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Mining

Mining is the input for two crafting professions and the busiest gathering profession at launch: every Blacksmith needs ~600 Bronze and ~250 Mithril to level, every Engineer ~120 Mithril, and all of them are leveling in the same two weeks. It also places the Lodestone, a melee attack power camp buff that stacks nothing with Battle Shout. Six miners is the guild quota.

Ore, stones and gems from veins, and bars from smelting. 14 smelting recipes including two new ones: Azerothium Bar and Heavy Thorium Bar. verified from foreverchanges.pro. Other new bars used by Blacksmithing (Legionite, Demonsteel, Elementium) exist as materials; whether Mining smelts them or they come from another source is not stated. unverified Torbernite is named as a new ore in a search snippet only. unverified

Blacksmiths, engineers, and anyone who wants safe launch income. Default on Warriors and Paladins, and the alternative pair with Engineering on Hunters and Rogues. Skinning + Mining is a good “two gatherers” pair for someone who plays a lot and does not want to craft yet.

Change Detail Evidence
Azerothium Bar, Heavy Thorium Bar New smelting recipes verified
Scarce materials Bountiful Harvest (Legacy) gives up to +100% Scarce materials from Mining, Herbalism, Skinning; a new rarity flag on gathering drops verified for the perk
Torbernite ore Search snippet only unverified
Mining tool Whether a Mining Pick is still required is not documented. A “mining axe from Deadmines” item was reported, so tools appear to exist unverified

Trainers in every capital; Artisan at 200 from the same capital trainers. Zones are vanilla baseline.

Skill Vein Bar Zones
1 to 65 Copper Vein (1) Copper Bar Any starting zone, Durotar, Elwynn, Dun Morogh, Mulgore, Darkshore
65 to 125 Tin Vein (65), Silver Vein (75); smelt Bronze (65) Tin, Silver, Bronze Bar Barrens, Westfall, Redridge, Hillsbrad, Ashenvale
125 to 175 Iron Deposit (125), Gold Vein (155) Iron, Gold Bar; Steel at 165 with Coal Arathi, Stranglethorn, Thousand Needles, Alterac, Desolace
175 to 250 Mithril Deposit (175), Truesilver (230) Mithril, Truesilver Bar Badlands, Tanaris, Hinterlands, Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes, Felwood
250 to 300 Small Thorium Vein (245), Rich Thorium Vein (275), Dark Iron (230, smelt at the Black Forge in BRD) Thorium, Dark Iron Bar; Azerothium and Heavy Thorium at unknown skill Un’Goro, Winterspring, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Silithus, Azshara

Smelting skill-ups: smelt every stack of ore before gathering the next tier; Copper, Bronze, Iron and Mithril smelts each carry you 10 to 20 points cheaply. vanilla baseline

None.

  • Bronze Bars: ~600 per blacksmith in the 75 to 150 bracket. verified Keep Tin.
  • Mithril: ~250 per blacksmith and ~120 per engineer. vanilla baseline
  • Thorium: ~200 per blacksmith, ~40 per engineer, plus Arcanite comes from Thorium via Alchemy’s transmute.
  • Stones: Rough, Coarse, Heavy, Solid, Dense feed grinding stones and blasting powder; do not vendor them.
  • Waylaid Supply Crates ask for gathered bundles by rank. A miner fills Apprentice and Journeyman crates cheaply. See Gold and economy.
Tier Object Skill Effect Source
1 Lodestone 20 +90 melee Attack Power to everyone sitting nearby, scales with level; exclusive with Battle Shout style AP buffs Trainer
2 Rock Garden 140 “Spawns a common mining node over time” Blueprint
3 Molten Foundry 300 Enables recipes that need it Blueprint

verified. The +90 is a level-scaled beta value. See Camping.

  • Mine everything on your leveling path even when it is grey. Copper sells in week one because 900 new recipes are being leveled at once.
  • Post bars in 10s or 20s. Post ore only when bars are not selling.
  • Six miners feeding three blacksmiths and two engineers is the guild ratio; if you are one of the six, the guild’s crafters get first call on Mithril and Thorium. See Guild supply chain.
  • Bountiful Harvest 5 (Legacy) then Working Overtime is the gatherer build. See Legacy.
  • Skill levels for Azerothium and Heavy Thorium smelting, and where the ore comes from.
  • Whether Legionite, Demonsteel and Elementium bars are Mining smelts.
  • Whether Torbernite exists.
  • Whether a Mining Pick is required.
  • Vein data for the new zones.