Leveling Herbalism in WoW, the Easy Way

As of this writing, Wrath of The Lich King (the new World of Warcraft expansion) is right around the corner and with it comes a whole new continent (Northrend,) new raids, new creatures, the Death Knight, and more.

A new profession being introduced with Wrath, which actually went live with the 3.0 patch, on Oct. 14, is Inscription. This skill allows the scribe to write glyphs that will provide permanent buffs to characters.

What has this got to do with Herbalism? 5 herbs at a time are required to mill the inks used to write the scrolls and glyphs. With many people taking the inscription skill there will be a huge demand for those herbs on the Auction House. That's where you come in. Your Herbalism skill will be a superb money maker and/or a direct source of materials to drive your own Inscription skill.

First Off, Some Notes:

You'll need to be at least level 58 to get your Herbalism skill leveled to 375, because you'll need to be able to go to the Outlands to get your training and to access the higher level herbs. Once Wrath of the Lich King goes live you will be able to get higher level training in Northrend (you will need to be at least level 68) and drive your skill to 425.

A very cool addon to use, that will help your herb gathering, is Gatherer. Download it for free (donate if you want to) and read the documentation. This addon will mark on your map the various herbs (and ores and boxes) that have been found by other players previously. It does this with the help of a database that you can download with the addon. Load the database and you'll have detailed maps of the locations of all the herbs you will need to level your skill.

Google "Gatherer Addon" and "Cartographer Addon" (for better maps) to find where to download these mods and also to get instructions for installing them.

Mounts help a lot with travel and the level 60 Epic Ground Mount will save lots of time, while the fling mounts (only in Ootlands, at level 70) make herb finding much easier.

Herb Picking 101:

In whichever area you happen to be you will want to get your skill as high as possible before moving on. If you don't do that you will find many herbs in the new area that you just won't have the skill to pick.

When you're in any particular zone set your mini-map to show herbs and do loops around the area. The herbs will show as yellow dots on the map.

Once you have your apprentice Herbalism skill go to your favorite starting area and start gathering Peacebloom and Silverleaf. I went to Eversong woods, but these herbs are all over the place in all the Horde and Alliance starting areas.

Once the herbs in your area aren't given you any skill improvements you'll want to go to the next higher zone. I went to the Ghostlands, but the Barrens. Westfall, and Loch Modan are good areas, too. As I mentioned above, if you move on too soon you won't have the skill to pick anything.

Most of the herbs on this list are the ones you will need for Inscription, so you can level this skill and build your herb stash at the same time. Or sell it all and make quite a bit of gold.

To start with you will be picking Peacebloom, Silverleaf, and Earthroot (skill 15,) until you are at least skill level 50.

The 10-20 area herbs, found in the Ghostlands, Durotar, Silverpine, Westfall, and Redridge, are: Peacebloom, Silverleaf, and Earthroot, Mageroyal (requires skill 50,) Briarthorn (70,) Stranglekelp (85 and take a water breathing potion,) and Bruiseweed (skill 100.)

In the 18-30 areas (Duskwood, Hillsbrad, and the Wetlands) you'll find Mageroyal, Briarthorn, Stranglekelp, Bruiseweed, Wild Steelbloom (115,) Gravemoss (120,) Kingsblood (125,) and Liferoot (150.) The Grave Moss can be found in and around, you guessed it, graveyards.

Next up are the 30-40 areas: The Alterac Mountains or Arathi Highlands are next. Here's what you'll find: Stranglekelp, Bruiseweed, Wild Steelbloom, Gravemoss, Kingsblood, Liferoot, Goldthorn (170,) Khadgar's whisker (185,) and maybe Wintersbite at 195. Stranglethorn Vale, The Badlands, and Swamp of Sorrows are other good herb picking places at this level.

In STV and the Badlands you'll find Purple Lotus (210,) Badlands has Firebloom (205,) and the Swamp has Blindweed (235.) Firebloom (205.)

The 40 -50 zone: I went to The Hinterlands next, and then to the Eastern Plaguelands. In the Hinterlands you'll find Purple lotus (skill 210, in the troll ruins,) Ghost mushroom (caves, 245,) Golden sansam (260,) and Sungrass at 270. Killing the local trolls will also result in some Wildvine drops.

The last area in the Old Word (Azeroth) that you will need to work is the Eastern Plagelands. You will find a variety of herbs there and will probably hit 300 before doing a full loop of the zone. You'll find: Arthas' tears (220,) Sungrass (270,) Golden sansam (260,) Dreamfoil (270,) Mountain silversage (280,) and Plaguebloom (285.)

Ok, now you have your 300 skill and you're ready to hit the Outlands. Get Master Hebalist when you hit your side's main town in Hellfire (Thrallmar or Honor Hold) and then do a few loops around Hellfire Peninsula and then Zangamarsh. Unless you're hunting specific herbs you won't need to go beyond Zangamarsh to hit 375.

Various Motes (of life, shadow, etc.) sometimes appear when picking Outland herbs.) that will come with your Outland Herb picking, particularly from the Felweed. Fel Lotus (which sells for a nice price) also has a small chance to drop from any of the Outland herbs. It's most commonly seen off of the Felweed, Dreaming Glory, Ragveil, and Flame Caps.

Now go pick some flowers!