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Changes coming for fishing and leatherworking ... but not in patch 5.2
When asked on Twitter whether any changes were on the horizon for grind-tastic professions fishing and leatherworking, everyone's favorite crustacean (Ghostcrawler, not Sebastian) replied: @timparrish Odds are high, but not for 5.2. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) February 13, 2013 While we already saw the number of catches required to max out fishing halved in patch 4.3, the profession is still heavy on the tedium. And, as someone currently trying to level leatherworking, it's probably best that I not get started ranting about how much leather farming (or buying) that needs to be done to get to max level. Whether either of these professions will see a quick level up option like cooking has and blacksmithing is getting in patch 5.2, we can definitely hope. Regardless, knowing that revamping these professions is on Blizzard's agenda is heartening.
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 Limnologist, part 2
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we're done with the Bloated fish and are thus happy. Greetings, eager fishermen everywhere (all three of you). Today, we'll be finishing up our look at The Limnologist, WoW's freshwater fishing achievement. If you're looking for our previous Cataclysm fishing guides, you'll find those here: The OverAchiever: Guide to The Oceanographer The OverAchiever: Guide to The Limnologist, part 1 As stated earlier, my intent with these guides is to get you through these achievements with a minimum of fuss, but the second portion of The Limnologist is a very travel-intensive undertaking.
The OverAchiever: The Limnologist, part 1
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, a ray of hope in an otherwise RNG-filled existence. Less than 24 hours after I'd sent last week's OverAchiever: The Oceanographer to the editors for publication, Blizzard unveiled new changes on the patch 4.1 PTR designed to make Cataclysm fishing achievements a lot easier. While last week's OverAchiever is still accurate if you're a completionist with the Pokemon ("Gotta Catch 'Em All") approach to fishing, as of patch 4.1, you won't have to worry about the most maddening fish currently required for that achievement. Gravy, right? And yet you've still got The Limnologist to get through. The Limnologist is more difficult than its Oceanographer brother, even if you allow for the upcoming changes. Not only does it require more fish, but it also requires several hard-to-catch fish (whereas the Oceanographer is/was distinguished by only one, the Bloated Salmon). For the purpose of this guide, I'll assume that you're still after all 48 freshwater fish even if you're reading this after patch 4.1's gone live ... but if I were you, I'd just take the changes and run.
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: More Accomplished Angler
This week we'll finish our look at the Accomplished Angler meta-achievement. As with all matters concerning WoW fishing, El's Anglin is your best friend here, and more particularly their page on fishing-related achievements (which also addresses a few we don't cover here, as they're not part of the Accomplished Angler meta). Continuing from our previous article on the first set of Accomplished Angler achievements: The Old Gnome and the Sea Apparently someone at Blizzard is a Hemingway enthusiast. At any rate, this achievement's easy as pie, and you'll get it after fishing successfully from any pool of fish in the game (although it does have to be fish -- it can't be the wreckage pools you need for The Scavenger). You can get this doing either of the following achievements --
Fishing for profit
I'm an admitted and proud fishing junkie, but had long ago resigned myself to the fact that my favorite ingame pasttime was never going to be a source of revenue. But Alterac Volley has a great post on the degree to which fishing has actually (gasp, shock, horror) become a moneymaking endeavor in Wrath. While I'll grant that on most servers it's probably nothing compared to, say, Mining or Herbalism, there's gold to be made in them there streams -- and this is all the more true if your server hosts a large raiding population.AV observes that there are four types of fish most likely to be lucrative, and it's no accident that three of them (the Musselback Sculpin, the Glacial Salmon, and the Nettlefish) are the main ingredients of the Fish Feast, a valuable (although generalized) raid buff. I spend roughly an hour a week fishing up the materials for these to cover our raids and had never even looked to see what they retailed for. After reading over AV's comments, I took a peek at my server's AH and had a /headdesk moment discovering that my main could have been a much wealthier character if I'd just spent a little time yanking up a few extra fish here and there. So if your character is at or close to the Northrend fishing cap (and especially if you're still on the lookout for the Sea Turtle, which requires you to fish in Northrend pools anyway), give your AH a look and see how the fish are selling. You might be pleasantly surprised. And, as always, I highly recommend El's Extreme Anglin' as a great resource for the beginning and advanced fishermen out there.
Insider Trader: Evolution of Fishing
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Patch 3.1 brought many welcome changes to the Fishing profession, including a Turtle mount and new Fishing daily quests. These not only add incentives to go out and fish, they also make doing a little fishing each day easier. Of course, players can never have enough improvements, and still have many gripes about the way that the profession works. This week, I will be discussing different perspectives on the activity, as well as the challenges that Blizzard faces when considering which changes to make, and which feedback to tackle.
WotLK Beta Build 9138 Profession changes
More news from the MMO-Champion datamining of the latest Wrath of the Lich King beta patch – a few interesting, if not slightly meaningful, profession changes.First in the Fishing department, casting times of items which attach to your fishing pole have been lowered from 5 seconds to 2 seconds. While this might not seem like a big deal, people who fish for a few hours a week for farming materials will now have a few minutes shaved off their daily grinding.In the Alchemy department the Elixir of Shadow power, Elixir of Fire Power, and the Arcane Elixir all now last 1 hour, instead of 30 minutes.Finally, the enchantments of Massacre (increase AP by 110), Greater Savagery (increase AP by 85), and Scouragebane (increase AP by 140 against Undead) have all been changed to apply to 2H weapons only. There have been some previous times in the beta where I've seen some folks running around with Massacre on both 1H weapons. Looks like that won't be an option anymore.For those interested, the images are of potions from a Manaprincess giveaway we ran earlier this year.
Earn 5 fishing achievements today
The act of fishing, particularly if one does not find it relaxing, can seem frustrating and inspire impatience within the angler. It might surprise you then to learn that, with a little effort, you could earn five fishing achievements by the end of today, without worrying about rare drops. Itinerary: "25 Fish": Catch 25 fish. If you have done this since patch 3.0.2 went live, then your next goal will be 50, and so on. "The Old Gnome and the Sea": Successfully fish from a school/pool. This will have to be a pool of fish, not wreckage or water motes. "The Scavenger": Fish one item up from each of the five wreckage schools to be discussed in this article. If this cannot be completed due to the inability to achieve a working 305 fishing skill, then you will be completing the achievement "50 Fish." "Outland Angler": You must fish up one fish from each pool to be discussed in this article. If this cannot be completed due to low skill, you will be completing an achievement such as "Journeyman Fisherman." "The Fishing Diplomat": Fish something up in both Orgrimmar and Stormwind.
