Herbalism

Herbalism is the gathering profession for plants. An herbalist spots herbs on the minimap and picks them from the ground, and nearly every herb ends up in a potion, elixir or flask made through Alchemy. It needs no tool, it pays from the first level, and it is the profession most players take alongside alchemy or simply to sell what they pick.

How it works

Learning Herbalism gives a character Find Herbs, a tracking ability that marks herbs as yellow dots on the minimap. Only one tracking ability can be active at a time, so a hunter or a miner has to choose what to look for. Walking up to an herb and clicking it starts a short cast; when it finishes, the herb's loot window opens and the plant disappears until it respawns somewhere else in the zone.

Every herb has a minimum skill. An herb shown in orange always raises the skill by a point when picked, yellow usually does, green rarely does and grey never does. Taking damage interrupts the cast, so herbs near monsters are often cleared out first. Tauren get Cultivation, which adds 15 to their Herbalism skill and lets them pick each new tier of plants a little earlier.

Some herbs are not gathered from the ground at all. [Swiftthistle] can come out of a Mageroyal or Briarthorn bush as an extra, [Purple Lotus] and other herbs are found only near certain terrain, and a few plants such as [Ghost Mushroom] grow in caves and dungeons.

Trainers and skill ranks

Herbalism follows the same four ranks as every Classic profession. Each rank raises the maximum skill by 75, and a character has to reach the end of one rank, and be high enough level, before the next is trained.

Every major city has an herbalism trainer, and so do some starting areas: Herbalist Pomeroy stands in a house in the hills of Elwynn Forest, and Jandi teaches in Orgrimmar. City trainers teach up to Expert. Artisan was taught only by a few trainers out in the world, such as Malvor in Moonglade, so herbalists often made the trip at level 35 or later.

Leveling route

The herbs come in a rough order, each tied to a range of zones:

• 1-70: [Peacebloom], [Silverleaf] and [Earthroot] in every starting zone, then [Mageroyal] and [Briarthorn] in the second-tier zones such as Westfall and The Barrens.
• 70-150: [Stranglekelp] along coasts and lakes, [Bruiseweed], [Wild Steelbloom] and [Grave Moss] in Wetlands, Hillsbrad Foothills and Stonetalon Mountains, and [Kingsblood] from 125.
• 150-225: [Liferoot], [Fadeleaf], [Goldthorn] and [Khadgar's Whisker] across Arathi Highlands, Stranglethorn Vale and Dustwallow Marsh, then [Firebloom] in the Badlands and [Purple Lotus] near ruins.
• 225-300: [Sungrass], [Gromsblood] and [Golden Sansam] in Feralas, Felwood and the Blasted Lands, then [Dreamfoil] in Un'Goro Crater, [Mountain Silversage], [Plaguebloom] in the Plaguelands and [Icecap] in Winterspring.

Because the routes overlap with questing zones, many players simply leave tracking on while leveling and reach the cap of each rank without trying. Dedicated farming usually happens at the end, when the herbs that sell best grow in zones a character has outleveled.

Black Lotus and the herb market

[Black Lotus] needs the full 300 skill and is the rarest herb in the game. It grows in only a few high-level zones: Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Silithus and Winterspring. A lotus spawns at one of a set of fixed points and takes a long time to come back once picked, so on busy servers herbalists learned the spawn points and checked them on a timer.

The lotus mattered because every flask needs one. [Flask of the Titans], [Flask of Distilled Wisdom] and [Flask of Supreme Power] each take a Black Lotus, and raiders wanted a flask for every hard boss attempt. That made the herb one of the most valuable items in the economy, and the cause of a lot of world PvP and guild arguments over who got to farm which spawn.

Lower down, the herbs that sold best were the ones every alchemist burned through: [Gromsblood] and [Mountain Silversage] for flasks, [Dreamfoil] for Major Mana Potions, [Khadgar's Whisker] for [Elixir of Giants], and [Wild Steelbloom] for resistance and armor elixirs. Herbs stack to 20 and are light to carry, so an herbalist could fill a few bags in an evening and list them on the auction house.

Pairing with other professions

Herbalism and Alchemy are the classic pair: almost every alchemy recipe uses herbs, and a character with both can supply their own potions. Herbalism is also a common second gathering profession beside Mining or Skinning for players who want income rather than crafting, since two gathering skills fill bags with things to sell. Enchanting and Leatherworking use a few herbs too, and Cooking uses none.

Druids are often herbalists, partly for the theme and partly because their own spells use few reagents, leaving the herbs free to sell. Tauren have the racial bonus, and any character with a fast mount does well, since most of the job is riding from one plant to the next.

Sources

• Herbalism on Warcraft Wiki
• Black Lotus on Warcraft Wiki