I’m an alt freak. In two years of playing, I’ve never leveled higher that mid 30s. Now I have a toon I like with a guild I like so I’m gonna try to get this girl up to 60. But I’ve come to a professional standstill.
In both mining and first aid, I’ve hit a wall. Everything I can smelt is gray, yet I cannot get a new skill because they’re all red for me. With first aid, I’m at 150 but there doesn’t seem to be any artisan first aid trainers so that I can level higher.
You need to buy first aid books in order to raise your skill higher, i can’t remember where they are sold of the top of my head but i know they are always on the Auction House (slightly overpriced for lazy people). I never did mining but if you are stuck at 150 and can’t train the higher level skill its usually because your level is too low, i am not entirely sure but i believe you must be level 20 in order to train the skill that lets you go up too 225.
First aid: buy the book sold by a vendor in the human part of the castle in Arathi. He’s a bit tricky to find, he’s in the courtyard that looks a bit like a medieval greenhouse.
Mining: smelting is not the way to lvl mining, I think it is designed to be impossible to get to high lvl mining by shipping ore to an alt. But if you look at the veins you actually mine there are probably plenty of green/yellow/orange ones around. I’m guessing here, but if iron still gives you a skill-up, there is plenty of it in Arathi, in the ogre mounds and other places up there.
Blacksmithing, of course! She’s also proficient in cooking, is my Bess. She’s a well-rounded cowgirl.
I think I’ll wait to level up before tackling Arathi. Those ogres killed me dead the last time I went there.
Horde players should visit Balai Lok’Wein in Brackenwall Village in Dustwallow Marsh. She is a troll merchant (potions and reagent vendor, I think) and she sells the expert first aid manual, as well as the books that train you to make heavy silk and mageweave bandages.
If you have never been to Brackenwall Village before, head south along the Gold Road in the Barrens, past Camp Taurajo, until you come to a road heading east. This will take you into Dustwallow Marsh. Follow the road north, and you will eventually reach the village. Mobs along the way are 34-37, but you should make it there easily. Be sure to get the flight path while you’re there.
As for your smelting, IIRC, your smelting skill actually your mining skill, so just keep mining ore that gives you skillups. I imagine at your level you can still skill up on tin; my favorite hunting spot for tin points was along the northwestern wall of the Barrens. Once you are past tin, you can start doing iron deposits; Thoradin’s Wall, on the Hillsbrad Foothills side, has 6-8 points and is usually empty. This should take you past 200 mining.