WoW Forever Gathering Professions: Learn Them Without Visiting a Trainer
You don’t have to visit a trainer to pick up a gathering profession in the WoW Forever beta. Our own Cagen reports that every starting area has a gathering quest that rewards a choice of three books, and each book teaches you one gathering skill: Herbalism, Mining or Skinning.
Tested on the beta by Cagen on 14 October 2026. The quest reward choice rests on our own testing; the item names and tooltip text are confirmed by Wowhead’s Forever database.
The three reward books
You pick one. Each is a quest reward, binds when picked up and is unique.
| Book | Teaches |
|---|---|
| Wild Harvest | Herbalism |
| Mining for Dummies | Mining |
| Pelt Collecting for Beginners | Skinning |
What the books do
According to their tooltips, using a book:
- increases the matching skill by 2, and cannot raise it above 15;
- teaches you the profession if you don’t know it yet and don’t already know two other professions.
So the book is a free start, not a replacement for training later on. If you already have two professions, the book won’t add a third.
Which one to pick
Our Professions guide lists Mining and Skinning, or Herbalism and Skinning, as the best combinations for levelling and gold. Skinning can also be learned from level 1 at a few trainers: see Skinning from level 1.
Sources: First-hand testing by Cagen (Team Overpowered); Wowhead Forever database: Wild Harvest, Mining for Dummies, Pelt Collecting for Beginners.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a trainer to learn a gathering profession in WoW Forever?
Not in the beta. Our tester reports that a starting-area gathering quest rewards a book that teaches Herbalism, Mining or Skinning.
Which gathering professions can you learn from the starter quest?
You choose one of three books: Wild Harvest for Herbalism, Mining for Dummies for Mining, or Pelt Collecting for Beginners for Skinning.
How high do the gathering books raise your skill?
Each book increases the skill by 2 and cannot raise it above 15, according to the item tooltips on Wowhead's Forever database.
