Cataclysm Beta: Mining and herbalism give experience
by Gregg Reece 
Sep 13th 2010 at 9:00PM
Blizzard added another way to earn some experience with the latest patch for Cataclysm. You now earn experience when both gathering from mining and herbalism nodes. This is being reported about 4,000 experience for herb nodes in Wintergrasp at level 80. However, these do suffer from the same experience reduction that lower level quests are hit with. As an example, a level 83 player mining a copper node earns 5 experience but earns a couple of thousand from a titanium node.
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
insanecowcatwarriorgod Sep 13th 2010 9:38PM
I actually don't like this change. i spend lots of time getting mats and upping my profession skills as fast as i can so that I usually try to have armor made 2 -3 levels or more above what my character can wear. If i get xp from getting the matts it's gonna put a bit of a damper on that process.
Sneaksy Sep 13th 2010 10:01PM
Like some one said earlier, it -currently- gives the same amount of experience as a slain mob. For the sake of clarity, let's say you're spending about 60% of your time farming nodes and 40% of your time killing mobs. So, all of the experience you would've been gaining in slaying bandits or gnolls or whatever is now being invested into mining and herbalism.
Oh well, as a wise man once said; 90% of all statistics on the internet are made up on the spot 33% of the time.
Sneaksy Sep 13th 2010 10:04PM
What the hell? Obese comment ftl?
WTB edit button.
Amaxe Sep 14th 2010 1:06AM
Well I have mats stockpiled to get my future worgen (Miner-Engineer) powerleveled in mining via smelting (assuming this doesn't get nerfed). However I still was planning to pick up whatever nodes I came across for crafting and profit.
I imagine I'll still get XP for that.
Tankizgay Sep 13th 2010 10:01PM
I dont know why but the very idea of this makes me stressed.
But hey ho
Hollow Leviathan Sep 13th 2010 10:19PM
I love it. So when my mining alt does circles for hours in Scholazar Basin 2.0, he'll slowly level to 85 while also supplying my Tank main. Yes!
Leonidas468 Sep 13th 2010 10:24PM
Does herbalising a dead flower, or mining a dead elemental, also give extra exp?
And for those with epic flying mounts, this may be a new best way to level. Assuming that each mob takes about 10-15 sec to kill, and is the same exp, then mining or herbalising a node for 3 seconds is obviously superior. Sure, mobs are more common than nodes/flowers, but they can both occur in the same spots, and most nodes can be collected without slaying mobs, so flying around could potentially get you exp even faster. I personally approve, even though none of my characters other than my main have either profession, and indeed, most have skinning because Dark Iron has a leather-oriented economy.
Alexander Krizak Sep 13th 2010 10:32PM
I am an enchanter/tailor... and I am apparently unloved. :(
MusedMoose Sep 14th 2010 7:36AM
Not really - you get exp from killing the mobs that give you cloth and items to disenchant. Just like skinners get exp from killing the mobs that they skin. This is just making it so herbalists and miners get exp from getting their raw materials too.
Pebbles Sep 14th 2010 7:54AM
To TRULY be fair, miners and herbalists would have to kill a mob for each node or flower...every time.
Triforceelf Sep 13th 2010 10:41PM
I have one thing to say to this:
HELL YES.
lichkinghuntah Sep 13th 2010 10:55PM
It's a really nice change, but I would expect botting to go way up from this. The people no longer need to level their toons up to get the ore/herb they want. Pure profit for them :(
iammurlocftw Sep 13th 2010 11:09PM
its about the XP as killing one mob and it goes down fast, to give you some PTR statistics
1-10 45 xp from copper which was equal to a mob of level 8 when i was level 10
11 40 xp from copper 115 xp from tin which was equal to a mob a level or 2 above me
12 35 xp from copper
13 30 xp from copper
14 25 xp from copper
15 20 xp from copper
16 Id assume 15 but i didnt mine anything at that level
I can see mining while waiting for a dps or BG queue to pop up while leveling because you get XP and money at the same time, other than that, well theres always the novelty of the first person to level to 85 just from gathering
Suzaku Sep 13th 2010 11:43PM
Getting experience for gathering was one of the things I really liked about Perfect World for the little while that I played it.
It encourages players to level their skills and to keep from getting behind with them. It's a good idea.
underground_slacker Sep 13th 2010 11:54PM
Hell.... its about damn time, its bugged me since vanilla that killing things is the only way to level when the act of spending time to become a master artisan of 2 professions doesnt. and honestly games can only do so many "kill x number of ys for drop z" before people get sick of it and they veered away from it in wrath, im hoping this is just a natural progression, because a virtual world doesnt become a complete "world" unless there are such major choices like "i dislike killing things on the whole, killing a lich king to save the world is a bit different to killing a few hundred creatures for a helmet from nesingwary i think i will just level as a blacksmith instead and get experience ad gear that way"
Amaxe Sep 14th 2010 1:03AM
I'm guessing crafting professions are not included to avoid double dipping. But on the other hand, clothies who are Tailor-Enchanter or a person with two crafting specs may not fare so well.
Nothing for skinning makes sense since most skins will come from mobs the player killed and Blizz wants to avoid double dipping
Of course since all my toons have a gather and a crafting I don't see myself personally harmed.
I wonder how fast the levels will whoosh by with this + heirlooms (yes I know they said this bonus doesn't apply to nodes. I was thinking of the extra XP in general).
MusedMoose Sep 14th 2010 7:38AM
Tailors get experience from killing the mobs that drop cloth, just like skinners get exp from killing the mobs that they skin. It all amounts to the same thing.
Amaxe Sep 14th 2010 10:22AM
I don't see it that way though maybe Blizzard does, and if so that trumps all.
Leather doesn't drop as a loot. It requires the skinning skill to get it.
Anybody can get cloth as a drop.
I guess this would mean I can't reasonably hold the "no xp for skinners" if I want to be consistent then, but I do foresee headaches for Blizz down the line.
curzen Sep 14th 2010 2:37AM
compare amount of animals (doesn't matter who killed them) to amount of herb/mining nodes. you really want to tell me you have to go out of your way while leveling to find an animal to skin?
Yoco Sep 14th 2010 2:35AM
Quote: "However, these do suffer from the same experience reduction that lower level quests are hit with. As an example, a level 83 player mining a copper node earns 5 experience but earns a couple of thousand from a titanium node."
Based on my own experiences in the beta, I can say that this part of the article seems incorrect.
My now level 82 herbalist character on the beta with 525 herbalism (545 if you count her tauren racial plus the gatherer enchant on her gloves) can pick Silverleafs for 5 experience. My level 6 gnome, fresh from the herbalism trainer, got exactly the same. After the 'big' herbalist dinged 82 (by picking a herb :) ) she still got the same experience as before from the twilight jasmines she was picking - 6950 experience per pick.
I am quite sure that the amount of experience you gain depends on the herb type alone, neither your character's level nor your character's herbalism skill has any influence on it. The experience you gain is similar to the experience you'd gain from killing mobs in the lowest level zone the herb appears in. For example, Twilight highlands is full of Twilight Jasmine and Cinderbloom. Twilight Jasmine does not appear in lower level zones and give a whopping 6950 experience per pick (and requires 525 herbalism to pick). Cinderbloom appears in lower level cataclysm zones too (especially mt. hyjal) and gives far less experience - just above 2k IIRC.