Dark Iron Ore is found exclusively within the instanced zone of Blackrock Depths. It is used in a variety of blacksmithing plans, character class epic quests, and to gain faction with the Thorium Brotherhood. It can also be sold for substantial profit, owing to the relative rarity of the ore.
The goal of this mining guide is to give you all the information you will need to efficiently mine Dark Iron Ore.
4/15/2006: Neckface has created an outstanding, current guide to Dark Iron Farming. It basically supersedes everything below, since it takes into account the instance limits that have been added since my guide was written. Check it out!
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Blackrock Depths Zone Entrance |
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Dark Iron Ore Nodes Set 1 |
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Dark Iron Ore Nodes Set 2 |
Mining Dark Iron Ore requires 230 skill in the Mining profession.
Unlocking the Shadowforge Gate near the entrance requires 280 skill in Lockpicking, or a Shadowforge Key, obtained as a reward from the Dark Iron Legacy quest.
Rogues and druids are the ideal character classes for mining Dark Iron Ore, because their stealth abilities allow them to collect it without the need to fight the squads of elite soldiers guarding the area. It is recommended that solo miners be at least level 60 to avoid attracting nearby mobs while mining.
If you are a solo miner you will need a friend who is willing to accept group invitations at roughly five minute intervals. Certain user interface mods such as AutoGroup can make this much less of an imposition on your friend. Note that the other player can be anywhere in the game world.
Any balanced party of five with an average level of 55 should be able to follow the steps in this guide, although you will need to kill nearly all of the Dark Iron Dwarves before you can begin mining. This method is of course not as time efficient as a solo rogue or druid, but can work to obtain useful amounts of Dark Iron Ore in a reasonable time frame.
On the Dark Iron Ore Map, note the position of the marked Dark Iron Ore nodes. These nodes are all within three minutes of the entrance, and are shaded to indicate which node spawn set they belong to.
Only one node of a given set will spawn in an instance. Thus you are looking for one blue node and one red one.
There are other spawn sets of Dark Iron Ore in Blackrock Depths, but these two are by far the easiest and safest to use.
As you enter the instance you will unlock the Shadowforge Gate to your left and enter stealth. Head in this direction toward the Dark Iron Highway, avoiding the Blazing Fireguard that is patrolling the area.
Take care to avoid the Bloodhounds as you near the Highway. Their stealth detection is far more powerful than other mobs of a similar level, and they can easily break level 60 stealth.
Maneuver to the right around the stationary squad of Dwarves and use your mini-map to determine which of the blue Dark Iron nodes is up. Three of the four spawn locations will be within range of your mini-map mineral finder, and the fourth cannot be obtained without fighting a full group of elites and should be ignored. If you do not see any of the closer blue nodes, you can assume that the inaccessible fourth node is spawned and skip directly to the set of red nodes.
Only one of the blue nodes can be collected without a fight: the one slightly ahead and to the right of the "T" Highway intersection. Across the Highway another blue node will be guarded by three non-elite Bloodhounds, either level 49 or 50. Depending on your talents and your comfort level, you can usually solo these three mobs without much trouble, although they hit very hard for their level. The blue node closest to the entrance is well guarded and should be ignored.
After collecting Dark Iron Ore from the set of blue nodes, turn around and head down the Highway toward Bael'Gar and the red nodes. The closest red node spawn is also guarded by a squad of dwarves, and the next one is guarded by two Bloodhounds. As above, the Bloodhound node can be avoided if you're not comfortable fighting the dogs, but fighting two is fairly easy for a level 60 character. Try to fight them close to the Dark Iron Ore node to avoid catching the attention of a roaming Fireguard.
The furthest two red nodes can both be obtained without a fight, although one of them is not actually visible on your mini-map. If you cannot see one of the red nodes up, you should assume that the far corner node is the one that is active and make your way there.
Once you have finished collecting the accessible Dark Iron Ore from this instance, invite your friend to your group. Promote them to Group Leader before leaving the instance. After you have zoned out of the Blackrock Depths instance, leave that group, invite them to a new group and zone back in. They can leave at this point if desired but will probably find it more convenient just to remain in the group for the duration.
You will find yourself in a new copy of the instance. Repeat the above steps until you have collected all the Dark Iron Ore you want.
A solo rogue or druid using these techniques should be able to farm more than 60 Dark Iron Ore per hour. Depending on your realm and the player economy, you can expect to earn anywhere from 1-4 gold per ore, yielding a respectable 60-240 gold per hour using this method. You will also be able to quickly supply Dark Iron Ore for your crafting needs and to any friends who need it for quests.
