Winterspring Farming Route: Icecap, Mountain Silversage and Winterfall (55–60)

Winterspring is the last zone most characters level in before raids, and it pays like one. Its snowfields hold what level-60 players buy every week: Icecap and Mountain Silversage for alchemists, Runecloth by the stack, Rugged Leather, thorium with the odd Arcane Crystal, and Winterfall Firewater for the melee crowd. This winterspring farming route is one clockwise loop for levels 55 to 60 on vanilla-era realms such as WoW Forever: out of Everlook to the furbolg village and the yeti hills, south past the owlbeasts, west along the frozen lake for herbs, across the chimaera snowfields to the furbolg post by the Felwood tunnel, and home past the hot springs.

Where and what you need

Winterspring fills the north-eastern corner of Kalimdor and is entered through the Timbermaw furbolg tunnel from Felwood, or by flight path once you have visited the town. Non-elite mobs run from about 53 near the western entrance to 58 around the village in the east, so 55 is the honest starting level and 58 is where the loop stops costing you food. Stay out of the two gorges in the south and the dragonkin cave in the south-east: everything there is elite, and the loop never needs it.

Professions decide what a lap is worth. Herbalism wants 280 for Mountain Silversage, 290 for Icecap and 300 for the rare Black Lotus, so arrive with 275 at least. Mining needs 245 for the small thorium veins and 275 for the rich ones. Skinning should be near 300, because the yetis, chimaera and owlbeasts are all in the mid to high 50s. One gathering profession makes the loop worthwhile; two make it one of the better zones in the game.

Most mobs stand in pairs, the furbolg shamans heal and the yetis hit hard, so dungeon blues, a decent weapon and a stack of food per hour are the baseline. Bring four big bags: cloth, leather, ore and herbs stack separately, and a full lap fills sixty slots. Everlook is neutral, with repairs, an auction house and a flight master, so both factions share the hub.

The route

The loop runs clockwise from town and takes about an hour with both gathering skills; skip the western half if you only want cloth and leather.

1. Everlook, the start. Repair, empty your bags, set your Hearthstone here and leave by the eastern gate; the town sits in the north-east of the valley, so every leg is short.
2. Winterfall Village. Follow the road north-east to the big furbolg camp and work the outer huts in an arc rather than pushing into the middle: the shamans heal each other. Winterfall Firewater and most of your Runecloth come from here.
3. Ice Thistle Hills. Turn south along the eastern slopes, where the yetis live. Pull them one at a time on open snow, away from the cave mouths where they stand in twos and threes. Each is a Rugged Leather skin and a chance at an e'ko, with small thorium veins in the rocks between.
4. Owl Wing Thicket. Keep south until the trees close in and the owlbeasts begin: slow, in ones and twos, and skinnable. Mountain Silversage grows on the slopes above, and the first Rich Thorium veins of the loop sit on the ridge above the southern gorges. Do not cross that ridge.
5. The frozen lake. Head west to Lake Kel'Theril in the centre of the zone. Icecap grows along the banks and among the ruins on the ice, Mountain Silversage on the hillsides above. Kill the Highborne ghosts for Runecloth when they are in your way and ignore them when they are not.
6. Chimaera snowfields. West of the lake the land opens into snowfields where the chillwind chimaera roam: the best leather on the loop, and their e'ko feeds the juju buffs raiders pay for. Pull them in the open and never let two line up on you.
7. Timbermaw Post. Continue west to the furbolg camp just inside the Felwood tunnel. It is smaller and lower-level than the village, which makes it the quickest Runecloth of the lap, and its Spirit Beads build Timbermaw reputation on the side.
8. Frostfire Hot Springs and home. Turn north-east to the hot springs, where Mountain Silversage grows thick and thorium veins ring the pools, then follow the northern road east to Everlook. Sell, post the herbs and leather, and go again.

What you get

Source	Drops and nodes	Why it sells
Winterfall furbolgs (village and post)	Runecloth, Winterfall Firewater, greens, Spirit Beads	Runecloth is the endgame cloth for bags and city reputation; Firewater is a melee buff raiders buy by the stack
Yetis in the eastern hills	Rugged Leather, Thick Leather, e'ko, grey parts	Rugged Leather is what every leatherworker at 300 needs; the e'ko become juju buffs
Chillwind chimaera	Rugged Leather, e'ko, grey parts	The same leather with fewer failed skins, and one of the more wanted e'ko
Owlbeasts in the thicket	Rugged Leather, e'ko, the odd green	Steady leather, and greens at this level vendor for real silver
Lake shore and hillsides	Icecap, Mountain Silversage, a rare Black Lotus	Icecap goes into Major Mana Potions and frost protection; Silversage into Major Healing Potions, Mongoose elixirs and flasks
Thorium veins on the ridges	Thorium Ore, Dense Stone, gems, Arcane Crystals from rich veins	Thorium feeds every endgame blacksmith and engineer, and one Arcane Crystal outsells the rest of the vein
Everything on the loop	Grey junk, silver, green world drops	Greys alone add a few gold per lap

Gold per hour

Without gathering, killing furbolgs, yetis and owlbeasts for Runecloth, Firewater, greens and vendor trash brings roughly 20 to 35 gold an hour on a realm with a normal population. With Herbalism, the lake and the hot springs lift that to roughly 35 to 60 gold, because every raiding guild burns Icecap and Mountain Silversage weekly. With Mining as well, a lucky hour with an Arcane Crystal or a Black Lotus can go well past that, but treat those as bonuses, not the baseline.

What moves the number is competition first: Winterspring is a popular level-60 zone and the herbs and veins are shared with everyone else running a loop, so the time of day matters. Your skinning skill matters, since a failed skin on a yeti is the most expensive miss in the zone. And your realm's raiding scene matters most of all: the more guilds clearing content, the more they burn.

Tips

• Skin everything you kill and everything someone else leaves; a yeti or chimaera corpse is worth more skinned than looted.
• Loot before you skin, then skin before you move on.
• Never chase a vein or a herb into the southern gorges or the dragonkin cave; everything there is elite and travels in packs.
• Furbolg shamans first, then the rest; a healer left standing turns a two-pull into a long one.
• Fight on open snow, with room to step back from a yeti or a second chimaera.
• Post herbs and leather in full stacks on the neutral auction house, and keep Firewater for raid nights, when it sells fastest.

Running it with ForeverBot

The lap lives in the Farming section. Walk it once with Record loop to save the waypoints, then build the Targets list with the yetis, furbolgs, owlbeasts and chimaera, leaving the Highborne ghosts and anything elite off it so the Target key never picks them. Tick Auto loot, Sell gray items and Go to a vendor when bags are full, and keep Repair at vendors and Buy food and water on; the town is on the loop, so the detours are short. The Gold/hour counter in the status panel is the honest number to measure against the ranges above.

Gathering is under Professions: tick Herbalism and Mining in the Skills list, keep Remember nodes on so the Icecap patches by the lake and the veins on the ridges stay in the loop, and leave Skip nodes above your skill on until Herbalism passes 290. In Settings, set the Navigator's Route mode to safest so the arrow stays off the gorge rims, and tighten the Arrival radius for the hillside paths. The Eat below HP and Drink below mana sliders in the Leveling section's Combat and rest group apply here too and are worth raising for the yeti hills. Plans and the one-month option are on the pricing page.

FAQ

What level should I be for this winterspring farming route?

Level 55 covers the village, the hills and the lake; from 57 or 58 the chimaera and the full loop stop needing a rest after every pull. The elite areas in the south are not part of the route at any level.

Do I need both Herbalism and Mining?

No. Herbalism alone covers the most valuable part of the loop, the Icecap and Mountain Silversage; Mining adds thorium and the Arcane Crystal lottery. If you only have one, make it Herbalism here and take Mining to the thorium mining route.

Is Felwood or Winterspring better for herbs at this level?

Felwood has more herbs per lap but cheaper ones, and it is the better zone until your skill reaches 280; after that Winterspring pays more per node. Many players chain the two through the Timbermaw tunnel; see the Felwood herb farming route.