Hello Reddace,
I don't know if you were asking me, Rye, or anyone in general. But I'll be happy to give you my opinion.
First it really depends on what herbs you plan to grow, how many of them, and how long you intend the plants to be in the system (whether their long term or short term plants). But for most herbs I would probably use either a
drip system or flood and drain system. For smaller/short term herbs I may go with a water culture system and/or even a NFT system depending on how many I planed to grow.
Some people let the plants keep growing and just cut off what they need at the time, and some people would rather harvest the whole plant while it's still young and tender (like micro greens). If your not going to be growing that many and wanted to harvest them while their small, young and tender, I might go with a water culture system. But if you wanted to grow a lot of them, I would probably go with a NFT system. I might even go with a low pressure
aeroponic vertical tube system.
If you wanted to grow more long term (only cutting off what you want and leave the plant growing), their going to get bigger. So I would use either a drip or flood and drain system. Flood and drain system would be fine depending on how you designed it unless you wanted to grow many of them, simply because the more plants you grow in a flood and drain system, the more water volume you need to flood the entire system. And the bigger the plants get, the more water the plants will drink. So not only do you need more than enough water volume to flood the entire system, but also to keep up with how much the plants are drinking daily or the
pump will run dry.
Some herbs especially can get quite big and bulky, and would be much better off grown in a drip system even if your not growing that many. Herbs like mint, dill, or rosemary can get as big as a tomato plant. Even basil plants can get fairly big. Not only does that mean they will drink much more water, but they will need more root and top support as well. But besides being better for growing large plants, Drip systems are very easy to build and maintain.