1-525 Minning Guide Cataclysm

Mining is used to collect the ores you’ll need for Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, and Engineering…this means that the Auction House is usually LOADED with ALL the Mining supplies you’d ever need for leveling.

So instead of wasting the time running around leveling your Mining you may want to just BUY everything. If you don’t think you can afford it then you should read this guide now before you start.

This Mining Leveling Guide is updated for patch 4.3 and Cataclysm.

This guide will help you level Mining from 1 to 525 by both gathering ore and smelting it. You’ll be able to save time and gold reaching 525 as fast as possible. This guide also includes some of the best farming routes available for Mining.

* What’s in this Guide:

Horde 1-65

Alliance 1-65

66-125

126-175

176-230

231-275

276-325

326-350

351-375

376-400

401-450

450-475

475-525

Smelting 1-525

It is highly advised that if you get stuck on a Mining route in this guide, have problems finding nodes due to over crowding of zones, or want to be lazy, you should smelt as much as you can for parts of this Mining leveling guide.

* Ore Skill Requirements

Here is a list of what skill levels you will need to mine each type of ore found in this guide.

OreRequired Level

Copper Vein1

Tin Vein50

Bronze50Smelted, not mined

Silver Vein75

Iron Deposit125

Gold Vein155

Steel125Smelted, not mined

Mithril Deposit175

Truesilver Deposit205

Dark Iron Deposit230

Small Thorium Vein230

Rich Thorium Vein255

Fel Iron Deposit275

Adamantite Deposit325

Felsteel350Smelted, not mined

Rich Adamantite Deposit350

Cobalt Deposit350

Khorium Vein375

Rich Cobalt Deposit375

Saronite Deposit400

Rich Saronite Deposit425

Obsidium Deposit425

Pure Saronite Deposit450

Rich Obsidium Deposit450

Titanium Vein450

Elementium Vein475

Rich Elementium Vein500

Pyrite Deposit525

Rich Pyrite Deposit525

Don’t forget to go back to the mining trainer at the appropriate times so that you can advance your mining skill to each new maximum.

I strongly recommend that you smelt as much as you can for this guide, especially through the lower levels, if you don’t have the gold to buy the ore required to do this take a look at this Gold Making Guide.

The lower level ores you’ll be mining in the first several sections don’t have the best resale value and you can save a lot of time by simply buying them on the Auction House instead so skip to the smelting section if possible.

* Mining 1 to 65 – Copper

- Horde

Undead – Tirisfal Glades – The undead path for this mining leveling guide is fairly simple. You can pick a starting point anywhere on the line and just run the path mining along the way. If you are low level you may want to take into consideration areas on the map that might be too high for you to cross, if that is the case then just skip them and meet up with the path further down while leveling your mining.

Tauren – Mulgore – Mulgore is just a big oval so this mining route is really simple to run while leveling. Mob levels and aggro are not that important of a factor since you’ll be sticking to the outer edges of the map you should be fine following this part guide. You may want to skip leveling mining in the Venture Co Mine if you are too low of a level.

Orc & Troll – Durotar - Durotar is full of mountains and you could probably develop your own mining route if this one doesn’t work for you. I will let you know upfront that Durotar is a deformed piece of land and you would have to run all over the place to utilize a full mining circuit of it which can be tedious while leveling.

Blood Elves – Eversong Woods – This route is the simplest route to follow. There are other mines near West Sanctum and West of Sunsail Anchorage but if you’re looking for simplicity this is the route to take. The Deadscar is loaded with mines so if you get bored of going in circles I’ve added a point you can break off at halfway through.

Goblins – Azshara – Goblins have several options of where to go to mine, Azshara is one of them and can be done for some of the other Horde races as well by choice. The route stays up on the plateau and does a full loop around it. The red circle on the map is where you can make out like a bandit on copper ore as there are at least 7 nodes in that area that will spawn.

- Alliance

Human – Elwynn Forest – This mining path is for this part of the guide is kind of obvious since Elwynn forest isn’t surrounded by mountains on all 4 sides. There are two caves to go into and if you run the alternate dotted line from time to time there are more nodes down the river near the Tower of Azora.

Night Elves & Worgen – Darkshore – Darnassus isn’t great for mining so you have to come to Darkshore to level it up. Darkshore is a huge zone, there are nodes scattered all off to each side of this route. The southern half is higher level range so do half circles of the route if that is an issue.

Dwarves & Gnomes – Dun Morogh – This is a route I’ve used many times for leveling up my mining. You can literally make your own mining leveling route in this zone because it is so mountainous. Just stick to the mountain edges, caves, and rises in land and you’ll be set to mine in this zone as shown in the zone mining map guide below.

Draenei – Azuremyst Isle – There are two caves on this route that you’ll want to hit up. If you are low enough level to get experience in the cave to the north you could basically just sit in there and grind / mine at the same time. If not then follow the entire route. There’s kind of a dead spot transition while going to the next good area when you go passed the lakes but it’s that or loop back the way you came, either is fine.

* Mining 66-125 – Tin and Silver

- Horde and Alliance

Hillsbrad Foothills - This zone, which was combined with Alterac Mountains in Cataclysm, now has one of the densest areas of Tin Ore ever noted on any map. By staying in the red zone and going in the caves there are a very large supply of nodes. Take a trip out of the area and run around the outskirts of the mountains when bored.

Ashenvale - This route is more spread apart than the above Hillsbrad route, but still a viable option for Tin Ore. Stay away from the northeast section as it’s mostly Copper Ore up there. Stick to the internal ridges.

In addition to these mining routes above you could also perform full circuits of Wetlands and Redridge mountains for this part of the mining guide.

* Mining 126-175 – Iron and Gold

- Horde and Alliance

Don’t forget to go back to the mining trainer so that you can continue leveling up, there’s nothing worse than mining and mining only to realize you haven’t been getting skill ups because you didn’t train and were zoned out.

If you are starting to run low on gold or are getting tired of mining and would like to have enough gold to smelt as much as possible from this point on I highly recommend you look at these gold making tips.

Feralas - This zone is loaded with Iron Ore and is probably the best zone to get it now thanks to changes to the zone from Cataclysm. Do a loop in the north and run some of the outskirts in the southern regions west of Camp Mojache.

Western Plaguelands - In this zone you’ll find a relatively simple and easy route to follow. Just doing an outskirt circuit of the map without going too far north or doing anything internally should be a pretty sufficient route to net enough Iron Ore on each trip around.

The Cape of Stranglethorn – This is my least favorite spot of the three to mine Iron Ore but it’s likely one of the best to find this ore. There are a few nodes out on Jaguero Isle and then by coming back across to the gorilla area and naga area you will net some Iron Ore.

* Mining 176-230 – Mithril and Truesilver

You could still be smelting for this part and skipping the first half of this mining leveling guide, but it will start to cost a lot more gold and you should absolutely read this guide if you decide to smelt. Don’t forget to go back to the mining trainer at 225 so you can continue advancing your skill.

Felwood – This is probably the easiest route to follow as long as you don’t mind running through a lot of enemies while doing it. This route should net you the most Mithril Ore, and is almost a complete loop of the outskirts of the zone.

Badlands – Here you’ll probably want to spend most of your time in the eastern loop or in the cave in the southwest. It’s not bad to alternate between the two spots but the eastern loop and southwestern cave are where you will level mining the fastest.

Burning Steppes – Dreadmaul Rock is loaded with caves full of Mithril Ore, you could spend all day just going in and out of the caves on the red spot but you’ll have to be dismounted most of the time and fight your way through some of the enemies. For a more peaceful route take the outskirt arrows.

Source: http://forum.molten-wow.com/showthread.php?t=167246