WoW Mining Leveling Guide 1-450

Mining is one of the biggest money makers in the game. Even through leveling from 1-450 you will make a solid amount of cash. It takes a little bit more time to level up mining compared to the other gathering professions but its very powerful for making money.

If you couple this gathering profession with engineering (and you use a Zapthrottle Mote Extractor) at level 80, it’s arguably one of the fastest ways to make cash. Unless you are a master of the Auction House, that is THE quickest way.

This guide will show you how and where to level your mining up from 1-450. It makes it much easier if you know where each and every node spawns so we found an add-on that shows you exactly where each node spawns. It’s called Gatherer, and when you couple it with the WoW Head data feed you can see where every node spawns. It’s a huge time saver. (you can read more about this here and get the addon)

Before we begin: There is one tip that I think is crucial to speed leveling your mining profession. Getting the Mining Glove Enchant: Formula: Enchant Gloves – Advanced Mining This will speed up the “failed attempts” in the beginning and it will also connect the gaps in the guide. Sometimes you just need 1-2 more skill ups to reach the next set of nodes, and having +5 mining skill speeds it up instead of trying to find multiple “green” nodes for a chance of skill up.

1-65 Copper Ore

Collect: Copper Ore.

Zones: Elwynn Forest, Tirisfal Glades, Dun Morogh, Azuremyst Isle, Durotar, Teldrassil. (basically any starting zone is plentiful of these nodes). We prefer: Dun Morogh (Alliance)/ Durotar (Horde).

You don’t have to mine your way all the way to 65. Once you get 30-40 Copper Ore I go back to the nearest town and smelt it into copper. This will give you skill-ups and expedite your leveling.

65-125 Copper Ore/Tin Ore/Silver Smelting

This is the most difficult portion of the leveling. Tin ore is a pain to find. The BEST zone to find Tin Ore is Thousand Needles. If you are horde you should level it here for sure. If you are alliance, and you have easy access to Thousand Needles AND you want to head over there, then this will be the best place to find Tin Ore.

If you are alliance, you might have to switch zones a few times. I run cycles between Lakeshire, Loch Modan (where the ogres spawn) and southern Wetlands. There’s a cave with spiders in it. In that cave there is a special ore that spawns, and you can mine this for skill ups also.

Once you get to level 75 you can purchase Silver Ore and smelt it for skill ups. You can do this all the way to 125 if you get enough bars. ON MOST SERVERS silver ore and silver bars sell for the same price. So buy the silver ore, smelt it, and resell it. This will cost you nothing but AH fee’s. (Note: prices on your server may vary..check prices before doing this).

From 75-125 the quickest way to level is through smelting silver. If you don’t have enough gold to purchase silver bars, or you don’t want to spend the cash.. just continue farming Tin and Copper ore in these zones. Smelt the Tin and Copper ore into bars, and then smelt bronze bars. This will give you additional skill ups.

Collect: Copper Ore. Tin Ore, Silver Ore

Zones: Thousand Needles, Wetlands, Loch Modan, Lakeshire.

At level 125 get your Expert Mining skill from a trainer.

125-175 Iron Ore

Collect: Iron Ore, Gold Ore.

Zones: Badlands, Arathi Highlands, Hillsbrad Foothills, Thousand Needles.

Iron Ore is pretty plentiful, but to increase the speed I usually run cycles between Badlands, Arathi Highlands, and Hillsbrad Foothills. Once you get to level 155, you have the ability to smelt gold. The same thing applies just like it did with smelting silver. If you can afford to purchase gold ore (or if you can find some) make sure you smelt it for extra skill ups. From level 155-175 it takes about 30-40 Gold Ore. This will give you an idea on how much to purchase.

175-230 Mithril Ore

Collect: Mithril Ore

Zones: Badlands, Arathi Highlands, The Hinterlands, Tanaris

Whether I’m horde or alliance I still like to run cycles between Badlands, Arathi, and if needed The Hinterlands. Mithril Ore is really plentiful but it is farmed regularly by gold farmers. So you may have a little bit of competition. Just continue to switch zones.

230-300 True Silver/Mithril – Thorium

At level 230, you can learn how to smelt True Silver Ore into True Silver bars. Just like silver and gold ore, the same rules apply. If you want to, and you have the cash to purchase True Silver ore, then do so.

Make sure you stop by your Mining Trainer to get your next level of mining.

Here is where it’s great to have your gloves enchanted with +5 mining. You can smelt True Silver bars until level 245 (or continue mining Mithril from the ones) At level 245 you can begin farming Small Thorium Veins. **This is if you have the glove enchant. If you don’t, conitnue farming mithril ore.

To farm Small Thorium Veins, I switch between Burning Steppes, and Searing Gorge.

Once your maining reaches 250 you will want to alternate between mining small thorium veins and smelting the Thorium Ore into Throium bars. You will do this until 270, or 275 (depending if you have the gloves enchant).

At level 275 you can finally farm Rich Thorium Veins. I do most of this farming in Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge, and Eastern/Western Plaguelands. Continue to farm Thorium veins until level 300.

Smelt: True Silver Ore, Collect: Small Thorium, Rich Thorium

Zones: Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge, Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands

300-325 Fel Iron Ore

Head to the outands and get your next Mining Skill. Collect Fel Iron Ore in the Hellfire Penninsula

Collect: Fel Iron Ore

Zones: Hellfire Penninsula

325-350+ Adamantite Ore

Collect: Adamantite Ore

Zones: Nagrand

Note: You don’t have to stick solely to farming these Adamantite Ore. Or you can also head back to Hellfire and farm Fel Iron Ore, if you can’t find enough nodes in Nagrand. It’s usually very plentiful but if your server is highly populated you may have trouble finding spawns. Nagrand is a big farming zone.

350-400 Cobalt Ore

Make sure you stop at your Northrend trainer and learn your next Mining level of training.

Collect: Cobalt Ore

Zones: Borean Tundra

Borean tundra is the easiest place to farm Cobalt Ore. There wont be many spawns because there are frequent levelers that snatch it up, but it usually respawns fairly quick. Just continue to run cycles around the perimeter of this zone.

400-450 Saronite Ore

Collect: Saronite Ore.

Zones: Sholazar Basin

This is your last swing and you want to get familiar with this zone. This is where I do most of my Saronite Ore farming. With that being said it might be more difficult for you to max out your mining (since you will be competing with other crafters and farmers collecting this ore). But at this level, you can farm almost every ore in the game. So your mission is complete!

Thanks for checking out our WoW Mining 1-450 Leveling Guide. This is the quickest method from starting from scrach to 450 Mining.

Do you see any errors in our guide? Feel free to comment below so we can update it properly. Thanks!