First Aid is a secondary skill, so it does not count towards your two profession limit.
First Aid is a vital skill that every player should learn on all their characters. Just in case that wasn’t specific enough, let me repeat that for you hard-headed folks, all characters should have First Aid!
That’s probably what you are thinking. This may be true if all you ever intend to do is solo. This may even be true if you only group occasionally or perhaps you are just a backup healing class. But please, learn from my experience! Once you start going on raids or running instances at level 60, your mana will be a precious commodity. And you will not want to waste it during down times when a bandage would have worked to top off your groupmates. You might also need it when you are completely out of mana and the boss is almost dead and maybe, just maybe, a quick bandage on someone who dropped out of combat would have given your party the edge by enabling him to jump back in for the finish. It’s for reasons like this that all characters should have First Aid leveled as high as they can. Even if you don’t need it, you never know when someone in your party will and your quick thinking will save the day!
First Aid can also be very useful for Warlocks and Hunters on their pets. Whenever possible I try to use bandages to heal my pets in between fights so I can conserve mana and reduce downtime. Bandages are also better than food for health regen, since the bandage heals in 6-8 seconds while most food takes almost 30 seconds to regenerate comparable health.
I’m telling you this now while you are still low enough (I hope) to take advantage of my wisdom. There is nothing sadder than a level 60 buying droves of wool from the Auction House in order to skill up First Aid, and having to sell all the bandages to a vendor because they can’t actually use them (I know, I hear you saying “auction house”. No one buys lowbie bandages so don’t even think it) So trust me, I’ve been that level 60 idiot, and I don’t want anyone to follow in my footsteps. When you look back on all the linen and wool you sold back in the day for ‘good money’ (did I really think 50 silver was good money??) you’ll wince at how much money you’d be saving yourself now if you’d kept that linen and actually used those bandages instead of going for the quick buck. You might even surprise yourself how often you will actually use those bandages so you can conserve your mana for the actual fighting and reduce the need to drink in between fights.
Great, now you need to find a First Aid trainer. The easiest way to do this is to talk to a friendly guard while you’re in the city. They will point you to a First Aid trainer and even mark the spot on your mini-map. There are also First Aid trainers in smaller towns, but not always. The safest thing to do is train while you are in the city.
You’ll start out with the ability to make Linen bandages and as you progress you’ll be able to use Wool, followed by Silk, then Mageweave and finally Runecloth. First Aid practitioners also get the ability to make Anti-Venom, which can be handy for removing poisons.
| Item | Skill to Make | Skill to Use | Materials | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linen Bandage | 1 | 1 | 1 Linen Cloth | Heals 66 damage over 6 seconds |
| Heavy Linen Bandage | 40 | 20 | 2 Linen Cloth | Heals 114 damage over 6 seconds |
| Wool Bandage | 80 | 50 | 1 Wool Cloth | Heals 161 damage over 7 seconds |
| Anti-Venom x 3 | 80 | n/a | 1 Small Venom Sac | Target is cured of poisons up to level 25 |
| Heavy Wool Bandage | 115 | 75 | 2 Wool Cloth | Heals 301 damage over 7 seconds |
| Strong Anti-Venom x 3 | 130 | n/a | 1 Large Venom Sac | Target is cured of poisons up to level 35 |
| Silk Bandage | 150 | 100 | 1 Silk Cloth | Heals 400 damage over 8 seconds |
| Heavy Silk Bandage | 180 | 125 | 2 Silk Cloth | Heals 640 damage over 8 seconds |
| Mageweave Bandage | 210 | 150 | 1 Mageweave Cloth | Heals 800 damage over 8 seconds |
| Heavy Mageweave Bandage | 240 | 175 | 2 Mageweave Cloth | Heals 1104 damage over 8 seconds |
| Runecloth Bandage | 260 | 200 | 1 Runecloth | Heals 1360 damage over 8 seconds |
| Heavy Runecloth Bandage | 290 | 225 | 2 Runecloth | Heals 2000 damage over 8 seconds |
| Powerful Anti-Venom | 300 | 300 | 1 Huge Venom Sac | Target is cured of poisons up to level 60 |
| Netherweave Bandage | 330 | 300 | 1 Netherweave Cloth | Heals 2800 damage over 8 second |
| Heavy Netherweave Bandage | 360 | 325 | 2 Netherweave Cloth | Heals 3400 damage over 8 second |
You can use bandages on yourself or other players. A player does not need First Aid to be bandaged, but they do need First Aid to apply a bandage. There is a 60 second cooldown on bandages, so you may not be able to use them after every fight, depending on how quickly you take down your foes. Bandages can also be used during combat with a bit of luck and skill. For those classes that have the ability to stun or root their opponent, they can back out of melee range and apply a bandage for quick healing. Bear in mind that if you are hit, the bandage is cancelled and the 60 second cooldown will be in effect. Also if you have a poison effect active on the patient, this can disrupt the bandaging process. So it’s better to either dispel the poison, wait until it runs out, or eat some food to heal back up rather than waste a bandage for this particular situation.
Most of the bandage recipes you need will be available from your trainer until you reach 150 skill level. At that point you must acquire the Expert First Aid book, which can be bought from a vendor.
Cheap WoW WOTLK Classic GoldThe vendor who sells this book is located in Arathi Highlands, so hopefully you’ll be high enough level to travel there (30+). In order to reach him, you’ll take the main road towards Stromgarde Keep, then turn south onto the road leading into Stromgarde. Once you reach the keep you’ll turn right and follow the outside wall (do not go inside yet!). About halfway down you will see an opening in the wall with some crumbled boulders in front. Here is where you enter the keep, the NPCs in this part of the keep are friendly to you. After you get inside, turn left and head towards the opposite side of the keep. You’ll need to go over the walkway and down to the left half of the building. For those with tracking, you are looking for Deneb Walker, he is on the right just after you go over the bridge. He is kind of hard to see because his outfit blends in with the surrounding walls. He’s also tucked behind a wall so when you approach from the east side you probably won’t see him. Don’t worry, if you hit the west wall just backtrack and you’ll likely spot him.
In addition to the Expert First Aid book, he also sells the books for the Heavy Silk bandage and the Mageweave bandage. So grab both of those while you’re here and stash them in the bank for later. He also has some other nifty items in limited supply, if you get lucky enough to catch them in stock.
In order to purchase your books you’ll need to track down Balai Lok’Wein at Brackenwall Village in Dustwallow Marsh. You can reach her by traveling from the Barrens and heading north on the main road. The village is a short walk north of the Barrens entrance and she is in the main area of the village. Don’t forget to grab the book for Heavy Silk Bandage and Mageweave Bandage while you are here, you can keep them in the bank until you need them.
Now you have all the required items to take you up to Artisan level First Aid. When you reach 225 skill (and level 35) you can complete the First Aid quest Alliance Trauma or Horde Trauma. For Alliance, travel to Theramore in Duskwallow Marsh and speak with Dr. Gustaf VanHowzen inside the keep. Horde players need to seek out Dr. Gregory Victor at Hammerfall in Arathi Highlands.
The Trauma quest is quite infamous, a good number of players fail it and need to repeat it many times in order to succeed. To complete the quest you are required to heal 15 patients before 6 patients die. There are a number of tips that players recommend in order to do this quest without failing. Feel free to try any and all of them:
Once you successfully completed Triage, you’ll be able to obtain all remaining bandage skills from your Doctor. Simply come back and visit him again when you reach a new skill level and he will teach you the next bandage skill for free. Truly enterprising players will bring stacks of mageweave and runecloth along with them so they can skill up right then and there, thereby saving themselves the return trips.
You may notice that the handy First Aid chart includes three types of anti-venom, but there’s no mention of anti-venom in the Expert or Artisan sections of this guide. That’s because the two higher levels of anti-venom are difficult to acquire. The book that teaches Strong Anti-Venom is available only as a loot drop, and apparently has a pretty low drop rate. As a result it will be quite expensive when it actually shows up in the Auction House. Since it only cures poisons up to level 35, it’s probably not worth the expense to most people. An alternative would be to farm Jungle Remedy in Stranglethorn. This cures diseases as well as poisons and has no level limit. I personally have used this on level 50+ ailments with success. It only drops off the ‘caster’ type mobs in the Kurzen compound, but you can get it for reasonable prices on the Auction House as well.
The highest anti-venom available is a faction-based recipe that can only be purchased from the Argent Dawn vendors in the Plaguelands. The recipe for Powerful Anti-Venom requires a faction level of “Honored” with Argent Dawn in addition to 300 skill level in First Aid. It’s not difficult for level 60 players to reach Honored with Argent Dawn, but it will take some time so don’t count on running out and buying this recipe the moment you hit 300 skill in First Aid.
Our level cap has been raised to 375 and now we are faced with leveling the First Aid skill once again. Because the caps of every other skill have been raised as well, this means you will be competing with Tailors for runecloth. Hopefully you were smart and saved some of your runecloth from before the Burning Crusade. If you didn’t, I have a suggestion for you. It’s very feasible to level up your First Aid by making bandages as you play your character. Most humanoid mobs drop runecloth between level 60 and 65, enough that you could just work off of that to level First Aid. I know it’s not glamorous or gratifying to use this method, but it’s free and it works 😛
The first thing you should do is visit your Master Trainer. Burko is located at the Temple of Telhamat for Alliance or you can visit Aresella at Falcon Watch for Horde players. You’ll need to purchase the Master First Aid book, which costs five gold. While you’re there you may as well grab the Netherweave bandage recipe as well. I personally don’t recommend purchasing the Heavy Netherweave recipe unless you are a tank class. Having leveled a rogue and a druid to 70, I’ve had no problem sticking with plain Netherweave bandages. You’ll use less cloth overall and the regular ones restore enough hitpoints between fights for those with 7-8k health. But if you really feel the need to buy the big daddy of bandages, by all means go right ahead.
Now that you have your recipes, you’re ready to make some bandages. As I said earlier, there’s no reason not to go about your adventuring and use the looted runecloth to make bandages. This will save you from having to buy runecloth purely to level up the skill. If you prefer to power through anyway, you’ll probably need about 8 stacks of runecloth to reach 330 skill and the new Netherweave bandages. Another tip here: I wouldn’t bother making the regular runecloth bandages, they are green at 300 skill and they will only give a point maybe 20% of the time. It’s probably better to stick with Heavy Runecloth bandages and get points more frequently. Heavy Runecloth will turn green at 320 however, so the final ten points to Netherweave can be excruciatingly slow. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.
Once you can make Netherweave bandages, you’ll probably be less concerned about the skilling up process. Again, if you’ve been adventuring you should have a few stacks of netherweave to start you off. Once you get into the mid 60s, netherweave should be dropping regularly off of humanoid mobs. Places like Nagrand and Terokkar Forest would be your best bet if you still need netherweave. I know I told you that you don’t need the Heavy Netherweave bandage, and you won’t. I was able to reach 375 on two characters without that recipe, the regular Netherweave recipe stays green all the way up. I won’t promise that it’s a fast process, but quite frankly I hit 375 without even trying. Just in the course of making bandages for my own use, I easily reached 375 before I got to level 70. So sit back and have fun with it! There’s no door prize for getting to 375 in First Aid