I’m going thru my alts and wanting to change up their skills, and I’m wondering on my characters that are both herb & miners which skill to keep.
This is luke asking which is better to ship goods? By boat or by air.
Old world? Mining probably. Herbalism has far less usability in old world content imo.
Currently? Herbalism likely, as production using ore is way down while flask use will only pick up going into s4.
Next expansion? Ore will kijely vastly outpace herbalism at first due to gear crafting and crafting leveling, since gear typically uses far more resources than alchemy. Then it will start to inverse as people have more gear and more avenues to gear and potion use ticks up.
The answer is either, the reality is this though: which do you enjoy more? If its either then it doesnt matter, if its neither than you have a problem and the marginal profit differences wont make up for your lack of motivation.
You also then have to couple in that next week ALL materials will be region wide, so you will be on high pop servers competing with bot farms on low pop servers where the price of gold is still sky high, but now the market for goods is much more efficient. On top of the qh bots sinking materials costs to arbitrage the difference and all that fun stuff.
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They really vary depending on whats happening in game. Mining tends to be more spikey as it surges around patch times when new gear is being produced in big quantities. Herbs follows the same pattern but seem to hold value better as alchemy stays in demand for a longer time.
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Thank you for you wisdom, I truly appreciate you. 
. I didn’t know that next week all materials will be region wide! I wonder why they did that, and hope they will find more effective ways to discourage (or eliminate) the bot-farmers as that really ruins the game for players 
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Thats a very good point.
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Honestly this will make bots far more powerful, across the entiew game, which inevitably makes bots far more prevelant.
But, as with all things in life, there is always an angle you can play.
Old world ores may end up being profitable for the casual farmer, as the market for these goods is extremely slow. The profit margin per hour mqy end up higher than modern mats.
Likewise going into q new expansion gathering professions are ridiculously profitable for at least the first two months. If you are not in q massive rush you may find it better to simply keep the alts where they are at and pivot once the profitability dies down.
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Herbalism has more staying power. I can’t think of anything I need ore for, but I chug flasks and potions in raids every week.
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Neither are right now. Everything is dirt cheap.
As of next week, neither may be profitable, depending on how the region wide AH goes.
Herb will be almost always more profitable in the long run simply due to its frequency of use in raid / M+.
Mining can spike higher depending on what value of craft able gear is available, but it’s far more unreliable as a source of income.
However that may change next expansion, all depends on how smithing and alchemy look.
Once we know what smith / alch can do, and how much demand they get, you will know whether herblore or mining will be more profitable.
Herb is almost always a safe bet though, since potions and flasks exist.
Good advice. However, I don’t plan to buy or play the dragon expansion. I’m simply trying to better utilize my alts. They all pretty much start out with mining & herbalist for their professions because it give experience while leveling, and I can sell the mats to make the gold it takes to level the character (plus more). I figure I’ll leave a couple as gatheres, and just change others to something I want to explore.
just do both and send the stuff you dont wanna sell to your crafter that has engi/alch or something like that.
if youre not interested in aditionnal toons just go for herbs/alch imo - okay money and double flask duration to save some more.
Skinning is actually.
Token. 1 hour of irl work = 5 hours of any profession
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I would say herblism,inscription and alchemy all need herbs.