Mining progression tips?

So I have been having trouble with gathering, specifically mining. I'm trying to work up to the point to mine silver ore. I went into Graff mines fought my way to the node only to realize my chance of success was less then 10 percent and mine time thirrty seconds or so. What causes gathering time/success? Is it based on the zone? I tried to mine something easier like copper and found a really hard time as well...

Iron ore also is hard to find when your low skill, any suggestions where to grind mining that doesn't have a ton of high level mobs? Graff mines is kicking my butt

 

Solace Bridge is good for beginners as well as several scenes on Hidden Vale such as King's Road, North and South Valeway. Mining does have a slow progression at first. The following thread is a good resource on leveling. https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...what-is-going-on-a-sota-leveling-guide.41503/

 

You have to work you way up, tier 2 , You can go do the Crystals in the Gaff Gem Mines, not the ore just the crystals there are like 20 of them

If oyu have a nice pet to guard you are GtG

 

The Owls Nest mine near Owl's head has a lot of crystal and also iron and copper. There are also only two hostile mobs (wolves)**. If you kill them but don't skin their corpses they won't respawn. It's still a grind but you won't have to worry about being attacked. I'm at about 65 mining skill now and I find I can still do a round and have new nodes spawn once I've done a round.

** - depending on your fighting skill your may have to run into the mine. There are various spiders on the outdoor scene.

 

I would do Owl's nest until you get about 50% success on iron/copper node. Once your skills eat more XP than you can put into the producer pool bar, then lock them and work on one at the time. The mining speed one might be the good choice until you hit 70, then go for the success chance, then meticulous chance. I don't find the survey distance one any useful.

 

Thanks everyone for all the tips, I really hope someone can put together a mining guide as we approach final wipe, I'd gladly do it but just don't have the time at the moment.

+1 to Owl's Nest

 

This. All those crystals plus the lack of hostiles is a good combination, plus there are plenty of T5 ores for XP. Also, I think it is now a single/party-only scene, so no competition. Once you get some adventuring levels, you can also use the underground entrance to reach Owl's Head or Kingsport (stupid slimes where there aren't any ankhs...), but really the spider run isn't that bad. And at AL40 or so you shouldn't have much trouble clearing hostiles from the other mines.

Skills-wise, get to the point where you can unlock meticulous, then turn off survey (and leave it off forever!) and turn off meticulous. Then get the other two up to 60 or so, then go speed-only until at least 90. Switch off speed, take main mining skill to at least 90 (GM is possible but without 4x exp you may not be able to get enough XP to do it quickly), then shut it off and take meticulous to at least 60. Do keep in mind that 90 speed will have you harvesting ores faster than the natural replenishment rate in a mine.

Survey distance is pretty useless at the moment because you can usually get used to what ores look like and where the nodes are located. There are and are apparently intended to be some that are "hidden" behind the wall, but you could probably still see your cursor change for those. When it gets up to about 40-50, then it can be nice for seeing ores you might have missed, but it's still really not worth it, and the effect can be hard to see with a lot of light around.

 

Where is the underground entrance in Owl's Nest that leads to Owl's Head, etc.? I have been to Owl's Nest numerous times, but never new where that was.

 

Right by the ladder. Break the wall.

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

Another place that there are no critters is down in epithat (sp). When you enter, go down the staircase to the bottom. You'll run into 2 small gators, do not go thru the doors, but go thru the fence to your right. There are two tunnels. One ends at a staircase, no need to go farhter than that. The other one, there is a set of doors, you can go thru there, but there's no mining past the second set of doors. Just go back and forth between those two tunnels. Keep your eyes open, there are veins that you are not gonna see unless you curse over them or they sparkle. Go slow the first couple of times until you get used to where they are. Take more than 1 pick.....guess who had only one used pick the first time he went in.....

Edit....copper, tin, and zinc