World of Warcraft Herbalism Tips: Flower Picking Goodness

In World of Warcraft, there are three main gathering professions. These are Mining, Herbalism, and Skinning. Mining is very commonly used in crafting, as is Skinning, but Herbalism is somewhat more specialized. In fact, there is only one trade that is dependent on it. That is the Alchemist. But, there are quite a few alchemists out there, because potions are highly sought after. And even a single Alchemist needs a lot of herbs. If you train Herbalism high enough, you can easily make money by selling herbs to those Alchemists who didn't use Herbalism as their second profession.

Herbalism is the ability to pick flowers and herbs. Sounds boring, but then you realise that most of these herbs are found in the midst of monster territory. This can make finding herbs an exciting venture. And there are a lot of herbs in World of Warcraft, more than there are metal veins for mining. Some of these plants are quite exotic, only found in special places.

Herbalism itself is easy enough to do. You will get a Find Herbs ability that shows all nearby plants, and what they are. Very handy, and it makes your job a lot easier. When you find an herb, you walk up to it, and right click it. This will make you start to automatically gather it, with no more effort from you. When you finish, you can get anywhere from one to three herbs from a single gather, but you can only gather from each plant once, before you have to go find a new herb to pick. This isn't a problem, as herbs are scattered everywhere across the zones, and there is no lack of them.

When you first start out, you will be gathering Peacebloom, Silverleaf, and Earthroot, three commonly found plants, which grow in every newbie area. Then you will progress to plants like Mageroyal and Briarthorn, which are found in the second tiers of zones. After that, the next tier of zones will contain Bruiseweed, Kingsblood, Liferoot, and Wild Steelbloom. You will then go to the next tier, and the next tier, and the next tier, all of which will have new plants and herbs for you to pick.

There are also special herbs, which are only found in certain, special places. There is Gravemoss, which is only ever found on or around graves and cemeteries. There is Stranglekelp, which is found in the ocean floor, in any zone that has access to the ocean. There are Ghost Mushrooms, which are found in high level caves around the world. There is Icecap, which is only found in the icy reaches of Winterspring. And there are Arthas' Tears, a plant found only in those zones that have been touched by the Plague, such as Felwood, and Eastern and Western Plaguelands.

There are a total of thirty herbs found in the land of Azeroth, and nine new herbs to be discovered in Outland. These include the Ancient Lichen, a plant only found in dungeons, Netherbloom, a plant found in the storm sundered lands of the Netherstorm, and the Nightmare Vine, a plant found only found in the fel-scarred lands of Shadowmoon Valley, which will curse you when picked.

Potions require a lot of herbs, plants, and other materials to create, and Alchemists are always low on something. With all of the supply-deficient Alchemists running around, you could take up Herbalism as an easy way to make yourself a bundle of gold. Or you could take up Herbalism in addition to Alchemy, so you are not dependant upon other Herbalists. You could also pair it up with another gathering skill, like Mining or Skinning, to make yourself an all around supply trader. Whatever you do, Herbalism can be a fun and lucrative profession.