Mining 1-450
(3 votes)
Mining 1-450
This is the new and improved version of my mining guides, all brought together in one place for easy reference, I have gone through each and improved them. Enjoy!
The minimum level for starting this guide is level 5 as this is the level at which you can first learn mining. However as you progress you will need to go into zones with higher level monsters which will require the appropriate level.
You will require a Mining Pick to mine nodes that appear throughout the world. This will take up a space in your inventory, but without it you will not be able to mine anything. You could use a Gnomish Army Knife if you can get your hands on one. This reduces the number of slots that your professions will take up.
Contents
Tips and Hints
- The bonus that you get with mining is Toughness (the linked rank is gained when you hit 450 mining). The first rank is automatically gained at level 75 mining, giving you 3 stamina, and increases a rank every 75 mining up to the linked rank.
- Buy the biggest bags that you can afford - the more things that you can carry, the less chance that you will have to delete objects to make room.
- Put Find Minerals on the action bar so you can activate it quickly.
- Keep your eyes open at all times and keep an eye on your mini-map.
- Download the recommended addons.
- If levelling and mining together make sure you are at the required level of mining for the zone you are questing in, if not backtrack and get your mining up. This will save time in the long run.
Recommended Addons
If you are smelting then you can get away without using these addons, however if you are planning to mine all the way up then these are great as it means you do not have to remember where you found nodes.
GatherMate I have chosen to recommend this one as opposed to Gatherer as you can download a very good database for it which is easy to install and use.
The Database This database has most nodes that are found in the game and I use this to plot my circuits. Be warned, it is not 100% of the nodes, and sometimes you may stumble upon one that is not marked, however it will note this down and you can add it for your next loops.
Routes This handy little addon plots a route around all the points that you have in your database in such a way as to make travelling minimal. It is fully compatible with GatherMate.
Training
You will need to visit a trainer periodically, both to get the next Mining skill level, and to learn how to smelt the next ores into bars. When you visit the trainer to get your next skill level it is a good idea to deposit your ore in the Auction House or your Bank, this maximises the amount of time you are spending out in the field, so to speak.
1-75 = Apprentice Mining
75-150 = Journeyman Mining (requires 50 mining)
150-225 = Expert Mining (requires 125 mining)
225-300 = Artisan Mining (requires 200 mining)
300-375 = Master Mining (requires 275 mining)
375-450 = Grand Master Mining (requires 350 mining)
Alliance
1-300
Gelman Stonehand in Dwarven District in Stormwind.
Matt Johnson in Darkshire in Duskwood.
Yarr Hammerstone in Steel Grills Depot in Dun Morogh.
Dank Drizzlecut in Gol'Bolar Quary in Dun Morogh.
Geofram Bouldertoe in the Great Forge in Ironforge.
Brock Stoneseeker in Thelsamar in Loch Modan.
Kurdram Stonehammer in Auberdine in Darkshore.
Dulvi in Azure Watch in Azuremyst Isle.
Muaat in the Traders Tier in The Exodar.
Prospector Nachlan in Blood Watch in Bloodmyst Isle.
300-375 (minimum level 275)
Hurnak Grimmord in Honor Hold in Hellfire Peninsula.
375-450 (minimum level 350)
Fendrig Redbeard in Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra.
Grumbol Stoutpick in Valgarde in Howling Fjord.
Horde
1-300
Brom Killian in The War Quarter in Undercity.
Johan Focht in The Sepulcher in Silverpine Forest.
Brek Stonehoof in Lower Rise in Thunderbluff.
Krunn in Razor Hill in Durotar.
Makaru in Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar.
Belil in Farstrider's Square in Silvermoon.
300-375 (minimum level 275)
Krugosh in Thrallmar in Hellfire Peninsula.
375-450 (minimum level 350)
Brunna Ironaxe in Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra.
Jonathan Lewis in Vengeance Landing in Howling Fjord.
Neutral
Jedidiah Handers in Dalaran; this trainer is in Dalaran so is for both factions.
Smelting
This part of the guide is dedicated to levelling by smelting, this will level your Mining faster than if you go out and get all of the ore yourself, but it will cost you. This will require a supply of ore to smelt, generally from the auction house. As a general rule ore is more expensive than the equivalent amount of bars, so you will lose money if you resell the bars after you have smelted them. Alternatively you can then use the bars to level a crafting profession.
1-65 Smelt Copper.
65-70 Smelt Tin.
70-90 Smelt Bronze.
90-125 Smelt Silver.
125-155 Smelt Iron.
155-175 Smelt Gold.
175-230 Smelt Mithril.
230-250 Smelt Truesilver.
250-290 Smelt Thorium.
290-300 Mine some Thorium to level up.
300-315 Smelt Fel Iron.
315-325 Mine some Fel Iron to level up here.
325-340 Smelt Adamantite.
340-350 Mine Adamantite here to level.
350-375 Smelt Cobalt.
375-400 Mine Cobalt (you can mine it for longer, but on most servers Saronite sells for more)
400-450 Mine Saronite.
Mining
This method will take longer, but you will make gold while levelling it if you are selling the ore/bars. Remember you can mine say 2/3 of what you need, then smelt the ore that you have mined to get your skill up to the point you need to get to. This will give you the best of both worlds - faster levelling and low costs.
Note: Just because I recommend, for example, the horde to mine in Thousand Needles does not mean that the Alliance cannot or should not mine here, it just means that it is more out of the way and will take a while to travel there.
1-65
If you are Alliance I would suggest mining from 1-65 in Dun Morogh, if you are horde then I would recommend mining in Durotar. You will be mining Copper.
Dun Morogh
Durotar
It is advisable to get the next training from your trainer before moving on, it will save time. Check the Training section to find your nearest trainer.
65-125
Here you should aim for Tin mostly, but if you pick up Copper it is not a bad thing as you can sell it, or you can smelt it with the Tin to make Bronze. For the Alliance I would recommend Loch Modan, and for the Horde I would recommend mining tin in Thousand Needles.
Loch Modan
Thousand Needles
Note: If you cannot mine iron (which will be for the majority of this section of the guide, then it is not necessarily advisable to do the loop around the Shimmering Flats, this is because it is quite a long way round and the nodes consist mainly of Iron.
Again it is a good idea to get the next training from your trainer (when you reach 125) before moving on, it will save time. Check the Training section to find your nearest trainer.
125-175
This is the point at which Horde and Alliance should be mining in the same place, and I would suggest that place being Arathi Highlands. You will be mining Iron here.
Arathi Highlands
175-250
When you reach 225 mining you will need to go back to your trainer and get the next skill level. Check the Training section to find your nearest trainer.
Next you should head on up to The Hinterlands in search of Mithril, this will take you from 175-250.
The Hinterlands
Note: On this map the route through the ruins is very roughly sketched as the actual path is incredibly winding.
Note 2: You can skip ahead to the next part of the guide at 230, it's up to you and may be better depending on the amount of farming on your server and the relative prices of Thorium/Mithril.
250-300
Here you have 2 options. You can either go to the close-by Eastern Plaguelands where you will be mining Thorium. Or you can go all the way to Winterspring. Personally I prefer Winterspring as it is less busy generally and I find the plaguelands quite depressing 
but both zones have plenty of Thorium there just waiting for you to mine it.
Eastern Plaguelands
Winterspring
Congratulations, you have now reached 300 mining! You are now ready to head off to the wilds of the Outlands and mine the exotic ore found there.
You will need to visit your Outland trainer to mine further ore, to find this trainer please refer to the Training section of the guide.
300-325
To follow the next stage of the guide you need to be able to go to Outlands so unless you are planning on being summoned here and running the risk with the higher level mobs you will need to be at least level 58.
Hellfire
Here you will be mining Fel Iron
Note: It can be profitable to drop into the Path of Glory on your route as there are usually one or 2 nodes here, but I would only recommend it if you have a flying mount as there are a lot of mobs in this area.
You can mine in Terrokar Forest if you are not having much luck in Hellfire, but the mobs will be a higher level which may be a consideration if you are not maximum level. The nodes here are more evenly spread between Fel Iron and Adamantite, so this can be frustrating if you can only mine Fel Iron when you go there.
Terrokar Forest
You can do this with a ground mount, although it will be faster if you have a Flying Mount. You will need to do this until you reach 325 mining, you can do this to get to higher mining levels, but Adamantite Ore goes for more gold on most servers so you will be maximising the gold/hour you are getting.
325-350
You can now mine Adamantite Ore this will take you all the way to 375 (although you can stop at 350 as this is the minimum skill for mining Cobalt Ore which is very lucrative at the moment. I would suggest that you mine Adamantite Ore in Nagrand as it is not farmed as much as it was and still spawns a decent number of nodes.
Nagrand
350-400
At this point you will need to visit one of the trainers in Northrend, to find out where they are please check the trainer list in the Training section of the guide.
Howling Fjord
Howling Fjord can be good for levelling initially, although Borean Tundra can be just as good. If you are a high enough level I would recommend that you skip this one and go on to Zul'Drak as it has a very high ore count.
You will be mining Cobalt at this point.
Zul'Drak
You either love it, or you hate it. This is the Marmite zone of Wrath. However it has one of the best ore counts that you will find. In addition to the route I have marked you can go further to the north east if you have time.
400-450
Wintergrasp
I would recommend finishing in this zone although there are is one glaring disadvantage;
It's the only PvP zone for those on PvE realms
However the respawn of nodes is great because of this and generally few people farm it. Here you are aiming to be mining Saronite.
Congratulations you have now reached 450 mining, you will now be able to mine Titanium, this is the expansions equivalent of Khorium, and as such is needed in many high level crafting recipes and is incredibly rare and lucrative. Especially so with the patch that means Jewelcrafters are able to Prospect it for the chance to get epic gems.
Thanks for reading, I hope this has helped.
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Honored Member
One note - Thorium. I head
One note - Thorium. I head to Un'goro and Silithus and find that with the right route, I'm raking it in!
"Wise is the man who knows he does not know"...
...Or who knows why my mother keeps calling me.
Revered Member
I tried both these out when
I tried both these out when researching for this guide; Un'goro wasn't that great to be honest. Sithilus was alright, but the problem I thought was that you have to dismount to go into the hives, which is where most of the nodes are. Generally I found it was better in EPL or Winterspring.
Of course there are many ways of doing this, much is personal preference.
Another Area for Tin
Another great spot to mine tin is Hillsbrad Foothills, especially if you are leveling up mining on a high-level character. It is also right next to Arathi Highlands, so if you are grinding mining 1-300, you will be right next to your next mining zone.
There is a lot of tin in the Azurelode Mine as well as in the mountains above Tarren Mill and near Ravenholdt Manor.
This also might be easier for low level horde characters, because the monsters in Hillsbrad are slightly lower level than in Thousand Needles.
Revered Member
I did have a look at
I did have a look at Hillsbrad when making this guide, but when I tested it, it wasn't quite as good as Thousand Needles. Because of this I did not take it any further as this guide is principly about leveling mining as quick as possible. Of course if you are leveling in Hillsbrad and spot a node go for it!
Indeed Hillsbrad is closer to Arathi for the next part of the guide, however it is a good opportunity after Thousand Needles to visit Orgrimmar on the way to the Zepplin as you can buy the latest mining training, you will need to get this at some point before going to Arathi (or halfway through it) and if you are in Hillsbrad it is quite out of the way (well relatively).
Cheers for the feedback.
Honored Member
another i find is helpful
another i find is helpful would be farmit - FarmIt is a free-floating interface addon. It can be positioned anywhere on the screen. This mod was created to allow a player to track how many they have of ANY ITEM. This is especially helpful when farming for items that cannot be placed on the in-game skill bar.
Revered Member
I've tested the addon a bit,
I've tested the addon a bit, and I think that it is great for farming when you need a certain amount of an item. However the aim of this guide is to level Mining.
Cheers
P.S. Just tested this guide levelling Mining and Jewelcrafting on my Death knight and found a few typos which have been corrected.
Revered Member
I've never used that addon
I've never used that addon before, however I shall go now and download said addon and test it
.
Thanks for the post
Cheers
No Sholazar?
I find Sholazar Basin to be a great place to end mining.
There are tons of nodes so you can pick up a lot of Sadonite and even a bit of Titanium.
Revered Member
I haven't used Sholazar
I haven't used Sholazar because on most servers it is one of the most farmed zones (both herbs and ore), this means that at most times of day Wintergrasp is better ore/hour. If you want I can make a map of Sholazar and add it to the guide.
Cheers
No need
nah no need.
I was just wondering why
Another tip!
This is the guy who recommended not to do the Shimmering Flats, and i have another tip!:
At the point when you are doing Arathi Highlands, I found it better to only do the right half side of the map as the left hand side didn't generate enough nodes for me.
Thanks, Haytred(a mining enthusiast)
Revered Member
Thanks for the tip, however
Thanks for the tip, however I put the loop on the left hand side because it has an ogre cave which is quite good for ore (usually 2 or 3 in there if you're lucky), also it gives you a chance to run across the top of the map as there is usually quite good ore there.
Cheers
About how long would you say
About how long would you say it will take from 1-450? I'm currently level 75 so it's not that much of a problem in northrend and such.
Honored Member
time
it took me about a day fulltime ( including lots of travel ) to get to 280.
First levels where fast as heck, later on slowed down.
i guess 2 more days i will have em to 300.
Total of 2 or 3 days i reckon to max mining for a lvl 80.
Revered Member
It will take you quite a
It will take you quite a while, and will slow down in azeroth as you get towards 300, but then it will pick up again in Outland.
Good luck
Honored Member
Good job
The partly guides were quite nice, this is even better
Now I'm in the dillem of using mining or smelting to level up, as it may be more time saving to do a few quests to replace the gold I'm loosing instead of running around whole Azeroth
Just something, are there many greens included in the smelting section, or will you mostly level with yellows?
PS I mostly want to go 300, after that it will be a piece of cake with epic flying mount (or at least I hope so
)
Recommendation
I'd actually recommend running around all of Azeroth to gather ores while leveling if you're a blacksmither (it'll be much more cost effective). If not, you could just smelt your way to infinity
Revered Member
I cannot remember exactly,
I cannot remember exactly, it was quite a while ago that I put together this part of the guide. However I just looked it up on the web and most of them are smelted until they go grey. I guess Blizzard designed it this way.
Honored Member
Awesome guide
Excellent formatting, and guidelines.. ^_^
"The marmite zone of Wrath."
ROFLMAO
Britishness ftw?
_____________________________________
Rob.
"I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature."
Revered Member
Yep, I happened to write
Yep, I happened to write that detail after watching an advert for it on TV.
Thanks
Good job!
Brilliant guide! I got my DK's (lvl 59 atm) mining from 1-220 or something. It's shocking how fast it goes up following this guide! Can't wait till I get level 450 mining!