WoW Classic Mining Guide

Whether you're jumping back into WoW Classic for some nostalgic dungeon grinding or you're a first-time player, getting into professions can be somewhat overwhelming at the start. If you choose the Mining profession, it can be somewhat tedious, but once you get used to the cycle of boosting your skills, you'll be able to grind to level 300 in no time.

As with every profession in WoW Classic, it begins with visiting the Mining Trainer and Supplier. Every city will have its own Trainer and Vendor—If you're having trouble finding your trainer in any given city, ask the city guards, and most of them will easily be able to direct you. Learn the profession from your trainer, and don't forget to grab the Mining Pick from the Mining Supplier, as you can only mine if you have it. 

When you're questing or traveling, always keep an eye out for Ore Veins jutting from the landscape (as seen above). While they can appear anywhere on the landscape, you're more likely to find them on hills or mountainous areas. Approach a vein, and you'll have the option to mine it—keep mining until the vein disappears, and you'll receive the max amount it was willing to give. 

You will likely gain a skill point toward your mining for every strike at a vein at lower levels, but it becomes a bit more tedious at later levels. However, grinding it out is useful because when you begin to smelt your harvested ore, it opens up possibilities for unique equipment or a good amount of coin. 

Related: WoW Classic Leatherworking Guide

Smelting provides you with usable resources and counts toward and adds to your Mining skill level. You'll know what kind of skill you'll get from each ore by looking at the color of the words:

• Orange is a guaranteed skill up.
• Yellow is a likely skill up.
• Green is a unlikely (but still possible) to award a skill.
• Grey will never award a skill. 

When you've found a safe place and you've decided it's time to smelt:

1. Find a forge—you won't be able to smelt outside of one. Anvils are usually nearby.
2. Open your spellbook. Click on the Smelting tab, and it will bring up your Smelting menu (as seen above).
3. Smelt as much ore as you have.

After smelting, you will have created bars from the ore (if you mine copper ore, you will smelt copper bars, etc.). From here, it is at the player's discretion as to whether they want to keep the bars and use them for crafting equipment (mostly if their secondary profession is blacksmithing) or post stacks of them on the auction house for some extra coin. There are always players out there willing to pay for stacks of smelted bars for crafting. 

Repeat this cycle as you level up and gain the ability to mine more advanced veins, ensuring the most skill points.

For more guides on WoW Classic, check out WoW Classic: Fishing Skill Level By Zone and stay tuned to Pro Game Guides for continuing coverage on your favorite games!