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This WoW Mining Guide covers tips and tricks to find rare nodes, learn rare smelting skills, and make gold as you level your mining skill. Mining is one of the most useful World of Warcraft skills because ores and the jewels mining uncovers are used for so many crafting professions and therefore sell very well on the Auction House. If you’re looking for a profitable gathering skill, mining is the way to go!
9. Mining Skill from 65 to 125 in an Hour
One of the worst parts about leveling mining is when you are getting out of the Tin phase before the Iron phase. It’s hard to find a large quantity of Tin, and it becomes tedious farming it. The easiest way to level up to 125 is to go to the Wetlands and find Thelgan Rock (it’s near the entrance to Dun Algaz - location is 53,64). The cave there is full of spiders and Incendicite Ore that’s used for a quest (Alliance only). Unfortunately, the ore itself is worthless and only used to complete the quest but you can mine it from skill 65 until about 125. The nodes respawn quickly and you can level up your mining in less than an hour if you’re the only one in the cave. (You can also sell the Incendicite Ore on the Auction House to make a little extra gold in the process - get the quest from Pilot Longbeard in The Miltary Ward in Ironforge.)
8. The Mithril Circuit
If it were easy to find the rarer metals, you wouldn’t be reading a WoW mining guide and you need to find a lot of mithril in order to skill up to the small Thorium nodes. The good news is that there’s an amazing route through the Badlands where you are guaranteed to hit several mines every time. Just run in a ring around the outer rim of mountains in the Badlands. Towards the north the pickings are slimmer (especially because it is more traversed) but you’ll still find Mithril and Iron around there. Generally, mines found toward the middle of the map will be Iron while the mountains around the edges of the map (especially in the south) contain more Mithril.
7. Learn to Smelt Dark Iron
You need to see an NPC named Gloom’rel inside of the “Chamber of the Sevens” in Blackrock Depths. He’ll teach you how to smelt Dark Iron (if you have at least 230 mining skill) for two Star Rubies, ten Truesilver Bars, and twenty Gold Bars. After you’re trained, you can smelt Dark Iron at the Black Forge which is also located in the Blackrock Depths. You need eight Dark Iron Ore to create one Dark Iron bar.
6. Finding Thorium Ore
Un’goro Crater is the best place to find Thorium nodes. Look in the Slithering Scar and Fire Plume Ridge for Thorium nodes and in the mountains around the edge. Burning Steppes is another great place to find Thorium - just make circuits around the zone and look for nodes to spawn in the lava cracks here. Like most ores it takes a ton of Thorium to get to 300 but it’s used in many professions and sells very well on the Auction House.
5. Lesser Bloodstone Ore
Around level 35 you can get a quest from Krazak (”Favor for Krazak”) in Booty Bay to go to “a mountain cave in Drywhisker Gorge, far to the north in the Arathi Highlands” and bring back 4 loads of Lesser Bloodstone Ore. The cave (at location 80,40 - go up the fissure in the mountains to get there) is guarded by level 35-38 Kobolds but they went down pretty easy to my level 35 Shaman. In addition to the Bloodstone deposits, the cave has four different chest spawn points along with plentiful Mithril and Iron nodes. After you complete the quest, you can easily sell your excess Bloodstone Ore in groups of four to other players who need to complete the quest. I would farm this cave and put up three auctions of four ores each night (in the Blackwater Auction House in Booty Bay) and sell out with a buyout of 95s each - not to mention the Mithril (around 30s each) you can sell too!
WoW Mining Guide - 4 More Tips
4. Gems Found with Metal Ores
Copper - Malachite, Shadowgem, Tigerseye
Tin - Jade, Shadowgem, Lesser Moonstone, Moss Agate, Blood Shard(can only be mined in the Barrens, used for a quest)
Silver - Shadowgem, Lesser Moonstone, Moss Agate
Iron - Aquamarine, Jade, Lesser Moonstone, Citrine
Gold - Jade, Lesser Moonstone, Citrine
Mithril - Aquamarine, Citrine, Black Vitriol, Star Ruby
Truesilver - Aquamarine, Citrine, Star Ruby
Dark Iron - Black Diamond, Blood of the Mountain, Black Vitriol
Small Thorium - Large Opal, Blue Sapphire, Star Ruby, Black Vitriol
Rich Thorium - Arcane Crystal, Azerothian Diamond, Blue Sapphire, Huge Emerald, Large Opal, Star Ruby
3. Dual Spawn Nodes
Certain ore nodes have a chance to respawn as a rarer type of metal (usually a precious metal) as follows:
- Tin nodes can respawn as Silver nodes
- Iron nodes can respawn as Gold nodes
- Mithril nodes can respawn as Truesilver nodes
2. Gatherer Add-On
Gatherer is a WoW addon for miners (and the other gathering professions) that tracks the closest ore node locations directly on your minimap. The addon doesn’t track like a tracking ability does, instead it “remembers” where you found minerals in the past and lights up your minimap with configurable icons when you’re close to those spots again. It makes you much more efficient when you’re grinding for ores because you can see at a glance exactly where you found nodes on the map in the past.
1. Learn to Smelt Elementium
Elementium is only used for a few epic and legendary items so that means few players will have this skill and, if you do, you’ll be in high demand! You need to go to Blackwing Lair and seek out Master Elemental Shaper Krixix. He’s aggressive so you need to have a Priest mind-control him. When that happens, a skill will appear on the Priest’s spell bar called “Smelt Elementium” and he or she can simply cast this on any player who wants to learn the skill.
(Notice that this screenshot was taken before I auctioned off the Mature Blue Dragon Sinew (worth 85 gold) and the stacks of Primal Water (worth 430 gold per stack) you can see there in my backpack.)
Here's another screenshot showing a few of my other auctions. I bought that Schematic: Healing Potion Injector for only 20 gold earlier in the day. When the auction clears I'll make at least 75 gold for just a few minute's work because I know what and when to buy and sell at the auction house for maximum profits.
If you're tired of struggling through WoW and not being able to afford the gear you want you need to get this guide!