Platinum Ore Farming Guide

This guide provides an overview over the possible farming routes for Platinum Ore and showcases how to farm it more effectively. It contains maps displaying optimal and alternative routes as well as tables revealing the amount of ore you can expect after two hours of farming.

General information and preparations

Platinum Ore is one of the three ore types that were introduced with the release of Battle for Azeroth. It functions as a refining crafting component for many high-end crafting recipes and is used quite frequently by blacksmiths, engineers and jewelers alike, making it always in demand. Since it is always in demand farming it can be quite lucrative and you should think about optimizing your strategies to obtain more of it during your sessions.

It is important to note that farming Platinum Ore is a bit different than farming other ore types in World of Warcraft as it is a rare spawn of another ore, called Monelite Ore. Whenever you mine a Monelite Deposit there is (supposedly) a chance of 5-8% of it respawning as a Platinum Deposit. This means that you are just farming Monelite Ore in hopes of its deposit respawning as a Platinum Deposit. And I would like to add, that Platinum Ore does not have a seam so do not wonder when you cannot spot one during your farming session!

Platinum Ore ranks

The first strategy to optimize your mining sessions is to rank-up your mining skills. These are quite handy since they will allow you to become more efficient in mining deposits which will yield a higher return. Notice, that you can always mine, and for that matter gather, everything from the get-go in Battle for Azeroth, but Rank 2 and 3 will always be preferable.

There is one skill that is important to farm Platinum Ore more efficiently: Platinum Deposit. It has three ranks that you should obtain immediately!

The Platinum Deposit skill

Increasing your Platinum Deposit skill will increase your ore yield after mining a normal or rich deposit.

Rank 1 is learned from either Myra Cabot (Alliance mining trainer in Boralus) or Secott the Goldsmith (Horde mining trainer located in Dazar'lor). It requires a BfA mining level of 25.

Rank 2 is acquired through mining platinum deposits and receiving an Exceptional Platinum Shard as a random drop. This random drop will start the An Exceptional Platinum Shard quest that tasks you with returning it to either Myra Cabot (for Alliance players) or Secott the Goldsmith (for Horde players). It seems that the random drop can start to appear upon hitting a BfA mining skill of 130. For example, I received mine at 132.

Rank 3 comes yet again from a random drop while mining platinum nodes – but this time the item differs from faction to faction! Horde players will eventually stumble upon a Platinum Map that they have to return to Ta'mil Nadu in Vol'dun (located at 27, 69), while Alliance players will come across a Tattered Map directing them to First Mate Cinderfuse (located at 19, 44) living her life in Drustvar. Both will task the player with retrieving 20 Platinum Nuggets in either An Eye for an Ore (for Horde players) or X Marks the Plat! (for Alliance players). The hardest part of these two quests is finding platinum nodes to gather a small amount of Platinum Nuggets from as they do not appear frequently throughout the world. Therefore, it can take up to an hour, or even longer, to complete these quests. One thing I would like to add is that the requirement of finding either random drop is having a BfA mining skill of 150.

How to speed up farming

Maximizing your ore yield by increasing your mining skills rank is a good start, but we can optimize our farming methods even further. Like every expansion Battle for Azeroth introduced a handful of nifty items and tools that will speed up your farming considerably. The following three items are advised to be bought from the auction house or, if possible, to be crafted for personal need:

• Monel-Hardened Stirrups are crafted by blacksmiths and allow you to gather ore while being mounted (most useful as explained later).
• Monel-Hardened Hoofplates are crafted by blacksmiths and increase your mount speed by 20%.
• A Coarse Leather Barding is crafted by leatherworkers and prevent you from getting dazed by incoming attacks.

So, why do I advise using Monel-Hardened Stirrups? Well, the best-case scenario is you using either a Paladin or a Death Knight to farm ore simply because of their inherent speed buff of additional 20% making the Monel-Hardened Hoofplates obsolete. If you proceed to switch them into their tank specialization you cannot get dazed by enemies making the Coarse Leather Barding obsolete, too. Therefore, to optimize your farming potential to the maximum I advise you to use either a Paladin or a Death Knight with Monel-Hardened Stirrups – just so you can enjoy mining while being mounted for 2 hours.

Remember that patch 8.2 is now available. This means that you do not have to use a Paladin or Death Knight anymore since flying is introduced making traversal that much easier. The point still stands that both classes have an inherent speed buff which is very valuable. However, druids are even more powerful as a farming class since they can remain in their travel form while mining nodes. So… Let us all switch to Druids, I guess.

Another worthwhile addition to your mining setup is an enchanted pair of gloves. Depending on your faction you should either get Enchant Gloves – Zandalari Mining or Enchant Gloves – Kul Tiran Mining to speed up your mining considerably. This speed-up results in lowering your mining cast from 1.5 seconds down to 0.5 seconds – quite a decrease wouldn't you agree?

Farming Platinum Ore

This section of the guide will provide you with detailed farming routes and tables showcasing your potential ore yield after 2 hours of farming Platinum Ore. It is important to note that my data is based on using a Death Knight with Monel-Hardened Stirrups and enchanted gloves during patch 8.1.5. I have not unlocked flying yet and cannot provide further details in regard of the ore yield while flying.

Drustvar

Based on my farming experience Drustvar is the best zone in BfA to farm ore in general. The route is easy and most deposits along your path are extremely accessible. The white line depicts your main route and you should switch to the white dotted lane every other round to take advantage of this section of the map.

If you notice that ore nodes take longer to respawn than usual, you should incorporate the red route into your farming route. For me it took about four to five rounds on the white one until I needed to start using the red route every other round.

Nazmir

Nazmir is straight forward. It has an average ore yield and is not too cumbersome to traverse if you have a mount that is capable of water walking. Sometimes you need to watch out for flying Pteranodons or fish in the water that like to attack out of nowhere. If you notice that ore spawns decrease while you are farming, you should incorporate the red route into your round. However, I never had to when I was farming there.

Stormsong Valley

Stormsong Valley is almost as good as Drustvar when it comes to an overall ore yield. It might be even better depending on your ore spawns.

Remember: Along your way, you will encounter four caves that are worth checking out since they can contain up to three possible ore nodes each (most often only one to two, but you get the point). They are marked with red targets on the map.

Tiragarde Sound

Tiragarde Sound is unique amongst the BfA zones since it contains two viable farming routes instead of just one. Therefore, I am going to split this portion into an upper and lower section.

Upper

To keep things short, the upper route does not yield as much ore as the lower one does. Sometimes, it is a nuisance to traverse due to the many mobs that cross your path. All in all, I advise you to either farm in the lower section of Tiragarde Sound or to switch to one of the more profitable zones.

If you still plan on farming here, try to mix up your route using the white dotted lines. Additionally, try to enter the caves as they often contain ore seams yielding quite a nice amount of ore.

Lower

The lower portion of Tiragarde Sound is quite a good farming spot. Maybe not as good as Drustvar or Stormsong Valley, but on par with Vol'dun and always worth your time. The section around Freehold can be annoying but contains several seam spawn locations.

Vol'dun

Vol'dun is quite the interesting zone due to its many vertical ups and downs and the fact that is on par with the lower farming route of Tiragarde Sound. It has a lot of potential to mix things up when it comes to alternative routes making this route a tad bit less boring to traverse while farming.

Zuldazar

If I had to pick the worst farming zone for ore in general, I would pick Zuldazar – and for good reasons. Not only does it contain the fewest nodes of all the BfA zones (containing only 443 deposits), but its route nets an abysmal low hourly rate. Additionally, the route leads directly through the hordes capital city making it a nuisance for Alliance players to traverse. While it is certainly possible, with a little help of wall jumping, I highly advise against this route.

Farm Platinum Ore passively

Yes, you have read that right. You can farm ore passively! How? Well, you just need to equip your followers with a Magnetic Mining Pick which is crafted by blacksmiths. It is quite pricey but rewards ore on a regular basis upon completing a mission. Most of the time you will get around thirty to forty Monelite Ore, but it is certainly possible to receive Storm Silver Ore and Platinum Ore infrequently.