As a gathering profession, Herbalism will give you a great chance to make lots of gold. Herbalism is a primary profession and complements Alchemy and Inscription very well. This WoW Herbalism Guide will help get you started with Herbalism.
First things first, find a trainer who usually can be found in large cities. If you do need some help locating one just ask a guard. The Alchemy trainer is often near the Herbalism trainer so you can easily train for both if you wanted.
In order to train to be a master in Herbalism, skill level 300 to 375, you'll need to go to Hellfire Peninsula and find a trainer. After these levels, it's on to Grand Master, levels 375-450, which I won't talk about too much in this WoW Herbalism guide. However, Alliance characters need to go to either Valgarde in Howling Fjord or Valiance Keep in the Borean Tundra for training.
Horde characters can find a trainer in Vengeance Landing also in Howling Fjord.The great thing is that once you've gotten training you won't need anything else, other than a bag with lots of space to carry things you gather. You can have a special Herbalism bag made for you by a tailor. Keep your eyes open because herbs and plants can be found just about anywhere including under water. Any unused herbs can be sold in the Auction House. Once you have the "Find Herb" ability anything you can gather will show up on your map as a yellow dot.
In order to pick an herb just walk up to it until the action cursor activates. If you can't gather an herb or plant, it probably means that you haven't gotten the required skill level yet. The plants that require higher skill level tend to be in higher zones.
Other than being able to find herbs anywhere, you can get them by completing instances, killing monsters and even treasure chests.An important thing to know is how the color codes of the herbs will affect your skill level. Hovering over a plant with the mouse will give you this color code, the following list will tell you what they mean.
Red- You don't have the needed skill level to pick it yet.
Orange- Pick it, it'll almost certainly increase your Herbalism level.
Yellow- Moderate chance of increasing your skill level.
Green- Low Chance of increasing your skill.
Gray- No chance what so ever of giving you more skill.
As you level to 450, which is beyond this WoW Herbalism guide, you'll gain "Lifeblood", which will give you the ability to heal yourself by absorbing energy and nutrients from the Earth.
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