I wonder if anyone has any theories or links to theories about the way that resource nodes such as ores and herbs spawn.

Here are a few options I have come up with.

1) Pure timed - Each resource node spawns on a given timer, including rare nodes. This also includes the possibility that the timer is random.

2)Whack-A-Mole (or WAM)- (that's what I call it anyway) - Each time a resource node is collected a resource node elsewhere spawns.

3) Hybrids - A combination of the two above, including timed for regular nodes and whack-a-mole for rare nodes.

Also, there is the possibility that there are factors that are not considered by taking just mining and herb nodes separately in one zone at a time, such as mining and herbalism being connected via a whack-a-mole or hybrid WAM, having treasure chests or rare spawns also being included in a spawn rotation, and having multiples zones connected.

As I largely play solo it is difficult for me to test the above theories, but my preliminary experiments tend to suggest that if there is a timed type spawn there is a variation in respawn time. Currently I lean towards a hybrid theory.

Based on what I have seen, there's a timer on a resource node within a given area that can spawn in one of several locations, usually with multiple types of resource. I believe the respawn time of this is influenced by the time since it was last gathered since you sometimes see near-instant respawns in remote locations or at very off hours.

This is one of the factors that led me to think that each spawn doesn't have an individual timer. I have walked away from a node and turned around to see it spawn behind me. I tend to think that it is not all timed though, as a zone that is completely empty for a long period of time will not be completely filled with resources, there is a limit to how many resources will spawn.

After collecting literally thousands of terrocone to support my flask addiction, I've made up my own theory about herb spawns. In a certain area, say all of Terrokar, each spawn is sorted into a group. There can be anywhere between 3 to 8 spawns in one group, and the spawn timer of each individual group is linked.

So in group A, we have spawn points 1, 2, and 3. If a terrocone spawns at 2, no cones will spawn at 1 and 3 until a fixed amount of time after 2 is picked, after which a terrocone will again spawn at random at either 1, 2, or 3. Just beside group A, you can pick a terrocone that spawned at spawn 4 of group B, and it'll have no effect on any spawns outside of group B.

You can see this happening clearly in Shadowmoon, which has three terrocone 'groups'. One is just inside the border between Shadowmoon and Terrokar, one is in the arrakoa(sp?) camp outside the horde village, and one is in the arrakoa camp outside the alliance village.

An exception to this rule would be with mana thistles, where instead of a single spawn, you can get up to two spawns per group.

I leveled up 375 mining in the past 2 days and from the veins that were tracked by Cartographer, I was able to follow predictable spawning routes and noticed spawn behaviour much like LiteSabre's post.

Wasn't this semi-proven with the herb spawns in the Barrier Hills area above Shatt? I remember a post about there being 2 herb nodes spawning up there every 10 or 15 minutes.

I myself have seen similiar behavior in this area. For me, there are always 2 ore nodes to mine, while there are 8-10 spawn points.

Less obvious, but still equivalent is 2 nodes off of 1 shared spawn both being up. This is more noticeable in lowbie areas where players don't have professions yet. Seems to me if a node hasn't been mined/picked in n hours, a respawn will appear regardless.

Its 7 or 9 minutes last time i was camping the mana thistles over Shattrath i think. And yes you always get a double spawn for manathistle in a zone if both were gathered in a little time-span.

Actually, mana thistle isn't an exception in my experience. The ogre zone above Shattrath is divided into two groups. One mana thistle will spawn on each side of the alley every ~5-6 minutes. You never get two spawns on the same side. Each group has about 5 possible nodes.

That would depend on two things:

a) Number of nodes in the group
b) Number of spawns in the group

If b > 1, then potentially you could get a double spawn. However, if a >> b, the chance of a double spawn is low.

In lowbie areas, it looks likely that a and b are quite close together. That is, you'll have group of (say) 10 nodes, of which up to 5 can be active. In that case, there's quite a high chance that you'll get a double spawn.

In higher areas, it looks like generally b = 1, and a is somewhere around 4-5.

For mining, nodes in specific places are linked. Meaning in a certain area, even though there are for example 5 spawn points, only 1 may be spawned at a time.

You can see this especially well in EPL with Rich Thorium Veins. The veins in the two Scars, Noxious Glade, Fungal Vale, and the area around Zul'Mashar are all linked. If you find one node in one of those areas there will not be another.


Spawning wise, I think a zone has a set amount spawns, remove 1 and another randomly pops up else where. Though I believe there is a respawn number limited. In a heavily farmed area only X number of resources can be spawned in a certain time limit. Terocone farming in Terrokar Forest at peak hours shows that there is a limit in respawning.

Off hours show when going back into nuub zones and getting an instantaneous respawn on a node, what happens when the spawning limit hasnt been reached yet.


For rare nodes, I think the server does a random roll upon generation like loot on bosses, and if a certain range is hit, then you get a rare spawn, and I think with mining nodes the number of 'hits' on the vein is determined then too.

I also think that there is a timer on newly spawned resources, that if you pickup a justed spawned resource that it will always be the minimum, though it may tie in with the spawn limit algorithm as well.

For what you get from the node, I think that is handled at the time of 'picking'.

It'd be nice if someone were to start recording spawns so we could figure out which nodes are linked... would make for much more efficient herbing if you knew not to ride west because the nodes there were linked to the one you just picked.

My experience with thousands of thorium ore mined in EPL at 60 supports this. There were 9 zones of rich thorium veins that existed, and i never found more than one node in any given zone.

Regarding the 'two veins on top of each other' - I've noticed this too, mainly with Copper spawns in Elwynn. My explanation is that since there are so many spawns here to cover hordes of lowbies levelling up at once, there are bound to be some instances where this occurs. You can definately tell that its 2 separate spawns however, as you have to wait for the first vein to "despawn" after 2-4 taps, and then you can mine the other one underneath it.

I've noticed with the pure water pools in elemental plateau that there are usually only 2-3 up at a time, but once you completely fish out a pool, another will spawn. That cycle will continue until each spawn point has spawned a pool. I have never gone up there and seen more than 3 spawn points up at once, and even if you wait, they won't spawn. The fact that I've seen 2 sometimes and 3 sometimes makes me think that the spawns up there are linked to pure water pools that can spawn in the other areas of Nagrand. There can probably only be a set number of pure water pools in the entire zone at any given time. Similar to what you see for Black Lotus.

Looking at Black Lotus spawns more, it seems that spawns tend to reappear in the same place over a period of time, then switch. I think the idea above about how there are certain groupings of spawns and only one of those can be spawned at a time is correct, but I don't think it's totally random each respawn period which one of them gets the spawn. I think that the system chooses one spot for a few hours or so, then rotates to another spawn point in the grouping. Which point it rotates to may be random, but after farming a zone for a couple hours at a time I definately notice the same spots respawning over and over again and other spots never spawning anything.

It's possible that the respawn timer starts ticking as soon as the node spawns. So if a herb has been sitting for a long period of time, as soon as someone picks it another herb instantly respawns in its place, which could be at the same node or any other nodes for that herb group.

For some spawns this is relatively easy, but for many it would require tedious logging or a mod that tracks the location and time a node is gathered. I'm not sure if anyone is interested in writing such a mod, but I'm sure it would garner you much fame and fortune!

Based on what I've seen, there's a few rules at play when it comes to nodes spawning.

1) Some number of nodes exist in a "node cluster". Typically it's between 3 and 8.
2) Some maximum number of nodes can be spawned at any given time in a node cluster. Typically it's between 2 and 4.
3) Each node in the cluster has its own individual randomly-generated spawn time. This time is often longer than the average respawn time, as several nodes can be counting down their respawn times while other nodes have already spawned and sit waiting.


Take this all together, you have areas which are heavily picked where you have to wait for a node to spawn, and you have lightly picked areas where nodes seemingly spawn instantaneously for a short while, but then quickly dry up and behave like the heavily picked areas do when someone farms it for an hour or more.

I would disagree strongly with this. My two+ years of antecdotal herbing evidence support LiteSabre's observations.

To get data to confirm or deny these theories, one method would be to have enough people to cover all of the possible spawn points in one "zone." Then as the nodes are harvested and spawn, the information would be relayed in chat. This would be easiest to test in a starting zone, but then there is the problem that there may exist several different systems for determining what spawns when. I imagine that there can exist different variations of spawn grouping and timing, but if the underlying structure is understood, it would be much easier to determine what the variations are.

Here's a good start for node spawn: http://norganna.org/discuss/discussi...s-work/#Item_0

Here's an important bit from it:

Like Riallatar, I've been calling them clusters, but the above matches up with my experience. I posted later on in the thread with how many nodes typically exist in a given type of cluster for mining. For example, copper is always 2 nodes per cluster, and not something like 6 nodes with up to 4 spawns at once. Copper has a high chance of seeing double nodes; If a cluster isn't touched for 8 hours, then there's a 25% chance you'll stop by one while the long timer is up, and a 50% chance that it will be on top of the short timer's spawn. A 12.5% chance that passing by an untouched cluster for a very long timer that you will see Copper Copper. From my experience, there are almost 40 copper clusters in Durotar (from farming for AQ opening).

When I used to farm thorium nodes, the person who taught me how to farm them showed me how nodes worked. Basically there are clusters which contain about 5 potential nodes, and each cluster can only contain 1 node at a time.

You can as a shaman farsight to each of these nodes, and get the 1 per cluster, and move on without checking the others. Knowing which nodes are associated with which cluster doubled farming time. This was also supported by the fact that when you came back, the respawns matched the cluster theory perfectly. Now I know litesabre basically said this above, but I'm merely supporting his claim.

I think our descriptions mesh fairly well, given that I might have been a bit fuzzy on #3... only the max number of active nodes can be up at a given time, if another node's timer is ready, it simply will wait to spawn until the number of live nodes dips below the max spawned value.