the-oceanographer
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Get your Winter Squid and Snowy Owl while you still can
Pet collectors and fishermen take note -- the wintery months are almost behind us, and with them, the appearance of wintery pets and fish as well. The Snowy Owl, located in Winterspring, will be gone as of March 20 -- the onset of the Spring Equinox out here in the real world. Pet collectors should head to Winterspring now to capture these pets, as they won't be making another appearance until December of this year. This pet is part of the Kalimdor Safari achievement, so if you'd like that Zookeeper title, head to Winterspring and grab an owl of your very own today. In addition to the Snowy Owl, the sly Winter Squid is also prone to disappearing come spring. For most players, the apparent hibernation of squid won't really amount to anything. However, if you're working on The Oceanographer achievement, you'll want to catch a squid before they disappear until next winter. The pesky squid can be fished off the coasts of Swamp of Sorrows, Blasted Lands, Tanaris, Badlands, the Cape of Stranglethorn, and also around Sunken Temple. Both the fish and the pet have their own summery counterparts. However, while players may begin finding Summer Bass in fishing pools immediately after the Spring Equinox, the Qiraji Guardling for pet collectors will not be appearing until the onset of the Summer Solstice in June.
Winter Squid unavailable on March 19 when Summer Bass season begins
WoW fishermen out there should take notice that Winter Squid, the seasonal winter catch that is part of The Oceanographer achievement, will likely be disappearing from Azerothian waters on March 19. If you still need to catch this fish for your achievement, you had best get it completed as soon as possible. El's Extreme Anglin', long held as the source for all WoW fishing-related information out there, has a wonderful guide for helping you catch the Winter Squid. If you're not a fisherman, you can easily get your skill up to Winter Squid level by fishing in the same place and using some of El's guides to power through that skill. Nonetheless, don't miss out on this fish or you'll be waiting until September. [Thanks to Xabidar for the tip!]
Raw Summer Bass now in season for WoW fishing enthusiasts
There are a number of achievements associated with fishing in WoW, and that's a large reason why the profession is so popular (despite its faults). Some of the achievements are predictably harder to get than others. Take, for instance, the new-for-Cataclysm achievement The Oceanographer, which we covered a few weeks ago in our weekly achievement column. It requires two fish that are only available during different times of the year; you can't catch Raw Summer Bass in the fall and winter, and you can't catch Winter Squid in the spring and summer. As such, the achievement was totally off limits. For all you achievement-hungry anglers, there's good news: Today, March 21, is the official start of spring, and Raw Summer Bass are once again available to be caught. That means you can finally complete The Oceanographer achievement, provided you've already fished up a Winter Squid. Raw Summer Bass can be fished up in a number of coastal areas, including Tanaris, Blasted Lands, Swamp of Sorrows, and even off Jaguero Isle in The Cape of Stranglethorn. If you're interested in The Oceanographer and haven't fished up a Winter Squid yet ... well, you might want to sit down, because El's Extreme Angling has got some bad news for you: You won't be able to fish them up again until Sept. 21. Working on achievements? The Overachiever is here to help! Count on us for advice on Azeroth's holidays and special events, including new achievements, how to get 310% flight speed with achievement mounts, and Cataclysm reputation factions and achievements.
The OverAchiever: The Oceanographer
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the triumph of hope over experience. I could almost hate fishing, and I suspect most players do. It's a fairly passive activity that requires your attention in 20-second bursts, playing havoc with your ability to tab out and write articles/watch Chuck/throw foil balls for the cat. Blizzard made some noise a while back about changing the profession to be more like its incarnation in games like Animal Crossing, but nothing really big has happened in Cataclysm. I can only assume that Blizzard hasn't come to a decision on what it wants to do. In the meantime, it seems content to torture us as much as possible with the profession's existing mechanics. Case in point: The Oceanographer and The Limnologist, two achievements introduced in Cataclysm that, while not part of the "Salty" meta, are a siren call to masochistic fishermen everywhere. Today we're going to tackle The Oceanographer, which will keep you in coastal areas for the most part.
The OverAchiever: The good, the bad, the ugly, and the weird
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we reminisce on that auld lang syne ... that nobody really misses. It occurred to me recently that we've never really done a retrospective piece on achievements. Sure, we've rounded up stuff like entertaining achievements and evil achievements, but we've never really looked at their impact on the game as a whole. There's an article in that, but it won't be this one. New Year's Eve is tomorrow, and I'm in the mood for some brainless fun. While I was writing this article, a number of the achievements that came to mind were the product of tier 7 raids, and I think I know why. Wrath raiding achievements were the first time Blizzard had experimented with their inclusion in raid content, and the implementation occasionally had some bizarre results. There was also the pressure cooker of having to finish Glory of the Raider before the rewards disappeared (a very belated announcement), and there was never that sense of urgency with Ulduar or Icecrown achievements. Anyway, let me know what you think.
