Similar to Herbalism and Skinning, a player's mining level will determine if
they can mine a node. As a result, you may need to revisit low level
areas often to farm mineral nodes to progress from 1-300. Otherwise you
will find nodes in higher level areas that cannot be mined.
Unlike cloth, which drops from humanoids, and Herbs, which litter the map and
are found in all directions, Mining requires planning. Using the Find
Minerals skill, which is provided to your character when you take the
Mining profession, you will begin to see a pattern as to where Mineral
nodes spawn.
For the most part, Mineral nodes appear only around cliffs, dig sites, and inside of caves. This can lead to some
frustration as your mini map provides only a two-dimensional top-down
view of an area, and in caves with multiple levels, you may be left
scratching your head looking for a vein that is either located above or
below you.
One of the best ways then to mine efficiently is not to stand around a cave waiting for a few nodes to respawn, but to create
a route in maps with rocky cliffs and run in a loop. Take the image
below of a mining route for Mulgore. Notice how about three-quarters of
the map has you moving alongside the mountainous barrier where nodes
will spawn, and only the bottom is spent running without the chance to
see any minerals.A few laps around can yield a good amount of Minerals,
but this can feel repetitive and boring. This is why we consider Mining
the least attractive of the gathering professions, because skinning can
be done while questing as you often need to slay beasts, and herbs
litter the map anywhere one goes.
In addition, farming in these routes can sometimes feel like a waste of time because other players are
also doing the same thing as you. If you are a minute or so behind
another player, they are mining away, and you are running around
wondering why there are no nodes available. You may wait around for a
respawn to continue your route but sitting idly by is not something most
players enjoy.
