WoW Forever Mining Guide

WoW Forever Mining Guide Quick Overview:

• WoW Forever introduces several new late-game materials to Mining, like Heavy Thorium Ore, Pyrite, Bauxite, and Pitchblende.
• The spawn rates of ore nodes in WoW Forever are dynamic and depend on the number of players in the area.
• Mining is available right in the starter area.
• Mining in WoW Forever is best combined with Herbalism, Blacksmithing, or Engineering.
• Best Mining Classes in the game are Druid, Hunter, and Warlock due to their mobility and/or pet usage.

Can’t be bothered with swinging your mining pick at every opportunity? Want to focus on your adventure without the unnecessary grind? Skycoach’s WoW Forever Professions Boost & Carry service will handle it so that you can enjoy the best parts of the game freely.

 

 

 

WoW Forever Mining Changes

Mining in Forever is the same at its core: you get a Mining Pick and use it on ore veins you occasionally find out in the open world. That gives you some useful ores, stones, gems, and scarce resources that enable you to craft stuff. The gameplay mechanics of mining are the same as always: you come up to a node and activate it.

That said, Blizzard introduced many improvements to the profession to make it more convenient and player-friendly.

First off, now you can begin your mining journey right in the starter area thanks to Poor Copper Ore Veins added into the game alongside Junior Mining Trainer NPCs. You won’t get much more than Copper Ore, of course, but you get your hands on the profession right away, which might feel better for veterans who won’t feel like they’re missing out on opportunities while they’re still low-level.  

Secondly, the spawn rates of all ore nodes in the game are now dynamic, speeding up in populated areas and normalizing in places where there aren’t that many players. The idea is, once again, to just make mining feel more convenient and reduce unnecessary friction and wait time, so it’s a welcome change.

Speaking of convenience, now you are allowed to track multiple types of resources on the map, so there’s no need to constantly switch between Find Minerals and Find Herbs, for example. Moreover, you get an improved Search tool with new filter options. Want to only look for a specific gear slot? Easy. Want to look only through what you can craft with the materials at hand? Done. Want to literally just enter the name of the thing you need and find it? Implemented as well.

Finally, you get a whole bunch of new materials, namely:

• Heavy Thorium Ore.
• Three new scarce materials: Pyrite, Bauxite, and Pitchblende.
• Heavy Thorium Bar, which can be Smelted using Heavy Thorium Ore at a Molten Foundry.
• Azerothium Bar, which can be Smelted from Pitchblende and Coal.
• Legionite Bar, which can be Transmuted using Heavy Thorium Bar and Fel Crystals.

The new bars are used in endgame recipes and are therefore hard to obtain, and we’re yet to see them all in action.

Leveling Mining in Forever

Getting Mining to level 300 is no easy task, so you’d better know what you’re doing, or you’ll waste a lot of time. Your strategy will differ based on your Mining skill level, since leveling up unlocks new nodes and materials, but said nodes and materials are going to be more scarce and located in progressively more dangerous areas.

That means that Mining is inherently tied to your character progression, and remembering to look for ore veins and dedicating time to Smelting stuff will pay off in the long run, because you would rather progress naturally than level up your character only to then have to return to low-level areas and grind Mining while missing out on higher-level content.

I’d say that the first 150-185 Mining levels should be no problem for most players, but then it starts to get a bit spicier.

Smelting Basics

One of the key reasons behind this number is that your Mining skill increases with Smelting, but only up to level 185. After that, Mining is the only way to progress. Essentially, the game incentivizes you to get out there and do the heavy work, not just sit in one place using a bunch of resources you’ve purchased or got from your friends.

Realistically, for most players it’s only going to be an additional source of Mining experience, not the main one. Remember that Smelting experience gain also depends on the type of material, and some lose relevance quite quickly, providing zero experience after a certain point.

Smelting material	Mining Level Limitations
Smelt Copper	1-65
Smelt Tin	65-75
Smelt Bronze	75-100
Smelt Silver	100-125
Smelt Iron	125-140
Smelt Gold	155-185

You should also note that the cutoff point for Iron is 140, while you are only allowed to start Smelting Gold at level 155, meaning that there is going to be a significant gap where you will have to return to pure mining to progress.

Mining Basics

If you want to level effectively, you need to remember that each Ore vein type offers different experience rewards based on your Mining skill level. Orange veins guarantee you a skill point for mining, yellow offer a decent chance of getting a skill point, green are less likely, and gray provide no skill points.

​Essentially, as soon as you reach the Green cutoff point, mining this particular vein type becomes significantly less efficient, which means that you should look for veins from the next tier.

Ore vein	Orange	Yellow	Green	Grey
Copper Vein	1	25	50	100
Tin Vein	65	90	115	165
Silver Vein	75	100	125	175
Iron Deposit	125	150	175	225
Gold Vein	155	180	205	255
Mithril Deposit Ooze Covered Mithril Deposit	175	200	225	275
Truesilver Deposit Ooze Covered Truesilver Deposit	230	255	280	330
Dark Iron Deposit	230	255	280	330
Small Thorium Vein Ooze Covered Thorium Vein	245	270	295	345
Rich Thorium Vein Ooze Covered Rich Thorium Vein	275	300	325	375

Mining levels 1-175

You will start your Mining skill grind by activating Poor Copper Ore Veins early on in the game, and this is going to last for a while. There’s no particular secret to the process — you just learn the locations and activate the available nodes until you finally reach level 65 and are allowed to mine Tin veins, enabling you to smelt Bronze Bars and expand your capabilities through it.

Finding these early materials isn’t going to be a problem — just walk around the areas doing your usual questing and leveling, and you’ll get plenty of opportunities to use your pickaxe.

​Once your character is comfortable walking into level 25-30 areas, you’ll get far more opportunities to farm Silver, Iron, and Gold Ore than before. The problem is that many of these veins are located in Contested zones like Arathi Highlands and Thousand Needles, so if you’re playing on a PvP server, Mining becomes genuinely dangerous. If not, it’s still going to take some time, and you'd better have good ways to deal with mobs that populate these locations so that you can mine in peace.

Mining levels 175-230

Once you hit Mining skill level 175, Mithril Ore becomes available to you, and Smelting is about to become useless for your XP gain, which signifies a new stage of your grind. Remember that Gold only becomes green at level 205, so these two materials are going to be your priority for the next 35 Mining skill levels. Look around Badlands, Feralas, and Searing Gorge for Mithril in particular.

The map becomes quite dangerous at this point, and you’re getting the feel of what the endgame will look like, so make sure your character can handle the pressure consistently — otherwise your mining attempts will be ineffective, and you’ll waste time on random deaths.

Mining level 230 and beyond

Skill level 230 opens up two new Ore types, and 245 adds another one to the mix, so this is another huge checkpoint. Both Plaguelands, Winterspring, Un’Goro Crater, and the Burning Steppes are your best shots at getting Truesilver, Dark Iron, and Small Thorium deposits, but the progress is going to be slower.

The last step is all about these Rich Thorium Veins, mostly found in late-game areas like Azshara, Blackrock Spire, and Dire Maul, although you’ll also find some of them in the areas from the previous tier. The spawn rate for these is quite slow, so the progress during these final stages is going to feel more like a crawl for several reasons, but that’s just how it is.  

Making Gold with Mining in Forever

Mining is a gathering profession that requires no investment to start profiting, making it a good and reliable way to earn gold in WoW Forever. You can get materials rather consistently, especially if your class offers some mobility and/or protection to get into caves (where many veins can be found) and leave them without dying.

The thing is, Mining provides crucial resources for both Blacksmithing and Engineering, making the stuff you gather quite valuable for sale. All you need to do is optimize your routes so that it doesn’t take you too long to gather your materials. You will also need to remember to check whether Bars or Ore are in demand right now.

Since you’re going to run around gathering stuff anyway, pairing Mining with Herbalism makes a lot of sense and can become a consistent way of getting money without dedicating too much time to a profession outside of normal questing and character leveling. As soon as optimizing your open world pathing and questing to include gathering maximum materials becomes second nature, you shouldn’t struggle with cash.

At the same time, nothing stops you from coupling Mining with Blacksmithing or Engineering yourself — you’re going to gather these resources anyway, so why not use them yourself? This is more of a saving strategy rather than an earning one, especially early on, but many players rely on it because it just comes naturally.

Best Class to Learn Mining in Forever

This one is pretty simple: the best mining class is the one that allows you to mine peacefully without having to engage in combat every time you notice an ore vein. If you can simply run toward the node, activate it, and get out unscathed, then your efficiency is at its maximum.

For now, there are only three classes that have some solid advantages for Mining. Hunters get pets that can tank for them while they’re mining, and Feign Death is going to help them get rid of any threat that comes with the mine-and-run approach.

Warlocks are probably the best at solo leveling in Forever, and, just like Hunters, they also get pets, with Voidwalker being especially good at tanking. The lack of mobility tools hurts you, and you don’t get to pretend dead, but a free mount is a nice thing to have, and it will speed up your progression in the long term.

Last but not least, Druids can always Prowl to dodge combat, and their Travel Form is great for running around and activating the Ore veins.

These three are probably going to be your best bets for Mining, but it doesn’t mean that you cannot use other classes if you want to — your fun and convenience come first, and it’s not like you absolutely have to optimize everything.

 

 

Forever Mining Equipment

In Wow Forever, you don’t get that many Mining Equipment options, and they aren’t that crazy in general. Still, you can increase your Mining level by up to 10 points by wearing two separate items.  

First off, Enchant Gloves — Mining and Enchant Gloves — Advanced Mining provide +2 and +5 to your Mining skill, respectively. Unfortunately, these require having an Enchantment level of 145 or 215.

As for the actual items that you could wear, Miner’s Cape is a level 22 item available to use since level 17, and it drops from Miner Johnson with a 55% chance. The only upgrade to your helmet slot in this regard comes in the form of a Goblin Mining Helmet — a level 41 item that requires having 205 in Engineering in order to wear it.

As you can imagine, these Items are most valuable when they allow you to hit certain breakpoints, like gathering the next tier of Ore ahead of time. Aside from that, they aren’t going to really help you that much, so you’ll probably use them just to get a bit ahead of the curve here and there.

Aside from skill-level increasing items, you have only two other equipment options that affect your Mining.

Smelting Pants are mostly a convenience/efficiency thing, since they reduce the crafting time of Smelt Copper, Smelt Tin, Smelt Bronze, and Smelt Silver by 25%. They drop from Gilnid with a 55% chance and can be worn as soon as you hit level 16 on your character.

Rockslicer, in comparison, is a tool that enables anyone to mine Copper, Tin, Silver, or Iron veins, but it only has 30 charges. Rockslicer drops from Rhank’Zor with around a 5.5% chance and requires level 18 to use. Obviously, if you intend on doing that, only spend charges on valuable Ores that you cannot mine without it, like Iron.

Mining Legacy Bonuses in WoW Forever

Forever’s Legacy system features four talents that might help you out with your Mining progression or gold earning. They are pretty self-explanatory.

• Bountiful Harvest increases the amount of Scarce materials found with Mining, Herbalism, or Skinning, which is worth it on its own, but doubly good if you decide to go the Mining+Herbalism route.
• Dedicated Study is a small boost towards your lowest-level tradeskill. Alternatively, it can provide random Elemental Essences if you already achieved 300 in all five skills.
• Performance Bonus provides a chance to receive 100% additional Merchant's Favor when turning in a supply crate to the Azeroth Commerce Authority or Durotar Supply and Logistics.
• Working Overtime increases your chance to gain a skill increase from any tradeskill, which is just a nice general boost to your profession’s leveling speed.

Mining Trainers in Forever

There are 24 Mining Trainers in WoW Forever, with 10 for each faction and 4 neutral ones. However, note that out of 10 faction-specific trainers, only 7 can teach you anything outside of Apprentice Mining.

Here’s where you can find each one.

Alliance Mining Trainers

Trainer	Teaches	Location	Waypoint
Kelsey Fargo	Apprentice Mining only	Northshire, Elwynn Forest	/way 47.2 32.6
Sally Swiftwrench	Apprentice Mining only	Coldridge Valley, Dun Morogh	/way 28.8 67.8
Fanorran Stilloak	Apprentice Mining only	Shadowglen, Teldrassil	/way 58.2 41.6
Geofram Bouldertoe	Up to Artisan Mining	The Great Forge, Ironforge	/way 50.4, 26
Gelman Stonehand	Up to Artisan Mining	Dwarven District, Stormwind City	/way 59.0 37.6
Yarr Hammerstone	Up to Artisan Mining	Steelgrill's Depot, Dun Morogh	/way 50, 50.2
Dank Drizzlecut	Up to Artisan Mining	Gol'Bolar Quarry, Dun Morogh	/way 69.2, 55.4
Brock Stoneseeker	Up to Artisan Mining	Thelsamar, Loch Modan	/way 37.2, 46.8
Kurdram Stonehammer	Up to Artisan Mining	Auberdine, Darkshore	/way 38.2, 41
Matt Johnson	Up to Artisan Mining	Darkshire, Duskwood	/way 74, 49.6

Horde Mining Trainers

Trainer	Teaches	Location	Waypoint
Norzsh	Apprentice Mining only	Valley of Trials, Durotar	/way 40.6 68.0
Vartha Rockmane	Apprentice Mining only	Red Cloud Mesa, Mulgore	/way 44.2 78.2
Walter Mason	Apprentice Mining only	Death Knell, Tirisfal Glades	/way 32.2 65.8
Makaru	Up to Artisan Mining	Valley of Honor, Orgrimmar	/way 73, 26.4
Brek Stonehoof	Up to Artisan Mining	Centre of Thunder Bluff	/way 34.6, 57.6
Brom Killian	Up to Artisan Mining	War Quarter, Undercity	/way 56, 37
Krunn	Up to Artisan Mining	Razor Hill, Durotar	/way 51.8, 40.8
Johan Focht	Up to Artisan Mining	The Sepulcher, Silverpine Forest	/way 43.4, 40.6

Neutral Mining Trainers

Trainer	Teaches	Location	Waypoint
Messana Crestwind	Up to Artisan Mining	Shen'dar Village, Zephras Isle	/way 44.8 44.4
Halavuul Cragwind	Up to Artisan Mining	Valanaar, Zephras Isle	/way 65.4 80.4
Pikkle	Up to Artisan Mining	Gadgetzan, Tanaris	/way 51.0 28.0
Grungle	Up to Artisan Mining	Powderfuse Port, Riverglades	/way 77.6 51.8

 

 

Read our other WoW Forever Guides:

• All Dungeons
• Rogue Guide
• Best Settings

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