Herbalism

[Mephisto 2]

Hey guys, was wondering if Herbalism is a viable option for a Elemental Shaman for the Haste buff?

 

I'am trying to decide what 2 trades to do, pretty much have everything on other toons.

I checked the guide here and dont really want to level Engineering again as its just a money drain just to get the Springs.

 

Leatherwork looks interesting for the lining but again not sure its worth the expense for the return.

 

Never tried Herbalism so was keen to know if the buff is useful or not and worthwhile to get.

Thanks.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Mephisto

[Ronebean 6]

My elemental shaman has herbalism as one of his tradecrafts. The healing spirits have come in handy when levelling and soling content on many occassions.

[Xinto 18]

Viable for what?

 

Leveling, dungeons, LFR, Flex, ... any are viable as gear optimisation isn't vital.

 

Normal mode you can get away with it depending on your group, if you are getting 1% wipes, a better tradeskill will make a difference. If you are blasting through. Its unlikely to make too much difference.

 

For Heroic modes ... no its not "viable" per se

 

Because imo viable for heroics shouldn't be anything less than optimal unless you have them on farm.

 

As you point out, it isn't optimal, but for anything less than Heroic mode, you can likely get away with it without any worries.

[SparkSovereign 61]

A lot of people can use Herbalism as an optimal (or near-optimal) dps profession, but the problem we run into is that as a CD profession (like engineering is) you'd naturally want to stack it with your CDs for greatest effect.  There are a LOT of "lust on pull" fights this tier... and if your gear is high enough for this sort of stuff to start really mattering (which, amongst other things, means you have the metagem), you're probably going to start GCD locking pretty hard, which means you get little/no benefit from the profession.

 

If you're aghast of the monetary investment and aren't doing bleeding edge heroics, you aren't the target audience for "optimal professions".  Most people doing heroics this late in the tier are going to run into execution problems rather than the "flawless execution, need that 0.5% better dps to phase this guy in time" that first-weekers tend to have.

 

I wouldn't worry about it.  Engineering is very powerful, and not that expensive if you're careful and have a miner.  If you want optimal, bite the bullet and do it.  Blacksmithing is another solid alternative (or second prof) and is much cheaper to level if you're smart about when you use the ghost iron leveling, but doesn't have the crazy toolkit Eng gets.

[Mephisto 2]

Thanks guys, LFR is probably as far as this guy will go before the expansion.

I have both Engineering and Blacksmithing on my Lock and the dps boost when tied in with trinkets and potions is nice.

Herbalism just seemed easy but your right easy doesnt always mean best.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Stoove 347]

Yeah, for LFR I'd take Herbalism then.

 

Embarrassingly, I still run Mining just because I don't have any alts to take up a gathering profession for me =$

[SparkSovereign 61]

Oh yeah, if you aren't doing bleeding edge progression, Herbalism will probably be fine going into Warlords because we won't have the crazy haste from the metagem to "worry" about.  Once the beta goes up we'll naturally start having all sorts of theorycrafting going on for stat priorities in WoD, and will have advice to match, but that could be awhile; and awhile longer before WoD hits.  If you're just doing lfr, gathering professions are the way to go, since you'll rake in some money with it.