Fishing Aides, or "I Hope You Enjoy Long Pointless Grinds"

I do. Enjoy long pointless grinds. Because that's what fishing is, at its base.

Big shiny thanks to El's Anglin, as usual. The best site for your (Warcraft) fishing needs.

I plan to farm the easier-to-grind equipment, particularly if the method has a pet in the vicinity. I think with the upcoming gear system, it'll be important to have your fishing set pimped out.

Available Poles

For beginners, look for a strong pole on fishing vendors (always have a stack of baubles on hand, or on your bank character) until you can quest for Seth's Graphite Fishing Pole (level 60) or the horde only (level 50) pole that's the best before winning the tournament or level 80.

At 80, work on becoming Exalted with the Kalu'ak for their epic Fishing Pole that lets you breathe under water. Also for the penguin pet.

Some people have the tournament fishing pole, which has the most fishing skill of any pole. It's 5 above the Kalu'ak pole BUT doesn't look as cool and doesn't let you breathe underwater. Pick which you prefer. Me, I like the Kalu'ak one. If you need to win the tourney for Salty, consider getting the second prize, a trinket that turns you into a fish with underwater breathing and increased swim speed, since that's kind of awesome and will help you get around for underwater quests.

Available Lines

A line is like an enchant just for fishing poles. It's permanent until you replace it with a new one.

You get +3 fishing from Spun Truesilver Line, a drop in the Outlands fishing daily.

The best line (+5) is from the Queenfish (0.18% droprate) you can get from the Tastyfish pools on the outer edges of Stranglethorn between 2pm and 4pm server time on Sundays.

Available Hats

Now this is weird, because you usually get the best items from the Sunday fishing tournament. But while a really great (and cool-looking) +5 hat (from turning in the Angelfish) can drop 0.25% of the time from Tastyfish pools 2pm-4pm Sundays, the BEST hat (also +5) actually drops from the Outlands daily -- it has a use effect to put a free 10 min +75 lure on your pole.

Available Hands and Feet

There are no fishing gloves at this time, but there is a +2 glove ENCHANT. So find some nice gloves you think look fishing-worthy. Someone once recommended fingerless ones, which I think sounds nice.

There are no boot enchants, but there are +5 BOOTS from the Blue Racer (0.23% droprate) fish at the 2pm-4pm Sunday tournament.

My Strategy

Get the ring that ports you back to Dalaran (sold here*). Requires level 80 and 8000g at Neutral or 6500g at Exalted. (1 hour cooldown, so basically a second hearth.)

Go to Shattrath every day for the fishing daily, particularly the Crockolisk daily which is the only one of the quests that can drop the four crockolisk pets.

(If you're a cook and don't have the Delicious Cake recipe, do the cooking dailies too. It's an achievement.)

Spend a little time farming the Mr. Pinchy pet in Skettis.

If Sunday, grind for rare fish or participate in tournament (depending on wants and mood).

End circuit, use ring to hearth to Dalaran.

*This ring is among my top 4 best rings before raiding, and I wanted one anyway.

Fishing Tourney, or "Fish to Make Fishing Easier"

We've already discussed the basics of fishing.

------------------------------

Every Sunday between 14:00 (2pm) and 16:00 (4pm) server time, Speckled Tastyfish are available to be fished up in the pools all along the coast of Stranglethorn Vale. You should have a fishing skill equivalent of 255 or more (baubles and aquadynamic attractors can help with that).

Set your hearthstone to the Booty Bay inn. If you can, nag a friend to come along and protect you if you're on a PVP server (some people do play dirty, or just come along to hassle fishers).

You don't have to accept the quest before you start fishing to win the tournament.

It's a race to catch 40 Speckled Tastyfish and turn them in to Riggle Bassbait before anyone else does. Prizes include a fishing pole with +35 fishing skill OR a trinket that essentially gives you aquatic form (turns you into a fish).

Other possible goodies include three rare fish (available during contest hours) that can be turned in to this guy for:

• Brownell's Blue Striped Racer = +5 Fishing Boots
• Dezian Queenfish = +5 Fishing Pole Enchant
• Keefer's Angelfish = Cute +5 Fishing Hat

And if you really want to go overboard with the fishing theme, like my husband's best friend did, there are other fishing items you can scrounge up:

• Fishing Chairs - available for $80-$100 on ebay, no fishing increase
• Glove Enchant - +2 fishing to hands
• Cpt Rumsey's Lager - +10 fishing for 3 min

New Fishing Dailies, or "These Poles Are So RP!!!"

There are new fishing poles gonna be available from the new Northrend fishing dailies in 3.1 and they are SO Role-Playing awesome. El's Anglin' has all the news but I am particularly enamored of the shiny Jeweled pole -- or, should I say, Dusty is enamored of it. Big thanks to El for the photos, the rest of which you can see here. I think Birdfall would enjoy the "Twig" pole. (These are +30 like the Kalu'ak pole but don't let you breathe underwater.)

Now, this changes a few things in my plans to get the awesomest fishing equipment outside the weekly tournament -- if fishing dailies are like the cooking dailies, you can get all the little extras by doing the new ones --

-- except for the crockolisk pets. So I'll still be going back and doing that one, but there's no need to do the others once 3.1 comes out unless you just want to have an extra shot a day at something rare, like the hat.

While there are new fishing pets available (and apparantly the Argent Tournament gets you a child pet to bully around), we're going to skip right over those since there's something else awesome and RP about the fishing.

NEW BOBBERS. The bobber is NOT the thing you apply to your pole to increase your fishing skill -- that's a LURE. The bobber is the white cork with red and blue feathers that you click on when you catch a fish. You can presumably replace your cork bobber with one of the novelty ones in that link.

They are all incredibly adorable, and I don't know which one Dusty wants with her shiny jeweled pole (which she will farm and get). I'm thinking black kitty head for Dusty and murloc head for Birdfall.

100 Mount Collecting, or "Is Blizzard Just Encouraging Ninjas?"

Out of the mounts currently in the game, ~70 are buyable (with appropriate rep and/or currency) and 23 can be farmed from raids, instances, dailies, and holidays. 7 can be "achieved."

This does not include the mounts available from professions or class mounts.

3.1 brings us 4 new event mounts, 3 new horde mounts, 1 new flying mount, 1 fishing mount, and 2 achievement mounts to replace the 2 we're losing.

What does this mean for you, the player? Do you have to suddenly take up tailoring or engineering or even fishing to make your numbers?

Well, that's up to you.

I believe that Blizzard will increase the number of mounts available over time to make the 100 mount achievement more attainable without having to farm mounts that drop maybe once a year (1 try a week, 2% drop rate, 1 drop in 50, 52 weeks in a year).

The current problem isn't that there aren't enough mounts, because I expect more to arrive over time, just like they found a way to put in more pets with the Argent Tournament. The problem is that, right now, the people most favored to reach the 100 Mount Achievement are the unscrupulous.

Think about it. The best way to get this achievement for now is to cheat others. It will take forever to see one of the raid/instance mounts drop, even longer to see it and win the roll. The only way to guarantee your success and minimize your grinding time is to ninja the mount from everyone else.

Blizzard has created an environment around mounts where stealing is the most economical and sensible use of time management. People who hate fishing force themselves to fish, people who always made fun of holidays get involved. And people in instances maneuver themselves into the best possible position as Master Looter, sometimes as a sneaky ninja, sometimes with the more upfront "You can have anything except the mount if it drops."

Instead of mounts rewarding the people who have long loved tailoring, engineering, fishing, raiding, or holidays, the aficionados are imposed upon by others who hate being there, who are greedy and selfish and perfectly willing to complain to anyone who will listen, and who only talk about getting what they want.

The solution to all of this is not to make the farmable mounts easier to get. I'm against removing things forever, not against difficulty. The solution is that we need more easy mounts. Soon. The driving force here seems to be the achievement -- an achievement that is utterly impossible right now without winning multiple mounts from group activities. People need to be able to reach this achievement through nice, clean solo activities (yes, this includes professions) so that they rely less on group farming.

People enamored of this achievement, of collecting mounts, will get as many mounts as they can eventually. But I truly believe that having the achievement rely on rare drop mounts (as it does now) is a huge mistake and can only encourage people to act badly.

My solution is allowing the collectors enough choices so they can more-or-less solo the achievement. This way, the rare raid and instance drops are a bonus -- as Blizzard intended them to be.

Metamorphosis, or "So You Want to Switch Bodies"

This post is a cataloging of all the trinkets, consumables, and suits that make you look like a completely different creature.

None of these items will trick enemies into thinking you're one of them, as these are cosmetic only.

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Orb of Deception. [FARMABLE / AUCTION HOUSE] Previously mentioned in its own post, this trinket turns you into another race for 5 minutes with a 30 minute cooldown. You always turn into the very same model, it never changes, and anyone of your race and gender will also turn into your exact same model. The model is not random, nor is it based on your personal character design, nor does it keep your original gear. It is a set look. Races: Gnome/Tauren. Human/Orc. Night Elf/Undead. Dwarf/Troll. Draenei/Blood Elf.

Orb of the Blackwhelp. [VENDOR / CONSUMABLE] 2.5g and 3 charges for each. Turns you into a black whelpling for 15 minutes or until you perform an action / take damage. You must farm a specific gear set in Blades Edge Mountains to buy these from an enemy vendor.

Orb of the Sin'dorei. [FARMABLE] Chance to drop off any boss in Heroic Magister's Terrace. Lasts 5 minutes with a 30 minute cooldown. Will change anyone (except blood elves) into a Blood Elf. Your gear stays the same and your character changes based on its own personal design. So you and your best friend, both human females, can use it and will come out looking like different blood elf women in your old gear.

Time-Lost Figurine. [FARMABLE] 3% drop off of Terokk, a 72 (elite) in the middle of Skettis. Turns you into an arakkoa (bird person) for 5 minutes with a 30 minute cooldown.

Dartol's Rod of Transformation. [ALLIANCE ONLY QUEST] Turns you into a Furbolg for 3 minutes with a 1 minute cooldown, breaks on damage but not on casting, and cannot mount while in use. Start the quest chain Raene's Cleansing until you get and activate the rod. You can drop the quest without losing the item, but if you finish the quest chain (which involves turning in the rod) you'll lose the rod forever.

Noggenfogger Elixir. [QUEST / VENDOR / CONSUMABLE] You have to complete a quest chain for good ol' Marin, but afterward you can buy this off him anytime you want. It gives you a random effect: Slowfall (fall slowly), Shrink (you become smaller), Skeleton (you become a skeleton).

Savory Deviate Delight. [COOKING / AUCTION HOUSE / CONSUMABLE] This turns you into either a pirate or a ninja. There are only 4 character designs available: the male and female versions of each. Everyone looks the same when they use it, but you can cast and take damage with it on (thus it's a favorite raid buff for tauren males). The recipe itself is a fairly rare drop in the Barrens (horde teens area), so it's a lot more common on the horde AH than the alliance AH. Also, to cook these, you have to fish in specific pools in the Barrens. It's a lot of hassle, and I suggest just being a consumer unless you want to make a business out of selling it.

Murloc Costume. [EBAY] Put on a giant murloc suit with a little Blizzcon flag. This was a gift item at the 2007 Blizzcon and can be found on Ebay. If interested in the pricing trends, take a look at WoWTCGLoot. Today it's going for a $195 buyout.

Carved Ogre Idol. [EBAY] Use this trinket to become a big red ogre for 10 minutes with a 10 minute cooldown. It stays on even when you take damage, but the funnest part is the Chris Farley SNL dance. This is a special gift earned by people who play the Trading Card Game (TCG), but some of them are selling theirs. On WoWTCGLoot right now the cheapest is a $69.95 buyout.

Gordok Ogre Suit. [QUEST / CONSUMABLE / CRAFTED] Use this to become a big black ogre. Get the pattern for tailoring or leatherworking from doing this quest. The suit only lasts for 10 minutes (whether you're wearing it or not) but it seems to be tradeable. I'll do some testing.

Hook of the Master Angler. [CONTEST PRIZE] Ever wanted to have druidic swim form? Well, you can! Just win the weekly fishing tournament and one of the two prizes is this trinket to become a fish -- complete with underwater breathing and increased swim speed. Breaks on attack or being attacked. No real cooldown (5 sec).

Winter Veil Disguise Kit. [QUEST / HOLIDAY] Turns you into a cute snowman. Requires snowball to use (bought at seasonal vendor or produced by an engineering item).

Hallowed Wand. [HOLIDAY] Turns you into a special costume for Halloween. Current wands include: Bat, Ghost, Leper Gnome, Ninja, Pirate, Skeleton, Wisp, and Random. Wands are BoP but do not disappear.



Thanks to everyone helping with the ones I missed! Keep them coming. :)

Kalu'ak Derby, or "To Share or Not to Share?"

I had an interesting experience while at the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby today. I was, indeed, one of those people who landed next to someone else and started fishing from the same pool. I know, I know, I hate it when it's done to me, but it is a contest and if that's the only pool nearby...

One of the other fishermen whispered me and said that the time wasted traveling vs fishing when you share a pool slows you down.

I replied that sharing a pool is better than no pool.

We discussed it briefly, he mentioned that it's true for the Stranglethorn Tournament (someone did the math on El's) but perhaps not so much for the Kalu'ak (which is more random). Looking at the Kalu'ak page, El still recommends not sharing pools, though I don't know if there's any math attached.

My husband's best friend says that it doesn't matter if you arrive late to the Derby. As long as you arrive before someone else wins, you're still as much in the running as you would have been otherwise because of some weird "chance to catch goes up as contest goes on" thing.

One thing I do know is that Alliance has an advantage in a race to the turn-in. It's much closer to that side of Dalaran, and if Alliance and Horde hearth at the same time, the Alliance will win (unless their loading time is pure crap). It's not something Blizz thinks is a problem, but if you've ever lost by moments as Horde, you know it really is.

To help your hearth go faster, El says to set your graphics as low as possible except for Spell Detail. Also, Engineers can make X-Ray specs which make everyone nude, so you don't have to load anyone's gear.

Now, what do you think about all this? Practicality, ethics, tips.... have at it.

Buy Gold In-Game!, or "How to Become Insanely Rich . . . or Flat Broke"

I asked three very rich players (at least, they used to be) how to make gold quickly and easily.

Manasseh

How to make money in WoW (from NOTHING):

Step 1: Create a level 1 character. Place this character between the Auction House and Bank (mailbox should be nearby also). I recommend Silvermoon City or Orgrimmar for Horde, and Stormwind for Alliance.

Step 2: Create a main character (any class you like). Level to 6 in the starting area. Train MINING/HERBALISM and SKINNING.

Step 3: Mine/Herbalize/Skin EVERYTHING you come across.

Step 4: Mail full stacks of skins, ore, stone, herbs, and all valuable (green or better) items to your Bank Alt.

Step 5: Sell said stacks and items on the Auction House for JUST BELOW the lowest price (this will ensure a sale and since you have only a time investment thus far, it's the best and easiest way to build your bankroll).

Step 6 (ADVANCED ONLY): Take the money you have made from these investments and either horde it OR use the Auctioneer Add-On to re-invest by purchasing things for 50% of average sale price and reselling them for profit. I usually start out with sure-sales like trade items (the same things I've been selling from my farming) and work my way up to greens, blues and purples. Eventually, you'll land that one great buy like a 30 gold Crystal Pulse Shield that will send your bank account into the triple digits. But like all investing, you have to be willing to take risks, and you have to SPEND money to MAKE money.


Seglda

Get Auctioneer.

Do 3 scans at least 2 hours apart.

I tend to stay away from 60+ gear or spell books (Codex: Prayer of Fortitude etc). Also, watch out for Wimpy (the most retarded person on Zuluhed) who put up a bunch of worthless items at really high prices to make it so it showed up on Auctioneer. Don't buy "Fishing Tournament!" or whatever.

Trade goods are almost always a sure sell, as well as twink items.


Occult

Well, mine are really not fair. I have access to a 70 lock, in return for helping this guy in our guild level. I farm elementals for motes, which turn into Primals (these items used in every tradeskill). Every 4 days I turn these primals and some easy-to-get cloth into Shadowcloth and Spellcoth which sell for like 60g each.

M_____ and me also transferred about 1500 gold from my/his old lock to this server using a friend's transfer and some trickery with neutral AH. Other than the above, I genuinely suck at the AH. However, I think I'll be pretty awesome at making cash at 70.


Me (Birdfall/Dustfire)

Addon: Have Auctioneer, and scan every time you head to the AH (so, every now and then). It helps you know how to price things and when you're getting a good deal.

Gather: Train mining while you level. You make [bronze bars] from [copper bars] + [tin bars]. Bronze is essential to leveling engineering and therefore sells very well. [Thorium], especially, is a goldmine, so never pass it up. (Un'goro Crater has lots of thorium.)

Farm: Motes of Air & Fire turn into the most costly Primals and can be farmed from elementals on the plateau northeast of Garadar & the Throne of the Elements in Nagrand.

Crafting Tailoring: Tailors at level 70 should constantly be making Spellcloth, Mooncloth, and Shadowcloth, which sell for 30g-60g, depending on your server. Felcloth has 17% drop rate from Felguard Elites.

Crafting JC: Jewelcrafters will have to spend a lot of money to get the best gem-cutting patterns, but the better patterns will make more money in the long-run. Focus on widely-used pvp gem patterns like +12 stamina (Solid Star of Elune) or + resilience.

Prospect Mining: Miners can ask a trusted jewelcrafter to Prospect stacks of adamantite, which can yield rare-quality gems (which go for ~20g each on my AH).

Dailies: At level 70, do your dailies, which afford roughly 10g per quest. Skettis dailies are available beside the Shattrath flight master once you have a flying mount. Ogri'la dailies have a 5-man quest chain to open them. Once you have epic flight (5,000g), Netherwing daily quests open up. Also daily instances, profession quests, and battleground quests reward gold plus honor or reputation.

Quest: Questing at level 70 usually gives you 7g-20g per turn-in.

Hi!, or "Open Letter To Zuluhed Alliance"

If I see you around and you're way lower than me, and I kill you, it's because I hate your guild. Switching tags will fix this.

If you think your level 22 bow and arrow can put a single dent in my armor's durability, please feel free to shoot me with it. But I reserve the right to return the favor.

I'll buy your Argent Tournament pets for 1,000g on the neutral AH. Anything much over that is ridiculous. (My friends need them too, so feel free to keep listing.)

I realize that members of my fellow horde can be massive jerks and that even some of my friends like to mess with you. I don't. I will leave you alone if you'll leave me alone.

I have friends. If you insist on making trouble in daily zones or even lowbie zones where someone's girlfriend is questing, depending on how many people are on, our guild will enjoy PVP all over your corpse.

If someone attacks you and you're fighting back for your life, and I come along and help your foe, I'm sorry. I have to default assume you attacked first and protect myself from being attacked second.

We hate some horde as much as you hate them. Please feel free to gank any of our trolls from the official forums, such as unrepentant ninjas like Billpaxton. If you have an Alliance hitlist you'd like us to look at, I'll pass it to my guild.

I hate world PVP. This does not mean I'm a pacifist. If I can't defend myself, I'll call friends or log off. If I can, I'll wear your entrails as a hat for an hour.

A /smile when you could have ganked me will make me put you on my nicelist. This doesn't stop my PVP-happy friends from bothering you, but it does mean I'll yell at them for it.

I understand PVP when there's a mining node, awesome herb, or rare mob that we're vying over. I won't hold this against you and expect the same consideration.

Vying for stuff does not extend to fishing pools for me. L2Share.

Ganking me does not actually ruin my day. It just means I switch to Sims 3 for a while and play with cute hairstyles.

If my friends hurt you (or keep sheeping you and giggling), sorry. I swear they're actually really nice.

If you show me your pets, I'll show you mine. Same goes for dresses if we're near a bank.

If you're a rare race/gender/class combo and I need you for the holidays, and I end up /hugging you about 40 times when I find you, I'll remember you fondly forever. (Thinking of you, Manna, sweetie.)

If you have a name like Xxlegolassxx, I won't regret seeing you dead. I just won't.

If you and your friends are hanging out and I have to get past, I may drop in and fear you all. This is merely a defensive maneuver and won't hurt you, so please don't death grip me back.

I'm a cute and harmless girl. I'll make adorable sadfaces if you hurt me.

Signed,
Dustfire
In Vino Veritas

Moar Pet News, or "Why They Gotta Make My Posts Useless?"

So I linked to Warcraftpets in my recent fishing poles post, but I'd only skimmed the news. Tonight, after a very productive RL day writing stuff that might actually make me money, I took a closer look and saw some great changes for 3.1:

• CLUCK! for a Westfall chicken is now available to horde (used to be the chicken would turn hostile even if you managed to get the feed through a neutral AH), making this post pointless.
  
• Sprite Darters in Feralas may now drop a Sprite Darter Egg (formerly an alliance only quest pet). This forces me to go back and add "stay in Feralas and farm a Sprite Darter!" to the horde section of this post.
  
• Emerald Whelplings now fall off of Adolescent Whelps instead of just Dreaming Whelps in southwestern Swamp of Sorrows.

Argent Tournament News: Alongside the dumb-looking kids Dustfire is looking forward to abusing, if you champion a city you can buy from their vendor (tabard, pet, mount, etc). Warcraftpets.com says the pets are not currently BOP, which means cross-faction selling and sharing.

Let's hope and pray they keep it that way. With the CLUCK! and Sprite Darter changes, I think they might. They seem to be trying to provide enough pets for everyone to reach the collection achievements without pulling out a RL wallet. I predicted new pets when my friends bemoaned how few pets there were when the fawn took 100 instead of 75 pets -- I told them that if there were not enough pets, Blizzard had to add more to make the achievement viable! And here we are.

One thing you want to hope for (if you enjoy looking nice as much as I do) is that they'll keep upping the ante for mount and pet collections -- because that means a wider variety of mounts and pets to obtain and choose from.

One thing I'm not thrilled about with the mount collecting is that it makes people greedier for mounts they don't actually want, particularly rare-drop mounts from raids and instances. I have to admit, I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to difficult-to-obtain mounts -- if you just want to collect it but not use it as your main mount, pass to someone who will get the proper milage out of it.

For example, there are some really nice kids in our guild (14-16 range), but they've been bitten by the mount collecting bug. It makes them desperately want things they don't particularly like and won't use -- like the Azure Drake from Malygos. One of them said in guild chat the other day during a raid he hadn't been rostered into, "I'm going to be so mad if the drake drops off Malygos" and proceeded to say he wanted the Twilight Drake more. I mentioned that if he wanted the twilight one more, he should probably pass on the azure if it dropped even if he was there, and he agreed (though reluctantly). He's a good kid, just caught up in this unpleasant collecting frenzy.

To me, the fun of mounts is using them, not having them (plus, it's SO expensive). And if you aren't going to use something rare, you should pass it to someone who will. Like rolling on a Warglaive on your rogue when you're about to switch your main to priest. It just doesn't make sense.

100 Mounts, or "Solo Collection Guide"

This is a guide to 100 mounts pre-Cataclysm. With new races and factions coming out in the expansion, we will get new mounts to make this more attainable, but logic suggests we'll also get a new achievement, because collector achievements need to stay difficult to be worthwhile. Right?

So there's no point neglecting your collection now if you want to stay on top of things in future expansions.

I'll give you a simplified list. It'll be up to you to research details, though I may eventually post some guides for harder grinds. This is just to point you to the mounts that are guaranteed to be yours if you put the time/money/effort in.