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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsHerb respawn rates up
by Basil Berntsen 
Feb 10th 2011 at 2:00PM
Most realms' herbalists have noticed this change and have been herbing their hearts out. If this does not change, we can expect a drastic reduction in prices for all inscription- and alchemy-based products that require Volatile Life or herbs. I haven't seen as drastic an increase in other herbs that Whiptail, but Volatile Life, at least, will be cheaper while this lasts. Also, herbalists I've talked to are saying that all the herbs in Deepholm and Twilight Highlands are respawning faster, but that hasn't translated to anything I can measure yet. The way they're describing this, though, is that it feels like it did before the Dec. 8 hotfix that reduced the number of nodes.
Many of the realms I've looked at so far are showing a trend of increased supply without the decrease in price, but that's mostly because herbalists haven't started to see unsold auctions. If the supply continues to come in at this rate, the farmers will start undercutting each other harder.
If you want to take a look at other realms, the fastest way it to scroll down to the "Other Markets" section on the page:
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Brian! Feb 10th 2011 2:15PM
Someone told me that there was a node of Whiptale that would respawn the instance it was harvested and there were a ton of herbalists surrounding it just harvesting over and over and over.
I am betting it got hot fixed. I was in an instance and didn't want to bail just to see for myself. However, if that bug happened across servers, then it could account for the sharp increase in Whiptale.
Cormorand Feb 10th 2011 2:21PM
I've never understood why people felt the need to report bugs of this magnitude. It's like calling the bank, newspapers, police, and local Moose club because there's a broken ATM spitting out $20s everywhere.
Boobah Feb 10th 2011 4:36PM
Not really a good example, since herb spawns come out of nowhere, and somebody had to buy the cash that went in the ATM. Somebody is being hurt in the ATM example, since ultimately the owners of the bank are people, and that's their money you're walking off with.
And more to the point, it's not like Basil's intentionally pointing this out to Blizzard; he's pointing it out to players. That some of those players also work at Blizzard and are in charge of these things is irrelevant. Quite frankly, it's probably better for the health of the game if Blizzard feels some urgency about the bug (if that's what it is.)
eyeball2452 Feb 10th 2011 7:30PM
I enjoy playing broken games too ...
I understand that even PvE is a competition in WoW, but without rules and consequences, neither the game nor life in general would function very well.
Rob Feb 11th 2011 7:18AM
This feature is already well known to MMO champions readers. WoWI tends to be a few days behind the news. Not that it is a problem. Just saying, cat is out of the bag.
Basil Berntsen Feb 11th 2011 9:07AM
@Rob it's even better known to readers of other forums about making gold in game like JMTC (where I found it) and the Consortium, but regardless, we have quality control and no matter how fast I write something, it'll be a little bit of time before it gets posted.
Herman Feb 10th 2011 2:20PM
whereas volatile life cost has gone from 12g to 27g
Boobah Feb 10th 2011 4:37PM
Presumably a response to the massive number of players making their shiny new alchemist stones at fifty life a pop. For some hybrids, that'll be two new stones.
Lur Feb 10th 2011 4:46PM
The reason Volatile Life prices have gone up, in spite of respawn rates that appear to have tripled, is because they added new Alchemist Stones. Each one requires 50 Volatile Life to make and there are no doubt tons of people replacing a trinket.
KWDak Feb 10th 2011 2:24PM
Also, are herb respawn rates up or were people saving herbs up for post-patch selling?
KWDak Feb 10th 2011 2:25PM
Comment system phail. I meant to reply to cutaia
Thundrcrackr Feb 10th 2011 2:23PM
Cata herb nodes have had fast spawn times since day 1.
I'm guessing the increase in supply is due to the changes in recipes, not faster respawns.
I'd at least get some confirmation from Blizzard before i went around claiming respawns were increased.
Webjunky Feb 10th 2011 2:29PM
I've spent about 4 hours over the last 2 nights farming heartblossom, cinderbloom and whiptail. I've probably farmed about 300 Cinder and whiptail and about 400 heartblossom. At least a handful of times I would pick an herb start to fly away maybe pick another herb in the same viewing area and the herb was back again.
Blazing Rain Feb 10th 2011 2:31PM
What we all really want to say: About time!
droknar Feb 10th 2011 2:34PM
Yeah, heard about this last night and farmed 27 stacks of Whiptail and about 150 volatile lifes in under an hour. Posted a good chunk. Holding on to the rest in case this is indeed a bug and supply tanks again. Either way I'm good for the next two weeks on volatiles and my transmutes (better profit margin on airs than truegold on my server).
If it stays this way I'll be happy regardless as now it's easy farming whiptail when previously it'd take 20 minutes to pull a single stack, easy.
Bapo Feb 10th 2011 2:35PM
Dear Tauren Druids....
I hate all of you that are herbalists so very, VERY much...
*Land, start herbin, half way through herbin, tauren swoops down*
TROOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLEEDDDDDDDDDDD
>.
Pyromelter Feb 10th 2011 2:38PM
Undermine Journal 2.0: Way better than UJ 1.0!
Huzurahh Feb 10th 2011 2:40PM
I mentioned to one of my friends last night that the herbs seemed to be popping up really fast. I picked up 3 stacks of whiptail just flying up and down the Uldum river a couple times, and had to double back frequently for herbs that respawned before I flew out of the mini-map range. Hopefully this change was intended and sticks around.
Sir Broose Feb 10th 2011 2:41PM
I was leveling another alt in Uldum the day of the patch and herbalists were in general chat talking about the crazy respawn rate. After about an hour of seeing the chat, I switched over to my gathering (herbs and mining) toon and did some fly-overs in Deepholm and it felt the same to me - like they were everywhere. Over the past 3 days, I've dumped a bunch of stacks on the AH as quickly as I could, because I figured the price would start dropping, and I wanted to get in before that happened. So far prices are still holding, or only a little lower than before, so it's been a cash cow. I'm sure it won't last, though, once everyone figures it out.
zubbiefish Feb 10th 2011 2:57PM
Cattle mutilations are up.