I guess the colored ore spawns change here so marking runes is useless. How then are you able to find the high end ores? I have mined for hours for 2-3 days and found maybe one valorite spot each day, and maybe a couple of verite. Are they intended to be this hard to mine now? At the rate I'm finding them it will take a couple years to accumulate enough for a small BOD.
I find that when I need valorite, or any high level ore, I bring those garg pick axes with me. If I manage to get an elemental that is an extra 25 ore! Sure, it takes a little longer to find the verite vein to kick up to a val, but it gets the job done quicker than without!
well i havent seen a metal elemental from use of the gargoyle pickaxes but here's a tip tho most ppl might think the prospectors tool is useless you can find out the type of ore is in that spot before even mining, and using a gargoyle pickax upgrades the ore from that spot for instance if you use the prospectors tool on a spot the you can get bronze from using a normal pickax will yield the bronze ore but when you use a gargoyle pick you will yield golden ore from that spot. so if your wanting valorite take both a prospectors tool an a gargoyle pickax and a shovel with lots of use. use shovel on ore that is already the grade your seeking, and gargoyle pickax on lesser ores that you might not want.