This guide covers the four Inscription specialization trees in Midnight: Blueprints, Calm Hands, Perfected Products, and Darkmoon Curiosity. I made builds for crafting weapons and profession tools, missives and contracts, processing reagents, and making gold with Darkmoon cards.
Getting Knowledge Points
This guide is only about builds and where to put your points. If you need help finding knowledge points, check out my main guide:
Timeline & Unlock Pace
You can get around 40-50 knowledge points on your first day from first crafts and one-time treasures, plus a few more if you have enough renown to buy the knowledge book. After that, you get about 15-17 per week from weekly quests, treasure drops, and treatises.
The builds below are based on that first 40-50 point mark, and I added suggestions for what to do as you get more points over time.
Specialization Overview
| Specialization | Description |
|---|---|
| Blueprints | Weapons (staves, off-hands, bows) and profession equipment (cooking, alchemy, inscription tools). Each weapon and tool type has its own sub-spec for targeted Skill bonuses. This is where you unlock epic weapon recipes. |
| Calm Hands | Passive boosts to Multicraft, Resourcefulness, and Ingenuity for all Inscription crafts. Also teaches the Treatise recipe. Cheaper to max out than in TWW, so you can cap your crafting stats without a huge point investment. |
| Perfected Products | Two branches: Processing (milling, inks, ciphers) and Parchment (missives, contracts, vantus runes). Each has sub-specs to increase Skill for specific product types. |
| Darkmoon Curiosity | Dedicated Darkmoon tree (new in Midnight, was part of Archival Additions in TWW). Four card types: Rot, Blood, Hunt, Void. Each has sub-specs for the Dominion trinket, the Sigil embellishment, and the card itself (inscribing and transcribing). |
Builds & Talent Trees
Which Build Should You Choose?
If you're not sure, go Reagents. Inks and pigments are used in almost every Inscription recipe, so there's a constant demand on the AH. Missives & Contracts is a close second for steady AH income.
Weapons & Tools is the pick if you want to craft gear for yourself or fill crafting orders. Darkmoon Cards is more involved and depends on which trinkets end up being good, so it's better suited for experienced Scribes.
- Weapons & Profession Tools: For crafting epic staves, off-hands, and bows for yourself or through crafting orders, plus profession tools.
- Missives & Contracts: For mass-producing missives, contracts, and vantus runes to sell on the Auction House.
- Reagents (Milling & Inks): For selling inks, ciphers, and codified reagents on the AH.
- Darkmoon Cards: For crafting Darkmoon Dominion trinkets and Sigil embellishments.
Best Profession Gear and Stats for Inscription
Simple rule: if the craft can Multicraft, use a Multicraft tool with a Multicraft enchant. If it can't, use a Resourcefulness tool with a Resourcefulness enchant. Most Inscription crafts can Multicraft, but milling and weapon/trinket crafting cannot. If you're both milling and crafting (which most Scribes are), keep two tools and swap between them.
Weapons & Profession Tools
This build is for crafting epic weapons (staves, off-hands, bows) and profession equipment.
Unlike the other builds, rush straight into Blueprints instead of starting with Calm Hands. Getting your first recipe unlocked early matters more than crafting stats for one-off crafting orders.
What to Craft First
At launch, profession tools will probably be in highest demand because every crafter on the server needs them immediately. If you're reading this later in the expansion, weapons are the better long-term pick since they have steady demand from new characters and upgrades.
Weapons
- Staves: Two recipes, one Agility and one Intellect. Casters, healers, and ferals all use staves, so demand tends to be high.
- Lamps and Lanterns: Off-hand for casters. Smaller market since it's only for players using a one-hander instead of a staff.
- Bows: Ranged weapon. Shared market with Engineering, so expect competition.
Profession Tools
- Scribe's Quill: Your own profession's tool. Every Scribe needs one, and you can craft your own.
- Alchemist's Mixing Rod: Alchemy tends to be popular, so there's usually demand.
- Chef's Rolling Pin: Cooking tools tend to sell less than the other two.
Phase 1: Unlock Your First Item (0-15 Points)
Pick what you want to craft first and rush to the recipe unlock at 15 points.
- Learn Blueprints. For weapons: pick Field Research, then your weapon sub-spec. For tools: pick Market Research, then your tool sub-spec.
- Put 15 points into your chosen sub-spec to unlock the recipe.
Phase 2: Fill the Chain (15-90 Points)
You need all three nodes in the chain maxed to craft Gold quality (90 points total: sub-spec 30 + middle node 30 + Blueprints root 30).
- Fill the middle node (Field Research for weapons, Market Research for tools) to 30.
- Fill Blueprints root to 30. This will unlock a Profession Tool or Weapon recipe.
- Then finish it off by maxing your chosen sub-spec to 30.
You can fill them in a different order too, but I think this is the best overall progression since you unlock more recipes sooner so you can complete normal or patron crafting orders for them.
1. Middle Node
2. Blueprints
At this point you should be able to craft Gold quality with Gold materials, no Concentration needed. You'll need at least 3 rare profession tools to hit the skill threshold.
Phase 3: Branch Out (90+ Points)
Once your first item is maxed, start filling out another sub-spec. It's cheapest to stay in the same branch (weapons or tools) since you already have the middle node maxed, so a new sub-spec only costs 30 points. If something isn't selling well, pivot to a different sub-spec in the same branch.
You can also cross over to the other branch (weapons → tools or tools → weapons), but that costs 60 points since you need to fill a new middle node too.
Missives & Contracts
This build is for mass-producing missives, contracts, and vantus runes to sell on the Auction House. All three share the Parchment node in the Perfected Products tree.
Pick Your Focus
- Missives: Highest volume by far. Every crafter needs them for crafting orders, and there are 6 different combat stat missives plus 7 profession stat ones. This is probably the safest pick.
- Contracts: One per warband per week. The recipes are behind Moxie, so not everyone will have them right away. Margins will shrink once more scribes unlock them, but early on they can be solid.
- Vantus Runes: Only one per raid tier. Much less demand than missives (1 rune vs 13 missives). Don't bother until the raid opens.
Where to Spend Points
Crafting Stats First
Start with Calm Hands for Multicraft and Resourcefulness on everything you craft. You won't hit Gold quality as fast, but every craft is more profitable from day 1.
Gold Quality First
You rush Skill to hit guaranteed Gold quality without Concentration. You won't have crafting stats early, but you can sell Gold products sooner.
Phase 1: Calm Hands (0-50 Points)
Start with Calm Hands because it gives Multicraft and Resourcefulness to all your Inscription crafts.
- Max Calm Hands root to 10.
- Put 20 points into Dextrous Diligence for Multicraft.
- Put 20 points into Keen Eye for Resourcefulness.
Phase 2: Fill the Consumable Chain (50-140 Points)
Learn Perfected Products. Pick Parchment, then pick your consumable sub-spec (Perfect Missives, Perfect Contracts, or Perfect Vantus Runes). You need all three nodes in the chain maxed to craft at Gold quality (90 points total).
- Fill your chosen sub-spec to 30 to get the stacking Crafting Speed bonus at 30.
- Fill Parchment to 30.
- Fill Perfected Products root to 30.
Once you can craft Gold quality, branch into a second consumable type.
Phase 1: Fill the Consumable Chain (0-90 Points)
Learn Perfected Products. Pick Parchment, then pick your consumable sub-spec (Perfect Missives, Perfect Contracts, or Perfect Vantus Runes). You need all three nodes maxed to hit Gold quality.
- Fill your chosen sub-spec to 30.
- Fill Parchment to 30.
- Fill Perfected Products root to 30.
Phase 2: Crafting Stats (90-140 Points)
Now get Multicraft and Resourcefulness to make your volume crafting profitable.
- Put 20 points into Dextrous Diligence for Multicraft.
- Max Calm Hands root to 10. Pick Keen Eye.
- Put 20 points into Keen Eye for Resourcefulness.
Then branch into a second consumable type to cover more of the market.
Reagents (Milling & Inks)
This build is for selling inks, ciphers, and codified reagents on the Auction House. Every Scribe needs these materials, and you can produce them in bulk.
Where to Spend Points
Crafting Stats First
Start with Calm Hands for Multicraft and Resourcefulness on every batch. More profit per craft from day 1.
Gold Quality First
You rush Skill to hit guaranteed Gold quality without Concentration.
Phase 1: Calm Hands (0-50 Points)
Start with Calm Hands for Multicraft and Resourcefulness on everything you craft.
- Max Calm Hands root to 10.
- Put 20 points into Dextrous Diligence for Multicraft.
- Put 20 points into Keen Eye for Resourcefulness.
Phase 2: Milling Chain (50-140 Points)
Learn Perfected Products. Pick Processing, then pick Perfect Milling. You need all three nodes maxed to craft Gold quality pigments (90 points). The order matters for your second product: you need Gold pigments to make Gold inks, and Gold inks to make Gold ciphers.
- Fill Perfect Milling to 30.
- Fill Processing to 30.
- Fill Perfected Products root to 30.
Phase 3: Inks, Then Ciphers (140+ Points)
Now fill out the other sub-specs in the Processing branch:
- Fill Perfect Inks to 30.
- Fill Perfect Ciphers to 30. Soul Ciphers are no longer used in treatises or missives like they were in TWW, so demand is lower. They're still used in weapons, trinkets, and profession tools, and the new House Decor recipes use them too, so we'll see how the market shakes out.
Phase 4: Missives, Contracts, Vantus Rune
Once you have the reagents maxed out, you can branch into the Parchment tree to craft missives, contracts, and vantus runes too if you want. You can check the Missives build in the guide.
Phase 1: Milling Chain (0-90 Points)
Learn Perfected Products. Pick Processing, then pick Perfect Milling. You need all three nodes maxed to hit Gold quality (90 points). Gold pigments are needed for Gold inks, and Gold inks for Gold ciphers.
- Fill Perfect Milling to 30.
- Fill Processing to 30.
- Fill Perfected Products root to 30.
Phase 2: Inks, Then Ciphers (90+ Points)
- Fill Perfect Inks to 30. Inks (Munsell Ink, Sienna Ink) are used in every recipe and sell well on the AH.
- Fill Perfect Ciphers to 30. Soul Ciphers are no longer used in treatises or missives like they were in TWW, so demand is lower. They're still used in weapons, trinkets, and profession tools, and the new House Decor recipes use them too, so we'll see how the market shakes out. At this point it might be worth to just skip the Ciphers and just go for Multicraft.
Phase 3: Crafting Stats
Learn Calm Hands. Pick Dextrous Diligence.
- Max Calm Hands root to 10.
- Put 20 points into Dextrous Diligence for Multicraft.
- Put 20 points into Keen Eye for Resourcefulness.
Darkmoon Cards
In Midnight, Darkmoon cards have their own dedicated specialization tree instead of being part of the Archival Additions tree like in TWW. You craft individual cards from inks, collect all 8 of a suit into a deck, and the deck itself is a usable trinket at a lower item level. As a Scribe, you can then upgrade it into a higher ilvl trinket or craft a Darkmoon Sigil embellishment from it. Non-Scribes can send their deck to you through a crafting order.
How Darkmoon Crafting Works
Under Darkmoon Curiosity, each card type (Rot, Blood, Hunt, Void) is its own sub-spec. Picking one teaches you to Inscribe (craft new cards of that type from inks), and at 10 points you learn Transcribe (convert cards you already have into a different number of the same suit). Each card type then has two sub-specs of its own:
- Darkmoon Dominion: Unlocks the epic trinket recipe. Points give +Skill for the trinket.
- Darkmoon Sigil: Unlocks the Sigil embellishment recipe. Points give +Skill for the embellishment.
How to Spend Points
There's a lot we don't know yet. Which card type ends up BiS, whether trinkets or Sigils are more in demand, and how profitable the whole tree is compared to just selling inks. Wait for class guides and early market data before committing heavy points here.
- Fill Darkmoon Curiosity root to 20. Start here because picking any sub-spec underneath automatically unlocks its recipes for free. The root also gives +Skill that applies to all Darkmoon crafts.
- Pick a card type (Rot, Blood, Hunt, Void), then pick either Darkmoon Dominion (trinket) or Darkmoon Sigil (embellishment), whichever looks more in demand.
- Fill your chosen sub-spec to 20 for +Skill, then fill the card type root to 20 (you learn Transcribe at 10). All three nodes maxed = Gold quality (60 points total).
- After that: You have options. Pick the other sub-spec (Sigil or Dominion) for 20 points, start a second card type to craft more decks, or invest in Calm Hands for Multicraft (if you're crafting Sigils) or Resourcefulness (if you're crafting trinkets).