World of Warcraft: Making Money the Mining Way

Stradden · March 2009

MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent Robert Duckworth writes this article giving players tips on Mining in the blockbuster MMO.

Even when WoW was in its early days Gold Ore and bars were never worth much. Somehow an entire bar of gold was made to be worth less than a single gold coin. The Silver Ore was actually worth more because it was used in crafting recipes. Those were the old days though. Now players only need to worry about Saronite and Titanium, the two end game ores of WotLK... so far. Any possible future ore will most likely only drop inside raid instances.

Saronite, the strange ore that supposedly drives those who mine it crazy... If you believe some of the story lines in Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and Zul'Drak. A green clunky looking substance, it is found in player usable form only near the end of Zul'Drak. Previous forms of Saronite in the game are all related to quests. Supposedly the entire Wrath Gate, that giant metal wall blocking off the path between Northern Dragonblight and Icecrown, is crafted out of the stuff. Maybe it turns black once its forged, or maybe he painted it.

Read Making Money the Mining Way

aurick · March 2009

There's some decent informatoin in here about routes and strategy for mining Saronite or Titanium. But beyond that, the article is mostly bogus. It implies that only Saronite and Titanium are worth anything, and even states that the only thing Saronite is good for is to prospect it yourself. Come on. Does the game not exist below level 77-80?

The simple truth is that mining and herbalism are both terrific money makers throughout your character's entire career. Granted, you make less per stack at lower levels, but the economy itself is also a lot less expensive at those levels and so your money goes a lot farther. The amount that you can make these days from a single stack of copper used to take several levels to earn early in WoW's life. I remember how it was very, very hard to save enough money for a mount by level 40. Now if you play it smart a miner/herbalist can have that much gold by the time you've hit 20.

Gold is also far from worthless. Once smelting it turns green in my Smelting book, I never smelt another bar of the stuff. Due to the fact that this is one of the very last ores that you can get any mining skill from smelting, it is in hot demand from other miners who want a quick way to get a few more points. The alternative for them is to roam around for a good hour or so hoping that the nodes they're mining will yield skill It's a dry spot in mining's leveling that smelting gold fills very nicely, and the ore is made all the more rare by the fact that the nodes are an uncommon spawn while most players do smelt the bars out of habit -- even when they no longer need to for skill. On my server, 6 gold per ore is not uncommon, compared to about 50 silver for a bar.

My strategy for leveling is very simple:

Always take herbalism and mining as soon as you leave the newbie zone.
Use the Gatherer addon! Keep Find Herbs active in your tracker, and use Gatherer to know you're near a spawn point for metal. When you get close enough to the node that it becomes a circle on the mini-map, you can easily spot it visually without needing to use the Find Metal skill.
Sell, sell, sell. (That includes everything I get -- from cloth to gray items. And for the record, I make great money selling Saronite bars.)
Once I reach level 80, I then decide which crafting skill I want. Once I've decided, I don't take it yet. Instead I go back and quickly gather all the resources that I'll need to max out my chosen trade (or buy stuff off the auction house). Guides are available that tell you exactly how much of everything to have, and I stockpile all of it in the bank.
Only when I have everything I'll need to max out my tradeskill do I finally actually switch to it.

This strategy works great. Who cares if wool sells for 1 gold a stack when you can sell a single stack of Saronite for 30 gold? I'd much rather sell the wool as I get it from mob drops, when that gold piece is meaningful to me. At max level, it's chump change. By using this technique I am able to afford anything I need while I'm leveling.

Some people argue with me that they want to use the crafted items that they make, so they'd rather have a crafting skill from the start. Frankly, this is a mistake. The vast majority of what you craft will never be used by you. In fact, much of it will never be used by anybody. It's just junk that you make -- using valuable resources! -- so that you can get enough skill points to craft the next item you'll want to use. And most of the time, by the time you actually have the skill to use a crafted item you're already wearing better stuff from random drops or quest rewards. Crafting is a money sink. It makes much more sense to buy that set of gloves for a couple gold on the Auction House than to use up four or five times that much in materials getting enough skill to make the item.

Hopefully this mini-guide will help out some people. Once again, I'd like to say that Robert's article is great as far as it goes but by focusing exclusively on end-game the meat of the article really fails to live up to the title.

Nadia · March 2009

Originally posted by aurick

Gold is also far from worthless. Once smelting it turns green in my Smelting book, I never smelt another bar of the stuff. Due to the fact that this is one of the very last ores that you can get any mining skill from smelting, it is in hot demand from other miners who want a quick way to get a few more points.

gold is great for smelt skillups but you will get smelt skillups from later ore too

Blizzard revised the smelting skillups in one of the patches, so its much easier to get skillups from smelting that it used to be

from 175-200ish can smelt mithril for skillups

from 230-245, can smelt Truesilver for skillups

from 250-270ish, can smelt Thorium for skillups (beyond 270 its uncommon tho)

from 300-315, can smelt Fel Iron for skillups

also worth wearing +5 to mining enchants on gloves, if you can get access to it (wont help smelting tho)

to show how powerful smelting can be,

I had one level 10 alt that had mining skill of 190

- and had *never* mined any ore, just smelted ore I sent from other alts

dsebutchr · March 2009

I made more than 2500 gold from mining before I ever reached level 40. This author has no clue what they are talking about.

This is a classic example of somebody listening to others versus playing for themselves. You can make a killing off mining low level ores and selling them. I do it on every character I make. I make a LOT of money.

Utter rubbish.

streea · March 2009

I agree with the comments here... I recently switched my gathering profession to mining for the enchanter I'm leveling (I just wanted an extra source of income), and though it is very time-consuming to go back and level it up, I was amazed by how much money I made just from leveling it... it's probably a lot higher for people who level it up while leveling, since I skipped nodes that were gray to me.

I understand the point of the article (how to mine at higher levels), but it's wrong to suggest that ore earlier on doesn't sell... because it does. It easily paid for my regular and epic ground mounts, as well as the spare materials I needed for leveling enchanting.

dalestaines1 · March 2009

There most likely will never be (and should never be) an ore that is only able to be gathered in raid instances for skill-up.

Maybe there could be some added ore that raiders can get for other reasons, but having it as a requirement to skill-up would not be logical for a gathering profession.

ZeddOverkill · March 2009

It seems rather contradictory of this article to be called "Making Money the Mining Way", but to state partway through the first section that unless you're also a jewelcrafter, "mining is no longer the best option for making money".

dalestaines1 · March 2009

Originally posted by dsebutchr

I made more than 2500 gold from mining before I ever reached level 40. This author has no clue what they are talking about.
This is a classic example of somebody listening to others versus playing for themselves. You can make a killing off mining low level ores and selling them. I do it on every character I make. I make a LOT of money.
Utter rubbish.

I agree completely.

I frequently mine low level ore when I'm waiting for groups to start and/or peak hours make high ore nearly impossible to gather.

Even regular copper ore commonly sells for 15g a stack on the weekends when people are buying it up on the AH.

That is killer money for a lowbie and high character alike.

Ozmodan · March 2009

As usual we get a very narrow view of a MMO topic. Perhaps the problem again is poor selection of your writers.

Too bad you did not ask Aurick to write it, he seems to have a far better understanding of the subject than the original writer.

aurick · March 2009

Originally posted by dalestaines1

There most likely will never be (and should never be) an ore that is only able to be gathered in raid instances for skill-up.

Maybe there could be some added ore that raiders can get for other reasons, but having it as a requirement to skill-up would not be logical for a gathering profession.

I agree with you.

If I remember correctly, when WoW launched the only place to find Dark Iron Ore was within Blackrock. It was something like 9 month to a year later that Blizzard expanded the nodes to make them fairly common in areas immediately outside the mountain. At the very least, only a few nodes existed outside the mountain, with the number being dramatically expanded later.

So for Blizzard to make any ore instance-only at this point would be a complete reversal of their previous reversal.

Battleskar · March 2009

Originally posted by aurick

There's some decent informatoin in here about routes and strategy for mining Saronite or Titanium. But beyond that, the article is mostly bogus. It implies that only Saronite and Titanium are worth anything, and even states that the only thing Saronite is good for is to prospect it yourself. Come on. Does the game not exist below level 77-80?
The simple truth is that mining and herbalism are both terrific money makers throughout your character's entire career. Granted, you make less per stack at lower levels, but the economy itself is also a lot less expensive at those levels and so your money goes a lot farther. The amount that you can make these days from a single stack of copper used to take several levels to earn early in WoW's life. I remember how it was very, very hard to save enough money for a mount by level 40. Now if you play it smart a miner/herbalist can have that much gold by the time you've hit 20.
Gold is also far from worthless. Once smelting it turns green in my Smelting book, I never smelt another bar of the stuff. Due to the fact that this is one of the very last ores that you can get any mining skill from smelting, it is in hot demand from other miners who want a quick way to get a few more points. The alternative for them is to roam around for a good hour or so hoping that the nodes they're mining will yield skill It's a dry spot in mining's leveling that smelting gold fills very nicely, and the ore is made all the more rare by the fact that the nodes are an uncommon spawn while most players do smelt the bars out of habit -- even when they no longer need to for skill. On my server, 6 gold per ore is not uncommon, compared to about 50 silver for a bar.
My strategy for leveling is very simple:

Always take herbalism and mining as soon as you leave the newbie zone.
Use the Gatherer addon! Keep Find Herbs active in your tracker, and use Gatherer to know you're near a spawn point for metal. When you get close enough to the node that it becomes a circle on the mini-map, you can easily spot it visually without needing to use the Find Metal skill.
Sell, sell, sell. (That includes everything I get -- from cloth to gray items. And for the record, I make great money selling Saronite bars.)
Once I reach level 80, I then decide which crafting skill I want. Once I've decided, I don't take it yet. Instead I go back and quickly gather all the resources that I'll need to max out my chosen trade (or buy stuff off the auction house). Guides are available that tell you exactly how much of everything to have, and I stockpile all of it in the bank.
Only when I have everything I'll need to max out my tradeskill do I finally actually switch to it.

This strategy works great. Who cares if wool sells for 1 gold a stack when you can sell a single stack of Saronite for 30 gold? I'd much rather sell the wool as I get it from mob drops, when that gold piece is meaningful to me. At max level, it's chump change. By using this technique I am able to afford anything I need while I'm leveling.
Some people argue with me that they want to use the crafted items that they make, so they'd rather have a crafting skill from the start. Frankly, this is a mistake. The vast majority of what you craft will never be used by you. In fact, much of it will never be used by anybody. It's just junk that you make -- using valuable resources! -- so that you can get enough skill points to craft the next item you'll want to use. And most of the time, by the time you actually have the skill to use a crafted item you're already wearing better stuff from random drops or quest rewards. Crafting is a money sink. It makes much more sense to buy that set of gloves for a couple gold on the Auction House than to use up four or five times that much in materials getting enough skill to make the item.
Hopefully this mini-guide will help out some people. Once again, I'd like to say that Robert's article is great as far as it goes but by focusing exclusively on end-game the meat of the article really fails to live up to the title.

I am sooooo Glad I finnally quit WoW!!! I remember all the times I found myself logging on only to fly around on my epic flyer just circling and farming ore to save up gold I would probably never need due to the fact I was a raider and got all I needed from raid drops.It was a complete waste of time and boring as hell.Lich King Ruined it for me and I have now found a deep,rich,and immersive game in EQ2.Lich King made everything too easy,blizzard is now catering to the casuel gamers,there is not much left for hardcore players,or players that are casuel and want a challenge.WoW was fun tho for the time I spent up until Lich King.You all have fun circling the skies for ore,I will be questing away and having a good time in EQ2.I think I will gibve Lord of the rings a shot when I finish up alot of the EQ2 content:P

Sanguinia · March 2009

Originally posted by Battleskar

Originally posted by aurick

There's some decent informatoin in here about routes and strategy for mining Saronite or Titanium. But beyond that, the article is mostly bogus. It implies that only Saronite and Titanium are worth anything, and even states that the only thing Saronite is good for is to prospect it yourself. Come on. Does the game not exist below level 77-80?
The simple truth is that mining and herbalism are both terrific money makers throughout your character's entire career. Granted, you make less per stack at lower levels, but the economy itself is also a lot less expensive at those levels and so your money goes a lot farther. The amount that you can make these days from a single stack of copper used to take several levels to earn early in WoW's life. I remember how it was very, very hard to save enough money for a mount by level 40. Now if you play it smart a miner/herbalist can have that much gold by the time you've hit 20.
Gold is also far from worthless. Once smelting it turns green in my Smelting book, I never smelt another bar of the stuff. Due to the fact that this is one of the very last ores that you can get any mining skill from smelting, it is in hot demand from other miners who want a quick way to get a few more points. The alternative for them is to roam around for a good hour or so hoping that the nodes they're mining will yield skill It's a dry spot in mining's leveling that smelting gold fills very nicely, and the ore is made all the more rare by the fact that the nodes are an uncommon spawn while most players do smelt the bars out of habit -- even when they no longer need to for skill. On my server, 6 gold per ore is not uncommon, compared to about 50 silver for a bar.
My strategy for leveling is very simple:

Always take herbalism and mining as soon as you leave the newbie zone.
Use the Gatherer addon! Keep Find Herbs active in your tracker, and use Gatherer to know you're near a spawn point for metal. When you get close enough to the node that it becomes a circle on the mini-map, you can easily spot it visually without needing to use the Find Metal skill.
Sell, sell, sell. (That includes everything I get -- from cloth to gray items. And for the record, I make great money selling Saronite bars.)
Once I reach level 80, I then decide which crafting skill I want. Once I've decided, I don't take it yet. Instead I go back and quickly gather all the resources that I'll need to max out my chosen trade (or buy stuff off the auction house). Guides are available that tell you exactly how much of everything to have, and I stockpile all of it in the bank.
Only when I have everything I'll need to max out my tradeskill do I finally actually switch to it.

This strategy works great. Who cares if wool sells for 1 gold a stack when you can sell a single stack of Saronite for 30 gold? I'd much rather sell the wool as I get it from mob drops, when that gold piece is meaningful to me. At max level, it's chump change. By using this technique I am able to afford anything I need while I'm leveling.
Some people argue with me that they want to use the crafted items that they make, so they'd rather have a crafting skill from the start. Frankly, this is a mistake. The vast majority of what you craft will never be used by you. In fact, much of it will never be used by anybody. It's just junk that you make -- using valuable resources! -- so that you can get enough skill points to craft the next item you'll want to use. And most of the time, by the time you actually have the skill to use a crafted item you're already wearing better stuff from random drops or quest rewards. Crafting is a money sink. It makes much more sense to buy that set of gloves for a couple gold on the Auction House than to use up four or five times that much in materials getting enough skill to make the item.
Hopefully this mini-guide will help out some people. Once again, I'd like to say that Robert's article is great as far as it goes but by focusing exclusively on end-game the meat of the article really fails to live up to the title.

I am sooooo Glad I finnally quit WoW!!! I remember all the times I found myself logging on only to fly around on my epic flyer just circling and farming ore to save up gold I would probably never need due to the fact I was a raider and got all I needed from raid drops.It was a complete waste of time and boring as hell.Lich King Ruined it for me and I have now found a deep,rich,and immersive game in EQ2.Lich King made everything too easy,blizzard is now catering to the casuel gamers,there is not much left for hardcore players,or players that are casuel and want a challenge.WoW was fun tho for the time I spent up until Lich King.You all have fun circling the skies for ore,I will be questing away and having a good time in EQ2.I think I will gibve Lord of the rings a shot when I finish up alot of the EQ2 content:P

Wait, that's just trolling, right?

Howdy, Stranger!

World of Warcraft: Making Money the Mining Way

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

World of Warcraft: Making Money the Mining Way

Comments