Herbalism

Herbalism allows you to find and harvest herbs from plant resource nodes scattered around the world. It is a primary profession. While a very small number of herbs are sometimes used for other trade skills, the vast majority are used for Alchemy and Inscription.

See harvestable mobs for a list of mobs whose corpses can be harvested by herbalists.

Herbalism pointers:

in range of gatherable herb
out of range of gatherable herb

Official overview

Herbalists carefully harvest the helpful and potent herbs found throughout the world. As they travel, herbalists use their keen senses to seek out the rarest and most precious flora, which can be transformed by other professions' mystic recipes. Herbalists can supply themselves (or their guilds or groups) with an abundant quantity of reagents to aid in their crafting, or they can sell or trade bundles of herbs for a profit.

Herbalists can locate herbs on their map via a keen sense for the growth and placement of flora, and they can harvest them even more easily (by simply right-clicking on an herb). No special tools are required to gather herbs. As you gather a greater number of increasingly obscure herbs, your Herbalism skill will grow. High skill values are required to harvest the choicest herbs.

Herbs grow nearly everywhere in Azeroth, though some areas are more fecund than others. Certain rare herbs appear infrequently, are difficult to find, or both - these will often command high prices and power potent crafting.

Herbalism Training

Herbalism is taught by various trainers located throughout the world. Initial training grants the Apprentice level with a potential skill of 75 and allows a few low-level herbs to be gathered. More herbs can be gathered as the herbalist raises their skill level.

The following are the required levels and potential skill of each stage of the profession:

Proficiency	Level	Skill
Apprentice	n/a	1 - 75
Journeyman	n/a	50 - 150
Expert	10	125 - 225
Artisan	25	200 - 300
Master	40	275 - 375
Grand Master	55	350 - 450
Illustrious Grand Master	75	425 - 525
Zen Master	80	500 - 600

Grand Master is only available after installing the expansion Wrath of the Lich King.

Illustrious Grand Master is only available after installing the expansion Cataclysm.

Zen Master is only available after installing the expansion Mists of Pandaria.

Being an Herbalist

The herbs gathered by herbalism are used by several professions, and are the primary materials needed for the professions of Inscription and Alchemy. For this reason herbalism is highly recommended to take while leveling alchemy or inscription. Alternatively, herbs gathered are always in demand and can be sold on the auction house, providing a source of income for both leveling and top level characters.

• Alchemists use herbs to create most of their products, such as elixirs, potions, and flasks.
• Scribes, those with the inscription profession, use most types of herbs to make pigments, which are the primary ingredient in their products.

Herbs gotten by herbalism have additional uses in special circumstances:

• Rogues use [Swiftthistle] to make [Thistle Tea], which restores energy.
• Several crafting professions use [Wildvine] to make certain items. Wildvine also drops off of some mobs.
• Enchanters use [Nightmare Vine] for [Superior Wizard Oil] and [Netherbloom] for [Superior Mana Oil].
• [Bloodthistle] grows only in Eversong Woods and may be in demand by roleplaying blood elves.

Herb collecting

Herbs nodes are found around the world. See the herb page for a complete listing of herbs you can gather, as well as their skill requirements. Herbs usable by herbalists will sparkle and be visible on your mini-map while Find Herbs is active. When used, or gathered, the node will usually give a few herbs of the type the node is named. There are some exceptions, which have no node of their own but have a random chance to appear with certain other plants:

•  [Swiftthistle] is occasionally found in [Briarthorn] and [Mageroyal].
•  [Wildvine] is found occasionally in [Purple Lotus].
•  [Fel Blossom] is occasionally found with the Outland herb [Felweed] and gives a damage absorption buff (absorbs 750 to 1250 damage) lasting 15 sec when used. It has no Alchemy or Inscription use.
•  [Fel Lotus] is occasionally found in Outland herb nodes.
•  [Frost Lotus] is occasionally found in Northrend herb nodes.

Some herb nodes are rarer to find:

•  [Black Lotus] spawns randomly and infrequently in various high-level classic zones.
•  [Golden Lotus] spawns infrequently acoss Pandaria.

While gathering an herb, you will be dismounted if on a ground or flying mount. An exception to this are the druid forms, which means that a druid in flight form can gather a node without having to dismount and remount. This provides a significant bonus to ease of gathering for druids.

Leveling

Mousing over and inspecting the tooltip for any herb in the game world will allow you to determine whether or not you can harvest it. The "Requires Herbalism" text will be color coded as follows:

• Red: Skill insufficient.
• Orange: 100% chance of increasing skill level. (in past possible "Failed attempt")
• Yellow: 100% chance of increasing skill level, or very nearly so.
• Green: less than 100% chance of increasing skill level, sometimes substantially less.
• Gray: Never increases skill level.

The level of herbalism needed to gather herbs in a zone tends to be higher the higher the zone level is.

Note that the Requires Herbalism color code is based on your current skill level with bonuses applied, including the bonus from the Tauren [Cultivation] racial, the bonus from carrying an  [Herbalist's Spade], the bonus from the herbalism glove enchant, etc.. Your chance of skilling up from gathering the node, however, is based on your current skill with no bonuses. Thus it is possible for an herb node to show "Requires Herbalism" in gray, yet still skill you up when you gather it, if you have any of these bonuses.

Tools

Find Herbs

Find Herbs is a skill gained when learning Apprentice Herbalism. While active it highlights unharvested herb resources in the immediate area on the mini-map. In addition a number of other resources (those that may be considered plants) will also be highlighted. Find Herbs is a detecting ability.

As of patch 4.0.1, it may be active with Find Minerals or other tracking abilities. Previously, only one such ability could be active at any given time.

Bags

An Herb bag is a special type of bag that goes into one of your four bag slots (or a bank bag slot). It can carry only herbs (as well as a handful of other related items), but is usually much larger than the average inventory bag that you would normally have at that level. A 12-slot herb bag can be purchased from certain herbalism supply vendors, while the larger varieties (32 - 36 slot) must be made by a tailor. Tailors will often sell the high-level bags on the Auction House.

Skill bonuses

Racial Abilities

• Tauren gain a 15-point bonus to their herbalism skill from the [Cultivation] racial trait. However, this does not allow a Tauren to harvest herbs without training the herbalism skill. This racial trait also provides a faster gathering time.

Items

•  [Herbalist's Gloves] will give you a +5 bonus to herbalism.
•  [Blood Scythe] could be found in some Jinxed Hoodoo Piles. Allows an Herbalist to collect Bloodvine from Zul'Gurub Flora when carried.
•  [Herbalist's Spade] will give +10 bonus to herbalism whilst in your inventory (doesn't have to be equipped).
• [Mist-Piercing Goggles] Allows you to see additional mining nodes and herbs while in Pandaria. Does not need to be equipped to gain the benefit.
• [Forager's Gloves] Allows faster gathering of resources in Pandaria. Does not stack with Tauren racial trait [Cultivation].

Enchants

•  [Enchant Gloves - Herbalism] will give you a +2 bonus to herbalism.
•  [Enchant Gloves - Advanced Herbalism] will give you a +5 bonus to herbalism.
•  [Enchant Gloves - Gatherer] will give you a +5 bonus to all gathering professions, including herbalism.

Herbalism benefits

Herbs gathered from herbalism can be sold on the auction house for gold or used in various crafting professions. Herbalism is the only way to get almost all herbs, making it one of the three basic and necessary gathering professions (the other two being skinning and mining).

Herbalists are able to gather several non-herb items as well. Herb gathering is the easiest and most reliable way to find elemental ingredients connected with life, which are used in most crafting professions.

• In Outland,  [Mote of Life], which is used to make  [Primal Life].
• In Northrend,  [Crystallized Life], which is used to make  [Eternal Life].
• In high-level Cataclysm zones,  [Volatile Life].

A couple of plants, when gathered, give the herbalist a temporary buff:

•  [Dreaming Glory] gives a regeneration buff (30 HP5) for 15 min.
•  [Golden Lotus] gives the Luck of the Lotus buff, which gives the herbalist a chance to find additional treasure on creatures killed for 15 min.

Herbalists also have a chance to find certain BoP /requires Herbalism items while gathering higher-level plants. From  [Felweed] in Outland,  [Fel Blossom] provides damage absorption. From Cataclysm territory plants,  [Lifegiving Seed] transforms the herbalist into a random plant. From Pandaria plants,  [Life Spirit] and  [Water Spirit] can be used as an additional way to restore health and mana, respectively.

Herbalists also gain the spell [Lifeblood], which grows in power as herbalism is leveled. It is a healing spell that also provides a significant temporary boost to haste when used.

XP table

Level range	[Peacebloom]  [Bloodthistle]  [Silverleaf]	[Earthroot]	[Mageroyal]  [Briarthorn]  [Bruiseweed]	[Stranglekelp]	[Kingsblood]  [Grave Moss]  [Goldthorn]	[Wild Steelbloom]	[Liferoot]	[Fadeleaf]  [Khadgar's Whisker]	[Firebloom]	[Arthas' Tears]	[Sungrass]  [Blindweed]	[Golden Sansam]  [Icecap]  [Mountain Silversage]  [Sorrowmoss]  [Dreamfoil]
5	45	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
6	55	55	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
7	65	65	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
8	70	70	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
9	80	80	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
10	85	85	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
11	90	90	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
12	90	90	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
13	90	85	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
14	100	85	100	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
15	110	85	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
16	110	120	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
17	110	130	130	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
18	110	140	140	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
19	110	150	150	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
20	110	?	160	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
...
22	?	?	180	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
23	?	?	190	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
23	?	?	200	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
24	20	10	200	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	N/A	N/A
25	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
26	?	120	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
...
29	?	?	200	?	240	110	?	?	?	?	?	?
30	10	10	200	?	?	70	?	?	?	?	?	?
31	10	10	160	?	250	35	?	?	?	?	?	?
32	10	10	120	?	270	15	?	?	?	?	?	?
33	10	10	80	?	?	15	?	?	?	?	?	?
34	10	10	40	40	310	15	250	?	?	?	?	?
35	10	10	40	?	?	?	250	?	?	?	?	?
36	10	10	?	?	330	?	200	350	?	?	?	?
...
40	10	10	20	?	330	330	28	?	?	?	440	?
...
42	10	?	20	?	200	200	25	440	?	?	?	?
43	?	?	?	10	?	?	?	440	?	?	500	?
44	?	?	?	10	?	?	?	440	460	?	?	525
45	?	?	20	?	35	?	?	440	460	525	550	550
46	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	350	460	?	575	575
47	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	575	600
48	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	270	?	575	625
49	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	650

• N/A - can't reach skill level required to harvest the herb

Rested doubles XP gained from gathering. Also the PvP buffs in Outland and Northrend zones that increase XP gained from killing monsters increase XP gained from gathering.

Notes

• Only one quest (outside of Darkmoon Faire) is known that requires Herbalism to complete:  [16] Root Samples.
•  [Flame Cap] gives a fire damage buff when used, but has no Alchemy or Inscription use.
• Some herbs were used for class quests, such as  [Liferoot] for Warriors and  [Earthroot] for Druids; but they were removed in Patch 4.0.3a.
•  [Bloodvine] was an Uncommon herb that could only be found in herb bushes in Zul'Gurub, and even then you needed a  [Blood Scythe] in your inventory to gather it.
• If the tooltip text is grey when hovering over an herb blip on the minimap, the node is underground.
• The sword  [Phytoblade] (now unobtainable) required the player to have a skill of 100 or more in Herbalism in order to be equipped.
• Tauren can harvest  [Earthroot] immediately after training Herbalism, since their skill will start at 16.
  •  [Earthroot] now only requires 1 skill to harvest

Roleplaying resource

A Medicinal Guide to Azerothian and Outland Herbs lists harvestable herbs and their real-world medicinal equivalents or approximations. A resource for role-players who want to use herbs for more than just alchemy. Now you too can be an Apothecary (a doctor-like profession that specializes in herbs).

Patch changes

• Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): XP from gathering increased.
  
• Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Gathering herbs now gives XP. The higher level the character is, the less XP it will get.
  

External links

For leveling guides please visit Tradeskill leveling guides

World of Warcraft Community Site 

Wowhead