Mining has significantly improved since Dragonflight, and it remains one of the best tradeskills to get into once you’ve started The World Within. With new specializations available to us via the Khaz Algar mining, we have to grind more knowledge points to unlock the best perks from this field. This guide will show you the best mining specs for leveling and profiting and how to progress in this tradeskill.
The World Within Mining Overview
The tradeskill leveling starts anew as we are introduced to a new system called Khaz Algar Mining, which is exclusive to this new region in the expac. Once you’ve unlocked this new skill set, you’ll gain access to three new specializations to increase your efficiency when mining in this area. Here are all the latest specs for this tradeskill in The World Within:
- Plethora of Ore
- +1 Skill for every rank investment, which increases the quality of the ores that you mine
- Ironclaw Skill: +1 Skill when mining Ironclaw
- Bismuth Skill: +1 Skill when mining Bismuth
- Aqirite Skill: +1 Skill when mining Aqirite
- Mining Fundamentals
- +3 Finesse for every rank investment, which improves your chances of getting additional ores
- Rich Deposits Skill: +1 Skill when mining from Rich deposits
- Seams Skill: +1 Skill when mining from Seams
- Mastering the Mysterious
- +1 Skill per rank when mining from rare deposits
- Webbed: +1 Skill per rank when mining Webbed Ore Deposits and prevents slow debuff from nodes.
- Outlawed Techniques: +1 Skill per rank when mining EZ-Mine nodes and taking reduced damage from dynamite
- Weeping: +1 Skill per rank when mining from Weeping Nodes and taking reduced damage from Horrific Poison Debuff
- Crystallized: +1 Skill per rank when mining from Crystallized nodes and spawns a portal after overloading a Crystallized deposit
Unlike previous versions of mining, you can eventually unlock all specializations as you get enough knowledge points for them. The only debate would be on which one you should prioritize first.
We also get new mining nodes you can overload to reach other ores. Here are all the new minerals for The World Within:
- Bismuth (found throughout Khaz Algar)
- Ironclaw (spawns in Isle of Dorn and The Ringing Deeps)
- Aqirite (spawns in Hallowfall and Azj’kahet)
- Webbed Ore Deposits (can contain Bismuth, Ironclaw, or Aqirite, depending on where it is located)
Bismuth would be the most common, while Ironclaw and Aqirite yield rarer rewards worth some gold. On top of these ores, each will have variations that produce even better drops. They can also appear as Rich, Seam, Camouflaged, and Elementals versions.
Get All Mining Specs
As mentioned earlier, you’re bound to get all mining specializations sooner or later, so your concern would be which ones to focus on first. The ideal progression would be a mix of all three. Here is the best order of investment for all Mining specs.
Best The World Within Mining Specialization Order for Leveling Up
When starting with Khaz Algar, you can focus on either Plethora of Ores or Mining Fundamentals. Your choice depends on whether you can bear doing this tradeskill without being mounted for a while. Mining Fundamentals (60) allows you to mine ores without dismounting, a gigantic QoL improvement that saves time. However, Plethora of Ores will enable you to farm more materials and gain an increase in the drop rate.
Ideally, we recommend that players invest 50 points in Plethora of Ores first because of the increased drop rate and potential Null Stone yield, an essential material for many accessories. You can gain profit while leveling up. However, if you prefer mining while mounted, invest 60 points on Mining Fundamentals first. Here is the progression we recommend in the beginning:
- Either 50 Plethora of Ores or 60 on Mining Fundamentals
- 45 on Bismuth
- 45 on Ironclaw
- 45 on Aqirite
You’ll want to focus on both Plethora and Fundamentals first. Once you’ve fully invested in them, you can allocate additional resources to Bismuth, Ironclaw, and Aqirite in this order.
Note: We highly suggest players pop a Phial of Truesight to spot any Camouflaged nodes, which helps the leveling process. Higher tier Phials give you more Perception and Knowledge points, but the cheapest ones are fine in terms of utility.
Best The World Within Mining Specialization for Profit
To earn money quickly via mining, you’ll need to max out Plethora of Ores as soon as possible. This spec provides us with the most significant quantity of ores, which we can sell in bulk in the Auction House. Generally, Ironclaw and Bismuth sell at higher prices, but since you can gain significant amounts of Bismuth, you can earn a competitive profit just by the sheer bulk of this resource. Plethora of Ores also increases the quality we can gain from all nodes, which means we can get rarer materials that can also sell at higher prices.
Later, you’ll want to invest more in mastering the mysterious. We want this spec primarily for Weeping for higher chances of getting Writhing Samples, which are in high demand. However, you don’t want to invest too much in this specialization until you have mastered Plethora of Ore and Mining Fundamentals.
Best The World Within Mining Specialization for Crafting
Once you’ve leveled up your mining profession, you can either focus on gaining profit or farming materials for crafting, especially if you're a blacksmith or armorsmith unlocked. Mastering the Mysterious will be a good focus if you want to start making gear because you become more efficient at farming specialized nodes. While you can farm these ores even without investing in this spec, doing so allows you to take less damage from the debuffs these ore veins apply.
The first Skill we want to take in this spec is outlawed techniques because it ensures you don’t die from mining EZ-Mine ores when we overload them. However, it doesn’t remove the chance of getting insta-killed by the explosion. It just significantly reduces the damage from stray dynamite. After this, you’ll want to invest in Crystallized to gain access to Crystalline Portals, which lets us gather more nodes effectively while also gaining extra Crystalline Powder.
The main thing we want to gather with this spec is Weeping nodes due to the potential drops of Writhing Samples. This is an essential material for many runes and other consumables, which makes it great for extra profit. For crafters, you can create Vagabond items with this, which are also higher-tier.
How to Earn Knowledge Points for Mining Specs
The first way to gain KP for spec investments would be mining different types of ores for the first time. Each has six variants, meaning you can obtain at least 18 Knowledge Points through this. Once you’ve exhausted these options, you’ll need to use other means.
You can gather several treasures that provide additional investment points on the spec trees. Some of these collectibles automatically give +3 to Khaz Algar Mining, but you can only use them once. Here are all the treasures that provide players with Knowledge Points for Mining:
Reusable
- Slab of Slate: +1 KP for Mining
- Erosion Polished Slate: +3 KP for Mining
Usable Only Once
- Dornogal Chisel (Dornogal /way #2339 36.6 79.3)
- Earthen Miner’s Gavel (Isle of Dorn, Boulder Springs /way #2248 58.2 62.0)
- Earthen Excavator’s Shovel (The Ringing Deeps, Gundargaz /way #2214 49.4 27.5)
- Regenerating Ore (Ringing Deeps, Taelloch /way #2214 66.2 66.2)
- Arathi Precision Drill (Hallowell, Bereldar’s Bounty /way #2215 46.1 64.4)
- Devout Archaeologist’s Excavator (Hallowfell, Mereldar /way #2215 43.1 56.8)
- Heavy Spider Crusher (Azj-Kahet, City of Threads, Umbral Bazaar /way #2216 46.8 21.8)
- Nerubian Mining Supplies (Azj-Kahet, City of Threads, The Burrows /way #2216 48.3 40.8)
Aside from these treasures, you can obtain Knowledge Points by participating and completing Mining Weekly Quests. You can start these tasks after hitting character level 80 and reaching Khaz Algar Mining 25. These missions reward you with Algari Miner’s Notes, which award you +3 Khaz Agar Mining. Here are all the weekly quests you can do for Mining Knowledge Points:
- Acquiring Aqirite: 10x Aqirite
- Bismuth is Business: 20x Bismuth
- Identifying Ironclaw: 10x Ironclaw Ore
- Null Pebble Excavation: 10x Bismuth and 2x Null Stone
- Rush-order Requisition: 5x Aqirite and 5x Ironclaw Ore
These missions can occur at any given week and can only be done once per cycle.
Summary Notes
- Focus first on Plethora of Ores (50 points) and Mining Fundamentals (60 points)
- Invest at least 10 points on Outlawed Techniques.
- Follow this up by investing 45 points each in Bismuth, Ironclaw, and Aqirite.
- Invest your remaining points in this order: Mastering the Mysterious, Rich Deposits, Weeping, Outlawed Techniques, and Webbed.
