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Jewelcrafting (Profession) |
|---|---|
Ingredients •  [Prospecting] • Proficiencies • Quests • Designs • Trainers • Equipment
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| Prospecting | |
|---|---|
| |
| Properties | |
| Class | All |
| School | N/A |
| Cooldown | None/Global Cooldown |
| Other information | |
| Requirements | Level 5, Jewelcrafting (20) |
Prospecting is a Jewelcrafting ability which allows the gathering of gems from raw ore that can be obtained via the Mining skill. Five ore of the same type are consumed per prospecting attempt and produces 1-3 gems, with the most common result being a single gem prospected. The gems acquired are of types which could be found by mining a mineral node of the type of ore consumed. For example, prospecting [Iron Ore] can produce [Jade] and [Citrine], which would normally be found on an iron node.
Only common ores can be prospected. [Dark Iron Ore] and quest ores that are not used in crafting cannot be prospected.
Training
Requires: Level 5, Jewelcrafting (20)
Cost: 1
Results
Prospecting, like disenchanting and 
[Milling], can be boiled down to a fairly simple set of rules. When ore is prospected the results fall into three probabilities:
- Common gems - Each ore has a set of gems that result from the majority of attempts. Every gem in an ore's common results has the same probability of being found. Sometimes prospecting yields 2 of the gems in this group. Also, [Star Ruby] from [Thorium Ore] is an exception to the rule of equal probability as its drop rate is higher than the other common gems found in [Thorium Ore].
- Uncommon gems - Each ore has a set of rare result gems. Like the common gems, each gem in this group shares the same probability of being found in the target ore.
- [Adamantite Powder] obtained from [Adamantite Ore]. It is used to create [Mercurial Adamantite], which is in turn used by many jewelcrafting recipes.
Before patch 3.0.2, ore would also yield other vendor trash powders, which had no use other than recouping some of the costs of the ore being destroyed. - [Titanium Ore] now has a chance to give [Titanium Powder] which you can hand in to Tiffany Cartier in Dalaran. She will exchange 10 [Titanium Powder] for 1 [Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Token].
Note that prospecting ore will never grant a skill point in Jewelcrafting.
- All the percentages in this table were derived from data at Wowhead.
- More than one gem can be found on each prospect, so these numbers don't add up to 100%!
Patch changes
- Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04):
[Titanium Ore] can be prospected. Prospecting titanium yields [Titanium Powder]. - Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Prospecting no longer yields powders, except for [Adamantite Powder].
- Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): Prospecting now always yields at least 1 gem.
