Insider Trader: The fishing splash -- wait for it ...
by Lisa Poisso 
Jun 22nd 2007 at 1:45PM
Insider Trader is your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.
This week, Insider Trader offers up two insider tips, one for frustrated fishers and another for level 29 PvPers searching for the strongest possible gear.
Fishing means chilling with some good music, a tall drink and a chat window full of the latest guild gossip -- or at least, it used to. As of patch 2.1, fishers were transported back into twitch-gaming mode if they hoped to snag catches at the end of the fishing timer. It's all about the splash; when you hear a splash while fishing, you've hooked a fish and can click to either loot or "miss" it. It used to be that you could reach the end of the fishing timer with no splash/hook. You could look away from your fishing timer while fishing, as long as you were quick about getting back to the bobber when you heard the splash. If there was no splash, you most likely lost a little time until you noticed you hadn't heard anything and looked back over to re-cast ... But no lost fish. No harm, no foul.
Post-2.1, there's always a splash at the end of the timer. Sounds great, right? Always a splash, always a hook and an opportunity for a catch? Unfortunately, there's now no time for a catch on end-of-timer hooks unless you click the bobber at exactly the same moment as the splash – requiring you to watch that timer like a hawk and click right on time. The bobber vanishes simultaneously with the splash, instead of fading out and giving you time to react to the splash. While it's still possible to catch (or miss) the fish with a perfectly timed click, frustration seems just as common. And the it sure ruins the peaceful, laid-back aspect of fishing.
No word on whether or not the grace period for fishing will be reinstated. For now, if you're dead-set on catching every available fish, bring your game face and prepare to keep your eye glued to the timer bar.
High-end enchants for low-level PvP
Old-world enchants are standard fare for low-level PvPing, since Outlands enchants can't be put on items under level 35. It can be hard to tell what the exact level is of some items (without a mod, anyway), since Blizzard doesn't include level labels, but you can bet that anything marked "Requires level 34" or lower is unenchantable with the newer enchants.
Level 29 PvPers can push the envelope with quest rewards. The coded level of a quest determines the level of the items it gives as rewards -- and you can find a number of level 35 and 36 quests that are possible to accept in your late 20s. The rewards from these quests are Level 35 and 36, meaning you can in fact enchant them with Burning Crusade-era enchants.
Consider, for instance, the quest "To Steal from Thieves," a Horde quest available in the Undercity at level 27. It's a level 36 quest, and one of its rewards is a level 36 cloth caster bracer that can be enchanted with any of the Burning Crusade bracer enchants, including +12 stamina, +12 intellect, +15 spell damage, +30 healing and more.
You can find quests of the appropriate level on sites like WoWHead. Scroll down the Browse menu to "Quests" and search by area, then click on "Level" to sort by level.
Lisa Poisso is a freelance writer, when she's not waiting for the splash.
This week, Insider Trader offers up two insider tips, one for frustrated fishers and another for level 29 PvPers searching for the strongest possible gear.Fishing means chilling with some good music, a tall drink and a chat window full of the latest guild gossip -- or at least, it used to. As of patch 2.1, fishers were transported back into twitch-gaming mode if they hoped to snag catches at the end of the fishing timer. It's all about the splash; when you hear a splash while fishing, you've hooked a fish and can click to either loot or "miss" it. It used to be that you could reach the end of the fishing timer with no splash/hook. You could look away from your fishing timer while fishing, as long as you were quick about getting back to the bobber when you heard the splash. If there was no splash, you most likely lost a little time until you noticed you hadn't heard anything and looked back over to re-cast ... But no lost fish. No harm, no foul.
Post-2.1, there's always a splash at the end of the timer. Sounds great, right? Always a splash, always a hook and an opportunity for a catch? Unfortunately, there's now no time for a catch on end-of-timer hooks unless you click the bobber at exactly the same moment as the splash – requiring you to watch that timer like a hawk and click right on time. The bobber vanishes simultaneously with the splash, instead of fading out and giving you time to react to the splash. While it's still possible to catch (or miss) the fish with a perfectly timed click, frustration seems just as common. And the it sure ruins the peaceful, laid-back aspect of fishing.
No word on whether or not the grace period for fishing will be reinstated. For now, if you're dead-set on catching every available fish, bring your game face and prepare to keep your eye glued to the timer bar.
High-end enchants for low-level PvP
Old-world enchants are standard fare for low-level PvPing, since Outlands enchants can't be put on items under level 35. It can be hard to tell what the exact level is of some items (without a mod, anyway), since Blizzard doesn't include level labels, but you can bet that anything marked "Requires level 34" or lower is unenchantable with the newer enchants.
Level 29 PvPers can push the envelope with quest rewards. The coded level of a quest determines the level of the items it gives as rewards -- and you can find a number of level 35 and 36 quests that are possible to accept in your late 20s. The rewards from these quests are Level 35 and 36, meaning you can in fact enchant them with Burning Crusade-era enchants.
Consider, for instance, the quest "To Steal from Thieves," a Horde quest available in the Undercity at level 27. It's a level 36 quest, and one of its rewards is a level 36 cloth caster bracer that can be enchanted with any of the Burning Crusade bracer enchants, including +12 stamina, +12 intellect, +15 spell damage, +30 healing and more.
You can find quests of the appropriate level on sites like WoWHead. Scroll down the Browse menu to "Quests" and search by area, then click on "Level" to sort by level.
Lisa Poisso is a freelance writer, when she's not waiting for the splash.
Filed under: Fishing, Enchanting, Tips, Enchants, Insider Trader (Professions)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kats Jun 22nd 2007 2:08PM
You can not put a level 35 enchant on an item that is level 35 but which is allowed to be used by a player under level 35. I am an enchanter and was levelling up and needed to enchant a shield. So I went and bought a shield that was item level 35 but you did not have to be level 35 to use it. I could not apply the enchantment. I had to get another shield that required level 35 to use.
pokute Jun 22nd 2007 2:24PM
Just always click the bobber in the last 0.5 second of the fishing timer. Sequence of events within the lag window is non-deterministic.
trepegroupieone Jun 22nd 2007 2:24PM
I think the item level of 35 or higher is sufficient. I have the Tiger Hunter Gloves that you receive as a reward for that Nesingwary's chain, and I got them enchanted with Assault. I belive the Tiger chain can be started at 28.
tag Jun 22nd 2007 2:29PM
Trying not to be completely off-topic, I wish they'd change fishing to be MORE interactive. I've never hit it hardcore for that reason, alone. If I want to "fish," I'll grab a fishing pole and really go fishing. I play a game to play a game. The fishing mechanic of WoW doesn't even begin to approach the fun of a casual web-based flash game for the amount of time it takes up. Blizzard has some of the better game designers in the industry, so why can't they come up with something better than staring at a bobber? The one exciting aspect of fishing that was ever in the game was the possibility of fishing up a green or blue item, and they removed it.
Honestly, how many people fish in WoW because the mechanic is fun? They've basically made it a time-consuming version of picking an herb. when I think about it, Herbing is more fun, because you have to weave between mobs and/or fight them off to get to the nodes. You might even have to PVP for the rights to pick it, if you're on the appropriate server. I can't remember ever seeing someone jumped while fishing, then see the ganker proceed to farm the node. Why...? Because no one wants to fish.
Haikou Jun 22nd 2007 2:33PM
I've found that during the timer, there are only 4 or 5 times when a fish would snag. If you consider the casting bar to be 0% when you start and 100% when it's expired, the last two times are at around 70% and 95%. So if you haven't heard the splash by 75%, just keep your eye on the casting bar. The casting bar has rounded corners - when the countdown gets to the rounded part (the very end of the casting time), click on the bobber even if you haven't heard the splash yet. It'll work every time. I didn't miss a single fish while leveling from around 200 to 375 using this method.
Also, use FishingBuddy - it can automatically turn off ambient sounds and turn up the volume of the splash when you have a fishing pole equipped.
PyroAmos Jun 22nd 2007 2:54PM
@4 You havn't been to stranglethorn vale on sunday then... check it out its a freakin' pvp-fest all along the beaches. Fishing Tourney FTW.
PyroAmos Jun 22nd 2007 2:54PM
@4 You havn't been to stranglethorn vale on sunday then... check it out its a freakin' pvp-fest all along the beaches. Fishing Tourney FTW.
PyroAmos Jun 22nd 2007 2:55PM
@4 You havn't been to stranglethorn vale on sunday then... check it out its a freakin' pvp-fest all along the beaches. Fishing Tourney FTW.
tag Jun 22nd 2007 3:01PM
@6,7, and 8
I forgot to include that as an exemption, but it seems to me that Blizzard created that event to get people to fish more (supporting my theory that no one likes doing it). It's an isolated instance. I could say you never see level 70 Horde in Elwynn, and you would, in turn, tell me they're there all the time when the Darkmoon Faire is.
simplehiker Jun 22nd 2007 5:18PM
Fishing was much better when it took forever to level and you were not even guaranteed a fish when you used the skill.
ErsatzPotato Jun 22nd 2007 5:49PM
WoW Insider, now with twinking advice!
#$%#ing lovely.
Medros Jun 22nd 2007 9:29PM
I reported the fishing timer thing to a GM, and he asked me if I thought 2 or 3 seconds would be useful, and I said yes, so I hope that this will be fixed in an upcoming patch.
Priestilla Jun 23rd 2007 9:26AM
One way to make sure you never miss the splash is actually to replace the splash sound. You can get the addon FISHPING, which is really not an addon, but rather just a sound file that gets put in a specific spot. Now instead of trying to hear that little splish over the ambient noise, you get a PING which lets your fingers know to quickly click the bobber.
timski Jun 23rd 2007 11:23AM
I was curious to gauge how players reacted to the whole package of 2.1 fishing changes, so two weeks ago added a poll asking whether people found it more enjoyable or not?
Current results are here - http://www.capsu.org/wow/poll/ .
Only 5-10% of unique visitors to the main page voted, so there are all kinds of potential sample bias issues. However, 100 people a day average is a better representation than the odd forum post each day. If you read the forums, almost all the posts on the subject are pretty negative. But the poll suggests otherwise.
As I type, there's a clear majority (61%) stating they enjoy fishing more, with only 6% stating they enjoy it less. I was honestly surprised at how few (18%) stated that they never enjoyed fishing anyway. But the poll is among people who have specifically trawled the web looking for detailed information about fishing, so you could say that I'm "preaching to the converted": Those that hated fishing, never came. What I do know is that there's been a slight increase in site activity in the last few weeks. That might just be US college holidays giving players more time, but all the same, it's hard to find evidence of widespread dislike with the changes.
Of course people can still like the overall package of changes, but dislike certain aspects. So, perhaps it could benefit from a further tweak.
In my opinion, the core of the problem is still that Blizzard are unable to balance whether fishing should be a purely social activity, or also be a useful gathering skill. Gathered items have to be somewhat rare or hard to get, while social activities should be as easy as possible. Attempting both leads to constant conflict.
TBC made greater use of pools (schools) for efficient fishing of useful fish. Pools are a bit harder to fish, and far harder for 'bots. When they added the best stuff - Furious Crawdad - they used every trick in the book to make them hard to get - limited pool spawns, high skill, flying mount. Players that learnt to fish rather casually might find Crawdad frustrating. Blizzard have since been playing around with ways to make 30 stamina food easier to gain - vendor food (in PTRs, at least), tweaks to pool spawning, new recipes, longer-lasting lures.
But tweaking things one fish at a time is messy. So I guess they've also started altering the basic mechanics of fishing, so that somewhat rare items can continue to be gained from fishing, without becoming too easy. Unfortunately the same mechanism applies regardless of whether you are fishing the Golden Darter or Brilliant Smallfish, yet the first is useful and the second not.