The best places to farm Copper Ore in WoW Forever are the Barrens (206 Copper Vein spawn points, the most of any zone in GatherMate2’s Wowhead data, with spots closer than 15 yards counted once), Durotar (131) and Tirisfal Glades (131) for the Horde, and Dun Morogh (146), Elwynn Forest (117), Darkshore (109) and Loch Modan (108) for the Alliance. WoW Forever keeps Classic’s node spawns in the original zones, so the Elwynn Forest and Durotar routes below work in both WoW Forever and WoW Classic. The one confirmed Forever change: Blizzard’s October 1 beta notes cut the number of Poor Copper Vein nodes, a node Classic doesn’t have, in the starting areas, so leave the starting valleys early.
Updated November 6, 2026: ore counts now come from GatherMate2’s Wowhead data with duplicate records merged; Tirisfal Glades now ties Durotar for the Horde, and Darkshore edges past Loch Modan for the Alliance. Updated November 3, 2026: now covers WoW Forever, which keeps Classic’s ore spawns. Copper counts now come from Wowhead’s observed spawns.
An overview of farming copper
- Gold per hour (Classic, 2019): ~4-5 gold
- Competition: low-medium
- Requirements: Mining, Character level 8+
These routes are doable at very low level, even below level 8 if you like. You might want to avoid the caves, though, if they are too strong for you. Copper is needed by Blacksmiths and Engineers, and many of them might not have Mining, so this can be a lucrative method for gold farming, even at higher levels.
Copper Ore in WoW Forever: What Changes
Copper farming in WoW Forever uses Classic’s zones and spawn points, and Copper Veins still need only Mining 1. The differences:
- Fewer Poor Copper Veins in starter areas: Blizzard’s October 1 beta notes “Reduced the amount of Poor Copper Vein nodes available in starter areas”. Poor Copper Vein is a node Classic doesn’t have, and its yield hasn’t been published. The notes don’t mention normal Copper Veins.
- Learning Mining early: each original starting area has a Junior Mining Trainer for the Apprentice rank, and starter quests can reward Mining for Dummies, a manual that teaches Mining and adds 2 skill up to 15 (Zockify; the item is in the beta client).
- Ore crates: an Apprentice Waylaid Crate takes 20 Copper Ore, the ingot version 20 Copper Bars, paid in Merchant’s Favor, the recipe currency (Zockify’s beta data; usable from level 10). Horde players turn them in west of the Crossroads, Alliance players at Three Corners in Redridge.
- Demand: by our count one Blacksmith uses 228 Copper Ore and one Engineer 121 on the way to 300, almost all of it before skill 140. Copper is the most plentiful ore in the low-level zones, so we expect it to sell best in the first days after the November 4 launch.
- Rockslicer: Zockify lists an item that mines Copper, Tin, Silver and Iron Veins without the Mining skill (30 charges), but Forever’s item data has no such item, so treat it as unconfirmed.
For bigger Copper farms, our WoW Forever ore farming guide maps the Barrens and Loch Modan, and our WoW Forever mining leveling guide has Elwynn Forest and Durotar route maps for Mining 1 to 65.
Elwynn Forest
When I tried this copper farming route, my warrior was level 8. I went into each of the caves once, and I did the whole circuit once in about 30 minutes, getting a total of 74 Copper Ore. That makes roughly 7-8 stacks per hour. If you just sell the ore, you can get around 0.5g per stack for it, so that would be around 4g per hour, not counting the Rough Stone and possible gems. You should check the price for Copper Bars, though, because you can get extra skill ups, if you need them. In addition to that, the bars may sell for more, since they are needed by other players, who might not have mining. So, here is my route:
Durotar Copper Farming
Durotar is a bit more profitable than the Alliance variant. It has more copper nodes than Elwynn Forest (131 to 117), making it a better place for farming copper. In the 30 minutes I farmed here with a level 8 mage, I got 92 Copper Ore! That’s 9 stacks per hour, making a total of 4.5 gold per hour. Again, this is considering a price of 0.5g per stack of ore, and not turning it into bars or anything. There are a couple of options for this route, the best way is to alternate between them, so you don’t miss any respawned nodes. Here it is:
