Herbalism

Herbalism is one of the most popular gold-making professions, ideal both for newcomers who want to earn their starting gold and for experienced players who take herb gathering to perfection. After all, the higher your profession is leveled and the more knowledge points you invest into talents, the more and higher-quality resources you will receive.

Besides ordinary herbs of varying quality, you might get lucky and gather the Nocturnal Lotus, an extremely rare resource that is highly valued among players. Nocturnal Lotus can be obtained as a side gather from any existing herb, and the chance of getting it is higher the better the herb's quality, the higher your profession is leveled, which tools you use, and which blessings are active on you — first and foremost it is affected by the Perception stat.

We've explained how to get the maximum profession stat bonus in this guide.

This profession pairs perfectly with Alchemy and Inscription: with Herbalism you gather reagents, and with Alchemy you can craft various flasks and potions from them or create rarer reagents to sell to other players.

You can learn the profession from one of the special NPCs.

Botanist Nathera — Silvermoon City

Botanist Tyniarrel — Silvermoon City, Bloodcourt

Monomo — Harandar, the Lair

Botanist Karquist — Void Storm

To get loot, you need to find a gatherable herb nearby and right-click on it. Gathering will then begin, and after a few seconds you will receive your loot.

You can always find the nearest herb on your minimap — it is displayed as an herb icon.

You can gather herbs throughout the entire region — from Eversong Woods and Silvermoon City to Harandar, Zul'Aman, and Void Storm.

Unlike other professions, Herbalism is leveled directly by gathering herbs. And the more herbs you gather, the faster you level your profession. You don't need to stockpile reagents or stand at a workbench leveling skills. All that is required of you to level up is your time. Leveling from 1 to 100 takes anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours and depends on how much and how quickly you gather herbs.

There are countless different routes you can fly along while gathering herbs. We recommend that you figure out a convenient loop for yourself. Simply pick a zone you like and build a circular route so that you fly the loop in about ~5 minutes. This will let you gather herbs by their respawn timing (when you gather the herb at the end of the route, the first herb you gathered will have already respawned, and you can repeat the loop).

Tools

Besides your profession level and talents, the game features special tools that add stats to your profession and let you obtain more rare loot. Tools come in green and blue quality. For example, the Thalassian Sickle or the Sun-Blessed Sickle.

• Green ones can always be bought at the auction house in the Profession Equipment section.
• Blue ones, such as the Sunforged Sickle, can be crafted through a crafting order table at a blacksmith. This requires artisan resources, which you obtain while practicing the profession.

Upgrades and Buffs

The game features special potions and items that increase your profession stats, allowing you to obtain rarer reagents while gathering. To get the most out of herbalism, we recommend using them:

• Haranir Phial of Finesse — increases Finesse and Deftness.
• Haranir Phial of Perception — increases Perception and Deftness.

Some potions and flasks can be quite expensive, so we recommend using them only after you have leveled the profession to 100, equipped quality gear both on your character and for the profession, and invested a certain number of talent points. Otherwise, the cost of the potions may not pay off.

Demand and Price

If you plan to make money from the profession, we recommend keeping a close eye on the price of all the reagents you obtain — for example, by adding them to your favorites at the auction house. The thing is, not all reagents are worth the same, and a higher loot tier is far from always justified by the price. For instance, you may gather many low-tier reagents, but they will be worth as much as top-tier reagents, because players have demand specifically for that type of reagent.

Enhanced (Infused) Herbs

Besides ordinary herb clusters, you will come across infused herbs — gathering them is somewhat more difficult and requires completing a small mechanic. For gathering such herbs you will receive more resources, and sometimes special side reagents — motes. There are five types of such herbs in total.

Radiant

Glowing rings appear around the herb — you need to "catch" them in time to gather a Mote of Light and receive more resources.

Void-Touched

This herb slows you down and may teleport you; once you handle the mechanic, you will receive a Mote of Pure Void.

Wild

When gathering, enemies appear that you need to defeat. The reward will be a Mote of Wild Magic.

Primal

Gathering is done via a channeled spell that drains your health — see it through to the end to receive a Mote of Primal Energy.

Transplanted

Found in the Void Storm zone; its yield is weakened, but it is gathered without any special mechanic.

Layers and Quantity

All gatherable resources are shared across all layers and have a limited number of gathering attempts. You may see an herb, but it will disappear as you fly up to it. Don't be alarmed — this is intended by the game. The profession is in demand at any point in the season, so competition, especially on popular routes, is very high. Try to minimize your gathering time and fly up to the resource as quickly as possible. This will increase your chances of a successful gather.

Overload

After you level your profession to 100, you will be able to level the herb overload talent — the ability Overload Infused Herb. While standing near an ordinary herb cluster, you will be able to use this ability and turn the nearest herb into an infused one. The herb type and enhancement will change to random ones, and the ability's cooldown will decrease with every herb you gather.