TruthScape.com  9  TruthScape Skill Secrets       9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore            9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore - Introduction, Overview and Training Basics

A Big-Picture Look at Herblore Training The Economics of Herblore and Herblore Training

The word synergy refers to situations where a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. For skills, this means training multiple skills together is more efficient than training them separately. Herblore has strong synergies with only two skills—combat and Farming—but they are extremely important ones that greatly impact how the skill is trained. There are some other weaker synergies as well that are also worth keeping in mind.

Be sure to also read my skill level recommendations, which are similar in some ways but approaches the topic from the perspective of level goals and requirements, rather than training and XP.

It’s not often that you see combat and Farming grouped together, since they seem so very different. They have one very important common characteristic, however: they are the two main skills used to supply herbs and secondary ingredients to herblorists.

Combat is the primary source of the “big 11” herbs that are dropped by dozens of monsters: guam, marrentill, tarromin, harralander, ranarr, irit, avantoe, kwuarm, cadantine, lantadyme and dwarf weed. There are also some monsters that drop secondary ingredients. The natural synergy here is that you can spend time killing monsters that drop lots of herbs, getting combat XP while collecting the herbs to use for potions. Fortunately, most of the good herb-dropping monsters are fairly low level, so you don’t need to be a high combat level at all to get the herbs you need (though it doesn’t hurt! J)

Farming is an alternative to combat that takes a very different approach to obtaining herbs: where combat drops are random, growing herbs allows you to get only exactly those herbs you need. This predictability makes growing herbs arguably more useful for those who are training the Herblore skill, especially at the higher levels (since higher-level herbs are dropped less frequently). Limpwurt roots are a useful secondary ingredient that can also be very easily farmed in flower patches, which are located right near (most) herb patches.

It’s worth noting that there are some herbs and seconds that you can get via combat but not from Farming (such as cockatrice eggs and desert goat horns), while some you can only farm and not get as drops (toadflax and snapdragon herbs, poison ivy berries and cactus spines). Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to train both combat and Farming along with Herblore. Most herbs and secondary ingredients are tradeable, so you can buy what you don’t get yourself—working combat or Farming along with Herblore just lets you get ingredients for potions while simultaneously boosting other skills, and saving money as well.

Of course, the nature of Farming is that you plant seeds and then come back later to pick your harvest of herbs. You can easily fight herb-dropping monsters to get still more herbs while waiting for your seeds to grow. Thus, training all three of Herblore, Farming and combat together is a natural fit.

Finally, there is a complete cycle of synergy between Herblore and combat, because you can use the herbs obtained through combat to make potions that enhance combat—allowing you to get still more herbs, and so on. J

Here is a brief look at other skills in the game that have lesser, yet still meaningful training synergies with Herblore. Be sure to see the topic on skill recommendations for any necessary levels.

Barbarian fishing yields roe and caviar for making barbarian potions, and is also an excellent way of getting Fishing XP. As a bonus, you will also receive a small amount of Agility and Strength XP for each fish you catch; the details are shown in Table 44 in the discussion of getting roe and caviar.

The main synergy between Herblore and these two skills has to do with vials for potions. The Magic options can be exploited only at higher levels, and with the Lunar Magicks spellbook activated.

First, you can either make molten glass the “old fashioned way” or use the Lunar Magicks spell Superglass Make. The slower way gives 20 Crafting XP for each glass made; the spell gives only 10 XP per glass, but also yields about 30% more glass than you get the old way, and 78 Magic XP for casting it. Next, blowing the glass into vials yields an additional 35 Crafting XP. Finally, the empty vials can then be filled using the level 68 Lunar Magicks spell Humidify, which gives 65 Magic XP per cast.

Using both Superglass Make and Humidify yields an average total of approximately 56 Crafting XP and 7 Magic XP per vial of water produced. For more analysis on the usefulness of these methods, read about the various options for getting and filling vials.

Deadfall trapping the sabre-toothed kebbit yields kebbit teeth, which are the secondary ingredient for Hunter potions (they must first be ground using a pestle and mortar). Each of these kebbits gives 200 Hunter XP, while the Hunter potions provide 120 Herblore XP. The teeth are tradeable.

The synergy between Herblore and Woodcutting is rather indirect, and has to do with a single secondary ingredient: crushed nests. Bird’s nests will fall randomly from trees when chopping them; they can then be ground using a pestle and mortar and used to make Saradomin brews.

A Big-Picture Look at Herblore Training The Economics of Herblore and Herblore Training