It seems it is all she ever asks for. She compares herself to Eorlund Grey-mane in terms of who the best Blacksmith is Whiterun is. She knows he is the best and many think he is the best. She just wants a fair evaluation of her skills.

WHAT SAY YOU!

Better cause so far, she has more ebony ingots and I invested in her business.

/bias

Awful, which isn't saying much. Any who cannot forge a draconic dagger, is unworthy. Eorlund can at least forge Ancient Nordic weaponry and armor, so he at least shows potential.

She seems to be an amazing smith, but Eurolund is the master smithing trainer AND has the Skyforge. The only other one equal to that status is the smithing for the Dawnguard, who does not have the Skyforge.

Eorlund cares nothing for your petty competitions. He's got weapons to forge.

And gods to be praised.

Edit: Just for fun, let's look at the two shops:

Points for Warmaiden's:

+ Closer location to the main gate and Breezehome.

+ Two vendors = More variety and gold

+ An actually complete crafting station: Forge, Grindstone, Workbench, Smelter

Points for Graymane:

+ More visually impressive location

+ Access to Nord Hero/Ancient Nord equipment

+ Master Smith Training

From a strict gameplay perspective, I'd have to go with Avenicci, especially since I'm not big on training or on Nord Hero/Ancient Nord stuff. From a "real-world" perspective, I'd go with Graymane.

you forgot about prices. In-game, they reference that the warmaiden is cheaper, which is another plus for it lore wise. IT is part of her advertising: She might be not AS good as him, but her stuff is still good and is cheaper.

Yeah, but with Eorlund you get what you pay for.

also, Balgruuf calls her sword crap. lol.

Yes I'll definitely evaluate her skills http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/196/5/0/los___adrianne_avenicci_by_mmoart-d57e7na.jpg

Eorlund...Milk drinker. He's only fortunate enough to work on the Skyforge...I'm a master blacksmith, who can work with Stalhrim, where's my honorary mention? Exactly

I never visit Eorlund, unless it's in a quest. That ancient Nord armor can be retrieved from Draugr/Ghosts(not sure) anyways.

Eorlund may be the better smith, but i always go with Adrianne. Close to home and always there. If only she werent married. I'd snatch her in a heartbeat

I see that people voted that she is better than Eorlund. If it was, Jarl Balgruuf wouldn't disregard her gift as worthless...

It seems she is also one of most favorite merchant in the game by a lot of player.

Just search her name in this forum.

Personally, she is also one of my favorite merchant.

The only smith in Skyrim that can compare to Eorlund is the Skaal as they also maintain some of the Nord's (Atmoran?) ancient knowledge of smithing.

The ancient Nords had the secret knowledge of making steel stronger than normal steel. Eorlund has this knowledge as seen by Skyforge steel and Wolf armor which seems to have been passed down to him via his bloodline forging for the Companions.

How can you compare even a good smith to a smith who has been raised in advanced knowledge and skills? Even Adrianne acknowledges this. The other smith of skill is the one in Solitude who knows the secrets of making Daedric armor (probably passed on to him by a Dunmer. Who were possibly given the secret by a Daedric Prince - throwing a Daedric heart into a forge while making armor is not something you would usually stumble onto by chance)

Adrianne > Eorlund

better location (between gate and "your"house)

does have Tanning Rack + Workbench + Smelter

short way to her work (Eorlund is walking around 1 ingame hour through whiterun till he arrive at his Forge)

Eorlund and his Forge are just disappointing

The lore is like "LEGENDARY STEEL" but the reality is

He sells

Steel armor/weapons with lower weight (wolf armor / skyforge weapons)..... woho "better" tier 2....

You can forge (the reward for a guild completion !)

better ! Iron armor ! (ancient nord)..... thx oh "legendary" skyforge

better elven weapons (nord hero weapons).... ok the 2-hd sword is a little something (if you haven't the unofficial mod) because it has the correct swing speed of 0.75 and its low weight is very stamina friendly

He does? When?

She asks you to take the sword to her father. Stick around. He gives it to Balgruuf. It's pretty lolworthy.

Do you have to do this at a certain point in the game? Every time I've given it to her father, he just straps it to his back and goes back to business as usual.

I'll just say I would miss Adrienne more the Eorland, and at least she doesn't refer to me (my female character) as "lad".

On all my characters I must have spent at least 10,000,000 buying from her and her husband. I have probably spent less than 100,000 buying from Eorlund.

Eorlund is the better blacksmith but adrianne has a Grindstone, tanning thing, workbench and smelter.

Practicality from a player perspective she is the better merchant due to the location of her (& husband's) shop. It is where you fast travel to for Whiterun and it is next to the player house.

Plus it is better suited out with everything needed close at hand.

But from a lore perspective there is no comparison as even Adrianne recognises that. She cannot forge metals to be more effective like the ancient Nords (Atmorans?) did. Whereas Grey-Mane can.

In her defense, though she's probably a much worse smith compared to Grey-Mane from a lore perspective, she also is at a disadvantage in not having access to a super forge that probably has some kind of connection to Kyne. No disrespect to Erolund, I'm sure he's quite talented as a smithy, but I also think the Skyforge does augment his talents.

Eorlund's smithing skill is at a higher number, but none of the vanilla game smiths have a single perk in smithing. So substantially, it makes no difference.

I chose 'you must be joking she is aweful' because the option sounded funny

But from a gameplay perspective, being virtually next to breezehome scores thousands of plus points in my opinion. For Eorlund you have to bloody run all the way to the other end of whiterun and up those confounded spiral steps of his, only to be greeted by a 'GODS BE PRAISED'

Even if they did, what difference would it make if you couldn't pay them to build/improve your gear?