TRADES

Gathering first, with no money

outside the starter zones / level 1 to 25 / the scarce materials / alone

When I started on Forever I had eleven copper and a sword I'd borrowed from my cousin. Herbalism cost ten of the coppers. Skinning would have cost another ten and the knife another 82, so I picked flowers in Elwynn for an evening, sold them, and came back for the rest the next morning.

Why it pays

Every herb, every vein and every beast you skin can drop a scarce material now and then. Herbs give Frilled Lichen, veins give Pyrite and beasts give Pristine Leather. Forever's new recipes for tailors, blacksmiths, leatherworkers, alchemists and enchanters are full of them, and they fetch more than anything else a low gatherer finds.

A player on the beta spent a weekend finding out when they drop. Pristine Leather only dropped for characters of level 25 or below, skinning beasts of level 10 to 25 outside the starter zones. A level 30 skinned about 300 beasts and found none, while a level 22 had one within 30 kills. The lichen stopped the same way. One character picked about six of them between level 25 and 26 and none in 150 herbs after that. So the window is open while you level, and a crafter at 30 has to buy what he can no longer gather.

What you need

Ten copper a profession. Herbalism needs nothing else. Skinning needs a Skinning Knife and Mining a Mining Pick, 82 and 81 copper at a trade supplies vendor. In Elwynn Herbalist Pomeroy teaches Herbalism and Helene Peltskinner Skinning, in Teldrassil Malorne Bladeleaf and Radnaal Maneweaver do the same, and in Dun Morogh Yarr Hammerstone teaches Mining. In Durotar Mishiki teaches Herbalism and Krunn Mining, in Tirisfal Faruza and Rand Rhobart teach Herbalism and Skinning, and in Mulgore Yonn Deepcut teaches Skinning.

How

1. Learn two gathering professions before you leave the starter zone. Herbalism with Skinning saves you carrying a pick.
2. Move on to the zones of level 10 and up as soon as your quests allow. The tester found nothing scarce in the starter zones.
3. Gather what lies on your way and leave the rest.
4. Skin every beast that isn't grey to you. The grey ones gave the tester nothing.
5. Sell the scarce materials on the auction house as they come. Keep the common ones for a craft or sell them by the stack.
6. If you want a craft, drop one gatherer for it at about 25, when the window has closed anyway. The first page says which.

What can go wrong

The level rule is one player's test and nothing Blizzard has said, and it says little about Mining. It may be a beta bug that gets fixed, and then everyone at 30 gathers the scarce materials too and the price falls. Pyrite also has a ceiling at the black market in Powderfuse Port, which the chapter on flips explains. On my first morning the boars outside Goldshire were skinned before I'd finished buying the knife.

BASTIAN'S VERDICT Twenty copper and a knife, and it pays from the first evening. I'd have kept both gatherers to 25 if I had known about the window.