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Can I Level Mining Just by Smelting? A Comprehensive Guide

The short answer is: No, you cannot level mining exclusively by smelting in most expansions of World of Warcraft. While smelting provides mining skill increases, it’s typically only effective for a portion of the leveling process, particularly in the earlier levels. To maximize your mining skill and reach the highest levels, you’ll need to supplement smelting with actively mining ore nodes. This combination of smelting and mining ensures you reach your desired skill level efficiently.

The Role of Smelting in Mining

Smelting is a crucial part of the Mining profession in WoW. It allows players to transform raw ore into usable metal bars. This process is required for crafting various items through other professions like Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Jewelcrafting. In terms of leveling mining, smelting provides a boost, especially in the lower levels, but its effectiveness diminishes as you progress. You will need a forge to smelt your ore.

Smelting is considered a sub-skill of the Mining profession which now grants Toughness (mining).

Early Leveling with Smelting

In classic World of Warcraft and some early expansions, smelting plays a more significant role in mining skill progression. For example, players could gain substantial skill points by smelting Copper Ore into Copper Bars or Iron Ore into Iron Bars. However, as you reach higher levels, the skill gains from smelting each individual ore type becomes less and less. This is when finding and mining nodes becomes the primary way to level your mining skill.

Limitations of Smelting

The key limitation of relying solely on smelting is that each type of ore provides skill gains only up to a certain point. Once you’ve smelted enough of a particular ore to reach its maximum skill-up potential, you’ll no longer receive any additional skill points from smelting it. This forces you to transition to mining new types of ores or to engage in actively mining ore nodes in different zones to continue leveling your skill.

The Importance of Mining Nodes

To effectively level your mining skill beyond the initial stages, mining ore nodes is essential. Different zones and expansions offer various ore deposits that provide skill increases relative to your current mining level. For example, to reach a mining skill of 375, you’ll need to mine Fel Iron Deposits and Adamantite Deposits in Outland after speaking with a Master Mining trainer.

Progression Through Expansions

The Mining profession is intrinsically linked to the different expansions of WoW. Each expansion introduces new ores and new levels of mining proficiency.

Vanilla (Classic): Leveling primarily involves mining Copper, Tin, Iron, Silver, and Gold. Smelting assists in early levels.
The Burning Crusade: Requires “Outland Mining” training. Fel Iron and Adamantite become key ores for leveling.
Wrath of the Lich King: Northrend introduces Cobalt, Saronite, and Titanium. Requires a Master Mining trainer in Northrend or Outland to train up to level 375 Mining.
Cataclysm: Features Obsidium and Elementium.
Mists of Pandaria: Focuses on Ghost Iron and Trillium.
Warlords of Draenor: Involves mining Blackrock Ore and True Iron Ore.
Legion: Introduces Leystone and Felslate.
Battle for Azeroth: Requires mining Monelite, Storm Silver, and Platinum.
Shadowlands: Features Elethium, Sinvyr Ore, and Oxxein Ore.
Dragonflight: Mining Draconium and Serevite.

Mining Routes and Efficiency

To optimize your mining leveling experience, it is important to research efficient mining routes and take into account the ore spawns. Websites and communities dedicated to WoW often share optimized routes for various zones. For example, areas like Hellfire Peninsula (Outland) are known for abundant Fel Iron Deposits, while Nagrand and Blade’s Edge Mountains (Outland) are rich in Adamantite Deposits. Sholazar Basin and Storm Peaks are good places to mine mithril.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some frequently asked questions about leveling the Mining profession, including the role of smelting:

1. What is the Smelting profession in WoW?

Smelting allows a character to process raw ore into purer bars of the base metal or combine other smelted metals into an alloy such as Bronze. Requires a forge. Smelting button. This is the primary sub-skill of the Mining profession which now grants Toughness (mining).

2. Where can I learn Outland Mining?

If you are already aligned with the Aldor, you can learn Outland Mining and the associated skills from Fono at 35.87 48.54 on the Aldor Rise in Shattrath City.

3. What is the minimum mining level for Outland ores?

Fel Iron Deposit: 300 minimum mining level.
Adamantite Deposit: 325 minimum mining level.

4. How can I level mining in Vanilla WoW using smelting?

In Vanilla, focus on smelting Copper, Tin, and Iron ores initially. As you level, shift your focus to higher-level ores like Silver and Gold. Remember that smelting alone won’t get you to the max level, so you need to mine the respective ore.

5. Where can I learn Mining 450?

For leveling from 400 to 450, Sholazar Basin in Northrend is often recommended due to its accessible routes and resource density. Storm Peaks is an alternative if Sholazar Basin is too crowded.

6. Does smelting give experience (XP) to my character?

Smelting any ore yields some experience, but normally only nether gold ore and ancient debris are worthwhile. For all other ores, mining them is better.

7. Do you get XP from smelting Iron in Minecraft?

According to the official wiki, smelting iron ore is worth 0.7 experience per block. Also according to the official wiki, experience in a furnace works as such: the furnace stores the experience from all smelting operations until the product is taken out.

8. What ore gives the most mining XP?

The diamond ore gives the most xp but it is very scarce. So you could use nether quartz ore as it is everywhere in the better and will get you xp faster.

9. What is the fastest way to max mining in Old School RuneScape (OSRS)?

To gain Mining experience most efficiently, players should always drop the ores they mine (also known as “powermining” or “dropmining”). This can be done by holding the shift key and clicking on the ore once shift drop has been enabled in the options. Mobile users can toggle the tap-drop option.

10. What should I pick for level 10 mining in a game like Stardew Valley?

Miner is concerned with ore, coal, smelting, and everything related to metals. Choosing Miner at Level 5 opens up Blacksmith and Prospector as choices when the player reaches Level 10. The Blacksmith Profession will increase the selling price of metal bars by 50%.

11. Where is the best place to level mining in WoW Classic?

Good places to mine mithril include Badlands, Burning Steppes and Felwood. A personal favourite place is Dreadmaul Rock in Burning Steppes. It is a small mountain with caves, with lots and lots of mithril and Truesilver deposits.

12. Where is the best place to mine in Outland?

Fel Iron Deposit can be found all over the Outland. The most popular place to farm it is Hellfire Penisula. Adamantite Deposit is rarer. We suggest flying across the Nagrand and Netherstorm using these routes.

13. What is the best mining route in Dragonflight?

Like Ohn’ahran Plains, the best Dragonflight mining route for Azure Span focuses on the outskirts of the zone. As a result, you’ll be traversing through all the area’s biomes. While it makes for interesting scenery, it comes with the cost of having to sometimes deal with annoying enemies.

14. How does smelting XP work in Minecraft?

To summarize how it works: The farm produces bamboo for fuel and cactus as the item to smelt. When you take a smelted item out of the furnace, you get a bit of XP. More smelted items = more XP.

15. How do I level mining from 290 to 300?

You do not MINE Dark Iron ore in MC, but you need to smelt it to get your mining skill from 290-300. He will then teach you how to smelt Dark Iron ore into bars. You also need to be in Blackrock Depths to smelt the ore at the black forge, located near the entrance to MC.

Conclusion

While smelting is a valuable tool for leveling your Mining profession, it is not a standalone solution. To achieve the highest levels and unlock all the benefits of the Mining profession, you must actively engage in mining ore nodes across the various zones and expansions of World of Warcraft. By combining both smelting and mining, you will maximize your leveling efficiency and ensure a smooth progression through the ranks.

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Can I level mining just by smelting?