Posts with tag cooking-recipes

Insider Trader, when written by Basil (also of outdps and Call to Auction), will be all about how to use tradeskills to make money.

Cooking is one of those secondary professions that anyone can learn, even if they already have two primary professions. Because of this fairly low barrier to entry, there are a lot of cooks around. So many that I've actually never leveled it myself! I just rely on the generosity of friends for my cooking business.

How profitable is cooking? That all depends on what you cook. I got into this because I once paid 100g for five Spiced Mammoth Treats for my hunter's raid night. Why was I buying them on a Tuesday? Poor planning. What did I learn? The value of planning. We're going to start with a very important concept for auctioneers, here: tenacity.

The latest beta patch brought a fantastic assortment of Cooking recipes, finally getting started on implementing that profession in full. Throughout The Burning Crusade, they really stepped up Cooking as something you want to learn. Wrath of the Lich King seems to be expanding that. Many of the cooking recipes are great for battle as usual, but they've also expanded on the Delicious Chocolate Cake bit and made some things that are just for fun, and there are also some cool things like gaining Tracking abilities from eating a specific food. Food for your pets has returned as well, bigger and better than ever, supplying Stamina and Strength instead of just one or the other.

Honestly, despite all of the awesome stat food, I have to say my favorite recipe I've seen so far is Critter Bites. The description states, "Throw a critter bite to a critter to control it. Critters are small non hostile level 1 creatures." By 'control it' I suppose they could mean it becomes a pet like if you were to Mind Control a mob as a Priest, but it's more likely it becomes a temporary vanity pet. I haven't had an opportunity to try it yet, but you can be sure I'll run out and do it as soon as I get a chance.

The unfortunate part of this is that... a lot of the recipes are totally inaccessible, such as the Critter Bites I mentioned above. Like the Jewelcrafting gem cuts, there are daily quests implemented that award tokens, which in turn are exchanged for recipes. The quests are implemented, but the quest items are not, and thus the quests can't be completed. You can't buy anything from the vendors, either. The basic recipes are there for all to see, though, and for those of you not in the Wrath of the Lich King beta we have a Wrath Cooking gallery started up for you!

Edit: I forgot to mention, all of the recipes in the gallery I was able to learn with 375 Cooking. You can learn everything here essentially straight out of BC, so there's likely a lot more on the way.

In the current state of the Cooking profession, it is necessary to take up Fishing in order to progress one's skill to the maximum level. For some unknown reason, Cooking recipes between 275 and 285 skill have been changed in the recent patches. As community MVP Highlander points out, all but one of the recipes that grant skill-ups in this range require materials that can only be gained through fishing (which, I suppose, can also be purchased off of the auction house). The only recipe that doesn't require fishing is only attained through running Dire Maul, which seems to be an unrealistic requirement.

While not offering any explanation as to why these recipes were ever changed in the first place, Blizzard poster Salthem gives hope of a solution. New recipes are set to be added in patch 2.4 which should hopefully fix this problem. While not providing a lot of details, he does mention that the recipes will definitely bridge this gap.

Only time will tell exactly what recipes are being added, but perhaps they'll add a few more reliable ways to acquire skill points between 350 and 375 as well. What type of cooking recipes would you like to see in the patch?