So until today I was a 300 alchemist/herbalist. I dropped herbalism for enchanting, planning on making Smoking Heart of the Mountain, then picking herbalism back up.

So, as a 60 druid what is the best risk/reward for my time to farm? I am thinking of doing SM runs. I know I can get to Bloodmage Thalnos in the crypt really easy. I assume I can do Doan pretty easy solo as well, but didn't they change this recently to discourage this from happening? Or am I thinking of someone else?

Any suggestions?

As far as SM goes...

They linked the two monks outside Doan's room to him, so that you can't attack him solo anymore.

Also, they removed all the chests from the cathedral instance. :P

Just did Thanos run and Doan run. Thanos is quicker to get to, but Doan drops two items, and one guaranteed blue, so probably the way to go. The monks make the fight more challenging, but they don't influence the outcome :)

Think next time I will add Inquisitor Fairbanks to the circuit, he is easy to get to also if I remember right.

I was herbalism/skinner both 300 and got bored. Dropped skinning (in retrospect I wish I would have dropped herbalism, but that's another story) and picked up Enchanting.

I started out farming DM which netted me quite a few pieces for DE. After I skilled up enough that I needed a bit higher lvl drops, I moved on to Gnomer, Stockades and DM. Sure seems to me the ratio of greens per kill has dropped a lot since DM. The best place for farming hands down has been the graveyard in dead side of SM. The mobs spawn faster and the Unfettered Spirits can be killed very quickly and seems to have the best chance to drop a green.

I've been very lucky too, to have a friend who is just starting to lvl a tailor. The cloth drops from the instances are great. I pass him the cloth and a bit for mats and he sends me back great stuff to DE. I get way more dust from what he sends me than I do farming instances.

I'm trying to stick mostly to grinding using dust, and having a fair amount of good luck doing so. Have raised to 161 in a week without a whole lot of effort.

Doan is pretty easy - you can clear the two monks outside the room first, if you'd like, though I imagine in the 50s the 3 of them aren't that big a deal.

Fairbanks is also prety easy to get for a gauranteed 3 green drops.

So I spent the weekend farming all 4 SM instances. Start out with Bloodmage Thalnos, then do Doan. I just sneak to him and let the two monks aggro when I attack Doan. I like to take one monk out first using bash when he runs at low health, then take out Doan and by then bash has refreshed for the second monk. Then I hit Inquisitor Fairbanks, and last I'll do Herod. Only tricky part to any of them is opening the door to Herod's room, since we can't do it in forms. Haven't had any of the guards aggro me yet though.

Up to 248, and the skillups have really slowed down. Now to get a skillalmost every recipe requires either a shard or essences. SM doesn't yield much for me, except for Herod. Think I will have to give Maraudon a go, see what I can solo there...