Mining Leveling Guide 1 450 – WotLK

Mining Leveling Guide 1-450 – WotLK

Table Of Contents
  1. Training Mining
  2. Leveling Mining
  3. Endgame (Titanium and Titansteel)

Mining is perhaps the most important and most profitable gathering profession in all of World of Warcraft. The ore Miners collect is smelted into bars that are used for Engineering and Blacksmithing, and the raw ore is prospected by Jewelcrafters to find gems. As a result, the demand for ore and bars is often high which allows sellers to have more direct control over the market versus Herbalism or Skinning. After capping miners can also smelt Saronite Bar and Titansteel Bar, two of the most essential endgame crafting materials.

The most vital skill a miner learns is Find Minerals. It functions similarly to Herbalism’s Find Herbs, and show ore nodes on your minimap. Once you find a vein, you’ll need to use your Mining Pick to excavate. Engineers are able to make alternative mining picks as well, like Gnomish Army Knife and Hammer Pick. Because these aren’t BoP, they might be worthwhile for you to pick up, but a standard pick from a Trade Supplies vendor will do the job just as well.

Old World

Like most other professions, trainers in any major capital can teach you all the way from Apprentice to Artisan, so there is no specific capital you need to go to for this stage. It is also possible to level Mining alongside your character, and nodes will appear in level appropriate zones.

As explained in the next section, however, for power leveling it is easier and faster to train your mining in the Eastern Kingdoms, so Alliance should consider visiting Geofram Bouldertoe in Ironforge or Gelman Stonehand in Stormwind. For the same reason, the Horde should consider seeing Brom Killian in Undercity or Belil in Silvermoon.

Outland

After crossing through the Dark Portal to Outland, the Master Mining Trainers will be located in your faction’s first questing area. For the Alliance, this will be Hurnak Grimmord at Honor Hold, and the Horde’s will be Krugosh in Thrallmar.

If you have access to Shattrath, two neutral trainers are available as well: Fono of The Aldor and Hanlir of The Scryers.

Northrend

In Northrend, the Grand Master Mining Trainers should be with all other Grand Master profession trainers right after you land in your faction’s fort from the zeppelin. The Alliance will need to find Fendrig Redbeard in Valiance Keep, and Brunna Ironaxe at Warsong Hold will train the Horde.

If you have access to Dalaran, Jedidiah Handers is an additional neutral trainer, but as you must actually be out gathering ore rather than learning new recipes, there is no difference between training with him and with the Grand Master in your first questing area.

Like most other gathering professions, the fastest way to find mineral nodes and increase your Mining skill is to make circles around the outer borders of a zone. These are called “circuits”, and are the most advisable route. When zones are mentioned below, unless otherwise indicated, your gathering strategy should be to just complete circuits. While it may seem tedious, it will help you reach the cap faster than other methods.

Surprisingly, Vanilla content is actually the most difficult part of leveling Mining. This is for two reasons. First, the node placement between Kalimdor (abbreviated as K below) and the Eastern Kingdoms (EK below) is incredibly uneven. For example, between 175 and 250 it is possible to stay in 3 or 4 zones in the EK, but in Kalimdor, you would have to move between 4 and 6 in the same level span. Second, the lack of flying mounts greatly increases the time it takes to complete a circuit around a zone.

Because of this, if you are interested in quickly power leveling, we recommend that you train skill levels 1 – 275 (or as soon as you can get there) in the Eastern Kingdoms.

To begin, find any mining trainer and learn Apprentice Mining. Make sure to Find Minerals immediately! Until Expert, veins spawn in faction specific zones, so they will be separated that way below.

1 – 65: Copper Ore / Copper Vein (Requires Mining level 1)

  • Copper is one of the most abundant ores and is found in the first zone for every race in WoW. After learning Apprentice Mining, simply complete circuits around your starting area.

After you’ve gathered enough mining, return to your trainer and learn Journeyman.

65 – 125: Tin Ore and Silver Ore

After gathering enough ore to reach 125, you should return to your trainer and learn Expert Mining. After this stage, all nodes will appear in contested zones.

125 – 175: Iron Ore and Gold Ore

  • Iron Ore / Iron Deposit (Requires Mining 125)
    • Eastern Kingdoms
      • Duskwood, Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Badlands
        • In Duskwood, the best circuit starts at the border closest to Stranglethorn Vale, continues along the border with the Swamp of Sorrows, and then finishes by following the ridge near Darkshire and looping around the outside of The Twilight Grove.
        • In Badlands, a standard circuit is fine, but you can also complete a smaller one in the cliffs between Kargath and Dustbelch Grotto for extra speed.
    • Kalimdor
      • Thousand Needles, Desolace, Ashenvale, Tanaris
        • In Desolace, the most effective circuit starts at Shadowprey Village, follows the path through Mannoroc Coven and alongside the outer edge of the Kodo Graveyard, goes through the Valley of Spears, and ends back at Shadowprey.
        • In Ashenvale, you only need to make a circuit around the east side of the zone, stopping parallel to Raynewood Retreat.
        • To gather in Tanaris, the quickest circuit begins at Gadgetzan, goes around the outside of The Caverns of Time, and returns to Gadgetzan.
  • Gold Ore / Gold Vein (Requires Mining 155)
    • Eastern Kingdoms
    • Kalimdor
      • Tanaris, Thousand Needles, Un’Goro Crater
        • In Thousand Needles, you can stop your circuit at the edge of the Shimmering Flats and turn around.
        • In Un’Goro Crater, the highest concentration of Gold is along the Northwest edge, so you can follow the mountains from Marshal’s refuge until you’re parallel with Fire Plume Ridge and then double back along the same path.

After completing these circuits, you can train up to Artisan! As you reach the end of Artisan and begin to gather Dark Iron Ore, it is necessary for you to go to the Eastern Kingdoms, as Dark Iron Ore does not spawn in Kalimdor.

175 – 275: Mithril Ore, Truesilver Ore, and Dark Iron Ore.

  • Mithril Ore / Mithril Deposit (Requires Mining 175)
    • Eastern Kingdoms
    • Kalimdor
      • Tanaris, Desolace, Azshara
        • In Desolace, the most effective route is to make circuits around the Valley of Spears.
        • In Azshara, your route should follow the path until you reach the Ruins of Eldarath. After, you’ll need to follow the mountains north of the Ruins and then follow the northern edge of the zone, loop around the mountains on the northeastern coast, and then return to the Ruins.
  • Truesilver Ore / Truesilver Deposit (Requires Mining 205)
    • Eastern Kingdoms
      • Burning Steppes, Blasted Lands, Arathi Highlands, Alterac Mountains
        • The highest concentration of Truesilver in the Burning Steppes is in Dreadmaul Rock, but a normal circuit works as well.
        • In the Blasted Lands, Truesilver does not spawn at all in the Tainted Scar.
        • In the Alterac Mountains, you can follow the same circuit you were using for Mithril
    • Kalimdor
      • Tanaris, Azshara, Un’Goro Crater
        • In Tanaris, the most Truesilver spawns along the mountains on the western edge of the zone, so you should be able to make a circuit alongside them.
        • The same circuit that you use in Azshara for Mithril will work for Truesilver, but the spawns are rarer.
        • In Un’Goro Crater, the Truesilver spawns are in the southeast quadrant of the zone, so you should be able to make a circuit directly down from Fire Plume Ridge to where you stopped gathering Gold earlier.
  • Dark Iron Ore / Dark Iron Deposit (Requires Mining 230)

Once you’ve mined enough to reach 275, you can cross through the Dark Portal and learn Master Mining.

275 – 350: Fel Iron Ore and Adamantite Ore

After you mine enough Fel Iron, you’ll begin to gather Adamantite, but there are two different deposits available at different levels: Adamantite Deposit at 325 and Rich Adamantite Deposit at 350.

In general, “Rich” or “Pure” nodes will yield more ore and have a higher chance of dropping rare minerals (Eternium Ore in this case). Rich Adamantite Deposit also has an additional, unique benefit in this case. After players reach 350, most usually head immediately to Northrend and beginning mining Cobalt, but this creates a lot of competition in the starting areas. To circumvent that, you can continue to gather Rich Adamantite Deposit  until you reach 375, and speed up the leveling process in WotLK content.

  • Adamantite Deposit (325)
    • Nagrand, Terokkar Forest, Blade’s Edge Mountains
      • In Nagrand, you can exclude the area around Oshu’Gun from your circuits.
      • In Terokkar Forest, your circuit should focus circling the area around Tuurem, Stonebreaker Hold, Allerian Stronghold, Bonechewer Ruins, and Fire Wing Point.
  • Rich Adamantite Deposit (350)
    • Shadowmoon Valley, Netherstorm
      • In Shadowmoon, start your circuit near Legion Hold, follow the path southeast to Sanctum of the Stars, go north to the Hand of Gul’Dan, and then head straight back to Legion Hold.
      • In Netherstorm, begin just south of ManaForge B’Naar, head east to Kirin’Var Village, go north to ManaForge Ultris, and then west to Force Base Gehenna. From there, go south to the EcoDome Midrealm, and then pass through the Ruins of Enkaat before returning to B’Naar.

Whether you choose to stay in Outland or not, once you reach 350, you can head to Northrend and become a Grand Master.

350 – 450: Cobalt Ore and Saronite Ore

Both Cobalt and Saronite also spawn in Rich deposits. For these, they occur in relatively similar locations to the standard nodes, so you can continue making a standard circuit while looking out for them specifically. In addition, there is one location to find a Pure Saronite Deposit, which is discussed below.

And with that you’ve capped! Congratulations! Keep reading to find out about Titanium Ore, Titansteel Bar, and their potential to make you massive profits.

Regardless of whether you use your ore for crafting or not, all Miners benefit from gathering Titanium Ore. It’s the key reagent in a number of high level pieces of gear like the Nesingwary 4000, Epic Engineering helms like Electroflux Sight Enhancers, and Jewelcrafting Epics like Titanium Spellshock Necklace. The ore is gathered from Titanium Vein, which are most abundantly found it Icecrown, Sholazar Basin, and The Storm Peaks, but watch out! Competition for these nodes is usually quite fierce.

Titanium Bar are also the primary material used in creating Titansteel Bar. Even more than Titanium, Titansteel is highly coveted by all professions that need bars to craft. In addition to Saronite Bar, it is the only mineral used to craft patterns and enchants from ToC and ICC. It is also the main metal used when making the highly coveted endgame Engineering items Jeeves, Mekgineer’s Chopper, and Mechano-hog. To make Titansteel, you’ll need to Smelt Titansteel, which requires:

But keep in mind: Smelting has a 20 hour cooldown, so choose what to do with your bars wisely.

Scroll to Top