MrPinchy
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Fishing: What lurks beneath? [Updated]
I had read the news that, in patch 2.1, many more fish would be added to the waters of Azeroth and Outland, so that every time you cast a line in, one of them would bite. So, as I leveled up my draenei hunter, dreaming of one day becoming great like my hero (with a Big Red Lizard or something), I thought, "I'll just wait until after patch 2.1 to start fishing! Then I'll be able to get a bite every time, and level up my fishing a lot faster!" So, soon after the patch came out, I found myself questing along the shoreline of Feralas and wishing I could fish up all those schools of valuable fish and boxes of floating treasure. "Well, self," I said to myself, "Now's the time to give fishing a try!" I was so wrong. Fishing is still astoundingly boring. After about two hours of fishing in Darnassus with lures, from a skill level of 1, I reached a mind-numbingly dull skill level 19. The abominable sense of wasting time shocked me all over again. Usually your fish will bite, only to get away! Often, your fish will bite within the last 0.2 seconds of your fishing cast time, and latency makes your click on the bait come after the cast time is finished. You actually have to click the bobbing bait thingy before you hear the splashy sound in order to have a chance at catching it. So there I was, staring like a hawk at my computer screen, ready to click in the last split seconds of the cast time, dreading another "your fish got away!" message, and thinking, "This should be better! How would I improve it?" Then, suddenly, I remembered a certain piece of Blizzard fan art I had seen (which still makes me chuckle whenever I see it) and I suddenly sensed the tremor of monstrous ideas rising up from the depths of my subconscious.Brilliant fishing improvement ideas after the jump. Don't forget to see the larger version of this art, too!
Phat Loot Phriday: Mr. Pinchy
We've covered a few noncombat pets here before, but this is the weirdest noncombat pet you've ever seen. If you're a fisherman, this is the reason to get to 375, and if you're not, this is the reason to train it anyway. We mentioned him way back in beta, but he's worth another look.Name: Mr. Pinchy (also known variously as Furious Mr. Pinchy or Benevolent Mr. Pinchy-- you'll see)Type: Noncombat pet... unless he choses to combat youDamage: 180-230 or N/AAbilities: Mr. Pinchy is not just a lobster (although he's named after one on the Simpsons)-- he's a magical crawdad, and he grants wishes! That's right, on use, this crawdad will grant you one of five wishes: 1) The most common result is an item in your inventory called "Mr. Pinchy's Gift"-- once unwrapped, it gives you 5 Super Health and 5 Super Mana potions. 2) Sometimes he will give Mr. Pinchy's Blessing, a buff that lasts for two hours (even through death) and grants a whopping 1200 HP. 3) Sometimes he'll help you himself, and transform into a huge Benevolent Mr. Pinchy that acts as a guardian for about 15 mins. 4) And sometimes he'll get pissed off at you, become Furious Mr. Pinchy, and try to beat you up. 5) But the best wish he can grant is an actual, permanent, BoP noncombat pet named Magical Crawdad. This one's rare, but it's been known to happen. You get three wishes with every Mr. Pinchy, but there's a two-day cooldown between each. Mr. Pinchys aren't unique, but they do share a cooldown. How to Get It: Mr. Pinchy can only be fished up, and only out of those special fishing holes (only reachable by a flying mount) in Terrokar Forest-- the lake in the Mountains west of Stonebreaker Hold, the lake south of Allerian Stronghold, and the lake around the Arrakoa capital of Skettis, to the east of Auchindouin. In those lakes, you want to fish in "Highland Mixed Schools"-- fishing in the regular water will get you fish, but there's no chance of Mr. Pinchy.To fish in the water at all, you'll need a fishing skill of 430 to even throw your line out, so you'll have to pick up some +skill equipment to head up there. Fish will also drop off of your line if your skill is less than 525, so really you want to be up around there if you want to catch fish with any speed. Here's the bad news: each pool gives about 3 or 4 catches, and Mr. Pinchy shows up about every 500 catches-- a .2% rate. That's a whole lotta fishin'.The WoW Fishing Guide has this and lots more strategy on how to get a Mr. Pinchy in your bags. Good luck out there, fellow anglers.Getting Rid of It: Mr. Pinchy will of course disappear when you've used up your three wishes. If you're lucky enough to get a Magical Crawdad Box, that will sell for a measly 25s.
