Herbalism is one of the three gathering professions in World of Warcraft – Cataclysm. Mining and skinning are its relatives, but herbalism stands out for its huge variety of potentially harvested herbs. When it comes to mining, there are around 15-20 different minerals you can find in Azeroth and the Outlands, with Skinning there are less than a dozen types of hides, but with Herbalism there are many dozens of herbs scattered about.
Each zone usually has 3-4 different herbs and each herb usually crosses 50-100 herbalism levels or 10-20 character levels.
Herbalism Leveling
Before you can do gold farming herbalism, you’ll probably want to hit max level. You don’t need to reach max level, but being at max level will allow you to grow the most sought after and higher level herbs in Cataclysm. To reach level 525 all you have to do is grow about 1000 herbs. That may sound like a lot, but it’s nothing you can’t do in a few days of casual play.
Starting at level 1, you’ll want to find an herbalism trainer to teach you the ways of the herbalist. This will cost some silver coins and will unlock levels 1 to 75 for you. You will need to return to one of these herbalism trainers every 75-100 levels as you progress. Keep this in mind if you ever get “stuck” on a level. It may be because you haven’t trained your herbalism which unlocks more levels.
Next, you’ll want to make sure you’ve enabled ‘track herbs’ on your minimap, turned on auto-loot, and optionally enabled click-to-move. You can find all of this in your interface options with the exception of ‘track herbs’ which you will find on your minimap.
Once you’re ready to rock, grab your epic flying mount and head out of the town you trained and start collecting herbs. You should be in one of the main starting areas like Durotar or Silvermoon Forest. In this level 1-10 area, you should be able to reach training level 70, which will be enough to return to your trainer to unlock levels 75-150.
As you continue to level up, you’ll want to go from zone to zone based on how much herbalism you have. To find out what zone you should be in, take your herbalism level and divide it by 5. If you’re level 150, that means you’ll get a result of 30, which corresponds to the character level you should be. You can now find the zone in Azeroth that covers that level range. For level 30, you may want to go for a level 25-30 zone or a 30-35 zone.
Follow this exact pattern and return to your trainer to unlock new levels periodically until you reach level 525. You’ll also find plenty of herbs that you can sell in the auction house. Leveling up herbalism can be more fun if you have someone to talk to in the game, a movie, or a TV show in the background.
