There are a total of 13 professions in World of Warcraft with 3 major gathering professions at the front; Mining, Herbalism, and Skinning. These 3 are gold mines as you level and play end game as all they require you to do is travel the world and gather its resources for either your own use or to sell to other players.
Mining
Grab your Mining Pick and track some ore, it’s time to mine! Mining in World of Warcraft is how you gather ore, jewels, and stones for use by blacksmiths, engineers, jewelcrafters, and some other professions to make their items. Mining is also very lucrative when you know where to go and how much it is going for on the market. As an example, I can make a couple of rounds in Elwynn Forrest and easily have 140+ Copper ore to place in the auction house usually going for 1-2 gold per stack of 20 and for gathering just a little over an hour I have 7 gold or more in materials not counting any gems or stones I may pick up while mining. Just remember, copper is the cheapest ore and as you make the rounds in higher level zones your gold earning potential goes up greatly.
Items of Interest
As it stands there are a couple of items you want to keep your eye out for while mining. The following is a list of the most well known drops to watch carefully for while mining their corresponding ore:
As these gems are rare they usually auction for between 20 and 60 gold.
Routes to run for Ore
There are many places across Azeroth and Outland that are a mining spree and where you can gather great amounts in a fairly short or decent time. Here I will be outlining them zone by zone showing you the ones with the highest percentage of finding ore using easy to go by maps with paths and locations. Ore is not guaranteed to spawn along these routes. I am simply showing you the zones with the highest spawn rate and the best way to travel said zone so you may find the highest quantity of ore. Feel free to explore a little when running these routes since vein and deposit spawns are random.
We will start with copper as it is where any miner begins when his skill is 1 and they just picked up mining.
Elwynn Forest (levels 5-12)
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As shown here, start in Goldshire then go down towards Fargodeep Mines and then inside it, after coming out of the mine follow the hills up around to the Tower of Azora then down to Dead-Tooth Jack’s area, up to the mountains then come back around the lake at Heroes’ Vigil and then back to the mountains toward Stormwind and following them down to the edge of the zone near Westfall and following that edge back to the Mcnabb farm and back to Goldshire, rinse, and repeat.
The Barrens (levels 12-23)
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The route for the Barrens is also fairly simple. Start in The Crossroads and move up towards the first hill then around it to the left side of the zone between the top two hills. From there, run down the left side’s mountainous terrain and when you reach the bottom of the zone, go to the right side. Follow the mountains up and circle the hills near Northwatch Hold and follow those back up to The Crossroads. The route for tin is basically the same here as well and you may run across quite a bit while looking for copper as tin has a 13.7% chance of spawning on this route and copper a 12.6% spawn chance. The Barrens is truly a great place for ore!
Tin requires a mining skill of 65 and is your next step up from copper. The Barrens route shown above is great for tin and the following route is great for all alliance in need of it. Tin has a moderate sell price between 3 and 5 gold per stack of 20.
Redridge Mountains (levels 15-23)
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The Redridge tin route is a little complicated. Start from Lakeshire and head up towards the mountains. From there, venture around those; up to and inside the Rethban Caves. Follow your path back out and progress towards the right side of the map; following the mountains around and back to Lakeshire. While you may not see many tin spots marked on this map, along this route there is much more than meets the eye.
Silver is next, it is very hard to find and can easily go for 5-7 gold per stack of 20. If you are raising your mining skill, raise it on tin until 125 and reference the section on Iron deposits, it is much easier and quicker this way. Silver can easily be found along the Redridge route above or in the iron route for Arathi Highlands. It can also be found in the following route for Thousand Needles along with iron as well. These routes will be covered in the Iron section coming up next. Be sure to keep an eye out as silver is rare and worth it even if it doesn’t get your mining skill up.
Iron will be our next step up and it requires a mining skill of 125 to go after Iron Deposits. The following maps outline the best routes for mining as they have the highest spawn rates for their faction’s areas. Iron on average auctions between 4 and 6 gold per stack of 20.
Arathi Highlands (levels 31-42)
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The route for Arathi Highlands is very diverse for the resources it yields including Silver, Iron, Gold, and a little bit of Mithril. Simply start out at Refuge point and go north to the area between a mountain and a couple smaller hills. Proceed east following the mountains and (unless you are horde) go around Hammerfall and into the Grotto which is nearby. Then leave the grotto and continue following the mountains surrounding the zone. You will come to the Witherbark troll area. Making sure you are careful, go in the cave you find there; usually a couple of veins or deposits spawn inside. Go back out of the cave and keep following the mountains around until you reach the lower end of the zone. Then proceed back towards refuge point but don’t go in, instead, go towards an ogre/troll area then up to the farm, down the mountain range and back to refuge point. Rinse and repeat.
Thousand Needles (levels 21-32)
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Thousand needles is pretty straight forward and short, while Arathi yields more, Thousand Needles can be more convenient and accessible for some horde players. Simply start out at the great lift, progress down the zone and back around sticking to the side of it or around the hills and plateaus where it permits. One major rule for finding veins and deposits is sticking to hills, mountains, or almost any other land formations composed of rock or dirt.
Gold is after Iron, requiring a mining skill of 155, but like Silver it is very rare and not worth banking on getting your skill up from finding it. For an easier and faster way to raise your mining skill mine Iron until 175 and you can move up to Mithril. Gold is well covered in the Arathi route, the upcoming Badlands, and Stranglethorn Vale Routes. Gold ore on most days auctions between 6 and 9 gold per stack of 20.
Mithril is both profitable and sometimes a little hard to find as it is needed by many moderate level professions (around skill 225 or so) and requires a mining skill of 175 to take advantage of Mithril Deposits. Mithril can sell anywhere from 4 to 11 gold per stack of 20 depending on your server’s current market and the player needs.
Badlands (levels 34-42)
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Badlands can be a long route to run and is much easier after you have hit level 40 and have your mount. Start out by the mountains near Uldaman and follow the mountain side down the zone and into Lethelor Ravine. Be careful in the ravine as this path doesn’t go far into it because of the level 44-47 elite dragonkin that spawn there. Circle back around and out of the
ravine follow the mountain path down until you start curving up into terrain with a lot of small hills and into the large plateau, then down and into the Dustbelch Ogre area. Follow the mountains back up towards Kargath and the upper mountain line, and progress back to your start point. It may be easier for Horde players to begin at Kargath and follow the path around either way they please. There is almost a 14% spawn rate for Mithril here and this is the best zone for it in World of Warcraft.
Next I will be including a route for Stranglethorn Vale and while it does not stand out for a specific ore, it instead offers variety. It has a 12.7% spawn rate for Iron and a 9.8% spawn rate for Mithril. Since many players quest here between levels 30 and 44 it is only fitting that I show you where to look as you may be questing here a lot.
Stranglethorn Vale (levels 30-45)
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Stranglethorn Vale is a very long zone and you must keep an eye out as this route runs across places with lots of elites like the Mosh’Ogg Ogre Mound. This is a good route to reference as you are questing and progress in level. If you want to raise your mining skill fast go by the Badlands route as it is much quicker and has more Mithril spawns.
Truesilver follows Mithril on our list requiring a skill of 230 to gather. Truesilver deposits spawn decently but Dark Iron has more spawns in the next couple of routes and it is up to you to decide what to hunt down just to raise your skill points. Truesilver and Dark Iron both can sell between 6 and 20 gold per stack of 20 depending on your server’s current needs and market. Truesilver can be found in the upcoming Burning Steppes route at a 14% spawn rate while Dark Iron deposits have a 37.1% spawn rate along this same route. Feel free to follow the map and happy hunting!
Dark Iron is alongside Truesilver requiring a 230 skill and running the same route. Burning Steppes is the best route for both of these and is in an area accessible by both horde and alliance players; we will be covering it next.
Burning Steppes (levels 50-60)
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Burning Steppes is not for the wary but yields a great profit when ran through to completion and even more if ran several times over. Like all other routes by the time you get back to the start you should start seeing re-spawns of veins and deposits. A major rule is stick to the mountains and hills and you will be good to go, pulling in profit fast and hard unless you get in a race with other players. Just hit the high spawn areas (where you see the most squares) or run the route in reverse and you will most likely come out on top and with bags of ore, stone, and gems for your auctioning pleasure. Within this route you may also run across plenty of Small Thorium Veins which happen to follow Dark Iron and Truesilver for mining skill progression.
Small Thorium begins to find its way into your mining sack at a skill of 250 being the next logical step to raise your skill points even higher. Stacks of 20 Thorium Ore can auction from 11 gold all the way up to 25 gold. As with everything it depends on your server’s economy and who actually needs it. Jewelcrafters love to prospect this stuff as it can yield an Azerothian Diamond which auctions for about 11 gold each.
Un’Goro Crater (levels 50-60)
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People love and people hate the crater; it yields great resources but is full of dinosaurs, monkeys, tar people, and bugs trying to block your way. We start at the Lakkari Tar Pits as many players have farmed these beasts for essence of life, traveler’s backpacks, and many other items as they are moderately easy to kill and drop good loot. As with all paths follow the mountains, go inside the caves you find, cross the hills, and then stick to the mountain range as you are generally running one giant circle. I have even known players to organize a race around the crater starting at Lakkari and going around the zone backwards from this route and see who could complete 10 laps first or gather the most resources. Keep a close eye on any crystals you may find on the ground here as they can give you special buffs when you complete their quests and use the crystal pillars or they can sell in auction as well. Another place you can farm here is Fire Plume Ridge in the center of the zone. The fire elementals drop Essence of Fire (2.3%), Elemental Fire (5.8%), and Core of Elements (16.8%) which can make you some good gold when placed up for auction.
Rich Thorium veins require a skill of 270 for it’s ore to find your bags. The above Burning Steppes route runs across a lot of it and you can run that route but I will also be showing you a route for Eastern Plaguelands to find Rich Thorium. Thorium ore auctions for the same whether it be from small or rich veins. Watch for Arcane Crystal, Blood of the Mountain, or Azerothian Diamond while mining Rich Thorium Veins as these gems sell very well.
Eastern Plaguelands (levels 55-70)
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EPL is not the preferred place to mine Thorium, Burning Steppes is, but EPL is usually a low population zone now and if you can slay the undead and Scarlet Crusade in your way you may find this route to your liking. Mostly stick to the mountains and the edges of the pits of the zone and you should find yourself walking away with bags of ore in no time.
Rich Thorium also has 2-3 spawns in Dire Maul East after the final boss. Generally a short run (a couple of level 70s can make it in about 30-45 min.). If you are tired of treading the overworld feel free to farm this instance with a friend as the loot is good and the veins are a great bonus.
Now we will move on to Outland to gather its resources and conquer its foes. Once you hit 275 you can learn to be a Master Miner and have a skill cap of 375 and gather Outland ore where skill permits. Outland still offers some Rich Thorium Veins but none lower.
Fel Iron is amazing for prospecting as it yields Star of Elune, Living Ruby, Talasite, Nobel Topaz, Dawnstone, and Nightseye each of which sell between 20 and 60 gold a piece with a downside of only having a 1% chance for them to be prospected from the ore. A skill of 300 is required to mine Fel Iron; Hellfire Peninsula has the highest spawn rate at 40.6%.
Hellfire Peninsula (levels 60-70)
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This route is just meant to give you a general idea of where spawns take place and how you may be able to progress through the area searching for ore. There are many dangers in this zone so be as careful as possible and feel free to run your own path here mostly keeping the mountainside and hills in mind. Also once you enter the Dark Portal there is a lot of Fel Iron scattered around the area. Feel free to explore a little and have some fun mining.
Adamantite will carry you on next and it will last until 375 in terms of skill progression. This ore is highly valuable and has no problem clearing for 30 gold per stack of 20. This ore is very useful amongst all professions who use metal ore at higher levels, especially Jewelcrafters and Blacksmiths. For Adamantite Deposits, Nagrand is the place to be!
Nagrand (levels 66-70)
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The Nagrand route carries you through a lot of interesting areas such as Oshu’Gun where you can farm items for Consortium and Aldor reputation. Generally follow the path set out here and enjoy! You will find yourself having a maximum mining skill and bags full of Adamantite in no time. With this being such a valuable ore a flying mount is now easily in your grasp, congratulations!
The above route for Nagrand will also take you across a few Khorium spawns; this rare ore can sell for 60 gold per stack of 20, easily taking you to 100 gold per hour along this route without even breaking a sweat. It shares the quality of being rare and non-prospectable like Gold and Silver, keep this in mind when bartering with a Jewelcrafter.
Once you achieve level 70 and have a flying mount, mining becomes much easier in Outland because you have the ability to fly over and spot ore with ease. This saves a lot of time and unwanted mobs having agro on you.
Now for a recap:
