Going Deep Sea Fishing for some better 375 Fishing rewards
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 3rd 2008 at 4:00PM
I've been leveling up fishing lately (hit 373 last night, along with 375 cooking, thanks to El's great guide), and I've actually found it pretty fun. It's a little too boring to do it without something going on in the background (last night it was the Cubs game, as depressing as that was), but it's kind of fun just to throw a line into some random water or pool and see what comes out. That said, the rewards could use a little tuning -- while events like the STV Fishing Tourney are fun (I've done it twice now and haven't won it yet) and offer some nice items, fishing itself even at the highest levels just isn't as rewarding as, say, running dailies or Heroics. The only reason to run it all the way up is really just to say you did -- while there's a promise of a Mr. Pinchy somewhere out there, there's no real fishing endgame in the way that there is for the rest of the game.Which makes Qann's suggestion intriguing -- he says that high level fishers should have access to certain areas via boat that offer them tougher fishing challenges, and better rewards for it. A boat could shuttle you out to a remote island or location, where only certain fish could be caught or found. And we don't even really need a boat -- just more events like the STV Extravaganza (where certain fish that appear in special pools can be turned in directly for items) would be great. And why is it that the best items obtained through fishing are apparently scrolls? Why can't we fish for Badges, or even have a fishmarket, where fish can be exchanged for gems, crafting materials or other rewards?
Even Blizzard admits that there's a lot of work to be done for fishing, but it doesn't seem too hard -- if they're giving out epics for holidays, fishermen and women who make it up to 375 should deserve some good loot for their hard work as well, whether it's through Deep Sea fishing, keys that will unlock special chests, or just a vendor that will take all of those Barbed Gill Trout off your hands and give you something worthwhile in return.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Economy, Leveling, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
injasour Oct 3rd 2008 4:08PM
I think the fishing itself is pretty rewarding. Before the consumables market dried up on my server last month I could make a relatively competitive amount of money fishing up nodes of desirable fish. The occasional motes and scrolls don't hurt, either.
Blue posters seem to share your concern though, soI guess we may see some bigger challenges down the road.
Kyol Oct 3rd 2008 4:15PM
One thing I liked in FFXI, if memory serves correctly, fishers could cast while riding the ship between docks which was basically a 10 minute boring cutscene that you could use to really seriously clean the gunk out of your mouse. But! What made it sort of memorable was the events that would occur. Fishermen would occasionally hook monsters and pull them up on deck, and other players could fight them, or provide moral encouragement, etc. Or, as usually more likely, die unexpectedly. Good times!
Niekon Oct 3rd 2008 4:40PM
god I remember those days of fishing up a kraken and watching lowbies scrambling to get off of the deck of the boat. Some of the other mobs you'd fish up were entertaining as well. It would just annoy me at times that I'd be fishing and then get attacked by skeleton pirates... O_o
I miss those days sometimes, but not too often.
Aaron Oct 3rd 2008 5:13PM
Another game that did some fun things with fishing was EQ. They had a boat that took you to one of the expansions, and it would stop at an even larger, but stationary boat on the way. Nothing going on there but quest givers and trade skill trainers/vendors, but you could fish some useful fish there, so it was a collective hangout for the fishing crowd... until they nerfed the fish.
It's the solo nature of fishing that tends to bother me in WoW. When you run into another fisher, it's usually only because you're fighting over a pool, not just hanging out and fishing in the same area. That would be nice.
zappo Oct 3rd 2008 4:20PM
Unfortunately due to the nature of fishing, I doubt we'll ever see a lot of really cool stuff come out of the water directly, as this is way too easy to encourage botting. I think the fishing daily was a great start though.
Fishing endgame is having a pimped out bank toon btw.
Randal Oct 3rd 2008 4:27PM
Ultima Online enabled you to fish up treasure maps. I think that would be an awesome end-game fishing benefit. Fish up a map, then you and some friends go find the treasure it leads to.
Killer Oct 3rd 2008 4:28PM
To heck with fishing! Where's my upgraded blacksmith keys!?
But really I find fishing very relaxing. My main is a raid tank so I find myself often fishing up my own consumables preparing for the next 2-3 raids ahead of time. The new fishing dailies provide a chance at rare loot and spare change which is a nice perk.
Neodarkmatter Oct 3rd 2008 4:35PM
I got my fishing to 375 once the fishing dailies started and have gotten 2 of the croc pets, 2 hats and some other great stuff. Took me a lot of farming for it but I did get Mr. Pinchy which granted me the pet with my first wish. Fishing is a pain to level but it was worth it if you let getting those things.
Bootsanator Oct 3rd 2008 4:36PM
I fish all the time and I feel like the current fishing system is spot on.
Fish up badges? You can't cook up badges, or mine up badges, or band-aid yourself a badge, why should we be able to fish them up?
Also, there'll be Lots of new fish in the expansion, and lots of them will be pretty important to everyone.
Right now, fishers have exclusively the best stam food (fisherman's feast and spicy crawdad) and the only healing food (golden fish sticks), and fishers can fish the junk nodes in zangar for lots of cool stuff.
I've been hearing about lots of cool new fishing stuff in Wrath, and I'm totally fine with what's going to happen.
...I'm on board with max-lvl fishers getting a boat though. oh MAN would I love a boat for while I'm fishing! Maybe have there be some fishing quest chains that earn you a 60% boat, and then some ridiculously long quest chain that gives a 100% boat?
And why not, how about a stupidly long quest chain to upgrade that boat to have 2 passenger slots just like the passenger mounts?
Hmm, maybe some of that will have to wait until they have a maelstrom expansion and everybody wants a boat.
RogueJedi86 Oct 3rd 2008 5:19PM
"Fish up badges? You can't cook up badges, or mine up badges, or band-aid yourself a badge, why should we be able to fish them up?"
But several professions are able to obtain(usually via crafting) gear that are equal to or better than badge gear. Fishing doesn't provide much in that regard. There's buff foods, but that's all indirectly, and mostly attributed to cooking.
Lemons Oct 3rd 2008 7:28PM
But fishing is a secondary profession meaning it falls in the same category as first aid and cooking, and neither of those professions (even though they are technically crafting professions) provide you with badges or anything remotely equal to badge gear.
So if you were able to use fishing to gain badges or even badge worthy gear it would truly be unprecedented. It would be the first secondary profession to do this AND the first gathering profession (primary or secondary). wow I'm confusing myself, anywho...
I'm not opposed to fishing up tokens that can be used to buy fishing-related loot. You could fish up a "rare coin" and in Dalaran or somewhere there'd be there some old coin collector/fisherman who'd give you fishing gear for X amount of rare coins.
The cooking daily already works like this. Each day you do it you get a token, and the tokens can be exchanged for recipes. I think this is a good way to get recipes rather than have them being a random drop from some bag that the quest giver gives you.
RogueJedi86 Oct 3rd 2008 8:40PM
"But fishing is a secondary profession meaning it falls in the same category as first aid and cooking, and neither of those professions (even though they are technically crafting professions) provide you with badges or anything remotely equal to badge gear."
Cooking is a secondary profession that provides items anyone can use, and is pretty much required for any dungeons or raids. Buff foods are required, nothing directly from fishing is required. Even bandages are useful for non-healers(or when oom in combat).
vlad Oct 3rd 2008 4:42PM
i followed eli's guide for a while but its not really written well imo. he has people fishing in very low areas that dont give points as much. 15-25 casts beteween skillups is just not worth it. after you get to a certain level he insists on staying in the area even though you get 1-2 skillups per 10 minute lure. i found that moving around just a little saved me hundereds of wasted casts.
i know hes going for a "less traveling time more fishing" technique which in theory makes sence but you can take 3-5 minutes to travel to a new zone and get a few recipes then get skillups every 5-10 cast. lots of towns with flightpaths have cooking recipies and fishable water withing a 1-2 minute walk.
his cooking part of the guide was also well. i was leveled waaaay higher in cooking than i was with fishing. he had me catching stacks of fish that had greyed out recipies.
i put eli's guide aside and just tabbed out between casts to read wowhead and get locations of recipies and fish. once i did that my leveling mover 2-3 times faster than just standing in the same spot all night.
luckily 1-375 only took a day and a half. i was on pace for about a weeks time with the eli guide.
sephirah Oct 3rd 2008 4:56PM
Unless while leveling fishing you're interested in the fish you catch (for cooking), you can simply fish in a city and skill up there.
DruidGuard Oct 3rd 2008 5:11PM
Um...unless I'm mistaken on your first paragraph's intent, there IS no point to running to new fishing zones. Casting in various zones takes just as long as say, fishing in SW's canals. It might be better for leveling your cooking or finding fish to sell to the AH, but less "wasted casts"? It doesn't do a thing.
xeren Oct 3rd 2008 5:12PM
yeah, unless things have changed, the difficulty of the area you fish has absolutely nothing to do with how often you skillup.
So any skillups you got when you moved to a new location were just random and the human brain is always looking for patterns, even when they're not there.
Beatphreek Oct 3rd 2008 5:23PM
Your skillups shouldn't depend at all on where you fish... you should get a skillup at about the same rate regardless of where you are fishing (assuming you aren't letting any get away). I have verified this on my way to 375 when doing the stormwind daily I would get skillups past 350 at the same 10-14 catches that I would in Outlands. El's has a graph that shows you how many casts between points you should expect and I found it to be anecdotally accurate.
Docb22 Oct 3rd 2008 5:46PM
I did as El suggested it took me 3 days to hit 375
PeeWee Oct 3rd 2008 6:38PM
What fish you catch doesn't effect the skillups, it's the number of catches.
vlad Oct 3rd 2008 8:42PM
a shame our chat log doesnt stay. i can the 15-20 "catches" between skillups in my log. when i go to an area that will provide higher lever fish for the cooking recipies that gap narrows. call it a fluke but haveing just spent all day last sunday going from 1-375 in fishing and cooking its still pretty clear in my mind. i noticed a higher rate of skillups in my log as i moved to higher areas.
sometimes as many as every 5-7 fish.