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TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore - Introduction, Overview and Training Basics Why Train Herblore? Advantages and Benefits

Herblore is one of the older skills in RuneScape, dating back to RuneScape Classic, where it was called Herblaw. (Exactly why it was called that completely escapes me, since “Herblaw” is not a word that makes any sense, and the skill has nothing to do with laws, not even law runes. But anyway. J ) Herblore is members-only, and one of three skills—along with Runecrafting and Summoning—that can be accessed only after completing a quest to complete it; in this case, that is the aptly-named Druidic Ritual. Players who train this skill are sometimes called herblorists.

The skill is mostly oriented towards the production of potions, small vials of liquid (often abbreviated as pots) that enhance player abilities in a multitude of ways. A large percentage of potions are dedicated to boosting skills, such as increasing combat prowess by raising the Attack, Strength, Defence, Ranged or Magic skills above their normal maximums. Other potions are devoted to restoring points to skills where they are naturally used up, such as Prayer or Summoning, or negating and preventing poison. Another class of potions is actually a set of poisons that can be applied to weapons to do more damage in combat.

The potion-making process is a simple sequence in which three or more (usually three) materials are combined in a specific order. Typically a player starts with an empty glass vial that is filled with water. An herb appropriate to the potion is then added to the water to make an unfinished potion. A secondary ingredient (sometimes called just a second), is then mixed in to make the completed potion. There are some potions that don’t follow this rule exactly, but most are similar. During the potion-making process a special skill animation is shown, one frame of which is illustrated in Figure 146

In addition to regular potions, Herblore also is used to make two special products. The first is a set of four herb tars, which serve as fuel for the four salamander weapons one can obtain through the Hunter skill. The second is barbarian mix potions that can be made by combining fish eggs (roe or caviar) obtained through barbarian fishing, with conventional potions; this gives Herblore XP and lets the potions do double duty by both enhancing and healing a player.

Herblore is mostly about making potions, and the potions themselves are very simple to make, yet the skill itself is not a walk in the park. Most of the complexity in Herblore revolves around finding efficient ways to obtain the water vials, herbs, secondary ingredients, swamp tar and other materials used to make Herblore products. (In this respect, Herblore is similar to Summoning, where most of the effort goes into getting materials to make pouches, not making the pouches themselves.) This skill has strong synergies with combat and Farming, because those are the two primary means by which herbs and seconds are obtained.

Herblore has never been a fantastic money-making skill, except for when game changes led to temporary high demand periods for particular potions. Even so, breaking even on the skill and even coming out ahead was possible until recently, as long as you were patient in selling your product, and did not succumb to the temptation to powerlevel.

The radical changes made to the game in 2007 that eliminated unidentified herbs, Wilderness PKing and open trade have had a big impact on Herblore, making it now usually a money-losing endeavor—simply put, potions are worth less than their ingredients. That said, it is still possible to train the skill economically, and sometimes even make some money at it, though this is more difficult than before and requires that you sacrifice efficient training in order to consider alternative products and methods.

TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore - Introduction, Overview and Training Basics Why Train Herblore? Advantages and Benefits