Resources seem to be plentiful when you’re a low-level player starting out in Guild Wars 2. With all the things to see and explore, it can seem as if you’ll never run out of materials and resources to use in your crafting. That, however, is most certainly not the case. As you level up and start looking to craft higher-tier weapons and armor such as the Ascended and Legendary tiers, you’ll realize that you need a lot of everything. This guide will show you which maps are the best for farming Iron.
Types of Iron Nodes
Iron Ore nodes are resource nodes located on various maps that range between levels 15 and 50. Iron Ore needs to be mined with at least an Iron Mining Pick or better in quality actually to obtain ore; otherwise, you’ll end up with Ruined Ore Chunks. Iron Ore nodes come in two different varieties, Iron Ore and Rich Iron Veins. The Iron Ore nodes can only be farmed once for a chance of obtaining 1-2 pieces of ore. The Rich Iron Vein can be farmed three times, and there’s a higher chance of more ore to be obtained. You can also gain various precious stones from mining, with various Nuggets dropping in lower-level areas and Lumps dropping in higher-level areas.
Tips for hunting Iron Ore
Spotting Iron Ore nodes from a distance can be tough, and you can easily get confused with Silver Ore nodes. The best way to know what you’re looking at comes down to using your Minimap, which shows you the nodes for each resource you’re hunting. Another option is to go to your settings, and under General Options, make sure that the Show All Usable Objects option is checked. This will allow you to see the name of the node above its location from a longer distance.
Maps
Brisban Wildlands
This map has a lot of Iron Ore, and if you have the whole map completed as well as a Mount, you can run the Iron Ore nodes very quickly and easily. You’ll want to start at any point on the map and work your way around the edges. Key points for farming include The Gallowfields on the top left of the map and Skrittsburgh.
Lornar’s Pass
This is a very long map to run through quickly, but it has a lot of mining potential because of its size. Ore is located throughout the map, including the bottom green region and the lake at the bottom. You’ll want to make sure that you start either at the top middle of the map and run downwards from there, or from the bottom middle and run a loop starting either by heading towards the left or right of the map and then up.
Kessex Hills
You can begin this run from the Fort Salma Waypoint in the North West or top left of the corner of the map and run down from there towards the bottom of the map. Iron Ore is also located in Viathan Lake, which means you’ll need to be ready for underwater combat and possibly have a Skimmer with high Mastery Points included. After scouring the lake, you’ll head up north, loop around the top of the map to the right edge, and then curl back up to Cereboth Waypoint.
Fields of Ruin
The simplest point to start from is the Hawkgates Waypoint located in the Stronghold in the bottom right of the map. You’ll want to cut right through the middle of the Stronghold, and once you’ve exited, head down into the excavation site, looping up the nearby hill and then for the bottom right corner of Wildlin Narrows and then back up through the Hunter’s Gorge area. From there, you’ll need to loop to the top edges of the map heading east or right first and then circling along the top until you return to the Stronghold.
Other notable maps:
- Iron Marches
- Dredgehaunt Cliffs
- Timberline Falls
- Harathi Hinterlands
- Blazeridge Steppes
- Gendarran Fields
- Bloodtide Coast
