TruthScape.com  9  TruthScape Skill Secrets       9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore            9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore - Training Techniques and Strategies                 9  Sample Herblore Training Plans

Mid-Level Herblore Training Recommendations (Levels 38 to 62) Very-High-Level Training Recommendations (Levels 82 to 98)

Once you get your level into the 60s and 70s, you begin to move into a more mature phase of your development of the Herblore skill. For starters, you gain access to some of the more important higher-level potions, such as super restores and ranging potions. You will find that you spend much less time on developing support skills and completing necessary quests, but a lot more on making potions and other products, because of the greater amounts of XP needed for leveling.

This is the area where many players tend to bog down in the skill, because of the high cost of leveling when you don’t have a plan in place. It is particularly essential at this level to understand and take advantage of cost-effective training methods.

Once you get your Herblore into the higher levels, you should also work on doing the same with most of your other skills as well. In terms of combat, you should aim for at least level 100, in order to let you kill herb dropping monsters faster, and to make it feasible to fight aberrant spectres effectively. You will also need a Slayer level of at least 60, of course (or 55+ with wild pies.)

Here are some specific non-combat skill targets you’ll want to consider as well:

• Agility: You want at least level 45 if you’d like to catch leaping sturgeon for barbarian mix potions. A level of 67 or higher (or level 62 with a summer pie) will allow you to fight Salarin the Twisted to get a chance at a sinister key.
  
  
• Farming: Aim for at least level 62, to grow snapdragons, the primary cash crop of high level farmers/herblorists.
  
  
• Fishing: You need Level 70 to catch leaping sturgeon.
  
  
• Magic: Level 68 is required if you want to cast Humidify. You may also want higher levels to enable Lunar Magicks teleports for farming runs.
  
  
• Strength: Level 45 to catch sturgeon in barbarian fishing.
  
  
• Summoning: At least level 52 for the spirit terrorbird (for enhanced herb storage when gathering); level 67 for the war tortoise is even better. Higher Summoning levels give you access to other familiars that enhance Farming yields, which can be a boon to farmers growing coconuts, nightshade, cactus spines and more.
  
  
• Thieving: If you can swing it, aim for level 82. This lets you use the shortcut between the Yanille bank and the Agility Dungeon chaos druids and Salarin the Twisted.

At this stage in your character’s career, you should be able to finish off the remaining Herblore-related quests, most of which are more difficult or have higher-level requirements. Strongly recommended are Haunted Mine, My Arm’s Big Adventure, Eadger’s Ruse and Lunar Diplomacy. You should also do Tarn’s Lair to get the enhanced salve amulet, and Dream Mentor for access to the expanded Lunar Magicks spellbook, including Humidify.

I’d also suggest completing Desert Treasure. This lets you put a Canifis portal in your house, which is the most convenient way to access the town, and the best way to do tasks like gathering mort myre fungi.

You are going to need more and more herbs as you get into the higher levels, and so will want to avail yourself of all available options for getting them. Your primary vehicle will probably continue to be combat, and you should be able to fight all of the primary and secondary herb droppers without much difficulty, including aberrant spectres. You will want to make use of Summoning familiars to improve herb drop quality and let you bank more of them on each trip.

Continue Farming as well, of course, going to all five herb patches as frequently as you can think to do them. As always, what you grow will depend on your preferred approach, but generally will be either whatever is the highest level herb you can grow, or snapdragons if you are interested in making super restore potions for money.

Be sure to continue with Miscellania, and also consider alternative methods for getting herbs.

Super restores become a mainstay potion for many herblorists once they hit level 63, which is part of why I chose that figure as a dividing point between what I consider high-level and mid-level. There are also many other good high-level potions that give a great deal of XP, such as magic, ranging and antifire potions, but some of these will come with very high monetary losses. Depending on your overall approach to training the skill and how you get your herbs, using these may or may not make sense.

At the higher levels you should have access to most of the possible alternative ways of training, and due to the increasing amounts of XP needed to level, you’ll want to explore and make use of as many of them as possible. Here are a few I recommend in this level range:

• Making harralander tar.
  
  
• Cleaning high-level grimy herbs.
  
  
• Making finished potions from grimy herbs.
  
  
• Making unfinished potions, selling some for cash and using some for XP.
  
  
• Assisting other players with Herblore.
  
  
• Buying and using sinister keys.

You can also use quest rewards and random event awards on Herblore if you desire, though spending them on slower-leveling skills is usually a wiser choice.

Mid-Level Herblore Training Recommendations (Levels 38 to 62) Very-High-Level Training Recommendations (Levels 82 to 98)