Mining to get easier in 2.4
by David Bowers 
Dec 22nd 2007 at 6:01PM
Leveling up certain skills has been a pain for some time now, and while some skills have received leveling changes, mining has been left behind. As things stand currently, if you don't run around in circles just looking for ores every 10 or 20 levels or so, you could easily find yourself having to do a massive amount of catch up once your character reaches the level cap. The amount of mining you do in the normal course of leveling just isn't enough to keep up with your experience gain.Drysc says that Blizzard has finally noticed that this "isn't fun" and plans to do something about it in patch 2.4. The various types of ore will be adjusted so that you can consistently level up your skill from the nodes available in the zones where your character will be leveling, without you having to go back and spend lots of extra time in areas where you don't have any quests.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Izbay Dec 22nd 2007 6:21PM
How about blacksmithing? :P
Elra Dec 22nd 2007 6:31PM
Wonder when they will notice that mining 7 gazillion iron, buying 7 more gazillion coal and mining 900billion mithril for the armorsmithing quest ISN'T FUN EITHER.
Kiros Dec 22nd 2007 6:33PM
Much needed, my Paladin had to stand around the Badlands for hours for one vein.
Now if they could fix enchanting between 290-300....it's impossible with BC since all the greens cost alot more around that lvl on the AH and no one runs Sholo, Strat and LBRS anymore to get the stuff to lvl.
RogueJedi86 Dec 22nd 2007 6:51PM
"and no one runs Sholo, Strat and LBRS anymore to get the stuff to lvl."
That's also why I think Blizzard needs to change the Epic Warlock and Paladin quest, since NO ONE runs Dire Maul, Scholomance, or Stratholme anymore. The quest may've been easier when 60 was the cap and everyone was running those instances daily, but now that the level 60+ players are leveling in Outland, and the 70s are busy raiding, it's very hard to get a group for them. You'll often see level 70s without their epic mounts because of this.
Liel Dec 22nd 2007 8:11PM
Pallies and warlocks dont need to get their class specific mount to get an epic one.
theRaptor Dec 22nd 2007 11:18PM
You can do those quests with two bad 70's for help or a single good one.
Richard Dec 23rd 2007 1:59AM
Funny, me and a mage buddy 2-man (he solo's it all the time, too) Strat all the time to farm stuff to DE and sell in the AH.
We make (each) about 2000G each a week when we actually push hard.
And our MT often runs DM solo... he gets a ton of stuff to sell for cash, including the occasional Orb of Deception, which still sell on our server for 750+.
There are still tons of people running those instances; you just need to find them.
Kesh Dec 22nd 2007 6:33PM
Excellent news! Mining is an absolute pain to level right now, which is probably why prices are so high on the AH. This will probably dump prices for a while until things stabilize, but it'll make things a lot easier on my Engineer.
Arnold Dec 22nd 2007 6:36PM
They have made some great progress with regards to a lot of things, but some (like mining) still need a lot of help.
The utter frustration you feel when you can finally learn a new recipe, merely to find that it is already gray for you...
With Mining I know that this happened to me several times with regards to learning to smelt certain metals...
Sephirah Dec 22nd 2007 6:40PM
C'mon, gathering skills are easy and cheap to level up!
The hard skills are the crafting one...
Matthew Rossi Dec 22nd 2007 7:20PM
I'd disagree about mining. It's a chore. Herbalism is okay, and skinning not too bad, but mining is pretty dang awful.
Balasan Dec 23rd 2007 4:28AM
Levelling skinning, is in fact ridiculously fast. When my shaman got to 275 skinning at level 43, I immediately summoned her to thrallmar to get master skinning. Now at 60 she already has 345 skinning. She can skin mobs that she can't even reasonably kill yet >
Thijz Dec 23rd 2007 5:57AM
Minings a bitch to lvl. Herbalism is not too bad (I can actually keep that one up) and skinning is easy. But mining... (including accompanying crafting profs)
Ben Dec 23rd 2007 11:54AM
I had no idea that there were people who struggled to level mining... All you have to do is grab every single node you see.
Slayblaze Dec 22nd 2007 7:14PM
Very much needed now with the faster levelling between level 20-60. As it is now you easily level up faster than your mining skill can keep up with, and you end up entering zones which match your level but not your mining skill. Meaning lots of backtracking through zones you've already cleared just to get mining skill to 'catch up'.
It's always been like this but it's just magnified with the faster levelling. Thank god blizzard finally realized this.
LFG Dec 22nd 2007 7:16PM
Easiest way to get groups for things like epic quests are is to offer gold. Once you put out that you'll pay 100g per person, a 5-man group is easy to get. 400g is a small price to pay for to your epic done! You wont believe the number of level 70s that will come group with you when you do that. Just make sure you let them know that they wont get paid until the quest is done.
epsilon343 Dec 22nd 2007 7:19PM
Maybe they should just make it so that you level each time you access the vein. I know sometimes I'll get a vein that will sit for four or five mines on it, yet I only got XP for the first time I touched it. Granted that won't necessarily help if you're like me and have changed professions (a day of leveling my gone to leveling them) but it might make it more bearable on the lower levels.
Tuberon Dec 22nd 2007 7:22PM
It's not impossible to get help on the pally scholo part. In fact, find a pally friend.
Friend was in t4 healing gear at the time, and I was prot, we wiped the place clean, at least through to the mount.
Pally wise, DM is easy. It can be 3 manned, a tank, a dps, and a healer. Basically, whatever the pally is, find the other 2.
I started this pally post-bc, and I have my charger.
Heraclea Dec 22nd 2007 8:10PM
I slightly fear this - mining high end ores from old Azeroth has been a consistent source of easy income. Most days, if you know where to look, thorium mining makes more gold per hour than daily questing. There'll always be a consistent if low demand for the stuff, since it represents a level range that crafters will always be trying to get past. The places it grows plentifully are not well travelled now. This may not change all that much.
My mining characters never had trouble keeping pace with mining, though. They do in fact use stuff they got through mining, if only for sharpening stones and bullets, and what was left over could always be sold.
(I suspect pallies have it easier than warlocks. Pallies have friends.)
jlpknights82 Dec 22nd 2007 8:29PM
I feel bad for newer Alliance Pallies (sometimes, mostly I just laugh at them a lot). The Horde charger quest can be easily duoed with a 70 friend in good gear.