Mining is one of the primary and essential professions in wotlk. It is a gathering profession providing raw materials to make end-game content.
Like any other profession, mining also requires some work to level up.
In this article, we will tell you how you can skill up your mining profession from 1-450 and shine in the game.
Wotlk Mining Guide: How To Level UP?
The mining profession is concerned with gathering minerals that are used to make recipes. Mineral nodes are present in every zone of World of Warcraft. You will need to gather receptive minerals from a zone. These nodes are present in the open zones and dungeons.
Each zone has different minerals to skill up to a specific level. If you are new to Wrath of Lich King, you will need to start from scratch by skilling up to level 350 in Vanilla and TBC.
The trainers also change in every zone and they only train to a particular level, therefore, in Wotlk, you will only get a grandmaster trainer to skill up beyond 350. Assuming you are new to the game, let’s start leveling up the mining profession from level 1.
Wotlk Mining Routes
Level 1-125
Copper is the most abundant mineral in the starting zone. So when you enter the game, you will need to collect copper minerals. You can go to Razor Hill in Durotar, Mulgore, Trisisfal Glades, Elwynn Forest, and Darshore to collect copper ores.
Once you reach above level 50, learn journeyman training and proceed to collect Tin and Silver ores along with copper ones. The best zones for these ores are Hillsbrad Foothills, Redridge Mountains, Ashenvale, and the Barrens.
You will encounter caves in these zones as highlighted in the mining routes of Hillsbrad Foothills below, low-level players should skip them because of bad respawns.
Level 125-175
At these levels, you can learn expert mining and collect Iron, Tin, and Gold ores. The main zones for these ores are Arathi Highlands, Desolace, and Thousand Needles.
Level 175-245
Hinterlands and Tanaris are the zones of interest for the Mithril and Truesilver ores. You can reach here by learning Artisian mining. This requires level 25 and mining skill 200.
There are plenty of mithril and Truesilver veins, but it’s better to skip all caves in the area if you are a low-level player. If you are in the Hinterlands, the mining route below is your way to go.
Level 245-275
Un’Goro Crater, Blasted Lands, and Felwood zones are best for mining Thorium, Mithril, and Truesilver. Again in these zones skip caves because they may have mobs except in the one in Felwood. There are 2 mining nodes inside Felwood Cave, make sure to take advantage of these less risky caves.
TBC Mining Routes
Level 275-300
If you enter Un’goro at this level, you can also find rich Thorium Veins. Additionally, Eastern Plagueland, Winterspring, and Buring Steppes also have Thoirum and mIthril ores.
Level 300-325
Here, you enter the TBC and can learn mining skills from trainers in Shattrath City and Hellfire Peninsula. There are Thorium and Fel iron ore nodes available in these routes.
Level 325-350
Rich Adamantite nodes in Terokkar are available that require mining skill 350. Zangarmarsh has two caves that are worth exploring thoroughly to get ore.
Wotlk Mining Routes
Once you reach level 350, Northend becomes accessible with its ores that are very useful in making an arsenal. You can learn mining skills from mining trainers.
Wotlk Mining Trainers
Horde can learn Grandmaster training from Jonathan Lewis in Howling Fjord and Brunna Ironaxe from Borean Tundra.
Alliance can train from Grumbol Stoutoick in Howling Fjord and Fendrig Redbeard in Borean Tundra.
There is also a neutral trainer Jedidiah Handers at Dalaran for both factions.
Now that you know where to find wotlk mining trainers, let’s resume back to leveling the profession.
Level 350-400
Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord are ideal for leveling to 400. They have plenty of cobalt deposits. However, prefer no flying routes if you do not have a flying mount. Also, skip a few caves in the Borean Tundra.
Level 400-450
Sholzar Basin and Storm Peaks both are flushed with mineral nodes and are good to skill up the profession. However, Sholazar Basin often gets competitive, in this case, storm peaks are your hope.
Mining professional Pairing
Mining is a gathering profession that is paired best with engineering. As engineers need plenty of gadgets to level up, the materials can cost a lot in the auction house. Therefore, pairing it with mining can serve the player best. You can read all about leveling up engineering in our wotlk engineering guide.
Other primary crafting professions such as blacksmithing and jewelcrafting can also take advantage of mining because miners can also smelt ore to make metal bars which are very highly demanded by crafters.
New Features in Wotlk Mining
Wotlk mining introduces a new feature called toughness which allows players to collect all the loot in one type unlike previously when they had to tap multiple times to collect the node. The toughness. This passive buff has six ranks depending on the mining level of the player.
⦁ Rank 1: 3 Stamina at level 75
⦁ Rank 2: 5 Stamina at level 150
⦁ Rank 3: 7 Stamina at level 225
⦁ Rank 4: 10 Stamina at level 300
⦁ Rank 5: 30 Stamina at Level 375
⦁ Rank 6: 60 Stamina at Level 450
A new wotlk mining bag is another feature of great importance. A mammoth mini bag is a 32-slot made with leatherworking.
Finally
Wotlk mining guide will help find zones of interest to get the desired mineral nodes. It is easier to find minerals when you know exactly where they are so never forget using the Find Mineral feature to locate nearby noodles in your minimap.
As mining has the direct ability to gather ores and smelt them to make metal, they can make plenty of gold by selling these materials. So mining is not only helpful in making powerful items but also in making you rich.
