weeks. It starts on Sunday and lasts for a week.

During the event, you can complete quests for each profession and gain +5 skill points for each. Click here to read more about the quests.

  • 595 - 600

    3x [Any "Greater" shoulder Enchant] - 9x Starlight Ink

    If you were unlucky with milling results you might have to buy some Starlight Ink from the Auction House.


Congratulations on reaching 600! If you spot any typos, wrong material counts, or have suggestions to improve the guide, feel free to send feedback.

Now that you've maxed out Inscription, check out the full overview of MoP Classic Inscription. It includes profession perks, trainer recipes, Darkmoon Cards, and epic item crafts:

MoP Classic Inscription Overview

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