herb/alchemy for newbie?

I started as an elf and being pretty sure that there were herbs and alchemy materials all around my starting location i started training these two. However I am seeing a lot of posts that alchemy will drain your gold rather than make you any and that you can just buy whatever pots/elixers you need on the market for cheaper than the material cost. (on the other hand, *somebody* has to be making that stuff right?)

So what I'm wondering is for my first character would it be more interesting/useful to just grab and vend the herbs and study enchanting instead? I don't have any friends or a guild so being a warrior would it be handy to enchant all my gear?|||To be honest, I think that alchemy is the most gold-friendly crafting prof around.. what you make are consumables, so people will keep buying them, and if you have herbalism then you won't have to worry too much about spending gold on the mats.

It's especially handy for a first toon to have a gathering profession, because then you can sell the herbs that you don't need for levelling and make some gold. And when you also sell your potions (because unlike the things you make with, say, tailoring or leatherworking, anybody can use the potions you make with alchemy), you'll earn a nice bit of gold soon enough.

Enchanting is a very bad idea to have on your first toon, because it's quite gold-intensive. Usually people do it when they have either tailoring along with it (the only crafting prof that doesn't need a gathering prof since the mats drop off mobs), and/or when they have another toon that can provide the green items to DE (disenchant) into the materials needed to enchant items.

So ignore what people say about alchemy being lousy and a moneysink, because they're just talking our of their hindside.|||my hunter makes a small fortune from alchemy and also as i have a priest and tank that i raid with i need lots of potions so it saves me a massive fortune. as a warrior you will find making potions as you level a great aid. you can make health pots, rage pots agility, armour in fact the list just keeps going for things that will give you that edge over the mobs you are killing

also at high lvl in outland you get mobs that can be herbed (skinned for herb) so grinding herbs is very easy and i think this is one of the fastest ways to make cash|||to say that alchemy is a gold drain and then decide on going into enchanting... folly.

when people say alchemy is a gold drain, they mean that the result is worth less than the sum of its parts. so if you have herbalism to suppliment your income, then alchemy isnt all that bad. just know that some of the herbs you get will be sold as raw herbs, and not as potions or elixirs.|||I have herbalism/alchemy but it is because I am a rogue and use a lot of the recipes.




|||its working well so far i can make my own health potions and vendoring the spare ingredients is easy silver :)|||Try selling 'em on the Auction House - some of the herbs sell quite well, even the lowby ones.