Mining in World of Warcraft is a popular profession as it is a gathering profession that you can do relatively quickly as you level up your character.
By doing a quest, you can take a few extra moments to collect ores and metals, and at more advanced levels, you can farm ores specifically to collect minerals to sell at the auction house or for use with other professions that rely on mining farmed ore. . .
Mining is best done with the following professions:
Gathering for Professions like Herbalism or Skinning – If you are using mining to generate income, you can combine it with another gathering for Professions for this purpose. You do quests and mine nodes at the same time, as well as collect herbs or skin mobs.
Blacksmithing: Use metals to create mail and plate armor, weapons, keys, and rods.
Jewelery – Use metals and gems to create jewels and gems for socketed items.
Engineering – Use metals and other materials to create guns, bullets, arrows, goggles, gadgets, and mounts.
Here are some tips to help level up your mining:
1. Do your mining training with your mining trainer as you approach the various mining levels. Mine the nodes when doing quests and then train, when you reach these levels:
Expert Miner – Requires level 10/125 mining
Artisanal Miner – Requires level 25/200 mining
Master Miner (Burning Crusade) – Requires level 40/275 mining
Grand Master Miner (WOTLK) – Requires level 55/375 mining
Illustrious Miner (Cataclysm): requires 425 mining
2. Use your minimap and collector plugin
While doing your quests or instances, use your find ores ability to locate mining nodes on your minimap. So when you do a quest, look for ore deposits and mine them when you can, as you level up your character. The harvesting plugin will remember where you have previously mined nodes so that if you return to that area, you can search for those minerals again.
3. Use special equipment and enchantments to speed up and improve your mining skill
The first group of equipment is the large slot bags. These include the mining bag, the reinforced mining bag, the gigantic mining bag which can hold 20, 28 and 32 slots respectively.
The second group to consider are enchantments and helmets. These include Enchanted Gloves: Advanced Mining, Enchanted Gloves: Gathering, and Goblin Mining Helmet, which will add a +5 skill to mining or gathering.
4. Here is a list of the top level ore veins:
Korio Seam – Isle of Quel’Danas, Nagrand, Terokkar Forest
Cobalt-Rich Deposit: Zul’Drak, Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, The Storm Peaks, and Crystalsong Forest
Saronite Deposit – Sholazar Basin, Icecrown, The Storm Peaks
Saronite-rich deposit – Icecrown, Sholazar Basin, Wintergrasp
Pure Saronite Deposit – Ulduar
Titanium Deposit – Icecrown, Sholazar Basin and Storm Peaks
The higher the level of the ore and the rarer it is, the more valuable it is in the Auction House and to other characters whose professions require it.
5. Use your skills in whatever class you’re in to mine them efficiently.
Some of my favorite abilities to use for mining include stealth. Hiding past mobs can be easier than killing them and make your mining more efficient. For example, use Stealth as a rogue or Prowl as a druid in cat form. Rooting and stunning abilities (eg Hibernate for a druid, Sap for a rogue, Banish for a warlock, Sheep for a mage, or War Stomp for a tauren) can also help you gather minerals faster. You can use any of the abilities to keep mobs busy away from the ore deposit while you collect the ore. When you’re done, run away before the effects wear off and continue mining.
So you can use these tips, and more, when you level up your mining.
Whether it’s generating gold in the auction house with other gathering professions as you level up a character, gathering the materials to support a crafting profession, or farming when you’re at higher levels to generate income, the mining can be done efficiently and give great rewards
So go ahead and level up your mining, and get rewarded with great gear and gold!
