Herbalism

last updated 2/26/2025 for Undermine(d) – patch 11.1

A lot has changed with gathering in TWW – make sure you read the Gathering guide first!

• Wowhead Herbalism Guide
• Talent Calculator
• Levelling Guide

Tools of the Trade

• BiS Accessories:
  • Artisan Gardening Hat – tailor made, +11 skill, +61 Deftness & Perception @max quality
  • Stonebound Herbalist’s Pack – lw made, +11 skill, 121 Finesse @max quality
• BiS Tool: Artisan Sickle – bs made, +18 skill, customizable secondary stat, can be enchanted
• Phial of Truesight: gives a bonus to Perception & lets you see camouflaged herbs – this is HUGELY helpful and roughly doubles the amount of herbs you can find.
• Specialty Bag: Gardener’s Seed Satchel – The cooldown of Overload Empowered Herb is reduced by an additional 1% when gathering herbs in Khaz Algar.

Herb types, and where to find them

Herb	Habitat	Isle of Dorn	Ringing Depths	Azj-Kahet	Hallowfall	Undermine
Mycobloom	The most common herb, grows anywhere	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Blessing Blossom	Grows in sunny places	Y	Y	N	Y	N(?)
Arathor’s Spear	Grows in sunny places, often at the base of a tree	Y	Y	N	Y	N(?)
Luredrop	Grows underground or in shady places	N*	Y	Y	N*	Y
Orbinid	Grows underground or in shady places, often near water	N*	Y	Y	N*	Y

Rare Drops

• Null Lotus: a rare drop that can come from any picking any TWW herb
• Verdant Seeds: another rare drop that can come from picking any herb. They can be planted and harvested in Hallowfall (see the Seeds section below)

Herb Prefixes

• Crystallized*: the most common of the empowered herbs, found in all zones
• Sporefused*: found in all zones – often near abundant wildlife
• Irradiated*: found in all zones – often in high places
• Altered*: exremely rare – found in Azj-Kahet and Undermine. Sun-loving herbs (Blessing Blossom & Arathor’s Spear) don’t appear with this prefix.
• Lush: uncommon herbs that yield more than regular versions
• Camouflaged: you need a Phial of Truesight to see camouflaged herbs. Because they are prefixed, they give herbalism skill-ups to a much higher level than the non-prefixed version of the herb.

*: is overloadable. See the “Overloading the Underground” section for the effects of gathering and overloading the empowered herbs.

Herb & Reagent Values

The market is always in flux, so I won’t attempt to estimate gold values, but here’s what I found to be roughly true for relative AH values over season 1:

Herbs (at quality 3)

Arathor’s Spear = Luredrop >> Orbinid = Blessing Blossom > Mycobloom

Reagents:

Leyline Residue (Irradiated) >> Viridescent Spores (Sporefused) > Writing Sample (Altered) >> Crystalline Powder (Crystallized)

Why?

• Leyline Residue can only be collected by herbalists, but the other 3 reagents can also be gathered by miners and skinners, so it’s probably a supply issue.
• Luredrop & Arathor’s Spear (esp. rank 3 quality) are in far higher demand than the other herb types, probably because they are used extensively in inscription, and Tempered Potions, which DPS go through like water.

Herbalism Specializations (3)

1. Bountiful Harvest

AKA the skill specialization – get higher quality herbs.

The base node improves your skill at gathering by 1 point for every point invested. It also gives you a tiny bit of perception/deftness/finesse. You’ll also learn to refine herbs here (turn 5 of a lower quality into the next higher quality).

The secondary nodes improve your skill for gathering a specific type of herb by 1 for each point invested. There is one node for each type of herb in TWW (Mycobloom, Blessing Blossom, Arathor’s Spear, Lurebind, and Orbinid). You can also find a smattering of perception/deftness/finesse here, which is also specific to the herb type. Maxing out the secondary nodes increases your chance to gather Null Lotus, which is a rare reagent.

2. Botany

AKA the mounted gathering specialization – gather faster/better & while mounted

The base node boosts finesse, and its capstone ability is mounted gathering. Unlocking it lets you recharge vigor from gathering herbs.

The secondary nodes 

• Cultivation: increases perception and the ability to find seeds. Any herbalist can find the basic verdant seeds, but investing in this node will let you find them more often, and also let you find seeds when gathering from crystalline, irradiated, and sporefused herbs. Those seeds will drop the corresponding rare reagent when planted and gathered. You can plant any of the seeds at Beledar’s Bounty in Hallowfall ( /way #2215 47.47, 64.05 Beledar's Bounty ).
• Mulching: increases deftness and skill for picking lush herbs &, and allows you to make mulch, which increases the yield of your next gather. It also gives you the “Green Thumb” ability which lets you increase the yield of your next gather (1hr CD).

3. Overloading the Underground

AKA the overload specializtion – get better at gathering from empowered herb nodes.

The base node gives you the ability to Overload empowered herbs/deposits and gives you +1 skill per point invested to harvest these special types. Investing in it also reduces the CD of the overload ability.

The 4 secondary nodes improve your abilities (primarily skill) when gathering the specific empowered type, and makes gathering from that type reduce the CD of Overload. Unlocking the node lessens any harmful effects from gathering that type of herb. 

The table below tries to sum up the key points about the empowered herbs- the bad thing that happens if you try to gather it, the overload effect, and what reagents you can get from them. Crystallized nodes seem to be the most common. Altered nodes seem to be by far the rarest, and only appear in Azj-Kahet and Hallowfall.  

Prefix	Reagent	Gathering Effect	Overload Effect	Secondary Capstone Ability
Crystallized	Crystalline Powder	Gives you a 3% secondary stat buff and protects against the negative effects of altered and weeping nodes (2 min, extendable)	Portal to another herb node (one way unless you unlock the Crystallized secondary node)	Get more reagent
Altered (very rare)	Writhing Sample	Poison	Summons creature	Get more reagent from summoned creature
Sporefused	Viridescent Spores	Hallucinations – green glowy orbs	Creates additional nodes- pick the herb that does not match the others, or you will get disoriented.	Get the “Enhanced Vision” buff (5 min) after picking a sporefused herb which lets you see camoflaged herbs. Overloading not required
Irradiated	Leyline Residue	Knockback	Replaces your overload button with “Arcane Duplication” which lets you copy a non-empowered herb (usable once, lasts for ~5min).	Improves your Arcane Duplication ability – you get 3 instead of 2

Suggestions

Seeds

When you herb, you have a chance to get Verdant Seeds. There’s a place in Hallowfall ( /way #2215 47.47, 64.05 Beledar's Bounty ) where you can plant your seeds – you don’t need to stumble around looking for random patches of rich soil anymore. It’s just southeast of Mereldar. If you have a decent pile of seeds, I highly recommend putting together a gathering group- it’s a really efficient way to herb. Anyone can gather from a seed you plant, but it despawns 30sec after the first person clicks on the plant.

Getting Started w/ Specializations:

There are 2 competing top priorities- mounted gathering vs. universal skill – so it’s going to come down to your personal preferences.

As you skill up:

You get to open new specializations at 50 and 75 skill. Simply unlocking any spec gives you a worthwhile bonus (esp. Botany – the recharging vigor from picking herbs is a nice quality of life improvement) – so remember to open them, even if you’re not putting points into them yet.

Later On: 

Work on filling up the base nodes of Bountiful Harvest and Botany. After that, I’d recommend either:

• Botany→Cultivation for a direct perception bonus and fun with more & better seeds. Perception helps you gather more rare reagents (seeds, empowered node reagents, null lotus).
• Bountiful Harvest secondary nodes are also good – the increased yield at 20 points is very helpful, and higher skill for picking each herb type is never a bad thing. There’s no need to rush to the end of any 1 tree for the null lotus bonus- they’re not in very high demand. Arathor’s Spear and Luredrop are more valuable, so you can start with those, or you can invest in the most common herb – Mycobloom.

Botany→Mulching is lackluster and not a priority. I’ve gotten single herbs off of mulched-buffed gathers, so I’m not convinced it’s working. Green thumb is nice, but the 1 hr CD feels far too long.

Much Later On: 

Unless you have a very specific strategy in mind, fill out all of Botany + Botany→Cultivation and Bountiful Harvest (main branch and sub branches) before worrying about Overloading. But when you get to that point, here are a few tips for the Overloading spec:

• Fill in the base node first – that will get you an additional charge of overload, and generalized skill for all empowered herbs. Open up the sub-nodes as they become available- this will make the side effects for gathering them less nasty.
• It’s worth spending 5 points in Crystallized for the finesse bonus, because it’s the most common empowered herb type and found in every zone.
• After that, the Irradiated sub-branch is the most beneficial to focus on. Not only is the reagent the most valuable of the 4, the overload effect is the most useful.
• If you want your overload ability to recharge faster, you can prioritize getting 20 points in multiple sub-branches.
• You can neglect the Altered sub-branch- altered herbs are so rare that it’s not particularly helpful.