What is Herbalism?
How do I become a Herbalist?
How do I get Herbs?
How many types of Herbs are there?
What do I do with all these Herbs I have?
Can I unlearn Herbalism?
To recap basics of Herbalism
Further Herbalism Reading & Resources
Patch Changes to Herbalism

What is Herbalism?
A skill the allows the character to wander the world pilfering the landscape for all things wild in order to manufacture potions to augment himself and his friends.

Herbalism is of benefit to the Alchemy Profession Skill. Although you can certainly practice Alchemy without Herbalism because you can buy, trade of beg for ingredients, Herbalism will afford you the freedom to collect free supplies for yourself. As you can have the ‘Find Herb’ skill activated at all times you’ll always be alerted to a plant close by on your map so it really couldn’t be more easy and convenient.

Herbalism is a Primary Gathering Profession and therefore counts towards your 2 primary profession limit.

How do I become a Herbalist?
You need to seek out a Herbalist Trainer. There is usually an Alchemy Trainer close by too. All Herbalist Trainers can train you to all ranks from character level 1.

Horde Alliance Neutral

Trainer
Hula’mahi, 30, Crossroads, Barrens

Ruw, 50, Camp Mojache, Feralas

Aranae Venomblood, 29, Tarren Mill, Hillsbrad Foothills

Jandi, 35, The Drag, Orgrimmar

Angrun, 40, Superior Herbalist, Grom’gol Base Camp, Stranglethorn

Komin Winterhoof, 35, Elevation 2, Thunder Bluff

Faruza, 5, Brill, Tirisfal Glade

Martha Alliestar, 35, Apothecarium, Undercity
Firodren Mooncaller, 35, Temple of the Moon, Darnassus

Herbalist Pomeroy, 10, right of entrance to Stormwind city up small valley in the hills, Elwynn Forest

Reyna Stonebranch, 35, Great Forge, Ironforge

Alma Jainrose, 20, Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains

Shylamiir, 35, The Park
Tannysa, 35, Mage Quarter, Stormwind

Malorne Bladeleaf, 17, Dolanaar, Teldrassil

Telurinon Moonshadow, 25, Menethil Harbor, Wetlands
Flora Silverwind, 44, Superior Herbalist, Booty Bay, Stranglethorn
Suppliers
Sells you stoof Zeal’aya, 30, The Drag, Orgrimmar

Nida Winterhoof, 30, Supplies, Elevation 2, Thunder Bluff

Katrina Alliestar, 30, Supplier, Apothecarium, Undercity
Chardryn, 30, Temple of the Moon, Darnassus

Gwina Stonebranch, 30, Great Forge, Ironforge

Felicia Gump, 30, Trade District
Eldraeith, 30, Mage Quarter, Stormwind

You can train to four ranks of proficiency and each has certain prerequisites that you need to meet before you are able to progress to the next rank of proficiency.

To Train to rank of: Cost Required Find herbs from/to skill level
Char Lvl Prof Skill Lvl
Apprentice 10c 1 - 75
Journeyman 5s - 50 150
Expert 50s - 125 225
Artisan 1g - 200 300

Training costs are reduced by 10% in cities you have an ‘Honored’ Reputation.
How do I get Herbs?
Once trained as an Apprentice Herbalist you will have a new skill called ‘Find Herb’ in your Skills & Abilities book (hot key P). You can activate it whilst running and small yellow dots will appear on the mini map indicating where plants are located, even if you’re not proficient enough in Herbalism to gather that particular plant. If you hover your cursor over the dot on the mini map in game it will tell you which plant it is. ‘Find Herb’ stays active, unless you die, and requires no mana to have it activated. The plants are still there even if you don’t have Find Herb activated, they just won’t show up on the mini map. Note, you can’t have Find Minerals and Find Herbs active at the same time. Can you say cheese?

Usually the plants have some beasties around them so you should dispose of them before gathering as you’ll be interrupted when they attack.

The following resources maps will help you located your herbs. They show all herbs by area.

Kalimdor

Barrens
Durotar
Felwood
Teldrassil
Eastern Kingdom

Arathi Highlands
Stranglethorn
Wetlands
Alternatively you can use WWNData and type in the herb you’re looking (i.e Purple Lotus or Grave Moss) for and it will show you maps for each area with markers on showing exactly where the plant spawns.

The colour of the text ‘Requires Herbalism’ when hovering over a herb bush indicates whether you are likely to gain a skill point in Herbalism when you harvest it. The codes are as follows:

Grey = No skill increase.
Green = Rare chance of your skill increases
Yellow = Sometimes your skill in increase
Orange = Will always gain a skill point
Red = Can not harvest yet, need a higher skill level in Herbalism before being able to

There isn’t an excess of plants in the world, but enough. Your cursor will change to the one on the right indicating that the plant can be harvested and you simply right click on it to begin harvesting it. Once a plant is harvested it disappears so if you arrive at a plant after another Herbalist then you’re stuffed. The plants eventually reappear. If a ‘harvest’ fails the plant isn’t used up, you just have another go at it.

Make sure you have enough room in your bags or you’ll have to clear some space and then ‘gather’ again. A loot box will appear, just as it does when you’re looting a monster and it’ll contain 1 to 3 pieces of the herb. In some cases you can get two herbs, Swiftthistle can be harvest from Mageroyal and Briarthorn plants, it doesn’t grow on its own.

If you do not double click the herb to transfer it to your backpack the plant will not disappear. So if you’re in a party with another herbalist you can both benefit from a single bush and increase your proficiency level. Simply close that loot box without taking the contents and let the other Herbalist in your party ‘gather’ from the bush too and their proficiency could also rise. Of course you will have to decide who is going to eventually loot the herb and then the bush will finally disappear. You can’t use this method on your own to boost your Herbalist proficiency more than once with a single bush. That would just be too cheesy. You can also buy herbs at the Herbalist Suppliers.

Herbs can be stored in stacks of up to 20.

How many types of Herbs are there?
As with any plants they’re regional and require specific conditions to grow; shaded, swampy, sunny, sea air etc. The rarer plants can be found in tougher areas of the game.

Each plant first requires a certain level of proficiency in Herbalism before you can gather it. The more plants you collect, the higher your proficiency will rise. Each time your level rises it’ll be displayed in the left hand chat area. ‘Your skill in Herbalism has increased to 31′ for example. You can check what level of proficiency you have by checking your skills tab, as displayed here.

Once you near the max skill of 75 for Apprentice you should seek out a Herbalist trainer again to train to Journeyman so you can find herbs that allow you to increase your skill level to 150 and so on through the ranks.

What do I do with all these Herbs I have?
Without Alchemy not too much really. Alchemist Trainers are usually located near Herbalism Trainers so seek one out and train as an Apprentice Alchemist and start making potions. You can also sell the ingredients to traders in town or even trade with other Herbalists for other herbs, money or even items. Gathering herbs and selling them wholesale to Alchemists who don’t wish to spend time gathering herbs themselves is a good money earner if you set the right price. However, if you do wish to make your own potions check out the Alchemist page for details on that Profession and how it utilizes Herbs.

Can I unlearn Herbalism?
You can unlearn professions for free any number of times. Go to your skills panel (press K). Click on the Profession you wish to unlearn and a small icon will appear next to it and clicking on this will unlearn the skill. Be aware you will lose all associated recipes and support skills too and if you wish you hadn’t unlearnt it (eek!) you will have to start your training again at Apprentice level and work you way up again. Click the image on the right for a fully captioned shot. Use this feature with caution, Blizzard will not undo a mistake of this nature.

To recap basics of Herbalism:
Training in Herbalism costs money
Recipes cost money
Can train as Apprentice at character level 1
Herbalism beneficial to Alchemists
Herbs stack to 20 in your bags
Find Herb, costs no mana and can be cast whilst running. Need space in bag to put herbs after they’re gathered or you’ll have to clear space and ‘Gather’ again
Multiple Herbalists in a party can ‘gather’ {and increase their Herbalist level by one} from a single plant if they do not loot the picked herb.
Herb bushes respawn
You can use ‘Find Herb’ while mounted
Gathering herbs breaks stealth
You can be interrupted while gathering if you are attacked or you try to open any of your character panels.
Further Herbalism Reading & Resources
List of Herbalism Trainers & Suppliers
List of all Herbs that can be picked
Professions Forum
Profession UIs/Mods
WWN Data

Patch Changes to Herbalism
Patch 1.8.0 (11 October 2005)
Blindweed has been increased in size, making it easier to see.
Patch 1.7.0 (13 September 2005)
Black Lotus is no longer soulbound.
Significantly more Stranglekelp has started washing ashore to the beaches of the world.
Patch 1.2.2 (27 January 2005)
Bug Fix. Herbs nodes will remain active if they are not fully emptied.
Beta Patch 0.12.0 (10 October 2004)
The herbs needed to support high end alchemy have been added to the world.
Beta Patch 0.10.0 (19 September 2004)
Merchant purchase/sale price of herbs significantly increased.
Beta Patch 0.9.0 (15 August 2004)
You can now use detect herbs/minerals while mounted.
Price that gems sell back to stores increased slightly to be somewhat closer to their real value.
Wildvine drop rate significantly improved (3 times old rate).
Beta Patch 0.8.0 (7th July 2004)
Artisan Herbalism has been added.
Stranglekelp has been reduced to Herbalism skill 85.