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Mining is a collecting profession along with Skinning and Herbalism; in World of Warcraft, you can find lots of resource nodes in various zones where you can use your mining skill. As a miner, you’ll get ores, minerals, and stones; players who take Blacksmithing, Engineering, or Jewelcrafting as their profession can use it as ingredients to produce something else.
The demand for raw materials will never die since every player need it for their recipes, thus makes Mining a profitable profession to have; a skilled miner know where and what to mine for maximum profit and you can learn to indentify it in a good World of Warcraft Mining Guide.
Mining locations are the most important part, but there are few things you should do before you start mining:
First, find a trainer and get trained in mining. You’ll meet different trainers based on your faction. These trainers are divided in three levels:
- Regular Mining Trainers; he will teach you from Apprentice to Artisan level (level 300). Brock Stoneseeker at Thelsamar, Loch Modan is one of your choices in Alliance faction. As for Horde character, you can visit Makaru at Valley of Honor.
- Master; he will teach you the Master Levels (up to level 375). An Alliance character can train from Hurnak Grimmord at Honor Hold. For the Horde side, Hanlir at Scryer’s Tier is one of the two options.
- Grand Master; he will be your trainer for Grand Master Levels (up to 450). You can visit Fendrig Redbeard in Alliance Keep for Alliance side and Jonathan Lewis in Vengeance Landing for Horde side.
Second, buy a mining pick from trade goods, mining supplier, blacksmithing supplier, or engineering supplier. Always put it in your inventory before you go to mine something.
Third, if you have spare gold get enchanted gear to boost your mining skill. A few tools to consider: Enchanted gloves with +5 to mining skills, enchanted gloves with +5 to all gathering skills, a goblin mining helmet with +5 to mining skills.
Fourth, check your minimap with “find minerals” enable. It will show you various nodes where you can mine raw materials and display color code to show the mining level needed. Forget the red colored ones; that means your mining skill is not sufficient for those nodes.
The next is the important part of this World of Warcraft mining guide: Mining Locations
- Copper: Azuremyst Isle, Darkshore, Dun Morogh, Durotar, Elwynn Forest, Eversong Woods, Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades.
- Tin Ore: Hillsbrad Foothills, Redridge Mountains, The Barrens, Thousand Needles.
- Iron Ore, Gold Ore, and Mithil Ore: Arathi Highlands, Stranglethorn Vale, Badlands, Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, The Hinterlands.
- Dark Iron Ore: Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge.
- Truesilver Ore: Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Winterspring.
- Thorium Ore: Silithus, Un’Goro Crater, Winterspring, Eastern Plaguelands.
- Fel Iron Ore: Hellfire Peninsula, Zangamarsh.
- Adamantine Ore and Fel Iron Ore: Blade’s Edge Mountains, Nagrand, Netherstorm, Shadowmoon Valley.
- Cobalt Ore: Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord, Zul’Drak.
- Saronite Ore: Icecrown, Sholazar Basin,The Storm Peaks.
Note that when moving from nodes to nodes, you can always design your path to pass profitable farming spots for even more gold, read about farming and the best locations at gold farming guide.
Being a miner can earn you adequate amount of gold on regular basis because the market will always hungry for ingredients and raw materials while there are only a bunch of players who take Mining as their profession. Just remember to mix it with other gold making methods; learn about all of them at WoW gold making guide.
Hopefully this World of Warcraft mining guide can help you to choose your favorite mining locations and understand the basic of mining in World of Warcraft. For the best source on mining and gold making in general, read Gold Secrets Review.