WOW:Profession Guide Mining

Mining is the art of finding rocks...and make boat-loads of money while doing it :)

Jewel crafting depends a lot on mining, so mining will be very hot the next few months, while people stockpile mats for leveling jewel-crafting. I suggest keeping most of your ore in ore-form and also hang on to every gem you mine. And then sell it all in the frenzy of jewel-crafting :)

It's not very hard to level mining, you just have to be patient. As with herbalism, the best way to do it, is to find a nice 10 minute route, run it, log, wait 30 mins and repeat. Mounts help a lot, so I recommend waiting until 60 before you start focusing on leveling it.

This is the skill needed to mine the nodes needed for leveling it:

Copper - 1
Tin - 65
Iron - 125
Mithril - 175
Dark Iron - 230
Small Thorium Veins - 250
Rich Thorium Veins - 275

1-65. Copper, 80s-1G/20 on AH: Run either Durotar or Westfall for this part. In Westfall just skirt the edges of the map and leveling should go quick. In Durotar, the Harpy Canyon outside OG is packed with Copper, so head there.

66-125. Tin, 60-80s/20 on AH: This is where a lot of people choke on mining. This is the hardest part, but go to Wetlands and you will be fine :) In wetlands there is an Alliance quest for something called Incendicite in a cave filled with spiders. Mining this gives you skill-ups in normal mining, as if it were tin. In addition to these spawns in the cave, there is also tin. About 15-20 nodes all in all.
Map: http://www.thottbot.com/?m=12253

126-175. Iron, 1.5G-3G/20 on AH: Head to East Arathi Highlands and move from the bottom to the top of the east side. About 3 caves (2 troll ones and one ogre) filled with nodes plus some out in the open as well.

176-230 (or to 250). Mithril, 2.5G-3.5G/20 on AH: Head to East Badlands where all the small whelps are. Ride through the canyon, log 30 minutes, ride back down, repeat. About 15 nodes here.

(231-275). Dark Iron, 5-10G EACH on AH (depends a lot on how far people are raid wise on your server, since people use a lot of Dark Iron early on in MC, but not really later on). You really need to be able to stealth or FD to do this, otherwise stick with mithril until 250 and Small Thorium veins. Farming Dark Iron requires someone to help reset an instance, and then you follow this guide to Dark Iron Farming in BRD: http://neckface-graffiti.blogspot.com/

250-275. Small Thorium vein, 3-4G/20 on AH: There are a few places to do this: Felwood: http://www.thottbot.com/?m=6356 or Burning Steppes: http://www.thottbot.com/?m=6548 or Un'Goro Crater: http://www.thottbot.com/?m=8721
Burning Steppes would probably be the best choice; head to the ogre mountain in the NE and mine here, log 30 mins, repeat.

276-300. Rich Thorium Vein, 3-4G/20 on AH: This is where it gets interesting. Winterspring is your best bet for this. Either do laps around the Demon Canyon in the south; You can lap all the valleys, except a small one, in 10 minutes flat. It used to not be camped, but word has gotten out. 2-5 spawns can be expected per run depeding on popularity :) Or you can lap the whole of WS, except the Demon Canyon: http://www.dreadlords.net/60miner.shtml

You can get Arcane Crystals from these veins. These are worth 20-30G each. There are also a few other gems you can get, but these only sell for around 3-5G each.
My suggestion is hanging on to all of the gems, since they will be needed for jewel-crafting. It's also better to keep these from an inflationary point of view, since TBC will cause a lot of inflation. 30G now is a decent amount of gold, but it won't be in TBC. Keeping your money in gems, ores and bars minimizes the effect of inflation on you, since they will sell for a lot more in TBC. Just a little crash course in economics :D

WOW: Profession Guide Herbalism

Herbalism is the art of picking flowers. It is also the art of making cash, which is what we want :)

Herbalism is one of the few professions that will net you money with little effort. All other professions require you spending a lot of materials to level them up, thus you need to do a lot of business to even break even.

It's highly recommended that you wait until you have a mount before you start leveling herbalism seriously. Up until then just pick whatever flowers you stumble upon. In fact, forget about professions (except skinning) until you hit 55+, since you can't pick the profitable flowers until then.

The best way to level this profession is by being patient. Get a 5-10 minute route down, ride it, then log for an hour and repeat it.

1-15: Here you will collect Silverleaf and Peacebloom in the newbie zones. Easy.

15-50: Earthroot. Alliance head to Dun Morogh, Horde to Durotar. Maps: http://thottbot.com/?s=earthroot

50-85: Mageroyal. Alliance head to Loch Modan/Westfall, Horde head to Barrens/Silverpine. Maps: http://thottbot.com/?i=658

85-150: Stranglekelp. Here you have two options: Wetlands or STV. Personally I prefer Wetlands. For Wetlands swim up and down the coast a bit out. For STV either swim up the west coast from BB to the Zandalar tribe isle or swim up and down the SE coast. Maps: STV: http://thottbot.com/?m=8889 and Wetlands: http://thottbot.com/?m=9239

150-195: Liferoot. Wetlands is the best option for this part. Ride around the western swamp area; from the coast to the road leading to Dun Modr. Interspersed with the liferoot is also Kingsblood, which sells decently on AH due to it being needed for Thorium rep. Maps: http://thottbot.com/?m=9232

195-235: Wintersbite. The only place for this herb is in Alterac Mountains. When coming from the south (either TM or SS), first ride through the yeti area of the mountains, then ride through the ogre stronghold and finally ride through the ogre part of the mountains. Log and wait 30-60 mins, then repeat in reverse order. This part is pretty quickly done. Maps: http://thottbot.com/?m=19247

235-270: Blindweed. I prefer using Swamp of Sorrows for this part, since you can get a nice pattern going easily. Simply circle the central lake, log 30 mins and repeat. Alternatively ride back and forth through the northern part of the swamp. Maps: http://thottbot.com/?m=21505

270-300: Dreamfoil. This is the reason you level herbalism. Dreamfoil is used extensively in all the top alchemy recipes and sells for a pretty penny. .75-1.5G per flower depending on server. There are three main places for this herb: Azshara, Felwood or Un'goro. Try all three places and find the least camped one. Dreamfoil grows in open spaces, so stay away from rocky areas. However, Mountain Silversage (used in health pots), grows in mountains, so find a few spawn points of this herb and ride past them on your rounds.
Of the three Un'goro seems to be the least camped...but again it varies with server. Personally I use Azshara to pick my Dreamfoil and it works quite well.

Maps:
Azshara: http://thottbot.com/?m=70549
Felwood: http://thottbot.com/?m=47575
Un'goro: http://thottbot.com/?m=36626

Other herbs worth picking:

Icecap: Used in flasks and mana pots. Only grows in Winterspring in open areas. Heavily camped. Maps: http://thottbot.com/?m=28935

Mountain Silversage: Used in Mongoose pots and health pots. Grows in mountaneous regions. Un'goro is the spot for this herb. Alternatively Winterspring if you are after Icecap.Maps: Un'Goro: http://thottbot.com/?m=33245 and WS: http://thottbot.com/?m=28933

Plaguebloom: Used in Mongoose pots and various elixirs. Grows in both plaguelands and Felwood. Maps: EPL: http://thottbot.com/?m=14671 and WPL: http://thottbot.com/?m=26432 and Felwood: http://thottbot.com/?m=1011788

Gromsblood: Used in Flask of the Titans. Grows in Desolace, Felwood and Blasted Lands. Maps: http://thottbot.com/?i=5537

And there you have it. Herbalism is very good money with very little actual work. You only have to ride around :) When you decide to sell your gatherings, check your AH first and undercut a bit. If the bottom drops out of the market, jsut wait a few days and stockpile in the meanwhile, then sell when prices move back up.