WoW Forever Mining Guide: Leveling 1–300, Ore Locations, Trainers

WoW Forever mining changes

The basics haven't moved. You buy a Mining Pick from a trade goods vendor (Warcraft Wiki), and WoW-Professions adds that the Junior trainers in the Horde starting areas and Teldrassil sell one as well. Then you turn on Find Minerals and click a vein to loot ore, stone, gems and sometimes a Scarce material. Only one player can work a node at a time. The changes are in the convenience layer and at the top end.

Skyborne characters begin in Thendal Village on Zephras Isle, which has no trainer. WoW-Professions says the early quest Harvesting Windstones lets you choose Mining for Dummies as the reward, and that book teaches you Mining. Warcraft Tavern also mentions special starter-zone quests for the profession.

Change	What it means for you	Source
Poor Copper Veins in starter areas	Copper Ore from level 1 (Warcraft Tavern). WoW-Professions says these small nodes stop giving skill at 20	Warcraft Tavern; WoW-Professions
Chunks of Amber in Teldrassil	Night Elves can mine without leaving home	WoW-Professions
Junior Mining Trainers	One in each starter zone, teaching up to 75 with no smelting	WoW-Professions
One skill point per vein	You can mine a vein until it empties, but only your first successful mine of it can give a point	Warcraft Tavern
Ore stacks to 20	Half the bag slots Classic needed	WoW-Professions
Dynamic spawn rates on all ore	More players nearby means faster respawns	Warcraft Tavern
Tracking several things at once	Warcraft Tavern says Find Minerals no longer replaces your other tracking; WoW-Professions' leveling guide says you still track one thing at a time, so test it in game	Warcraft Tavern; WoW-Professions
Search and filters in the crafting window	Find a smelt by name; Create All uses every ore in your bags	Warcraft Tavern

Blizzard tuned the nodes during the beta. On October 1 it "reduced the amount of Poor Copper Vein nodes available in starter areas." On October 16 Incendicite Ore was among the spawns whose respawn rates were "increased and evened out." The November 3 note adjusted respawns in many areas, mostly on the faster side in lower-level zones, and said those zones will drop back to more typical rates later (Kaivax, development notes).

New ores, Scarce materials and bars

Material	Where it comes from	Used for	Source
Heavy Thorium Ore	Heavy Thorium Vein, skill 300, in the Scourge area of Mount Hyjal. It looks like a Rich Thorium Vein wrapped in green fel smoke	Heavy Thorium Bar	Warcraft Wiki; WoW-Professions
Pyrite	Scarce drop from low-level veins: Copper, Tin and Iron per WoW-Professions; Copper, Tin and Silver per Warcraft Wiki	Crafting reagent	Both
Bauxite	Scarce drop from Mithril; Warcraft Wiki also lists Iron	Crafting reagent	Both
Pitchblende	Scarce drop from Thorium veins (WoW-Professions)	Azerothium Bar	WoW-Professions; Warcraft Wiki
Azerothium Bar	Smelt Azerothium at skill 275: 2 Pitchblende and 1 Coal at a forge	Mainly Blacksmithing, some Engineering	WoW-Professions
Heavy Thorium Bar	Smelt Heavy Thorium at skill 300, one Heavy Thorium Ore per bar. It needs a Molten Foundry at your camp or one of the special forges inside dungeons	Mainly Blacksmithing, some Engineering; Transmute: Legionite	WoW-Professions; Warcraft Wiki
Legionite Bar	Alchemy's Transmute: Legionite, which combines Heavy Thorium Bar with Fel Crystal on a 47-hour cooldown	High-end recipes	Warcraft Wiki

The two sources disagree on which veins drop Pyrite and Bauxite, so treat those lists as beta data. Both new smelts are taught by any Mining trainer. Heavy Thorium Veins can also hold two new gems, Torbernite and Fel Crystal (Warcraft Wiki), so a miner at 300 gathers both halves of the Legionite transmute: the ore for the bar and the gem.

Mining camp objects

Mining has three camp objects (Warcraft Wiki; WoW-Professions):

• Lodestone (skill 20, from trainers): a melee Attack Power buff for the camp that doesn't stack with Blessing of Might. It reaches +90 at level 52 (our camping guide).
• Rock Garden (skill 140): spawns a common ore node over time. The Blueprint drops from the Relic Guardian in the Excavation Site.
• Molten Foundry (skill 300): a camp station for Smelt Heavy Thorium. Warcraft Wiki says special forges in dungeons also handle that smelt; WoW-Professions knows of no Foundry besides the camp one and doesn't list a Blueprint source yet.

WoW Forever mining leveling guide 1–300

Mining skill comes from gathering, so the fastest plan is to mine along your questing route instead of returning to old zones at 60. Higher veins sit in higher-level, more dangerous zones, which means your Mining skill can only climb as fast as your character can survive there.

Train each rank

Junior trainers stop at Apprentice (75) and teach no smelting, so you need a full trainer for Smelt Copper and every rank after it. For Journeyman you need Mining 50, Expert needs 125 and Artisan needs 200 (WoW-Professions). Our professions guide lists the character level each rank needs.

Smelting as a side source of skill

Smelt	Orange	Yellow	Green	Grey
Copper Bar	1	25	47	70
Tin Bar	65	65	65	75
Bronze Bar	65	65	90	115
Silver Bar	75	100	112	125
Iron Bar	125	130	135	140
Gold Bar	155	170	177	185

Values are from Warcraft Wiki's beta table. Later smelts such as Mithril, Truesilver and Thorium appear there with only their required skill, and Warcraft Tavern says Smelt Azerothium gives points from 275. Check each recipe's color before you plan around it. Iron goes grey at 140 and Gold only starts at 155, so expect a stretch where only veins move your skill (our reading of the table). WoW-Professions also warns that Iron "rarely gives a point" after 135.

Ore veins and skill-up colors

Orange always gives a point, yellow usually does, green rarely does and grey never does (Warcraft Wiki). Once a vein turns green, the next tier up is the better use of your time.

Ore	Orange	Yellow	Green	Grey	Where to look first
Copper	1	25	50	100	Starter zones
Tin	65	90	115	165	Wetlands, Hillsbrad Foothills
Silver	75	100	125	175	Same areas as Tin, but rarer
Iron	125	150	175	225	Arathi Highlands, Thousand Needles
Gold	155	180	205	255	Arathi Highlands, Thousand Needles, often in place of Iron
Mithril	175	200	225	275	Badlands, The Hinterlands
Truesilver	230	255	280	330	Anywhere Mithril or Small Thorium spawns, as a rare swap; Felwood
Dark Iron	230	255	280	330	Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge
Small Thorium	245	270	295	345	Un'Goro Crater, Winterspring
Rich Thorium	275	300	325	375	Un'Goro Crater, Winterspring, both Plaguelands, Burning Steppes, Azshara
Heavy Thorium	300	300	300	300	Mount Hyjal

Skill colors are from Warcraft Wiki, and most zones come from the route table below. Warcraft Wiki's beta table has no Gold row, so the Gold colors are the Classic values from Icy Veins' Classic mining guide. Warcraft Wiki says Truesilver Deposits rarely replace Mithril or Small Thorium nodes, so they turn up wherever those do. Rich Thorium zones come from WoW-Professions plus Wowhead's Classic node data, which also lists Blackrock Spire and Dire Maul. Every vein below Heavy Thorium goes grey about 100 points after its required skill.

Ooze Covered deposits

Silithid hives hold Ooze Covered versions of the usual nodes. Each needs the same skill as its plain version. Wowhead's Classic data places them as follows, and Forever spawn points aren't confirmed yet.

Ooze Covered node	Zones in Wowhead's Classic data	Skill
Ooze Covered Mithril Deposit	Feralas, Thousand Needles	175
Ooze Covered Truesilver Deposit	Silithus, Feralas, Un'Goro Crater	230
Ooze Covered Thorium Vein	Un'Goro Crater, Feralas	245
Ooze Covered Rich Thorium Vein	Silithus	275

Warcraft Wiki names the hives: the Writhing Deep in Feralas, the silithid hive at the Rustmaul Dig Site in Thousand Needles, and the Slithering Scar in Un'Goro Crater. Wowhead also lists Ooze Covered Silver Veins and Gold Veins at their normal skill.

Mining zones by skill

Skill	Mine	Best zones	Source
1–65	Poor Copper, then Copper	Your starter area, then Elwynn Forest (Alliance) or Durotar (Horde)	WoW-Professions
65–125	Tin, Silver	Wetlands (Alliance), Silverpine Forest and Hillsbrad Foothills (Horde)	WoW-Professions
125–175	Iron, Gold	Thousand Needles at lower character levels, Arathi Highlands once you're higher or mounted	WoW-Professions
175–230	Mithril, Gold	Badlands, Searing Gorge, Feralas, Tanaris, The Hinterlands	Warcraft Tavern; WoW-Professions
230–275	Truesilver, Dark Iron, Small Thorium	Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge for Dark Iron; Un'Goro Crater, Winterspring, the Plaguelands, Feralas, Silithus, Felwood, Blasted Lands	Warcraft Tavern; WoW-Professions
275–300	Rich Thorium	Un'Goro Crater, Eastern Plaguelands, Winterspring, Burning Steppes; also Azshara, Dire Maul and Blackrock Spire	WoW-Professions; Wowhead (Classic data)
300	Heavy Thorium	Mount Hyjal	WoW-Professions

Skill 1 to 175. Start on the Poor Copper Veins and normal Copper in your starting zone. Because Junior trainers teach no smelting, stop at a full trainer before your first smelt to learn Apprentice Mining and Smelt Copper: Krunn in Razor Hill for Orcs and Trolls, Yarr Hammerstone or Dank Drizzlecut in Dun Morogh for Dwarves and Gnomes (WoW-Professions). The full trainer list is below. Night Elves should note WoW-Professions' warning that Teldrassil has no forge; the nearest is at the Warrior's Terrace in Darnassus. Switch to Tin at 65 so you can make Bronze. Copper and Tin turn up along any ordinary questing route. The harder part starts when Iron and Gold send you to Arathi Highlands and Thousand Needles. Both are contested zones, so on a PvP realm you'll mine with one eye on the other faction, and on any realm you'll want a quick way to deal with the local mobs.

Skill 175 to 230. Mithril opens at 175 and smelting soon stops paying, so Mithril, plus any Gold veins on your route, carries you to 230. Gold stays orange or yellow until 205 on Icy Veins' Classic numbers, so grab every Gold Vein you pass until then; after 205 it rarely gives a point and is worth mining only for the ore. Badlands, Searing Gorge, Feralas, Tanaris and The Hinterlands have the most Mithril (Warcraft Tavern). These zones hit hard, so level your character into them first or every death costs you more time than the vein saves.

Skill 230 to 300. Truesilver and Dark Iron open at 230 and Small Thorium at 245. Warcraft Tavern sends you to Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes for Dark Iron, though Icy Veins' Classic guide lists Dark Iron only inside Blackrock Depths and Molten Core, so check where Forever places it. WoW-Professions adds Blasted Lands for 245 to 275, where the Garrison Armory mine is Horde only. Rich Thorium starts at 275 and is the slowest stretch, because Warcraft Tavern describes its spawn rate as very low. Dire Maul East also has Small Thorium (Warcraft Tavern). At 300, Heavy Thorium in Mount Hyjal is a material farm, not a skill source; our Mount Hyjal guide covers getting there.

Example: a Dwarf Paladin mines Copper in their starting area, then walks to Yarr Hammerstone at Steelgrill's Depot to learn Smelt Copper, since the Junior trainer can't teach it. They learn Journeyman from him at skill 50 and work Tin and Silver in the Wetlands while questing there. At 125 they head to Arathi Highlands for Iron and Gold, and they save their Gold Ore to smelt at 155–185 for extra points.

Making gold with mining in WoW Forever

Mining costs nothing to start beyond a pick, so it pays from your first vein. Blacksmiths and Engineers need what you dig up, and Merchant's Favor crates take ore and bars too. Our Merchant's Favor guide shows that an Ingots crate pays double the Favor of an Ore crate, so smelt before you fill one.

• Mining and Herbalism: two gathering skills on one route, and the Bountiful Harvest Legacy perk raises Scarce drops from both.
• Mining with Blacksmithing or Engineering: you supply your own bars. Early on this mostly saves gold rather than earning it.
• Ore or bars? Check the Auction House for both before you smelt, since demand changes from week to week.

Cave veins are the main risk for gathering income, so a class that can get in and out without a long fight earns more per hour.

Best mining class in WoW Forever

What matters most is reaching a vein, looting it and leaving before a fight drags on. These are our picks, based on class tools covered in our class guides:

Class	Why it suits mining	Key tools
Hunter	The pet holds mobs while you loot; Feign Death drops a losing fight	Feign Death at 30 (Hunter guide)
Warlock	The Voidwalker tanks from level 10	Voidwalker (Warlock guide)
Druid	Prowl slips past mobs; Travel Form moves fast between nodes	Prowl at 20, Travel Form at 30 with 40% outdoor speed (Druid guide)

Any class can mine well. If you also take Engineering, the Ultralight Goblin Glider is an extra escape tool (our professions guide). Our class tier list ranks the classes for solo leveling, which is what decides how soon you reach the next ore tier.

WoW Forever mining equipment

Item	Effect	Source	Requirement
Enchant Gloves – Mining	+2 Mining	Enchanting	Enchanting 145
Enchant Gloves – Advanced Mining	+5 Mining	Enchanting	Enchanting 215
Miner's Cape	+2 Mining	Miner Johnson, Deadmines	Level 17 (item level 22)
Goblin Mining Helmet	+5 Mining	Engineering	Engineering 205
Smelting Pants	Smelt Copper, Tin, Bronze and Silver 25% faster	Gilnid, Deadmines	Level 16 (item level 21)
Rockslicer	Opens Copper, Tin, Silver and Iron nodes without the Mining skill; 30 charges	Rhahk'Zor, Deadmines	Level 18 (item level 23)

Effects, sources and the level requirements of the three Deadmines drops are from Warcraft Wiki's Forever item entries and Warcraft Tavern. Neither lists Forever drop chances yet. As a rough guide, Wowhead's original Classic loot data has the Miner's Cape dropping from Miner Johnson about 55% of the time and Smelting Pants from Gilnid about 56%; Rhahk'Zor dropped the Classic Rockslicer, a plain weapon then, roughly 4% of the time. Gloves take one enchant, so the most you can add is +12 (Advanced Mining, the helmet and the cape; our math). That's worth having when it lets you start the next vein tier a few points early. Spend Rockslicer charges on Iron, the highest tier it can open.

WoW Forever mining Legacy perks

Perk	Ranks	Effect (beta client)
Bountiful Harvest	5	+20% Scarce materials per rank from Mining, Herbalism and Skinning, so double at 5/5
Working Overtime	5	+4% chance per rank of a skill-up in any tradeskill, +20% at 5/5
Dedicated Study	1	+1 a day to your lowest tradeskill; Elemental Essences once all five are at 300
Performance Bonus	3	5% chance per rank, 15% at 3/3, of double Merchant's Favor when you turn a crate in to the Azeroth Commerce Authority (Alliance) or Durotar Supply and Logistics (Horde)

Values are from our Legacy guide, which also covers the tree gates, and match Warcraft Tavern's Legacy overview: 4% per rank for Working Overtime, and 3 ranks starting at 5% for Performance Bonus. Other databases list different rank counts and totals for these two perks, so read the tooltip in game before you spend points. Working Overtime speeds up leveling, and Bountiful Harvest is the gold pick for a Mining and Herbalism character.

Mining trainers in WoW Forever

WoW-Professions lists 22 trainers: 6 Junior trainers in the starter areas who teach up to 75 with no smelting, 12 faction trainers who teach to Artisan, and 4 neutral Artisan trainers. Locations and the TomTom waypoints below are from WoW-Professions' trainer page unless noted.

Alliance mining trainers

Trainer	Zone	Where to find them	Waypoint	Teaches
Kelsey Fargo	Elwynn Forest	Northshire (Warcraft Tavern)	/way 47.2 32.2	Up to 75
Sally Swiftwrench	Dun Morogh	Starter area	/way 28.8 67.8	Up to 75
Fanorran Stilloak	Teldrassil	Aldrassil in Shadowglen	/way 58.2 41.5	Up to 75
Geofram Bouldertoe	Ironforge	The Great Forge, Deepmountain Mining Guild on the north side	/way 50.2 26.1	To Artisan
Gelman Stonehand	Stormwind City	Dwarven District, upstairs in Stonehand Mining	/way 59.2 37.8	To Artisan
Yarr Hammerstone	Dun Morogh	Steelgrill's Depot northeast of Kharanos, downstairs	/way 50 50.3	To Artisan
Dank Drizzlecut	Dun Morogh	Gol'Bolar Quarry	/way 69.3 55.3	To Artisan
Brock Stoneseeker	Loch Modan	Thelsamar, the mining building two doors east of the inn	/way 37.2 47.8	To Artisan
Kurdram Stonehammer	Darkshore	Auberdine, outdoors by the forge in the north part of town	/way 38.2 41	To Artisan
Matt Johnson	Duskwood	Darkshire, outdoors behind the blacksmith	/way 74.2 49.6	To Artisan

WoW-Professions' leveling guide notes that Darnassus has no Mining trainer, so Night Elves move on to Kurdram in Auberdine after Shadowglen.

Horde mining trainers

Trainer	Zone	Where to find them	Waypoint	Teaches
Norzsh	Durotar	The Den, Valley of Trials	/way 40.5 68.1	Up to 75
Vartha Rockmane	Mulgore	Camp Narache	/way 44.3 78.4	Up to 75
Walter Mason	Tirisfal Glades	Deathknell, upstairs	/way 32.3 65.7	Up to 75
Makaru	Orgrimmar	Valley of Honor	/way 73.1 26.4	To Artisan
Brek Stonehoof	Thunder Bluff	Stonehoof Geology on the lower rise	/way 34.6 57.6	To Artisan
Brom Killian	Undercity	War Quarter	/way 56 37.1	To Artisan
Krunn	Durotar	Razor Hill, by the northwest forge	/way 51.9 41	To Artisan
Johan Focht	Silverpine Forest	The Sepulcher, down the stairs inside the crypt	/way 43.4 40.5	To Artisan

Neutral mining trainers

Trainer	Zone	Where to find them	Waypoint	Teaches
Messana Crestwind	Zephras Isle	Shen'dar Village	/way 44.8 44.5	To Artisan
Halavuul Cragwind	Zephras Isle	Valanaar	/way 65.4 80.4	To Artisan
Pikkle	Tanaris	Gadgetzan, inside a small house	/way 51.1 28.1	To Artisan
Grungle	Riverglades	Powderfuse Port	/way 77.8 52	To Artisan

Waypoints are for the TomTom addon. WoW-Professions built its Forever pages on beta data, so a trainer may sit a step or two away on live servers. Skyborne players start on Zephras Isle, where Messana Crestwind and Halavuul Cragwind teach every rank. The WoW Forever hub links our other profession and zone guides.

Want a hand with this?

If you would rather skip the grind that goes with this, WoW Forever profession services are listed on FullBoosts. Read the publisher's rules before you buy any service from anyone, FullBoosts included — a marketplace listing isn't publisher permission.

FAQ

Is mining worth it for WoW Forever players? Yes for most players. Blacksmithing and Engineering both run on its bars, Merchant's Favor crates accept ore and bars, and the new Azerothium and Heavy Thorium bars are mainly Blacksmithing reagents (WoW-Professions). If you never craft, you can sell what you gather.

Which profession pairs best with mining in WoW Forever? For gold, Herbalism, because one route covers both and Bountiful Harvest raises Scarce drops from each. Blacksmithing or Engineering if you'd rather use your own bars; our professions guide compares the pairs.

Which class is best for mining in WoW Forever? In our view Hunter, Warlock and Druid, because a pet or stealth and speed let them loot veins without long fights. Any class can level Mining to 300.

Is there a level requirement for mining in WoW Forever? You can start in your first zone. Junior trainers there teach Apprentice Mining, Skyborne characters can learn it from a quest reward in Thendal Village, and Warcraft Tavern says Poor Copper Veins can be mined at level 1. Later ranks need skill 50, 125 and 200 (WoW-Professions).

Can Junior Mining Trainers teach smelting? No. WoW-Professions says they teach up to 75 with no smelting, so visit a full trainer such as Krunn, Yarr Hammerstone or Gelman Stonehand for Smelt Copper.

Does smelting level mining in WoW Forever? Yes, mostly up to 185, where Gold Bar goes grey in Warcraft Wiki's beta table. Warcraft Tavern also reports points from Smelt Azerothium at 275, so check that recipe's color in game.

Where do you find Heavy Thorium Ore? In Heavy Thorium Veins in the Scourge area of Mount Hyjal, at Mining 300 (WoW-Professions). To smelt it you need a Molten Foundry at your camp or one of the special forges inside dungeons (Warcraft Wiki).

Related guides

• WoW Forever professions guide
• WoW Forever camping guide
• Merchant's Favor guide
• Legacy system guide
• Mount Hyjal guide
• WoW Forever leveling guide