Herbalism

Herbalism allows you to find and harvest herbs from particular 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. The Burning Crusade expansion contains several mobs that are capable of being harvested.

See harvestable mobs for a list.

Herbalism pointers:
 * [[File:Pointer herb on 32x32.png]] in range of gatherable herb [[File:Pointer herb off 32x32.png]] out of range of gatherable herb

For other articles related to Herbalism, see the Herbalism category.

Proficiencies
Herbalism proficiency refers to a character’s training in Herbalism. The table below summarizes what level and skill required to advance to each proficiency.

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.

Uses
As herbalism is a gathering profession like Skinning and Mining, it can potentially be useful to any class who intends to use it as a source of income by selling the herbs they gather. However, it is of particular interest to any alchemist, since herbalism gives you a good supply of ingredients for your potions. While the majority of the herbs you will find are used by alchemists to create various potions, some will have other uses as well. Scribes with the inscription skill will also use most type of herbs as ingredients for pigments, which are used to make glyphs.


 * Rogues will find Swiftthistle useful in making Thistle Tea.
 * Wildvine is used for Leatherworking quests for learning the Wild Leather set.
 * Certain Tailoring and Leatherworking patterns require relatively small amounts of herbs, mostly Wildvine.
 * Enchanters use Nightmare Vine for Superior Wizard Oil and Netherbloom for Superior Mana Oil.
 * Lifeblood is a healing spell with Patch 3.0.2 that scales with herbalism skill level.
 * While of little importance, the sword Phytoblade requires the player to have a skill of 100 or more in Herbalism in order to be equipped.
 * 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.

Required Tools
Unlike skinning and mining, no special tools are required to gather herbs, although to collect the high-level herb bloodvine, a Blood Scythe must be in the herbalist's inventory.

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 (20- and 24-slot) must be made by a tailor with Cenarion Circle rep; they can be found in the Auction House, too. There are also 28-slot and 32-slot herbalism bags available.

Skill bonuses

 * 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, as of patch 4.0.1.
 * Herbalist's Gloves will give you a +5 bonus to herbalism.
 * 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.

XP table

 * 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.

Training
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.
 * Green : < 100% chance of increasing skill level.
 * Gray : Hardly ever increases skill level. (Never increases skill level if the "gray point" is 15 or more skill points below your current skill level.)

You must therefore level through the zones sequentially to level herbalism. However, once you are 60, it is very easy to level herbalism from 1-300 because you can move quickly between zones.

At skill levels 75(50+), 150(125+), 225(200+), and 300 you have to visit Herbalism trainers in order to increase your skill further.

It is recommended that you purchase the Herbalist's Gloves with the +5 Enchant Gloves - Advanced Herbalism, giving a total +10 herbalism bonus. This will double if not triple the speed you level on herbs, reducing the time to skill 1-375 significantly, as "orange" and "yellow" herbs will stay so 10 skill points longer, giving a much broader spectrum of herbs you can loot and level on.

Quests
Only one quest is known that requires Herbalism to complete.

Harvestable herbs
See: herb for a complete listing of herbs you can gather, as well as their skill requirements.

Herbalism in Outland
With World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, several changes have been made to the herbalism profession in the expansion zone: Outland. Herbalism is the primary gathering trade skill employed by Alchemy to make potions, elixirs and flasks. Skill level 301-375, Master, can be learned at the Herbalism trainer, Rorelien, who can be found in the ground floor room of the tower in Honor Hold, or, for the Horde, Ruak Stronghorn, found in the north-west tower in Thrallmar, on the bottom floor underneath the stairs. You need to have a skill of 275 or higher to learn this. There is no apparent level requirement. With the expansion pack, the following changes have occurred to make herbalism a much more rewarding gathering skill:


 * Outland offers a wide array of monsters that can be skinned for herbs after the target has been killed and all loot has been taken. Several types of herbs as well as Vendor Trash can be "herb-skinned" off a kill. Several areas in Zangarmarsh offer monsters that can be "herb-skinned" for herbs such as Ancient Lichen, Terocone, and Felweed. In addition to herbs that can be farmed off of these creatures, motes can also be found. Motes are an integral part of crafting professions in the expansion.  Note that "herb-skinning" monsters requires herbalism skill equal to five times the monster's level, like skinning does, but will not cause a player to gain skill.


 * Outland also offers herbalists a slight opportunity to find items of significant value when gathering a herb. Green quality items have been discovered, but this seldom occurs.


 * One time use items can be picked up when collecting a herb. These items can also be picked up off of skinning a monster in Outland. These items may be eaten to receive a stat bonus for a short period of time. Herbs can yield an item that will absorb damage for a period of time.


 * Merely collecting certain types of herbs in Outland may yield a particular stat bonus for a short period of time. For example, Dreaming Glory gives a buff that regenerates a small amount of health over time.

Abilities gained
Sufficiently skilled herbalists gain the Lifeblood ability.

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).