Gathering Professions in WoW: Forever: Mining, Herbalism, Skinning and Fishing

In Forever, Mining, Herbalism and Skinning are worth more than their auction house price. Each gathering profession turns up scarce materials that new recipes need, builds its own camp features for the campfire and fills the crates you turn in for Merchant's Favor. Fishing comes along as a secondary profession, and its Fish Bowl is the strongest camp buff for small groups.

What changes compared to Classic

The basics haven't moved: learn the profession from a trainer, skill it up by gathering, buy the next rank. Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Artisan raise the cap to 300 and need character level 5, 10, 20 and 35. Skinning still follows the old rule of thumb: above skill 100, divide your skill by five to get the highest mob level you can skin.

A few things are new, though. Your first profession book can be a quest reward in the starting zone. Every profession picks up materials that didn't exist in Classic and builds three camp features at skill 20, 140 and 300. Herbs, ore, cloth and leather go into the Waylaid Crates for Merchant's Favor.

Tauren feel the change most: Green Thumb no longer boosts Herbalism. Instead it pulls a duplicate of an herb that can be picked without Herbalism.

Mining

Mining feeds blacksmiths and engineers. Its scarce finds are Pyrite, Bauxite and Pitchblende. At skill 275 you smelt two Pitchblende and one Coal into Azerothium. Right at the top sits Heavy Thorium Ore, which only the Molten Foundry can smelt.

Camp feature	Skill	Effect
Lodestone	20	up to +90 melee attack power, excludes Blessing of Might
Rock Garden	140	Lodestone buff, grows a common mining node over time
Molten Foundry	300	Lodestone buff, station for smelting Heavy Thorium

The Lodestone costs one Rough Stone and one Copper Bar. In a melee group without a paladin, put it down every time.

Herbalism

Herbalism supplies alchemists, and through their Cerulean Dye it now supplies tailors too. Its scarce finds are Frilled Lichen, Rosecap and Stranglevine. You also get new herbs such as Demonsage, plus seeds to plant in the Greenhouse.

Camp feature	Skill	Effect
Incense Candle	20	up to +25 intellect, excludes Arcane Intellect
Greenhouse	140	candle buff, grows herbs from seeds over time
Seed Hybridizer	300	candle buff, multiplies seeds and combines them into rarer tiers

The Incense Candle is one Peacebloom and one Silverleaf. No mage in the group? It covers Arcane Intellect, and any group with healers or casters will notice.

Skinning

Skinning goes hand in hand with Leatherworking, which has the most new recipes of any profession in Forever: 271 of them. Pristine Leather, Pristine Hide and Pristine Scale are the scarce finds, and several blue leather sets need them. Fel Leather and Fel Hide are new leather types as well.

Camp feature	Skill	Effect
Camp Chair	20	+2% critical strike chance, excludes Moonkin Aura
Field Guide	140	chair buff; reading it teaches Track Beasts
Trapper's Workbench	300	chair buff, contains one trap

The Camp Chair takes three Light Leather and two Simple Wood. The 2% crit doesn't scale with level, so every class gets the full value while levelling.

Fishing

Fishing doesn't take a primary slot, but it earns its place here: the Fish Bowl (from skill 20) gives everyone at the camp 8% to all stats and replaces Blessing of Kings. Paladins only learn that blessing at level 20, so until then hardly any camp buff beats it. The Fishing Rack (140) and Fishing Hut (300) add better and rare fish plus lures. Since 10 November the Fishing Rack hands out its lures to everyone eligible again.

Legacy and Merchant's Favor

Gathering professions have no Legacy challenges, but one node fits them perfectly: Bountiful Harvest in the Professions tree adds 20% more scarce materials per rank, 100% at max. After that you can take Performance Bonus, which gives up to a 15% chance at double Merchant's Favor when you turn in a crate. Plan both in the Legacy planner; the Legacy guide has the details.

For Merchant's Favor, gatherers cover the first step. Herb, ore and textile crates are worth 5 favor at Apprentice, 10 at Journeyman and 15 at Expert tier. Process the materials yourself into bars, bolts or parts and a filled crate of the same tier pays double. The favor calculator shows what that means for whatever you're saving up for.

Which combination fits?

Two gathering professions are the fastest gold while levelling. Sell the mats or fill crates, then switch one to a crafting profession later.

Long term, gathering plus crafting pays better: Mining with Blacksmithing or Engineering, Skinning with Leatherworking, Herbalism with Alchemy. You cover your own needs and get double favor per crate.

If gold is all you care about, take Herbalism. Frilled Lichen goes into Cerulean Dye, which 106 Tailoring recipes use, and the Alchemy route from 1 to 300 alone eats 94 of it. You won't run out of buyers.

If you're the one who usually sets up camp, check which class buffs your group is missing first. Lodestone, Incense Candle and Camp Chair plug three different holes: Blessing of Might, Arcane Intellect and Moonkin Aura.

Every recipe and camp feature is in the professions database, and the camp planner lets you build a full camp. The other professions are covered in the professions overview.