(You guys loves her so much during the screenshot contest for midsummer festival that we convinced her to bring a few of her other skills to DYS – our first entry from Fran Molina!)
Herbalism is usually an over-looked profession. People usually pick up Mining to make money, because of the synergy mining has with various professions in the game.
What many people don’t know is that Herbalism has a huge market too, because of the always high demand on Alchemist Potions. Although Herbalism doesn’t have as many synergies as Mining does, you can make a good amount of gold from it as well.
In this guide I’ll teach you how to farm Terokkar Forest, and the trees from Skettis. Terokkar Forest may be considered the zone with the highest potential for making money with Herbalism in the entire game, because of the huge variety of herbs.
We always start with a route, right? Routes are the easiest way to farm herbs. It’s much better to follow a path you know to get your nodes easily than just going around at random.
So, this is the route I use to farm my herbs. You can get the Gatherer Add-On (http://www.gathereraddon.com/) to help you track your herbs, but once you’re accustomed to your route, it’s no longer needed.
There are herbs that spawn in Cenarion Thicket, Veil Shienor, Veil Reskk, and Firewing Point. The fact is, I don’t find as many herbs in these places as in the places I pointed out on my route. If you are luckier than me, then props to you! This is an example of a basic route, feel free to use it and change to suit your needs.
Quick description on the herbs you can pick up in Terokkar:
- Felweed is a common herb in Outland, and can be found in every zone. It usually spawns out in the open, or near other small plants. You use Felweed for the basic Super Mana/Healing Potions, and popular Elixirs like Adept’s Elixir or Elixir or Major Agility. You need a skill of 300 Herbalism to pick it up.
- Dreaming Glory is usually found at the feet of mountains. They’re used for Super Mana Potions, and Elixirs related to Regenerating Health or Mana. Because of those properties, when you pick a Dreaming Glory you’ll gain a buff that regenerates 30 Health every 5 seconds for 15 minutes. 315 Herbalism is required to pick this herb.
- Terocone is a kind of a rare herb. It spawns only in Terokkar Forest and on Arakkoa settlements in Shadowmoon Valley, making it a nice money-maker. They usually spawn on the feet of the big Olemba Trees. You use it for the really useful Haste Potion, and various Elixirs that are always in demand; requires 325 Herbalism.
- Mana Thistle is a plant that used to spawn only in places accessible by flying. This plant is used for most of the flasks in TBC and all the Resistance Cauldrons. They aren’t called “Mana” Thistle just for nothing; upon picking a Mana Thistle, you gain up to 3500 mana!
What you will need:
- At least 360 Herbalism, to be able to herb the Skettis Trees that are lv72, although I do recommend 375 so you will never fail a pick-up. If you can wear leather, you can ask for a Leatherworker to craft a pair of Herbalist’s Gloves (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=7349) to help you.
- 300 Riding Skill and a Flying Mount.
I usually start in Allerian Stronghold, then go to Bonechewer Ruins and fly my way to Skettis. In Skettis, I usually do 2 laps to look for Skettis Trees (hoping to make some more cash!), then fly down to Veil Shalas and continue on my way following my usual route.
Pick every herb you see. Even if they aren’t worth a lot (like Mana Thistle), it’s still money, and there’s a chance of getting a Fel Lotus on every herb you pick up. Fel Lotus is a rare herb that grows along with Outland Herbs, and can be gathered when you gather any other herb. You use them as a reagent for all the flasks that were added with The Burning Crusade.
What are those “Skettis Trees”?
Those famous trees are mobs called Talonsworn Forest-Rager http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=23029 which wander around Skettis. They don’t drop great loot when killed, but an Herbalist can really get full benefit from them! They drop 2-5 Motes of Life every kill, and 4-8 herbs of many kinds, except for Netherbloom and Nightmare Vine.
They have 4 different spawn points, and there’s a maximum of 2 trees spawned at a time. Here is a basic map with the approximate spawn points and their initial patrolling path.
Although they are lv71-72 Elites, they’re pretty easy to solo with any class. The only thing that would make things hard is their Thunderclap ability, which slows attack and movement speed, and that can make a melee toon’s life hard.
Here’s a small video I made on how to kill it as a BM Hunter, also demonstrating the loot quality of the trees:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyuOowmef6E
On highly populated servers, the Talonsworn Forest-Ragers can be pretty hard to find, so I’d recommend you to alternate between killing those and picking herbs from Terokkar. But if you’re virtually alone (which usually happens during off-peak times, or on low population server), you can stay around Skettis and farm only those, picking the Dreaming Glories and Mana Thistles on the way.
And now, with this small guide, you’re ready to start dominating the herbalism market on your server.