My thoughts about herbalism

So I didn’t post anything to this effect, like you’re interested anyway, but roughly the beginning of the week I left Hellfire Peninsula and headed into Zangamarsh. While my remaining HP quests were still yellow, I had completed a big majority of them and frankly I was ready for a change of scenery. Hellfire Peninsula, while a new zone, still looks very familiar to Blasted Lands. That, combined with my completion of most of the quests, a couple runs through Ramparts, and a low attention span and I was ready for a new zone.

So I dumped most of my remaining few quests and headed off to Zangamarsh. I picked up a bunch of quests at Cenarion Expedition and headed off southwest to the Feralfen area. I was pleased to see a new herb, Ragveil, and headed over to pick it. I couldn’t pick it yet though as my skill level wasn’t high enough. I did a quick check and Ragveil takes 325 Herbalism and I was only at 316. How could I be so low after a week+ of playing in Outland?

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. With the rush of new players into Hellfire Peninsula, I hardly saw any herbs. Felweed is the one you see right away and almost as soon as a herb marker would show up on my mini-map (which wasn’t often), more than likely it was already picked by the time I could get there. I don’t think the re-spawn rates were too low, I just think there were a lot of flower pickers in the area.

Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I think profession levelling is progressing more slowly in the expansion than before. I’m skinning on average around 5 corpses, at orange level, before getting a profession increase. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention before, but that seems low.

So then I started to get a little mad, thinking “what do I do now”? Do I go back to an area where I’ve completed most of my quests to try to track down herbs that are getting picked almost as soon as they appear? Or do I stay where I am, not able to pick the herbs that I’m finding and have my herbalism lag behind my character advancement (since we know the higher level herbs are in the higher level zones).

Well, I pushed on and headed to Dead Mire. I knew from other blog entries that it was a skinner’s paradise and I had a couple quests for the area also. What intriqued me was a posting that said the main mobs in the area, they look like Bog Fiends, could be “picked” using your herbalism skill. So there’s my advancement path - I’ll kill two birds with one stone. Complete my quests and advance my herbalism skill.

This turned out to be another dead end. While you can pick the bog corpses, it does not appear to ever advance your skill level. (However, you can get some good loot of these guys. I was getting Mote of Life, Ragveil and Terocone consistently off them. With the number of people in the area killing these guys, I basically could have farmed all night if I wanted to. If you’re an herbalist (or skinner as there are Hydras there too) and are looking to farm items for recipies or to sell - this is a great location.

BUT - Like I said, it’s a profession levelling dead end. So I was really starting to think I would indeed have to head back into Hellfire Peninsula to up my skill level. I was headed back to Cenarion Expedition when all of a sudden Felweeds and Golden Sansams and Dreamfoils started to appear. Not a ton of them mind you, but enough that I was able to get herbalism up to 323, just 2 points away from the level needed for Ragveil.

I’m not sure if this area just cleared out a bit as it was getting late. I’m not sure if maybe Blizz upped some respawn rates. It was also suspicious that with the slow levelling I had been seeing, that I got two points off of Golden Sansam, which is green at my level. That seemed very lucky.

So whatever the reason - I’m more or less happy again. Just two more points and I can start picking Ragveil, which I’ve seen all over Zangamarsh. Plus at 315+ you can pick Dreaming Glory. I haven’t seen too much of it, but hopefully that will change. I think once I get to 325, I’ll be okay as the Ragveil is very plentiful in Zangamarsh.

So if you’re an Herbalist and having the same problem - stick it out. With some luck and maybe a late night session, you’ll be able to get your levels up without heading back to older zones.