If you have any doubts on which profession to train to be your primary profession, an excellent choice would be Mining. Why amd? This profession is very useful and is a counterpart to a few other professions. Mining and Jewelcrafting are a great pair, Mining and Blacksmithing and Mining and Engineering as well. Mining also goes well with other gathering professions like Skinning or Herbalism, simply because you can grind ores, herbs or skin and sell it on the AH to make a profit.
Starting to mine
For the start, each miner should know and obtain a few things. A mining pick would be the first item you would need and you can get it at trade goods or mining supplies vendors, who are usually found next to a mining trainer.
Another thing you should know is where to find veins. Similar to Herbalism, with Mining you have an ability called “Find Minerals”. When “Find Minerals” is activated you will be able to track veins on your minimap (yellow dots). With the use of The Gatherer, which is a very useful addon, you will be able to store all vein locations you have found. It would be also possible to store vein locations found by your guild or party members in possession of the same addon.
The most common places to look for veins are the mountain areas, hills and rocks. As each area is different in level so are the veins. For example, each of the starting areas is rich in Copper veins.
What benefits will I have with Mining?
If you choose Mining you will also get another great ability – Smelting. With the use of Smelting you will be able to create various metal bars from the ores you gathered. Players with this profession also get a lot of stones, motes, and gems while mining.
Mining paired with other professions
Like said before, Mining is nice because it is can be a good counterpart to a few other useful professions. Jewelcrafting, Engineering and Blacksmithing depend greatly on Mining. The choice of professions is always up to you, however, it is good to have 2 suitable professions paired in order to get the best out of them and skill up faster. Combo of Mining and Herbalism is said to be really good for making profit since you can just fly around the map and gather herbs and ores.
Is there something else I should know about when it comes to Mining?
Mining is a useful and profitable profession and it is also a great profession for all classes that are in a need of extra health, such as Warriors, Paladins or Death Knights. There is a special skill offered with Mining – the Toughness. Toughness will give you extra stamina which is very useful while levelling, not to mention that when you reach 450 in Mining, this skill will give you 500 health extra (50 stamina). This is an ideal bonus for a tank!
The Warrior and Paladin classes usually choose Mining as their primary profession. Death Knights, who are the new class in WoW, in most cases choose Mining as well because they too are plate wearers and can spec to be tanks. However, it isn’t only that the plate wearers choose Mining. Other classes do it also if their second profession is either Jewelcrafting or Engineering.
If you want to get the most out of Mining as a WoW Profession, then check out our WoW Mining Guide for more on leveling your character and making tons of Gold, plus a video review of Dugi’s Dailies and a link to Penn’s Professions Guide, one of the most comprehensive and coolest World of Warcraft Professions Guides available.
