While I’ve seen improvements in some professions’ patron orders with respect to needing fewer expensive materials, Blacksmithing has had mixed results. Charged and/or Sanctified alloys are occasionally provided but I’m still seeing orders were no mats whatsoever are provided.
Example orders from my primary Blacksmith:
Charged Claymore (rank 3) - requires crafter to provide 1 Super Beast fang and 6 Sanctified Alloys. The fang costs 4,000g and the alloys (rank 1) cost 37,200g for a total cost to the crafter of over 41k gold.
Charged Facesmasher (rank 2) - requires crafter to provide 6 Sanctified Alloy and 10 Charged Alloy. The Sanctified Alloys (rank 1) costs 37,200g and the Charged Alloys (rank 1) cost 5,267g for a total cost to the crafter of ~42.5k gold.
Charged Halberd (rank 2) - No materials are provided, so the crafter is required to provide 1 Superb Beast Fang, 1 Storm-Touched Weapon Wrap, 8 Sanctified Alloy, and 2 Charged Alloy. The fang costs 3,499g, the wrap (rank 1) costs 495g, the Sanctified Alloys (rank 1) costs 49,600g, and the Charged Alloys (rank 1) costs 1,064g for a grand total of over 54.6k gold.
Charged Hexsword (rank 3 and rewards crafting knowledge points) - requires crafter to provide 1 Super Beast Fang, 1 Storm-Touched Weapon Wrap, and 10 Charged Alloy. These mats 9,315 gold.
Charged Invoker - requires crafter to provide 1 Superb Beast Fang and 10 Charged Alloy. These mats costs 8,820 gold.
Meanwhile, on my second Blacksmith, there’s a Charged Invoker (rank 2) where I only have to provide the Super Beast Fang but has 3 orders for Everforged Helms where no mats are provided. My third Blacksmith also has one order that only requires a beast fang but on all other weapon/armor orders I would have to provide all the alloys.
And some of these orders (from all 3 cases) are brand new and thus should be benefitting from the recent change.
Obviously, a big problem is that the cost of mats for Blacksmithing items is incredibly expensive, probably more so than any other profession. Another issue is at this point in the expansion we don’t have our gathering/crafting talents maxed out and so instead of gathering the materials ourselves we might need to buy them. Even still, the orders not providing the vast majority of the materials is a problem.