WoW Mining Guide 1-450
This guide (updated for patch 3.1.3) is intended to be used by people who are power leveling their mining using a high level character who has an array of flight paths, mounts, and is high enough level to easily access all of these zones without too much difficulty.
Physically mining nodes is not the only option to power level your mining. For some steps it may be feasible to buy ore off the auction house and smelt it. You can get your mining from 1 to 290 from smelting without ever touching a mine but it will be very expensive because some of the ores are rare, if you wish to skip these first steps and power level your mining to 290 from smelting see the Smelting 1-375 section at the bottom of this guide (you can actually reach 375 by mining for 30 skill ups only). If you'd like to smelt but don't have the money check out this Gold Guide for gold making ideas.
Leveling Sections:
1-65 - Copper
66-125 – Tin
126-175 - Iron
176-245 – Mithril
246-300 – Thorium
301-350 – Fel Iron
351-375 - Adamantite
351-400 – Cobalt
401-450 - Saronite
Smelting 1-375
Mining Copper
Skill: 1-65
The first resource you will be mining while power leveling your mining is Copper. If you have money you can just skip this step and buy Copper Ore and smelt it into Copper Bars, but if for some reason you would like to use mining instead of smelting to level your skill for this part, I recommend the following zones and routes.
There are also more routes are available in the Horde Copper Mining Guide and Alliance Copper Mining Guide.
Mining Tin
Skill: 66-125
At skill level 75 you will be able to mine Silver which you will find frequently while mining Tin. This will help you get your skill to 125. If you have the money, smelting Bronze Bars or Silver Bars from buying ore in the auction house will also help you speed up this step. If you don't have much gold to buy mats then take a look at these gold making tips. The best Tin Mining Routes are available below.
There are also more routes are available from the Tin Mining Guide.
Mining Iron
Skill: 126-175
At skill level 155 you will also be able to mine and smelt Gold which can help you get to 175 faster. I recommend buying 20 Gold Ore off the auction house when you hit skill 155 to smelt 20 Gold Bars and use those skill ups to make the process faster (make sure you trained smelt gold from the Alliance Mining Trainer or Horde Mining Trainer).
There are more Iron routes are available from the Iron Mining Guide.
Mining Mithril
Skill: 176-245
At skill level 230 you will be able to mine Dark Iron Ore and Truesilver Ore, both can help you get to 245 quicker but the majority of the work will be done by mining Mithril. The best Mithril mining routes are found below. Also, consider simply skipping to the smelting section of the guide to save time. If you need gold to buy the mats look at this Gold Guide.
More Mithril routes are available from the Mithril Mining Guide.
Additionally to help from 230-245 you may find the Dark Iron Mining Guide or Truesilver Mining Guide useful.
Mining Thorium
Skill: 246-300
You will NOT be able to mine Rich Thorium Veins until skill 275 so try to focus on mining Small Thorium Veins until then. Also, I personally have mined Thorium until I hit skill level 340 so if you are not quite high enough to enter Outland safely you can stay on Thorium until 340. Below are the best Small Thorium Mining Routes.
Switch to these areas after you hit skill 275 to get to 300 faster.
More Thorium mining routes are available from the Thorium Mining Guide.
Mining Fel Iron
Skill: 301-350
I want to point out that you can level your mining to 375 just by mining Fel Iron but it may take a little bit longer. I did it without leaving Hellfire Peninsula. It slows down after the mines turn green at 350, but it is possible. Below is the best Fel Iron Mining Route (yes you only need one). Also, don't forget that you can smelt for this section until 340, check out this Gold Guide if you need gold to buy the mats.
More Fel Iron mining routes are available from the Fel Iron Mining Guide.
Mining Adamantite
Skill: 351-375
At 350 you are able to mine both Rich Adamantite Deposits and Adamantite Deposits so you should have no trouble going to 375 swiftly if you follow these routes. As an alternative to mining Adamantite at all you can also skip right ahead to mining Cobalt for these levels.
If you have a flying mount do not use the two areas above but instead try these.
More Adamantite mining routes are available from the Adamantite Mining Guide.
Mining Cobalt
Skill: 351-400
In Zul'Drak you might find Rich Cobalt nodes but they aren't mine-able until 375. Keep in mind that Zul'Drak is a higher level zone (mid 70's) and if you are a lower level you might want to try Howling Fjord instead. Also, if you have money you might want to consider buying Cobalt Ore off of the auction house and smelting until you reach 375. If you don't have the gold to buy the supplies use these gold making tips to help you get all the gold you need.
More Cobalt mining routes are available from the Cobalt Mining Guide.
Mining Saronite
Skill: 401-450
Icecrown has been by far the most rewarding zone for Saronite and Titanium but Scholazar is by far the most fun because there various different options in the route and varying landscapes that you can tour on your mount. Scholazar is usually crowded and highly competitive due to it being a lower level zone but may actually have more node spawns than Icecrown.
More Saronite mining routes are available from the Saronite Mining Guide.
Smelting your Mining from 1-375 Guide
(you will have to mine 3 times in this guide)
You can smelt from 1-375 and only have to mine for three times in the guide. This can make leveling up your mining really easy but if you don't have the gold to buy supplies you will be out of luck. Take a look at these gold making tips so that you can simply buy mats and smelt your way up.
Smelting Copper
Skills: 1-65
Buy enough Copper Ore from the auction house to reach skill 65 in mining. You will need at least 65 Copper Ore. Try starting off by buying 100 Copper Ore and see where you end up. I used 165 ore one time leveling up and 131 another time, so it varies.
| Copper Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 1 |
| Yellow | 25 |
| Green | 47 |
| Gray | 70 |
Smelting Tin
Skills: 65-75
I made 22 Tin Bars to get to skill level 75. You'll need Tin Bars to smelt your Bronze Bars. If you don't want to smelt Tin at all then just buy the bars from the Auction House, and begin smelting Bronze right away.
| Tin Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | 65 |
| Green | 70 |
| Gray | 75 |
Smelting Bronze
Skills: 75-115
If you have a lot of cash just skip this section and move to smelting Silver Ore, it will go faster, or just smelt Bronze until it turns green at 90. If you decide to level up all the way from yellow to gray plan on smelting for a while. I did it to test it out and it took me 227 smelts just to reach 115.
| Bronze Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | 65 |
| Green | 90 |
| Gray | 115 |
Smelting Silver
Skills: 115-125
Silver can be a bit more expensive to make than Bronze Bars but if you make Silver Bars you'll level up with less smelting attempts. I made 15 Silver Bars to get to 125.
| Silver Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 75 |
| Yellow | 115 |
| Green | 122 |
| Gray | 130 |
Smelting Iron
Skills: 125-155
It took me 59 smelts to get from 125-155.
| Iron Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 125 |
| Yellow | 130 |
| Green | 145 |
| Gray | 160 |
Smelting Gold
Skills: 155-175
It took me 22 smelts to get to 175.
| Gold Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 155 |
| Yellow | 170 |
| Green | 177 |
| Gray | 185 |
Smelting Steel
Skills: None! It's gray.
| Steel Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | - |
| Green | - |
| Gray | 165 |
Smelting Mithril
Skills: 175-230
It took me 217 smelts to reach 230.
| Mithril Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | 175 |
| Green | 202 |
| Gray | 230 |
Smelting Truesilver
Skills: 230-250
It took me 47 smelts to get to 250.
| Truesilver Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 230 |
| Yellow | 235 |
| Green | 242 |
| Gray | 250 |
Smelting Thorium
Skills: 250-290
It took 216 smelts to get to 290.
| Thorium Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | 250 |
| Green | 270 |
| Gray | 290 |
You will have to mine from 290-300 since Thorium Bars turns gray at 290.
Smelting Fel Iron
Skills: 300-315
It took me 46 smelts to get to 315.
| Fel Iron Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | 300 |
| Green | 307 |
| Gray | 315 |
You'll have to mine from 315-325 since you can't smelt Adamantite until 325.
Smelting Adamantite
Skills: 325-340
It took me 77 smelts to get to 340.
| Adamantite Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | 325 |
| Green | 332 |
| Gray | 340 |
You'll have to mine from 340-350 since you can't smelt the next level ores until 350.
Smelting Cobalt
Skills: 350-375
This is likely the easiest way to finish off to 375; however, you can level up using Eternium and Felsteel to 375. If you choose to level up using these two ores I have listed the path you would take below this section.
| Cobalt Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | 350 |
| Green | 362 |
| Gray | 375 |
Smelting Eternium
Skills: 350-365
It took me 45 smelts to get from 350-365.
| Eternium Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | 350 |
| Green | 357 |
| Gray | 365 |
Smelting Felsteel
Skills: 365-375
It took me 29 smelts to get to 375.
| Felsteel Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 350 |
| Yellow | 355 |
| Green | 367 |
| Gray | 375 |
Smelting Hardened Adamantite
| Hardened Adamantite Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | - |
| Green | - |
| Gray | 375 |
Smelting Khorium
| Khorium Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | - |
| Green | - |
| Gray | 375 |
Smelting Saronite
| Saronite Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | - |
| Green | - |
| Gray | 400 |
Smelting Titanium
| Titanium Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | - |
| Green | - |
| Gray | 450 |
There are level restrictions on mining training, so you cannot be a lvl 10 Grand Master. It's impossible. Also, you can't go to outland till 58 and Northrend till 68, so i dont think a level 10 Grand Master is possible even without the training restrictions. Also, i suggest getting the following mods in addition to using this guide, it will help a GREAT deal.
I just recently discovered something incredible. Gatherer performed a data recording using wowstead to record all mining nodes/herbs found in world of warcraft. There is now an entire database on ALL nodes/herbs found in the game up until this point. It shows all of them on the map and minimap.
Heres how to install:
-Gatherer
1. Go to curse.com
2. Go to the WOW section of the top navbar
3. Search for Gatherer in the blue search bar center page, called "Find addon"
4. Click it and manually install to your world of warcraft addons folder.
-Gatherer Database (**Must have gatherer before hand for this to work)
1. Ditto
2. Ditto
3. Search for Gatherer Database in the blue search bar center page, called "Find addon"
4. Click it and manually install to your world of warcraft addons folder.
-Applying and Using the Gatherer Databse
1. Once both of the above are completed open the game.
2. Enter World of character you wish to use. You can do it for as many characters as you'd like.
3. Once in game, type /gatherer and it should open up the gatherer options menu. You can also Right click the green icon on your minimap.
4. Go to the database section of your gatherer options side nav bar
5. Hit the red "import" button.
6. It should start importing the files.
***The Database will severely slow down your system and induce SEVERE lag if you have a slow computer. This is only for STRONG HARD DRIVES. Also, if you already have many mods, do not use it for the same reason, it will decrease performance rate.
I hope it's useful to whoever decides to use it. It's incredible for speed tracking your profession leveling and helps a GREAT deal. It's also wonderful if you wish to farm A LOT. Now you know all the secret spots to find those rare spawns :D
Don't you have to be lvl 68 to enter Northrend? How can you be a lvl 10 in Northrend and say your mining sht there =/
Anyone of any level can enter Northrend. They can't get quests until level 68.
This is a great guide. I have used it almost exclusivly. One thing i will add, if you can solo dead mines... any class above 50 or any armored class above 35 i rkn.. this is an awesome place for 100 easy points of mining and a great place to start. Just mine the outer entrance area, then mine the first 3/4 of the instance, run back, reset the instance. rinse and repeat. By the time you are back out of the instance, all the nodes in the outer entrance have reset. You can get heaps of copper and tin out of this aswell as a good amount of silver.
It's excellent if your doing this to offset the cost of blacksmiting/jc... you can over farm it until you have enough to get you through the initial stage.
rock on
Just finished a marathon 1-370 mining, 1-300 engineering session. I referenced a few other guides but this one was indeed the most efficient and clearly presented.
In point of fact, mining is just an all around pain in the ass to level. Mithril and Thorium are both hard to come by and respawn slowly so I did do a lot of hopping between zones.
The color coding was also a really great idea and more often than not was right on the money.
Thanks very much.
Hi there thanks for your guide i am a lvl 10 grand master miner because of it, took me 4 days and a whole lot of frustration and dying. And i've just enetered borean tundra and got y first point there so currently 376/450.
thanks littleshort (doomhammer)
That would work, except you cant lvl your mining past 150 without being lvl 20.
At least do some research. There is no requirement for mining levels.
You have to be level 68 to enter Northrend =/
You don't have to be 68 to enter Northrend. In fact you can take the zeppelin there at any level. You just cannot pick up quests until level 68.
Outland is the same, you only have to be 58 to use the portal, anyone can port you there at any level.
Wrong.. A mage can port any lvl toon to Dalaran. I've ported a lvl 38 to Dalaran.. so.. You are wrong, you can enter Northrend before lvl 68.
In all honesty, this guide stinks.
The best places to mine Iron and Mithril are completely wrong.
I went to the given areas in the guide, and found very little to no Iron/Mithril in all the specified locations.
The best places to mine them are (Iron) in Arathi Highlands, and (Mithril) in the Hinterlands.
The two most annoying materials to mine should have been looked at more seriously in this guide.
Only positive points are the comments about smelting to level at certain times. Other than that just go type in the Vein/Deposit you want in Wowhead.com, it will serve you much better than this guide.
Especially for mithril. The locations in tanaris are such a pain to get to... with many being below ground that it takes a long while to just get to one. Also with the other mithril mining point is soooooo overfarmed that you'd be lucky to get 2 or 3 points an hour. Take my advice... for mithril make a small jump over to the searing gorge. I did this on my alt and went from the point where you could mine mithril all the way to 275 in less than 3 hours. You would not get anywhere close to that in tanaris or badlands... period.
Also a pain is the guide suggesting you go to certain areas at certain levels simply because of the "higher" rate of "skillup" nodes. Ask yourself this... "does it make more sense to stay in an area where you can mine pretty much everything even if it is yellow or green, or, go to an area where you get guaranteed skillups off of reds, but have like 2-5 nodes in the whole zone?" I don't know about you but I'll take the quantity over quality approach anyday. Whats the point of mining 3 mithril nodes and getting 3 points when I could've been mining roughly 10 times that much iron in the same time and getting the same if not more points? Especially when all it takes to ruin your day is some tosspot farmer along stealing half your nodes.
LOL! ok i agree Tanaris and badlands were bad choices, but if ur gonna tell ppl where to go at least have a good suggestion. I went to searing gorge before i even read this post and out of all the times i scanned the area i only found 2-3 nodes out of the area per trip. If u asked me i would suggest hinterlands, or even burning steppes around dreadmaul rock before hitting up SG
Other than that the guide was ok for me, helped me out mostly in the beginning, and now im lvl 450 in under 20 hrs ^.^
Atticknight (Area 52)
Guys, I don't know if you noticed this or not but everyone is power leveling mining right now. This guide itself gets thousands and thousands of views everyday and an expansion just came out, so yes, all of these areas are probably crowded. At the bottom of every section in the guide are alternative routes and they cover all of the zones you have mentioned in the above two posts. The routes are created based on node spawn locations and I can 100% assure you that the nodes do indeed spawn on that route and this guide is 100% accurate. You are highly encouraged to create your own routes or use the alternative routes, almost all of the zones feasible to mine any type of ore has a route already made for you.
In the right menu click on the mineral you wish to mine and select the zone it is all there.
For example, http://wow.thenoobschool.com/wow-mithril-mining-guide this is all of the mithril mining locations, including the searing gorge as you have suggested.
Hope this helps!
The location I find easiest to get a decent amount of Mithril is the Alterac Mountains (where the ogres and yetis spawn). The mobs are level 34-37, so this is really the lowest area you can go where you can reliably find mithril nodes.
Must note, however, if even one other person is there, it kills the amount of mithril you get, so go here in off peak hours only.
Around the base of the mountain on the outside are tin and iron nodes, and on the top of the mountain are iron and mithril. Occasional gold and silver nodes as well, but definitely mithril heavy for the level of mobs in the area.
This is a great guide, folks... you probably already knew that. I managed to get mining to 375 in 3 days. Pretty convenient way to make some cash. Thank you so much for the guides on this site!
Damn this was one nice guide mate:) Used no time to get mining to 375:p
Keep the good work up!
-Marzhel from Silvermoon eu server:)
I wanted to make a new miner as my main is switching from mining to Engineering. Thus I was going to need a lot of mats for powerleveling the Engineering, which I could make as a miner, but instead of smelting the ores to bars I just let a new toon do all the smelting. The end result was a level 25 with 290 in mining (where smelting Thorium turns grey). I know that it is possible to smelt all the way to 375, but to get past the 290 you need to go to BRD/MC, which wasn't an option with a lvl 25.
Great guide btw, keep up the good work.
Best Regards
Coraral
Mith Smelting does indeed take you 230 , and imo its more efficent than runing around praying for a + on a node.
Great guide btw , im 230 without setting foot out of thunderbuff in 23 minutes..
Another discrepancy: why does it say that from 185 your only option is mining? I just smelted mithril up to 202 when it turned green and I didn't feel like buying any more ore to try for the couple points I might have gotten.
Just one quick thing though. Not sure if it changed recent, but you can indeed smelt iron right up to 155. There is no gap. Just did it.
I love this guide, it will definatly help me get high mining.
The gatherer add-on you recomended is awesome, and will help me find those elusive copper ores. (yes im a newb, just got the game a week ago)