Scope: This is a Classic route reference, not a fully tested Forever route. Verify recipe thresholds, quantities, yields and Legacy effects in the current client before buying materials.
Where mining sits in Forever
Mining is the gold-maker: Engineering and Blacksmithing both eat ore, and smelting itself grants skill. Forever adds three things:
- Gathering manual: the starting-zone Mining for Dummies teaches Mining with +2 skill (up to 15).
- The no-mining axe: Rhahk'Zor's axe from the Deadmines rare lets you mine copper, tin, silver and iron without learning Mining at all — see our secrets roundup.
- Legacy "Bountiful Harvest": rare spawns (silver, gold, truesilver, thorium) drop +20-100% more.
The 1-300 route
Follow node tiers by zone; smelting grants skill too (about half your early points come from the forge):
| Stage | Skill | Where | What |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | 1-65 | Starting zones | Copper (smelt it) |
| Early | 65-125 | Barrens, Silverpine, Westfall | Tin, Silver, Bronze (copper+tin) |
| Mid | 125-175 | Thousand Needles, Arathi, Wetlands | Iron, Gold |
| Upper | 175-245 | Badlands, Searing Gorge, Swamp of Sorrows | Mithril, Truesilver |
| Tail | 245-300 | Burning Steppes, Un'Goro, Plaguelands, Silithus | Thorium, Dark Iron (caves in Burning Steppes) |
Three habits: leave when nodes go grey; the 245-300 thorium stretch is the slowest — lap the rim of Un'Goro and Burning Steppes; keep a spare mining pick, and the Rhahk'Zor axe rides in the bag as a free second tool.
Pair it with leveling
Mining nodes overlap the leveling map almost perfectly: Barrens (tin), Thousand Needles (iron), Badlands (mithril), Un'Goro/Burning Steppes (thorium). Zone plan on the leveling page.
The Legacy line
Working Overtime (+4-20% skill-up chance), Bountiful Harvest (best for low-spawn rares), and Performance Bonus (chance at doubled Merchant's Favor from crate turn-ins). Full table on the Legacy page.
Sources & verification
- Route tiers: classic 1.12 community consensus; no node changes reported in Forever beta.
- Forever facts: official panel, beta datamining and our own secrets-article tracking; verified 2026-09-30; subject to change at launch.
- Downstream professions: Blacksmithing 1-300, Engineering 1-300.