The many benefits of being a high-level Cook
I agree with Relmstein: Cooking is awesome. Unlike, say, fishing (which I said on the podcast last week will never really stop being boring, since boring is "working as intended" for that one), cooking has really transitioned over the years. Back in the day, it was kind of a silly way to make new foods to eat, in Burning Crusade it became a pretty solid extra buff to have, and it Wrath it has really become a necessity for anyone looking to make their characters and their raids the best they can be.Plus, as Relmstein notes, there's added functionality -- the feasts let you lay out an entire meal for your party, and the addition of the Dalaran cooking quests (and the recipe rewards) have turned the daily cooking quests from just a few extra gold and mats per day into a whole currency system on its own. Fooding it up ingame has become a minigame of its own, and with food giving out such diverse (and significant) stat bonuses, not to mention that it often fetches great prices on the AH, there's no reason for your level 80 character to not have worked a little bit on leveling up cooking.
Sold yet? One of the last things I did at level 70 was level up both cooking and fishing using El's Angling's great guide, and though it took me the better part of two weekends in a row, it's paid off many times over since. Cooking has definitely moved from kind of a fun third profession to mess around with to something that will seriously benefit you as a character in quite a few ways.
Filed under: Cooking, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Buffs






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Drunkenpimp Dec 17th 2008 5:07PM
first, and yes cooking is awesome
teh_wild_knight Dec 17th 2008 5:09PM
I completely agree about how useful cooking is. I started leveling it after I hit 70 and it only took me a few days and couple hundred gold to go from 1-350. The best thing Bliz did to the new recipes is increase the well fed buffs to an hour duration, as opposed to the BC cooking buffs which were only half an hour. Now I hardly ever go around without a well fed buff on my warrior.
paul.marsico Dec 17th 2008 5:10PM
.....and fishing is terribad.
S?hrtogg Dec 18th 2008 4:44AM
Too bad ones is required to complete the daily fishing quest to get all cooking achievements, even though 1 skill is enough for a 1 in 5 chance of the right daily... Why on earth did Blizzard have to make a fishing-and-cooking achievement?
Jack Dec 17th 2008 11:11PM
I'm a fan of cooking too, but man.. Fishing.. I'm trying to level that and it's just mind-numbing. Who in their right mind....
Why don't they revamp the fishing and make it into a mini-game of sorts? Why why why..
Cyanea Dec 18th 2008 4:53AM
Get the Bejewled addon.
You'll thank me later.
Robert M Dec 17th 2008 5:16PM
All my toons level cooking and I find it to be a blast, but is anyone else jsut selling raw meats after they level their cooking? My hunter is making between 30-40g for stacks of rhino meat and mammoth meat. Should I be selling the cooked products instead?
Relk Dec 18th 2008 9:56AM
I'd say sell it raw. That way you get those who are buying it to level cooking and those who need it for the dailies (yay, Mustard Dogs!). For the rest of you looking to profit, sell Chilled Meat. That item is required for most dailies and I know a lot of people, myself included, are trying to finish them every day.
The cooked meats that will sell the best, are the ones that require the Northern Spices to make (and cooking badges to buy). Most of the best of them require fish though, but I'm sure the meat ones will sell some too.
Kal Dec 17th 2008 5:17PM
Sshhh!
Shut up!
Don't TELL them! I like being one of the few people who cooks (and fishes) and makes stupid money from it.
I'm a complete altoholic and every single one of them levels cooking and fishing as they go. I feel like a character is incomplete if it doesn't have a gathering, a crafting, cooking, and fishing. First aid - meh. I play a lot of healers so I powerlevel that at the end for the sake of it.
Rocklaw Dec 17th 2008 5:42PM
What the author fails to mention is how gawd awfully difficult it is to get to 425 and 450 respetively. They made stuff go green waaaaaaaaaay to quickly. It's frickin' painful to get those last few points.
KJP Dec 17th 2008 6:24PM
That might be a concern if there were presently any reason whatsoever to worry about cooking skills above 425, apart from the realm-first achievement which someone else on your server got long ago. As it is, there's nothing a 450 cook gets that a 425 cook doesn't already have apart from a number, so what's the big deal?
vazhkatsi Dec 17th 2008 9:02PM
there will be a reason in a few days when the patch hits
el Dec 18th 2008 4:41AM
In 3.0.8 two of the feasts remain "yellow" (good chance of a skill-up) until 450, leveling the last 25 points will become a lot easier.
Jeff Dec 17th 2008 5:42PM
While I'll agree that Fishing isn't the most action-packed way to spend one's time in-game, I think the benefits from pairing it with cooking outweigh the inherent boredom. For example, if I want to make a new stack of buff food, it seems to be much quicker (and more reliable) to turn on "Find Fish" and look for a certian school than to farm meat from beasts.
Cooking/Fishing ftw.
Osi Dec 17th 2008 6:48PM
PTR releases cooking recipes that require 450 cooking, so ... yeah, there is a MAJOR reason.
EldrinSMP Dec 17th 2008 6:01PM
You know, a few days ago I would have thought you guys were crazy for loving cooking. That was before I leveled it on my main so that I could make the cooking stuff for the Winter's Veil achievement. Now, i have a blast with my cooking. Funny stuff.
YAY COOKING!
JPN Dec 17th 2008 6:05PM
The buffs are just crazy for leveling. +80 AP? I'm sold.
CaffeineRage Dec 17th 2008 6:13PM
What I really love about the new food, is the simple fact that the well fed buffs last for a hour now. Unless you have a habit of dying a lot, this will really cut down on the amount of food you use.
jurandr Dec 17th 2008 6:18PM
I leveled cooking so I could sell popular raid food. Donated a lot to my guild for +rep, too.
Smurk Dec 17th 2008 6:33PM
The "track humanoids" food is a cool idea. Tempted to call them GANK SNAX (in honor of the ever-insultingly pandering RAP SNAX brand). I hope there are more "skill"/non-stat foods to play with in the future.