Stashing Herbs
Posted on September 30, 2008 - Filed Under Guides
Siha recently posted a fantastic and extensive guide to leveling inscription in the upcoming patch (3.0) - kind of as a head-start for the expansion.
Now, I’m not one to get too into this whole beta business, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, but with a release date announced and patch 3.0 on the PTR, we’re going to see some changes to BC before we actually see the Lich King CDs on our desks. And, well, I’m all for being prepared - especially on an old server (Feathermoon has been around since release) with extremely high prices for EVERYTHING, even low level stuff. Right now stacks of low level herbs are selling for around 5g on a good day, and that’s well before anyone is going to actually use them to level inscription!
*
So! Being industrious (and bored), I figured I’d go through my herb stash and make sure I had enough stuff squirreled away to be able to get past the leveling crunch and not have to buy anything from the Auction House. Siha’s conservative estimates are as follows:
Shopping List
The bottom line: based on all of the above, here’s what you’ll need to level Inscription as high as possible when 3.0.2 goes live.
- 150x Earthroot, Peacebloom, or Silverleaf
- 100x Briarthorn, Bruiseweed, Mageroyal, Stranglekelp, or Swiftthistle
- 285x Grave Moss, Kingsblood, Liferoot, or Wild Steelbloom
- 270x Fadeleaf, Goldthorn, Khadgar’s Whisker, or Wintersbite
- 270x Arthas’ Tears, Blindweed, Firebloom, Ghost Mushroom, Gromsblood, Purple Lotus, or Sungrass
- 235x Dreamfoil, Golden Sansam, Icecap, Mountain Silversage, Plaguebloom
- 490x Any Outland herbs
Remember, the numbers required can be made up of any of those herbs, in multiples of 5.
Eeeeesh. That’s a lot. Apparently there aren’t as many Inscription recipes as there are, say, Alchemy recipes, so you end up grinding on green-level spells in order to get skill points. Yuck. But an overstock now means a potential cash windfall later if I have too much.
So where do you get all this herbage? Because inscription is similar to jewelcrafting, where you prospect raw materials to create materials for the profession, the herbs are grouped up (Earthroot, Peacebloom, and Silverleaf will all give you the same materials for inscription). Fortunately, each “tier” of herbs is available in clusters in zones - most of the groups of herbs are all attainable at about the same level of herbalism.
- Earthroot, Peacebloom, and Silverleaf can be found in any starting zone (levels 5-15) - in spades. I really like Dun Morogh for this, but there are lots of these herbs everywhere
- Briarthorn, Bruiseweed, Mageroyal, Stranglekelp, and Swiftthistle are usually found in questing areas from level 15-25, like Loch Modan and parts of The Wetlands. You need fewer of these than the others, but you’ll start to find Kingsblood and Liferoot here too, so just pick up as much as you can - and as soon as you have your 60, move on to the next zone.
- Grave Moss, Kingsblood, Liferoot, and Wild Steelbloom are the level 25-35 herbs. You can find these in The Wetlands, Duskwood, Ashenvale, and Stranglethorn Vale - I prefer Stranglethorn, since it also has a healthy dose of the NEXT level of herbs as well.
- Fadeleaf, Goldthorn, Khadgar’s Whisker, and Wintersbite are level 35-40 herbs - and are EVERYWHERE in Stranglethorn Vale (as well as a lot of Kingsblood, Liferoot, and Wild Steelbloom to boot - with a touch of Purple Lotus for good measure). They’re also plentiful in the Swamp of Sorrows. Except Wintersbite, which is only found in the Alterac Mountains. I’d skip that one, unless you’ve got a stash of it somewhere.
- Arthas’ Tears, Blindweed, Firebloom, Ghost Mushroom, Gromsblood, Purple Lotus, and Sungrass are level 40-50 herbs. I’d start out in the Swamp of Sorrows, and then move to Felwood. Un’Goro is reputed to be a great place to farm herbs, but I think it’s a little overfarmed on my server, so I never have good luck there. Ghost Mushrooms are only found in caves (like Maraudon) and are, in my book, in the same category as Wintersbite.
- Dreamfoil, Golden Sansam, Icecap, Mountain Silversage, and Plaguebloom are all very plentiful from level 50-60, and my preferred farming spots are Felwood, Azshara and Winterspring. The Plaguelands also have a fair supply of this batch, but they’re another one of those overfarmed zones on my server.
- Outland Herbs are found… wait for it… in outland! (duh!) Zangarmarsh and Terokkar are good places to start (especially since Zangarmarsh has a fair supply of Golden Sansam and Dreamfoil). Most of this will likely be Felweed, since the other herbs are still useful!
- **UPDATE** Having talked with Siha, and had some experience - Hellfire Peninsula is a FANTASTIC place to farm herbs, especially in off hours. It has as much of the Dreamfoil, Golden Sansam, and Mountain Silversage as Azshara or Winterspring, as well as Felweed and Dreaming Glory. And you can fly.
So my route, farming up all of this business, is as follows (TLDR version):
- Dun Morogh
- Loch Modan
- The Wetlands
- Stranglethorn Vale (spend a long time here)
- Swamp of Sorrows
- Felwood
- Azshara/Winterspring
- Outland (Hellfire)
Oddly enough, that’s the same path I followed when I grabbed Aelflaed to level up herbalism from scratch, with the exception that she started with Teldrassil and Darkshore. So far I’ve completed through Swamp of Sorrows, and I’m working on Felwood. Keep in mind that there is nearly always some overlap in herbs between zones, so you can move on a little early (or hang back a little extra) to keep yourself within Siha’s parameters.
It’s going to take another night or two of farming for me to stash out all of this, at least, but I can rest happy after that, knowing that come 3.0, Annylais will be able to drop skinning, pick up inscription, and happily set off covered in various colors of ink.
Oh - and one more thing. A pile of herbs this size takes up at least a bank tab in a guild bank. Don’t set out without empty bags, an empty mailbox on your banker, and a big chunk of empty space in your guild bank (or possibly a dedicated herby bank alt character). Good Luck!
*original image by pcaputo. I’ve always thought this is what Mountain Silversage must look like. That, or Peacebloom.
Welcome to Too Many Annas! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Comments
12 Responses to “Stashing Herbs”
Leave a Reply
As of the current state of the inscription profession, save your rare ruby and sapphire pigment drops. Ruby will be a must-have for 245-250, as the only(?) skillable pattern is the L35 Weapon enchant vellum, requiring copious amounts of fiery ink. 295-300 is worse, as the only skillable patterns are both green, Ink of the Sea (requiring sapphire pigment) and Darkmoon Cards (L60 type). Each Darkmoon card requires 5 Ink of the Sea and 5 of the appropriate parchment. I made a bunch of Ink of the Sea (25-30) and as many darkmoon cards as I could at 295…4 skill points, still can’t get the next level of skills.
Don’t overlook scrolls for leveling in some of the stickier points because although they’re mat intensive (5 ink, 5 paper per scroll), the guaranteed 5 points of skills still plays out to be more efficient use of mats than trying to beat the RNG on green glyphs.
Inscription is extremely frustrating at certain portions currently, so if you like a smooth power-leveling curve…run away
Best place ever for Briarthorn: Silverpine Forest.
The place is crawling with Briarthorn and hence, Swiftthistle.
And that is my herbalism tip of the day from an herbalism junkie!
Pikes last blog post..Ask Pike: Answers! Part Two
One trick my wife and I use to store our stash is to have our bank alts in a small guild and to have purchased a couple of guild bank tabs.
We found it cheaper than outlaying for a stack of bags for the inventory and the bank.
It also made for a quick and easy way to share resources that both characters can make use of now.
@Kumata:
My husband and I have done the same thing - it’s really *really* handy!
Thanks for the link and additional information. My own attempt at writing a guide from powerleveling on the ptr got stuck at 248 because I didn’t know it was a crucial point.
I mostly agree with your farming route, being a nelf player I prefer Teldrassil and then Darkshore *g* but I guess that’s just taste.
I only need a few more rounds in the Swamp of Sorrows and in Felwood to get enough
Bye Yashima
First, the expansion will come on DVDs. hehe
On a more serious note, I have about 850 herbs saved up now, with top end azeroth and outlands herbs the only ones left to gather. I expect to be fully ready when my DK gets out of the Starting experience.
Medross last blog post..Secondary Professions in Wrath
Great write-up! I will be following you and Banana’s posts when Wrath hits and as well for planning my herbing soon! Thanks!
(I did a quick post today about it all and linked you both, especially so I don’t forget!)
one among manys last blog post..Inscription and the ‘Zilla
Just to add my two cents - I’d advise your gentle readers to load up on as many herbs as they can store. Inscription is a really weird profession. The other professions have level-appropriate stuff (ie, jewelcrafting, blacksmithing, tailoring), or items of varying levels of power (minor mana potion, lesser mana potion, mana potion, greater, superior, major, super…), so the net result with all these professions is that you will leave lower level materials behind as you skill up. Which makes sense.
Inscription, though, is weird. You make a Glyph of Sunder Armor, and there’s no superior Glyph of Sunder Armor. In GENERAL, higher levels of inscription produce better glyphs, but you are still going to have demand for the low and mid-level stuff as well, simply because there’s no replacement.
Finally, Minor Inscription Research (the only way to acquire minor glyph recipes) takes a Moonglow Ink, which is produced by the lowest level herbs. You’ll want hefty amounts of peacebloom/etc. if you want to round out your repertoire. Moreover, there’s no way to predict what your discovered glyph is going to take. It’s everything from Midnight Ink (ie, briarthorn, etc) through the Northrend Inks. So again, keep tons of herbs/inks on hand so when you do get that cool new glyph, you’ll be able to do something about it right away.
Duermas last blog post..It’s a boy!
Duerma’s post is right on the mark. When they finally opened up lower level inscription research to us plebes (below level 75), I had to go back out to Org and gather some silverleaf and peacebloom to do the research…
With the latest build, the 250-350 stretch of leveling has been DRASTICALLY improved, with glyphs training at orange instead of green. The big surprise will be when you hit 360, as you’ll need Northrend herbs to go much beyond 360, and they won’t be available for probably 3-4 weeks after 3.0 goes live.
I’ve been searching for a project and this may do nicely (putting together an inscription kit of some kind). The only question is, do I give it to my warlock who is lacking a developed second profession, save it for a death knight, or sell it…?
Also, how will I ever get over the loss of flight form herbing in Azeroth?
[...] do hope you realise how much chaos and confusion your missive dated 30 September 2008 has sown in the world of [...]
250+ stacks of herbs here
Best place to get purple lotus is Tanaris with a super-fast respawn timer in 5 locations (but one is usually empty because its the entry to zf). No need to even logout, just run in a circle from ruin to ruin and collect the two spawns on each. You also get firebloom there.
Oh and my secret to get herbs on my banktoon: seeds + un’goro soil = herb every 10min. Groms blood every now and then