Example A:
Example B:An expert spends 30 minutes herbing in Gont, 10 minutes herbing in Emerald, 20 minutes on Holm, 20 minutes in Calia and 60 minutes in Middle Earth.
(S)He obtains gear of a decent quality, now, equipped with the proceeds of his/her herbing it is possible to kill everything in LoD in one go, and even have a few herbs to spare. Takes 40 minutes. Wasn't even needed to have imbues for it.
--- Total time: 3 hours.
Example C:A legend obtains basic gear, goes to LoD and kills everything in 30 minutes.
--- Total time: 30 minutes.
All valid examples. A legend can clean LoD in 30 minutes, an expert who is not limited to 1 herb per 60 seconds can do it in 40. A rising hero mercenary of the old mercs DID spank a myth vampire, thanks to having a lot of herbs. These things sparked a change in herbs into what we have now.A rising hero spends 6+ hours herbing various places. A myth gets angry with the rising hero, reason not important, and wishes to kill the rising hero. The rising hero manages to twart the myth's attempt to slay it, by the use of multiple herbs, and even cause so much damage to the myth, who has NOT prepared itself to the same extent, that the myth have to withdraw.
Well, what do we have now?
- Preparing is bad, and with this change even punished, there is no real benefit of spending time herbing unless you're so small, it's the easiest way to grow or earn money.
- Magic is still good. To a point. When you're out of mana, you're screwed and have a downtime, which might even affect others, as your team might require your magic to keep going.
I wonder, are there any statistics on how the active player #'s were during the time that the change was made?
Why does it have to be so that if a player wishes to spend hours upon hours herbing, and then can't use the herbs in the same way as before?
Alternatives are there, a herb can be made "bigger"; Heavier, more food etc, it would make a natural limit, since we know that low "stuffed" will make you tire a lot faster, giving the need for herbs, which will fill you up, or magic, which again will consume mana, which again will require herbs etc etc.
As it is now, magic guilds are quite handicapped due to this. Potions for healing are close to useless, potions for mana? Yes, there is one, it's toxic.
If it's just a "well, everyone can get herbs in such quantities that we can't have it so that everyone can eat as much herbs as they want anymore", then perhaps limit access somewhat. Guess what, if that's the case, remove herbalism as a general skill over 10 skillevels, remove the Gardeners, remove herbalism from all racial guilds. Make it harder to get, rather than ruin the game for those who are actually dependant on them, like Rangers, Valars, Elementals, SCoP, Mages, PoT, Necros & Academics...