Fishing: What lurks beneath? [Updated]
by David Bowers 
May 29th 2007 at 3:00PM
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!
1. Attack of the Bog Monster! -- What if every time you clicked on the bobbing bait thingy, there was a chance that you would pull up a giant monster or legged shark or something? The difficulty of this monster would vary according to the level of the water your fishing in, but now and then, you could fish up a rare monster with extra special loot of some kind... like... Mr. Pinchy! or even a snazzy fishing pole upgrade!
2. More ways to fish! -- What if you could buy this net and then swim around in the water with it, picking up fish as you go? What if druids in aquatic form could just swim around and open their mouths to catch fish? What if the [Dwarven Fishing Pole] or [Goblin Fishing Pole] really worked? Just BOOM and blow dem fishies right outta the water! Then we could swim around and loot their dead (and already cooked) fishy bodies!
3. Fishing teamwork! -- What if engineers could craft special fishing machines that attracted and caught fish, like steam tonks, only boats or submarines instead of tanks, so that you could speed around and catch fish or blow them up with your friends (and maybe blow up your friends' fishing tonk boats too, while you're at it)? Or better yet: What if you could somehow acquire, through a quest perhaps, a special murloc disguise that would allow you to enter an entirely different MMO within every pond! World of Fishingcraft! You could spend hours every day with your guild school-mates grinding Oily Blackmouth rep in order to convince some of these fine fish to just swim up on to the shore and die for you.
4. Raise the fishing success rate! -- This should be really really easy, Blizz! Just up that chance of little fishies biting your bait! Save on wasted time! Yay!
Blizzard, if you're reading this, please listen to us! Do something to make fishing interesting and fun, not just marginally less tedious and boring! Pleeeeeeeze!
Update: A lot of commenters haven't had the same tedious experience as I had, it seems. Some very helpfully suggested trying to fish in Teldrassil or Elwynn, the actual starting zone itself, not the main city. I had assumed that Darnassus would share the same fishing difficulty with the rest of Teldrassil, but apparently it's on the same skill level as Darkshore, which would explain my frustrating "your fish got away" messages.
This just goes to show you that what seems obvious to you may actually be an assumption, not necessarily be true at all (nor obvious to everyone else). It also shows that not even WoW Insider bloggers are all-knowing or absolutely right about everything, and we all have things to learn from each other. Many of you shared how much you like fishing now, and that may encourage those of us who didn't like it at first to give it another try.
Filed under: Fishing, Analysis / Opinion, Humor
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Hank May 29th 2007 3:07PM
You tried fishing in Feralas starting with your fishing at 1? No wonder you hate it!
Try Darkshore!
Pingmeister May 29th 2007 3:08PM
While I welcome any improvements to fishing I have to disagree with your opinion on the current status of fishing.
I have found fishing to be FAR more fun since 2.1.
I did not START a new Fisherman so perhaps lower levels are still filled with missed fish.
My young Paladin went from 100 to 200 VERY quickly post-patch with very few (if any) lost fish.
Then again, I tend to only fish in my "favorite" fishing spots like Wetlands, Thermamore and Feralas. So perhaps all of those "Floating Debris" help to keep my enjoyment level higher.
Savok May 29th 2007 3:13PM
Out of interest did you read ANYTHING on fishing before starting your grind?
Your skill is too low for Darny, find some water in Teldrassil or another starting area and fish there, you'll get a catch every time. Jesus it's like you people aren't even aware you're on the Internet. The fact you mention BRK only makes things worse.
You are however correct in the .2 seconds before the casting bar ends problem, used to be the lure hung around a bit after the bar went for the express purpose of lag issues and last second pops. Blizzard in their infinite wisdom have either completely forgotten to add it back in properly or screwed us.
Andrew May 29th 2007 3:13PM
How could the poster even throw a line in at level 1 in Feralas?
*boggle*
I sell a rat...
Dave May 29th 2007 3:15PM
Raising fishing skill will be -very- frustrating if you attempt to fish in the highest area you can, because the speed at which you have to click to successfully land a fish is based on the difference between your skill and the level of the water you're fishing in.
Raising fishing skill is -only- a function of the number of fish (or boxes or whatever) that you catch. The level of the fish has -nothing- to do with it. It is very easy to level up fishing very quickly by fishing in your home city for a little while, while it is very frustrating to attempt to level by fishing in the highest level zone you can, because you'll miss most of your fish.
John May 29th 2007 3:17PM
oh my gosh...try a capital city...you gotta know how fishing works before you start...
Coherent May 29th 2007 3:17PM
Fishing was amazing back in the days of yore. You could pull up all sorts of cool stuff. But of course gold farmers ruined it with all kinds of fishing macros and stuff. That's why fishing is the way it is now, and the rewards are relatively tepid.
But you shouldn't rag on fishing before you really know how it works. If it took you 2 hours to get from 1 to 19 skill, it's pretty clear that you don't know how it works. The first 19 skill should probably take about 10 minutes. LATER ON it will be about 20 skill points in two hours, when you're coming up on 300 skill. But even then, it all depends on where (and when!) you fish. Some times of day you won't catch anything, but around sunset or sunrise you'll be hauling them in like crazy.
So do what real fishermen do: try a bunch of crazy stuff, and maybe read a web page about it or two. :) Don't judge the whole thing on the basis of a couple of hours of fiddling around with it.
Danikar May 29th 2007 3:19PM
If you fish in the starting areas you catch the fish everytime (use a lure till 25) and about level 1-50 you get 1 level per fish caught. So at 20 seconds a fish you should have 50 in about 20 minutes.
Savok May 29th 2007 3:22PM
Oh yes, simple work around for the casting bar crap, if it hasn't popped yet when the car is almost empty, click anyway, with the lag you'll catch that .2 second fish. Still needs to be fixed though.
Savok May 29th 2007 3:24PM
Time of day is meaningless now (if it ever was meaningful), a cast bar won't drain without getting a pop since 2.1, thus the .2 second thing being quite common.
Ken Lydell May 29th 2007 3:27PM
You started in the wrong place. Two ponds in the L1 starting area would get you very quickly to L35 or so. Then Darnassus and Darkshore would take you further along. A bit more fishing in The Wetlands would easily get you to 150/300.
Fishing is more bearable if you are a hunter with a pet that will eat fish and you have a few useful fish recipes to boost nutritional value. Alchemists can use Oily Blackmouth, Firefin Snapper and Stonescale Eel catches to level up in alchemy. I can't imagine why anyone other than an alchemist or hunter would fish.
Azukazil May 29th 2007 3:36PM
Do you actually know how to play this game? You START fishing in the STARTING zone noob! OMG
Savok May 29th 2007 3:31PM
Jesus that old myth. You can sit in Durotar and fish all the way to 375, skill ups are based purely on your number of catches, not quality or where you caught them.
Look, I can use a search engine
http://www.capsu.org/wow/the_burning_crusade.html
Jack May 29th 2007 4:09PM
Fishing is great! Cook+Fishing in the Outland will land you some pretty sweet buffs and maybe a mote or two.
Natt May 29th 2007 3:38PM
@11. As a healer I enjoy two kinds of fish for buff food. I wont bother to verify if there are any meat food that give +healing or mana/5, but it is fishable for sure.
But of course, being a holy priest makes me like a non-combative grinds rather than killing hard shit for whatever sells at the highest price at the AH now and buying whatever I need. So now if you try hard you can try imagining a holy priest fishing in addition to hunters and alchemists.
RogueJedi86 May 29th 2007 3:40PM
And while leveling fishing, ALWAYS use Lures. The +75/+100 Fishing Skill really helps, giving you a lot more time to right-click the bobber, if you're slower. I always keep a full stack of 20 Bright Baubles on me for Outland fishing while I level it through the 300's.
And yes, that "bobber bobs at the last second, before it can even attempt to be caught" thing is annoying.
Laurens Holst May 29th 2007 3:44PM
I was already almost 200 in fishing, once you get past the first few tens of levels (which you can negate by applying lure), you can just fish in the Stormwind canals or something and have a really easy time. As in, I click seconds later because I’m distracted and it still catches the fish.
Unfortunately however, once your level gets higher, the chance of leveling up still goes down significantly, and it’s still boring. Fishing leveling-up time should be more or less cut in half though, so it’s less boring to get to the highest level than before the patch.
Pingmeister May 29th 2007 3:48PM
11 wrote: "I can't imagine why anyone other than an alchemist or hunter would fish."
All of my alts fish if only because of the wonderful loot in "Floating Wreckage".
But plenty of the fish are beneficial to lots of classes. Greater Sagefish cook into food that gives a Mana buff. Another gives an Agility bonus.
Good stuff!
Sylvina May 29th 2007 3:59PM
lrn2fish noob
Niekon May 29th 2007 4:06PM
had huge problems trying to get used to and adapting to that final half of a second of the cast where you know a bite will happen because it has to with the patch. Spent way too long in ZG yesterday skilling up to get over the 300 mark before moving into the Outlands to skill up further.
Why fish? While it is tedious and boring it's also a nice way to pass the time while waiting on a group of people... or just to try and relax in-game if you don't want to commit to a lot of time that day doing anything else.