World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Mining is a gathering skill that allows you to take a mining pick to various veins that litter the landscape and attempt to get raw metals and gems for crafting armor, weapons, potions, jewels, and many other items. Some of the materials can even be used in quests!

Mining is a primary skill, meaning that it counts towards the two profession limit. Keep this in mind when you learn Mining, as unlearning it to learn a new profession will reset your knowledge of mining to zero if you ever pick it back up.

Either for making new things with tough metals or just for profit, mining is a great skill for any class! It goes great with several other professions as well!

Getting Started

To begin you must seek a <Mining Trainer> out in order to pick up the mining profession. From there, simply interact with the trainer who will teach you the rough and gritty art of mining! When you begin you will be an Apprentice Miner and have to pay only a few copper to pick up the profession.

There are several ranks to mining and as your skill progress you’ll find yourself at a point where you can’t continue without further training. At this point return to any mining trainer and pay to increase your rank in mining, except for the Master or Grand Master levels. You must seek out a Master trainer in Outland or a Grand Master trainer in Northrend to reach those ranks.

Apprentice 1-75

• Smelt Copper (1)
• Smelt Elementium (1) *
• Smelt Tin (50)
• Smelt Bronze (65)
• Smelt Silver (75)

Journeyman 76-150

• Smelt Iron (125)

Expert 151-225

• Smelt Gold (155)
• Smelt Steel (165)
• Smelt Mithril (175)

Artisan 226-300

• Smelt Truesilver (230)
• Smelt Thorium (250)
• Smelt Dark Iron (230) *

Master (Burning Crusade) 300-375
The Master skill level is learned in Outland, meaning that you must own the Burning Crusade expansion in order to train to this level.

• Smelt Fel Iron (300)
• Smelt Felsteel (300)
• Smelt Adamantite (325)
• Smelt Etenium (350)
• Smelt Khorium (365)

Grand Master (Wrath of the Lich King) 375-450
The Grand Master skill is learned in Northrend, meaning that you must own the WotLK expansion in order to train to this level.

• Smelt Cobalt (350)
• Smelt Saronite (400)
• Smelt Titanium (450)
• Smelt Titansteel(450)

Toughness

As a miner you spend a lot of time digging things out of the ground. This has the added advantage of toughening you up. This is a passive ability that was added in patch 3.0.2 that you automatically gain as a miner and adds health to your charater based on the level of your mining skill. The health added is shown in the table below.

Choosing a Second Profession

Mining fuels many professions, although it goes well with some more then others. The following is a list of comparisons between the other professions and mining. Remember, if you choose mining, you will only have one profession left.

Alchemy: Mining and alchemy do not go along together very well. While alchemy can transmute metals and some potions may need metals, herbalism would always be better.

Blacksmithing: Most everything a blacksmith makes is done with metal and gems obtained through mining. You should rarely pick up blacksmithing without mining, as the ores required to skill up are extremely expensive.

Enchanting, Skinning, Talioring: These three professions do not require mining nor interfere with it. Skinning is an exceptional choice to take with mining though, as with two gathering skills you can bring in the money fast.

Engineering: Like blacksmithing, engineering requires rare gems and metals. If you plan on becoming an engineer then you will want to bring mining along to fund your crafts.

Herbalism: Herbalism and mining do not go together very well. There is good reason, of course. Mining and herbalism use the mini-map to detect “nodes” (locations veins and herbs). You can only detect one type of node at a time, so you can’t detect both mineral veins and herbs.

Jewelcrafting: You will need mining to take full advantage of jewelcrafting. Most items created with jewelcrafting will require rare gems which can be found easier with prospecting (a jewelcrafting skill).

Leatherworking: Mining and leatherworking do not go along together as leatherworking requires leather from skinning.

Mineral Veins

Mineral veins are scattered across the landscape on rocky mountainous areas, hills, and inside of various caves. They have static spawns, but random respawn times. This means that all veins can be reached on foot (they will very rarely spawn in a way that is unreachable) and can be mapped out. The respawn time can be from a few minutes to a few hours, so it’s generally a good idea to never wait around on a vein to respawn.

Sometimes, certain metal veins can respawn as a special type of vein with an uncommon type of ore. This kind of ore is generally always considered rarer and more valuable then the base ore. Tin can respawn as Silver, Iron can respawn as Gold, and Mithril can respawn as Truesilver. Going out of your way for these types of metals can be a very good idea.

Minerals have a certain “difficulty” rating. Each mineral vein requires you to be near the skill level of that vein in order to mine it. Its color coded so it’s easy to figure out.

Red: Can not mine, you can attempt to mine it to see what skill level is needed before you can begin to mine it.

Orange/Yellow/Green: You can mine it with 100% success. Orange has a great chance to give you a skill gain, yellow has an alright chance to give you a skill gain, and green has a fair chance to give you a skill gain.

Grey: You can mine it with 100% success, but there will be no skill gain.

Mining Minerals

Mining is a rather simple process. First you need a mining pick which is available at many general stores and all mining suppliers (who are almost always located near either a forge or a mining trainer). With the pick in hand it’s time to mine!

You need to first find a mineral vein. They are on hills, rocky surfaces, cliffs, and in caves. You can use the skill “Find Minerals” which will show any nearby mineral veins on your mini-map. They will be small yellow dots and if you hover your mouse over them you will see what kind of mine they are.

As a small note, tracking abilities such as Find Herbs, Track Humans, and Sense Undead will be overridden when you use Find Minerals. You can only have one type of tracking/finding ability going at once.

From there you just need to adventure until you come across a mineral vein. When you spot one you would like to mine, simply walk over to it and defeat any enemies in your way. If there is an enemy attacking you while you try to mine, the mining will fail.

Smelting

Smelting is taking the raw materials (ore) and turning into refined materials (bars). All of the non-rare metals simply require one ore to smelt it into a bar. Rare materials, such as Dark Iron require multiple ores and some even require other materials!

To smelt something you first require a forge, which can be found at multiple locations (mostly in major cities). From there you can open your mining skill from your skillbook and begin smelting! It should be noted some metal, such as Dark Iron, require special forges that are not always easily accessible!

If you are looking to smelt Thorium into Arcanite then you will need to seek out an Alchemist. Alchemist can transmute one Thorium bar and one Arcane Crystal into Arcanite once a day.

A table of what is required to smelt the various metals:

Minerals and Outland

In Outland there are four new mineral nodes: Fel Iron, Adamantite, Rich Adamantite, and Khorium. These of course smelt into three new base metals: Fel Iron, Adamantite, and Khorium. Inside of any mineral node in Outland you will find the new metal, Eterninum, at an uncommon rate. Felsteel and Hardened Adamantite can be made through smelting.

Leveling Mining to 375 is not as daunting of a task as it may seem. When you first begin your adventures in Outland simply mine any nearby mineral nodes as you are leveling up. Fel Iron (skill 300) starts in Hellfire Peninsula and isn't a very rare node. Getting those last 75 points should be no problem between smelting ores and the large amount of mineral veins located in Outland.

Minerals and Northrend

In Northrend there are very few types of ore when compared to the original game. It is setup very similar to the Outlands and you can find the ore veins you need as you reach zones that are the appropriate level for the items you could create with it in the blacksmithing profession. If you just mine as you go you will find lots of minerals.

Etiquette

Claim Jumping is the process of stealing another miner’s mineral vein. If they are busy fighting enemies near the vein, assume that they are doing it to reach that vein. If in doubt, ask. Never steal another person’s vein, it’s just not fair! Even if they are above level, once come is first served always. If you begin constantly jumping other peoples claim then you’ll eventually find yourself blacklisted on your server. This means many guilds won’t have anything to do with you which no amount of ore is worth!

That doesn’t mean that you can’t ask nicely to gain skill off of the vein. Several miners can gain skill off of one ore vein. You can use the vein until you gain skill then not loot it. The original person with the claim them can hit it and loot the ore. Everyone profits.

Veins and Metals

This section of the guide provides quick reference tables that show what level mining you need to mine each type of ore and where you can find that ore.

Special Skills

Smelting Dark Iron

An NPC known as Gloom’rel can be found inside of the “Chamber of the Sevens” in Blackrock Depths. He’ll want two Star Rubies, ten Truesilver Bars, and twenty Gold Bars to teach you how to smelt Dark Iron (if you have 230 mining skill). Afterwards, you can begin smelting Dark Iron at the Black Forge which is also located in the Blackrock Depths. Eight Dark Iron is needed to create one Dark Iron bar!

Learning Smelt Elementium

In Blackwing Lair you can learn how to make this extremely rare and valuable metal. It’s only for a few epic and legendary items, but it still scarce! You must venture into Blackwing Lair and seek out Master Elemental Shaper Krixix. He’ll be aggressive, so have a Priest mind-control him. A skill will appear on the pet bar called “Smelt Elementium”. Cast this on any player who seeks to learn it.

Mining Trainers

Join us on our forums to discuss Mining and the other profession! Need more help?
Why not ask the community!