The Way to a Murloc’s Heart is…

… through his stomach, of course.

note: all pics in this article can be clicked for the full-sized version. Posted on the official WoW forums here, also.

So on this sweetest holiday of hearts and candy, I was determined to find love. This should be easy, right? On my draenei Priest alt, Lekku, armed with my [Romantic Picnic Basket], I set off to find love.

I arrived in Southshore and set up my romantic picnic along the water’s edge and attempted to woo my first murloc.

He approached me with interest, but apparently love’s spell had not yet conquered his heart, and things didn’t go very well from there.

Then we um… took a nap… yea… after that. Just a nap. I promise he’s ok and still breathing.

Nevermind the shiny sparklies. He’s alive, really.

Feeling rejected, I met up with another murloc. Sadly, his love for a draenei Priest in a skimpy dress was null as well. You’d think the murlocs had no idea it was Valentine’s Day or something.

By now I was completely heartbroken. What did I need to do in order to express my love to these murlocs on the sweetest day of the whole year, and get love in return? What was the secret to unlocking their scaly heart? How could I make these murlocs love me? Then it hit me:

“Think like a murloc.” I filled my [Romantic Picnic Basket] with plenty of freshly caught fish, right off the shores of Southshore, and attempted another pass at love.

… And was successful :) Happy Valentine’s Day, Azeroth! And remember… the way to a murloc’s heart is through his stomach. <3

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (0)

“Just a Shadow Priest”

“I’ve been shadow up to 69. I’ve still been able to heal instances just fine. You just need a set of healing gear. +Heal with added Stats as well.” -author unknown

Let’s all gather around the fireplace and let Toque tell you a little story about an incident in-game that opened my eyes to a misconception about Shadow Priests. The event itself is minor, but it made me realize that the idea that Shadow Priests = No Heals is a lot more common than I realized. And also flat out false.

When I was in my upper 40s, my guild master asked me if I wanted to come heal Zul’Farrak on Lekku, my Shadow Priest; he was in a PuG and they needed a healer. My guild is a wonderful guild and knows full well that I am Shadow specced. It’s never mattered to any of them before, because I’ve been the main healer on countless previous instance runs as far back as Deadmines along with numerous group quests, successfully. I agreed, and they gave me a few moments to run to the bank so I could grab out my full +heal set before they summoned me. When I portaled to the meeting stone, I immediately came out of Shadowform and donned my +heal gear. Everyone greeted me, I buffed everyone up, and we were off.

We were only about three pulls into the instance when one of the pug party members made a fatal misstell in party chat. He must have been chatting in his own guild chat or was whispering to another player, but the sentence was a mid-conversation reply to someone else about how I was “Just a Shadow Priest.”

Naturally, I was curious as to what he meant. I heal just fine and have never had any issues healing instances for groups before, so I called him on it. He got defensive, which I assumed was because he was a little embarrassed about his slip, and proceeded to tell me that I don’t heal as well and that I should be Holy specced to run this instance with them. I laughed and said “Hey, no problem, if you’d like to wait for a Holy Priest to join you, I can leave.” I don’t want to point fingers or name actual names, so going forward, let’s just refer to this person as “Willis.” Because I’m what Willis was talkin’ bout.

This didn’t go over well with the rest of the group, who felt I was healing well so far. Even Willis protested that I should stay, just so long as I “heal him good, lolz.” I let it drop and we continued, but others in the group sent me tells suggesting jokingly that I not attend to his health as urgently, and while the image gave me a chuckle, I was there to do a job and I don’t like letting anyone in my party die — even the jerks.

Willis was a Rogue who felt, even though he was a few levels below the elite mobs, he could tank by himself. He would get impatient when the rest of us were following the Hunter’s marks and target rotation and start engaging single pulls further ahead while the rest of us were working on a strategized group pull. The Hunter pet tanked better than Willis did, and so I was forced to focus most of my heals on him separately. This was annoying. It got even more annoying when he’d finish off a mob and exclaim that he alone could tank the elites. I gently reminded him that he survived against the elite because of my “lowly Shadow Priest heals.”

The rest of the story is fairly uneventful. We didn’t get too much further before Willis suddenly had to go. It was coincidentally a pull after he leveled up, but that’s neither here nor there. We decided to just try the instance another time, and as I was headed back to grind out levels, I started thinking about what Willis had said: that Shadow Priests don’t heal as well as Holy Priests and that I should be Holy specced in order to run instances. I didn’t take the comment personally — Willis doesn’t know me and was only making his comments based on my spec and not me as a person — but I suddenly wondered if most people felt the same way about Shadow Priests, thus inspiring this article.

I’d never really questioned my healing ability as a Shadow Priest. On Toque or one of my other alts, I’d been in groups or instances with a Shadow Priest healing, and I can honestly say that I’ve never encountered any bad experiences from the other side of the coin, either. I’ve been healed perfectly fine by Shadow Priests before, and as a Shadow Priest, I’d healed my groups so far perfectly fine as well. I am very much aware of the fact that if I were to spec my talent points into Holy or even a combination of Holy and Discipline that I would heal more efficiently. That makes sense, but that’s never meant someone who was specced into Shadow COULDN’T heal. And even heal well, if they were geared appropriately. I’d planned to be Shadow specced from day 1 of my Priest in order to help me level, and I’ve found it to be a real blast. So much so that Toque is getting dusty up there on the shelf. And I’ve always known since I placed that first talent point at level 10 that I would need to compensate as much as possible for my choices in talents by keeping up with a +heal set to wear in instances for better and more efficient healing. Sure it’s not going to be exactly equivalent, but it’s a considerable difference, especially when I’m in charge of healing a well geared tank who knows what they are doing.

My ultimate plan is to level to 70 as Shadow and then respec into pure Holy or a Holy/Discipline combination to optimize my healing power for end-game instances. Ultimately I want to be a healer, as it was my purpose in rolling and leveling a Priest in the first place, but getting to that end goal and the end game requires a lot of leveling that I find much more enjoyable while specced Shadow. And to be honest, almost every Priest I see running about Azeroth leveling along with me are also Shadow. I don’t know about them, but when I tried leveling a Troll Priest with Lucas, I was bored to tears and didn’t survive well on my own, making me less and less interested in ever playing her. When Lucas stopped playing WoW, I stopped playing the Troll Priest because I was ignorant to the Shadow spec and couldn’t imagine anything more painful than leveling a purely Holy and/or Discipline Priest, which I used to think was all I was good for. The Troll Priest was eventually deleted to make way for another alt. One day when I realized my guild needed more healers, I started reading up on Priests and decided that the Shadow spec for leveling sounded like it was just up my alley, and I gave Priest another go. I’ve never looked back, and look forward to playing Lekku and literally melting through levels with her. Sometimes I even feel like it’s unfair just how powerful a force I am on my own. I’m not bragging about my personal skills here — any tricks I’ve learned about playing a Shadow Priest I’ve learned from others by reading heavily into their guides and strategies — but honestly, I feel unstoppable when I play her. Vampiric Embrace coupled with Vampiric Touch and my high +spirit makes me a self-sustaining killing machine that hardly ever has to rest between encounters. I sweep through quests and mobs like they were nothing, and usually don’t need to catch my breath before moving on to the next challenge. I can kill things that are ridiculously higher level than me as needed, even moreso than when I was playing my Hunter. Not because I’m “leet”, because I can assure you I’m not, but just because Shadow Priests are built to melt through faces and levels. I love it. But that doesn’t really answer my question about my healing abilities or limits as I close in on the end game, and that’s what prompted me to write this article in the first place.

I wanted to know what the consensus of the official Priest Forum was on this topic, so I started a thread there, telling the basic story about my encounter with Willis and how it made me question my personal limits and the limits of Shadow Priests in general when it came to healing. Instances are a huge part of the 60-70 bracket and end-game life at 70, and I want to have fun on my way there, but also don’t want to miss out on instances if I am viewed as “just a Shadow Priest.” Would I be fine to heal up until 70 like I had originally planned, or would I really absolutely have to grind out those last 10 levels Holy because I wouldn’t make it in Outland as a Shadow Priest? I got a lot of constructive feedback that I was most grateful for, and it has made me more confident about where those limits are and also where they are not. Here are some highlights from that feedback.

• Shaithara: Shadow-Priests can heal any five-man just fine all the way to 70. I’ve even healed Heroics as Shadow, though only with well geared tanks. While the tanks were certainly “carrying” me in Heroics, the fact that I was able to do it at all should tell you that Shadow is more than fine in any normal mode 5-man.
• Exegesis: i can tell it getting a bit harder 60+, but its doable with a smart group
• Kayliss: As far as I have found, the limit for shadow priest healing is ZA or SSC/TK. I have healed every normal instance, 75% of the heroics, Kara, and Gruuls lair as shadow spec. Granted it would have been easier if I was holy, but it is possible.
• Sollara: There is nothing wrong healing as a a shadowpriest, I do it all the time. Until level 60 you won’t have any other problems in healing until level 60. Actually, since you care enough to have a spare healing set you could heal instances specced shadow possibly until level 70.

  Just because people think you can’t heal because of your spec it isn’t true. (a lot of what people think IS true but this isn’t neccesarily one those things).

  A lot of people are prejudiced against non-healing spec people to heal but if that person can finish the instance and heal through the bosses then it is alright. If you can heal through a boss people will get over their doubts due to the shortage of healers nowadays.

  PS: I’d rather heal in holy gear and shadowspec then heal in holy spec and dps shadow gear.

• Crashernok: As far as healing in Shadow, I’ve done several Heroic runs as the main healer and it worked out fine. Your heals wont be as fast and will cost a bit more mana, but as long as your tank has decent gear, there shouldn’t be much of a problem.
• Lightsguard: If you focus on getting a lvl 60+ healing set, you can heal instances from 60-68, I wouldn’t recommend healing level 70 isntances as shadow.
• Mesha: IMO anyone with a modicum of skill and solid healing gear can heal any five man, regardless of their spec, up to and including level 70. Once you get to around BRD/ST level is where it starts to become more difficult to heal as shadow spec, but it is still very possible. I’ve personally managed to heal a few of the easier heroics with solid tanks as shadow, not wanting to spend 50g on respec when a guildy needed a heroic run in between raids and I was farming spec. It highly depends on the group your with and the skill level of the person playing the priest. If the rest of the group is solidly geared, and your healing gear is good, I wouldnt put it past a shadow priest to heal kara decently even.
• Harmat: My thoughts: Shadow is no hindrance to healing. The +10% shadow damage isn’t a -50% healing debuff on your spells. You do miss some important talents by speccing shadow, such as major +healing bonuses from the holy tree and 2.5 sec cast time. There’s also that talent in the disc tree that gives holy spells slightly less threat. All this means is that you risk running out of mana.
• Yoru: Not only should you be able to easily heal any pre-BC instance while fully specced into Shadow, but you should be able to heal easily without any +healing gear at all.

  I didn’t have a problem healing an instance as a shadow priest until ramps, but even then it was because I could never find a decent tank.

• Illegalalien: I’ve always looked at it like this: a shadow priest is better at healing than a holy priest is at damage. Despite the heal/dmg buff, I maintain this rule. Speccing for healing while you level will only serve to slow the leveling process. There is nothing you can’t heal up to 70 as long as you keep your heal set as up-to-date as you can along the way.
• Sito: And in a raid situation pulling 1k DPS is attainable by many classes but to turn that into 250 Health per second and 50 mana per second for the party isn’t something to snuff about.

  Who in their right mind would turn down 250 Mp5?

• Shadowfriend: Shadowpriests are far and away the best offspec healers out of every class that can heal.
• Ghostfreak: I have ~ +1700 healing in my “Shard Loot” set and have no problems healing anything pre SSC/TK, including ZA.

  I may have to drink every other pull, and pot on long boss fights, but it’s still fun to heal every once in a while without having to respec.

• Deinne: There are certain instances that will give you problems healing as a shadow priest depending on your group make up and gear. Mana Tombs will give you issues on the first boss, because of all the AE healing. Shadow Lab will be annoying because of Inciter blowing your mana. Pretty much any instance with a mana intensive fight will give you headaches, and probably cost you money in pots. Pre-BC though, there is no instance at all that should give you a problem.
• Ranissa: Shadow priests are a “good thing” end-game. Period.

  More on-topic, healing pre-BC instances as shadow is cake. Heck, it’s cake to heal pre-BC instances as a feral or boomkin druid, a ret or prot paladin, an enh or ele shaman…you get the idea. You don’t even need gear that has +healing. Stack some int and off you go.

  For BC, I’ve main-healed a couple of Heroics as shadow and most of the regular instances shadow. It’s not as “cakey” as pre-BC but it’s doable, especially with a good, solid group. Just get some good gear, make or buy some +healing pots and mana pots and…off you go.

At the time of this writing, Lekku has just hit 60. She has breached the Dark Portal and is adventuring in Outland, looking forward to eventually settling down and being a healer for the greater good of the group. After all, that’s why she was created in the first place. Until then, she will continue to melt through levels to get there and can and will be capable of healing through instances along the way, too.

The main point of writing this article was to get my thoughts off my chest about the misconception that Shadow Priests cannot heal. After having my eyes opened by Willis and realizing that people actually think that’s the case, I wanted to get down to the truth of the matter instead of accepting what others think I can and cannot do. Before you diss the next Shadow Priest healing in your group, consider that you may have a hard time finding a purely Holy Priest running around before the end-game anyway, since speccing at least somewhat into Shadow is popular. Give that Shadow Priest a chance. Being specced into Shadow does not mean they are incapable of healing, especially if we’re talking about non-heroic instances. If the Shadow Priest has +heal gear and half a brain, it will do you no good to diss them, especially if you expect them to keep you alive, which they can do… well, even! And from my discussions with other Priests on the subject, I’ve also learned that healing completely aside, there’s a purpose and need for having Shadow Priests in your group and plenty of benefits that they bring to the table in level 70 instances. Who would turn down INSERT MANA STATS HERE paired with damage comparable to other DPS classes? Based on the feedback on the Priest Forums, I am convinced I will be just fine healing with +heal gear as a Shadow Priest until the end-game, so long as I am on my game and/or the tank is well geared with half a brain as well. The better the group composition, the better the run will go. Funny how that’s the way it is for every instance run, no matter which angle or class you look at it from.

The bottom line is to enjoy the game you pay $15 a month for. Play how you want to play and spec how you wish to spec. Don’t let others tell you what your limits are; show them what you’re capable of, define your own limits, and have fun doing it! :)

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (0)

The Art of Fishing in Azeroth and Beyond

Fishing is one of the great past times of Azeroth. The technique is simple, making fishing the perfect getaway from monotonous grinding or the same ol’ PvP action. That’s why all of my characters are fisherwomen! Tired of the norm? Grab a fishing pole and speak to your closest fishing trainer and let’s get started!

To fish, you will need a fishing pole, sold by any trades supply or fishing supply vendor in your home city. Ask a guard in one of your faction’s main cities for the fishing trainer closest to you. For draenei or those who go to the draenei starting areas to quest, you’ll find the quest Red Snapper – Very Tasty! and it is given by Diktynna along the river in between the starting area of Ammen Vale and Azuremyst Isle resulting in a reward of a fishing pole, bauble (lure), and she’ll even teach you how to fish if you want!

And before I get much further, I should apologize in advance that this article will clearly be Alliance-favoured. Sorry, Horde, I just haven’t leveled a Horde-side alt before, so you might see a little bias towards the Alliance, but the principles of this article are the same — you may just have to do a little searching for more specifics on Horde trainers or Horde specific quests.

Like all other professions in the World of Warcraft, fishing has levels, trainable as you progress by both talking to trainers and acquiring books. The great thing about fishing is that it is a secondary profession instead of a primary one, so you won’t have to give up one of your two limited primary profession slots to take it on.

Apprentice 1-75
Learned from a trainer, trainable at level 5. Cost is 1s.
Journeyman 75-150
Learned from a trainer, trainable at level 10. Cost is 4s50c.
Expert 150-225
Requires that you purchase and read the book Expert Fishing – The Bass And You, bought from Old Man Heming in Booty Bay for 1g.
Artisan 225-300
Quest reward from Nat Pagle. More on him later in this article, including details on his location and how to complete the quest.
Master 300-375
Requires that you purchase and read the book Master Fishing – The Art of Angling, bought from Juno Dufrain in Zangarmarsh at the Cenarion Refuge for 5g.

So Why Fish?
Why not? Not only is fishing relaxing, but the fish you catch can be cooked, used in recipes, or sold to others (or all three!) for nutrition or profit. You may even find a few cool or rare items while fishing. But more on that later. Fishing is popular among cooks (another secondary profession) and Hunters, because it means they can always grab food for their pet in the wild if needed, (provided they have a pet that eats fish) instead of having to trek back into town all the time. Alchemists use various fish in their recipes, and you’ll find that fish used in higher level cooking or alchemy recipes will glean you a nice, fat net profit when you’re done.

About Leveling
Fishing, unlike other professions, does not require you to advance to a higher level zone or catch higher level fish as you advance your skill. It’s a common misconception that you must move to higher level zones to advance your fishing skill, but really, you could just sit at the front gates of Stormwind and level completely from 1-375 in the same starter area lake you began fishing in, and you’d progress your fishing just as quickly as you would moving zones. In fact, you may even level a tad bit faster just sitting in the starter location because you’ll save lots of travel time and have a higher catch success rate, which plays an integral part in skilling up.

How can this be? The levels you gain in fishing are roughly determined by a formula which is based on your actual fishing skill level, and has absolutely nothing to do with where you fish or which type of fish you catch. The rough idea of the formula is

(Your Fishing Skill – 75) / 25 = how many successful fish caught needed in a row before you will skill up 1 point

Let’s say you have a fishing skill level of 175, to make the math easy. Subtract 75 from that, and you’re left with 100. Divide that by 25, and you get a final answer of 4, which means that it will take roughly 4 successful casts and catches in a row before you will skill up 1 point to 176 fishing.

So as you progress in your fishing skill, it will of course take more and more successful catches to gain a skill up, naturally. Notice I said “successful catches” – the formula is based on how many successful catches in a row you have. Only successful catches contribute towards that magic number of fish needed to be caught before you can skill up. Those annoying “Your fish got away!” messages don’t count! Because the formula result requires successful catches to gain a skill up, one can conclude that being in a low level starter area to level your fishing would be marginally faster than moving around to various higher level zones. This is because you’ll have better luck with your catches and less likely to have your fish get away, (not to mention zero travel time) meaning a more direct path towards your fishing skill goals. Therefore, more guaranteed successful catches in a row = faster leveling.

But fishing would be incredibly boring if you sat at your starter zone for hours on end leveling 1-375. Moving around means a change of scenery, a change in the type of fish you catch, and more variety in general. Make fishing truly relaxing and more exciting by changing it up a bit or finding a secluded and pleasing location so that you look forward to your escape. Besides, the higher level fish needed for higher level crafting recipes are… you guessed it… in higher level zones. And while you’re able to fish all the way to 375 in a starter zone, you cannot go and fish in higher level zones until your fishing skill is high enough to handle the waters there, so keep that in mind. For a more complete list of various types of fish you can catch and which zone they can be found in, check out the WoWwiki article here.

How to Fish
So now let’s talk about the mechanics of fishing. It’s very simple. Now that you’ve trained in apprentice fishing and have picked up a basic fishing pole, just equip the pole in your weapon slot. Note that it’s considered a two-handed weapon, so it’ll take both hand slots when equipped.

Open up your spellbook. After you’ve trained in apprentice fishing, you’ll see the fishing ability in the general abilities tab of your spellbook. I recommend dragging the icon out and putting it somewhere on your toolbar for easier access.

Now, the moment of truth… click the fishing ability icon, and you will automatically cast out into the water. I should mention that you need to be close enough to fishable water in order to do so. If you’re not standing within range of a body of water, it won’t cast, so just move closer as needed. You are able to fish in any body of water. More about the misconception that you can only fish in the schools of fish pool nodes (which is false!) later. Just know that if it’s a body of water and not too shallow, you can fish in it.

After you’ve made your first successful cast, you’ll see your bobber appear to be floating on the surface of the water, and the fishing ability will be a channeled casting bar at the bottom of your screen. Keep your eye on your bobber. Place your cursor over the bobber and note that it turns into a golden cog wheel. Wait patiently for the bobber to bob up in the water, indicating that you have a fish on the line, and when you see the bobber splash up, right click the cog wheel to loot your fish. If you get the message that your fist got away, don’t get discouraged, just try again! This is a common message when you first start fishing, and later as you level, is a good indication that you are fishing in an area a little above your fishing skill level. Once you gain a few skill ups, you’ll see that message less and less in that area.

Lures
Lures are an optional component to fishing but helpful, especially when you’re first starting out, or later down the line when you want to fish in a zone whose fishing level requirement is a little over your head. To help make fishing a little more successful and get over the starter hump of unsuccessful casts in the beginning and when you first venture into higher level fishing zones, attach a lure to your pole. Lures are like buffs to your pole and temporarily buff your fishing skill so you are more successful. Lures are available right away, and fishing supply vendors (usually located near the fishing trainer) sell them. There are multiple types of lures available to use as your skill progresses.

To add a lure to your pole, simply right click the lure in your inventory and then click on your fishing pole to attach and apply the buff. Higher level lures available at higher level skill allow you to buff your fishing skill temporarily even higher, making it possible to fish in a zone even before your actual skill is high enough.

Better Poles and Fishing Quests
There are a few quests out there for those with the fishing profession. Some quests give you new or better lures and some even give out better fishing poles. Like other weapons in the game, there are a few different types of fishing poles available with various stats that increase your fishing skill when they are equipped.

• The Family and the Fishing Pole
  Gubber Blump in Auberdine, Darkshore has this low level Alliance quest that’s incredibly easy to complete, and results in a free +3 to fishing skill pole, the Blump Family Fishing Pole as the reward. Even better, Gubber can teach you the fishing skill if you haven’t already learned it, and will even lend you a pole to do the quest with! :)
• The Strong Fishing Pole grants the user +5 fishing, and can be bought by fishing supply vendors listed at the link in major cities for both factions.
• Big Iron Fishing Pole is a +20 pole available to both Alliance and Horde. It is found by searching lobster/shellfish traps off the coast of Desolace down by Shadowprey Village around [20,75]. Alliance, you will need to be careful, as the guards near the docks will aggro if you get too close. It’s best to own a Hydrocane, be undead, a Warlock, or have underwater breathing potions on hand for this grind, because you’ll be opening the traps underwater as well as dodging level 34-35 mobs that guard the traps and your life will be much easier if you’re able to breathe underwater for an extended period of time. Simply open every trap you see and hope that you’ll find a Big Iron Fishing Pole inside. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and find random gray junk items in the traps (woo!), or shellfish… which unfortunately serve no purpose to Alliance. And other times you may be ambushed by one of the 34-35 mobs hiding inside the trap when you open it, so be prepared! Farming for the Big Iron Fishing Pole varies; some claim they’ve found it after opening a few traps, and others have farmed for hours on end before being successful. I’m one of those people that have experienced both ends of that spectrum, so good luck!
• Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme
  Nat Pagle is a master fisherman residing out on a small dock on an island in the middle of nowhere off the coast of Dustwallow Marsh near Theramore. When it is time for you to increase your fishing skill past 225, you will need to seek out Nat for this quest. He can be located by heading to Theramore and swimming west off of the docks. His coordinates are [58,59]. To up your fishing skill cap from 225 to 300, Nat asks you to prove your skill by fetching him four rare fish that are found in specific locations across Azeroth. He wants aFeralas Ahi, which can be found at [62,52] in the Verdantis River of Feralas, the Misty Reed Mahi Mahi which is found by fishing off of the far east coast of the Swamp of Sorrows, the Sar’theris Striker, which can be fished along the west coast of Desolace, and the Savage Coast Blue Sailfin , fished from the west coast of Stranglethorn Vale. Return to Nat with these rare fish, and he’ll up your fishing cap to 300. Congratulations!
• Rather Be Fishin’
  This quest, available in the Burning Crusade expansion at level 60 in Terokkar Forest, has a quest reward of Seth’s Graphite Fishing Pole, which is a nice pole that not only gives +20 fishing skill, but also has +52 stamina to boot! Good for those who wanted the Big Iron Fishing Pole but never took the time to farm it themselves or wanted to pay an outrageous price for it on the Auction House. The only drawback is you have to wait until level 60 to obtain the quest, instead of being able to get your hands on the Big Iron Fishing Pole sooner.
• On Sundays between the hours of 2 and 4pm server time, there is a fishing contest held in Stranglethorn Vale called the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. The tournament requires that you run up and down the coasts of the zone, fishing specifically into the Tastyfish pools that spawn, in hopes to be the first to fish out 40 Speckled Tastyfish and turn them into the quest giver outside the Inn in Booty Bay. One of the rewards for winning the weekly contest is the option to nab your very own Arcanite Fishing Pole, the highest +fishing skill pole available in-game currently. Alternatively, catching and turning in a few other rare fish that only spawn in these pools during the tournament on Sundays will net you some +fishing items that you can wear to increase your fishing skill as well. For more information on the Extravaganza, check out Seravais’ excellent guide posted here. Just scroll down until you reach their tutorial on the tournament. The official Blizzard site about the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza can be found on the World of Warcraft website here, too.
• You have the chance when you’re fishing to come upon crates, containers, etc. If you’re lucky, inside one of those crates will be the bind-on-pickup Weather-Beaten Journal, which teaches you the ability to “find fish” — just like “find herbs”, this will allow you to track fishing nodes in bodies of water on your mini map just like you would herbs or mining nodes. Even though the item is BoP, if it is still in the crate, you are able to sell it/trade it to others. If you try to open the crate and take the item from the crate and you have less than 100 fishing ability, the item will disappear.
• There is a Horde-only quest called “Snapjaws, Mon!” that awards a +25 fishing pole, the Nat Pagle’s Extreme Angler FC-5000, given by an NPC in Revantusk Village in the Hinterlands. Click this link to find out more if you’re Horde side.

Addons
I don’t tend to use many addons in-game, but there are two addons that I recommend simply for making fishing more streamlined and less monotonous over time. Let’s face it — we want fishing to be an escape from the monotonous, not an additional monotonous task in-game that will only bore you.

• FishPing
  Not really an addon, but simply a .wav file that you put into a specific folder in your WoW directory so that a sound plays (a ping) when your bobber splashes. This makes it possible to do other things while you fish and is a louder and clearer indicator of when you have a fish on the line so that you don’t have to strain to hear the splash, or strain your eyes by staring at the bobber continuously. Don’t you hate it when you get distracted while fishing, only to look back at your bobber and wonder if it jumped or not? This is your solution. Being able to focus my eyes on other things – like guild chat or general chat – keeps me entertained while I fish, making it more enjoyable.
• Fishing Buddy
  This is a compact addon that gives you lots of options to enhance your fishing experience, such as allowing you to auto-equip an entire set fishing outfit, auto-attach lures to your pole if you have any in your inventory, and simpler casting achieved by right clicking. It also pops up a reminder and countdown to the Fishing Extravaganza event in Booty Bay so you don’t forget. Fishing Buddy also conveniently keeps track of every zone you’ve fished in and what types of fish (and how many) you’ve caught there over time, for easy reference. This addon does not automate fishing for you or do the work, but it does make the entire process more streamlined.

More Fishing Misconceptions
Another misconception when fishing these days is that you can only fish into a designated school of fish, which are visible circles of swarming fish with a name like “Firefin snapper school” on them when you hover over their spot in the water. This is false — you can fish anywhere in any body of water that is deep enough and do not need to fish directly into a school of fish in order to catch fish.

So what are those concentrated, labeled schools for? Blizzard added these swirling pools of fish to bodies of water in a patch so that fishermen would come across the schools while fishing and have a few guaranteed casts to catch that particular kind of fish when they fished directly into them. For example, Oily Blackmouth fish can be caught at Menethil Harbor (among other places). If you run up to the docks and start fishing randomly into the water anywhere in Menethil, you have a chance of catching Oily Blackmouth. However, if you notice a school of Oily Blackmouth in a designated puddle, you know that if you cast into that school that you will definitely catch at least a few Oily Blackmouth instead of catching whatever random fish are available in that zone. After a few successful casts into the Oily Blackmouth pool you will dry the school up and it will disappear. The schools of fish are just a way for you to stumble upon a more guaranteed way to fish for more of a specific fish you’re looking for. But remember — you can actually fish anywhere in the body of water, though, and do not HAVE to fish in designated schools to catch fish. Also be on the lookout for floating wreckage pools. Fishing into these designated and random spawns usually gleans interesting items rather than fish, although you always have a rare chance of “catching” crates or other goodies when you fish anyway. You never know what you’ll pull out of the watery depths when you fish!

One item you may fish out if you’re lucky, have at least 450 fishing skill, (the 375 cap plus the best +fishing gear and enchants you can get from the list above, for a combined total of a maximum of 527 fishing skill) and a flying mount in Outland is a Mr. Pinchy, fished from Highland Mixed schools of fish in Terokkar Forest. Mr. Pinchy will grant you three wishes, one of which could be a Magical Crawdad Box, an incredibly rare pet crawdad. For more information on Mr. Pinchy or the wishes he randomly grants, check out his link, and be prepared to work hard for it!

Much like Mr. Pinchy, there is a Giant Sewer Rat pet that can be fished from the Underbelly (sewers) in the city of Dalaran as of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.  This is technically easier to get than Mr. Pinchy since you are guaranteed to get the pet when it is fished up, unlike Mr. Pinchy where you have three chances over 6 days and still may not get the pet itself.  It will take patience and a high level of fishing (about the same as Mr. Pinchy) down in the sewers to catch this rat, however!

Special Fish
There are a lot of “special” types of fish out there. Some, like the Winter Squid or Summer Bass are seasonal and only fishable during their respective seasons. Others, like the Nightfin Snapper or Sunscale Salmon are only fishable at certain times of the night or day, respectively. One extra special fish is the Deviate Fish, which when eaten raw has various fun effects on your character. Cooks who cook up Deviate Fish create Savory Deviate Delight, which is a more potent version of the raw effects of eating Deviate Fish, and its fun and shape-changing effects last longer, too. These rare or “special” fish can go for larger sums of money on the Auction House either because of their fun factor or their usefulness in recipes and the short timeframe of which to catch them. Remember, Hunters, cooked fish are more nutritious for your pet and their feeding happiness levels will be higher than the effects of feeding your pet the raw version of the fish. You’ll find this is also true for your character’s nutrition. When you eat raw fish it will help you regain health faster over time, but the cooked version will do that and more — usually boosting various stats for 15 minutes, too. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a big fan of pairing and leveling fishing with cooking, regardless of class, though especially for Hunters.

Achievements
Just in time for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion we got the achievement system.  Achivements are feats of strength in-game that you complete and get achievement points for doing so.  The “Salty” title is an in-game title you can acquire if you complete most of the fishing profession achievements.  I won’t go into extreme detail on all of the achievements for fishermen because El over at El’s Anglin’ has a fantabulous page that explains all of the particulars you need to know to get the title and fishermen friendly forums for disucssing strategies to complete said achievements and general fishing goodness.  Check it out!  El’s Anglin’ is an amazing weatlth of information on fishing in World of Warcraft.

Final Thoughts
So that’s all you need to know about the vast and wonderful art of fishing in the world of Azeroth. When you need a break from the daily grind, grab your fishing pole and sneak away to your secluded paradise and fish the worries away. Fishing allows me to take time out from leveling alts or instancing and relax, all while giving me the chance to keep up with guild chat conversations or get involved in the never-boring discussions going on in general or trade chat. Fishing is a relaxing and social activity that is as personal as you make it, so enjoy your escape!

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (1)

The Sprite Darter Pet Quest

The Sprite Darter Hatchling is one of the most unique pets in Azeroth. As much as I love Mr. Wiggles or Peanut, the Sprite Darter is definitely something you don’t see everyday. So how do you get one? This guide will attempt to make the whole process as painless as possible.

As a staff editor over at Wowhead.com, I will be using references to various quests and locations that I will link to Wowhead’s database, as it is my preferred WoW information database, of course.

Before we begin, there are a few things you should do ahead of time to make this go smoothly from start to finish. First things’s first… you must be Alliance. Sorry, Horde, it is impossible for you to complete this quest or obtain your own Sprite Darter Hatchling since it is a bind-on-pickup reward at the end of this series. Also, you need to be at least level 40 to start the initial chain. The last part of the series is going to require at least level 42, but I suggest level 44, 45 or even 46 to complete it easily on your own, or be sure to bring a few friends along. To get your very own Sprite Darter Hatchling, you will need the following:

• 2 Elixirs of Fortitude (Made by Alchemists — check the Auction House for two or ask for an Alchemist in /trade who can make you what you need.)

You should also be sure you know how to get to and have the flightpoints for the following locations:

• Feathermoon Stronghold in Feralas — connected to Auberdine or Theramore so you can boat to the opposite continent
• Aerie Peak in The Hinterlands — connected to Ironforge
• Preferably Gadgetzan in Tanaris for ease
• You should already have Menethil Harbor by this time, which you’ll most likely use to get to the opposite continent

You will be travelling to a location in Feralas via Feathermoon Stronghold, going from there up to Darnasses via either the boat at Auberdine or the flight path to Rut’theran Village, down to the Shimmering Flats in Tanaris by Gadgetzan, and then over to the Eastern Kingdoms to the Hinterlands, so plan accordingly.
One last thing before we begin. Set your hearthstone to either Ironforge or Southshore. This will be imperative later.

Are you ready? Here we go!

Getting Started
Fly out to the Feathermoon Stronghold on Kalimdor. Take the boat over to the mainland and follow the main road going east. You’ll travel through the beautiful High Wilderness and pass by the entrance to the dungeon Dire Maul and then you’ll reach the Verdantis River. The coordinates for the river is [64,52] — cross the river by going over a fairly large bridge and be sure to check out the waterfall. You’ll know you’re there when it says “Verdantis River” on your screen. Just after you get to the other side of the river, you’ll want to head off the road down the large slope that’s headed north from the path. The exact location where you slope down is [64,50], and there’s a large branch from an overhead tree that points conveniently right to the spot where you need to veer off the road. You should see Sprite Darters flying around randomly once you get to the bottom of the slope; this lets you know you’re in the right place! As you head into the valley you’ll see a Grimtotem camp with a large round cage. The cage contains many little Sprite Darters! Just before you hit the camp, you’ll see a large tree to your left. There is a “hidden” path behind the tree that leads you to the quest givers that will start the whole exciting process to becoming a parent of your very own Sprite Darter Hatchling.

The coordinates for the path behind the tree that goes back around to Jer’kai and Kindal Moonweaver is located at [66,47]. It doesn’t look like much of a path, but if you follow it up and around to the left, you’ll see it slopes around and down to a small cliff where Jer’kai and Kindal are standing, keeping a watchful eye on the Sprite Darters and the goings on at the Grimtotem camp.

Freedom for All Creatures
Kindal Moonweaver has a quest for you, called Freedom for All Creatures. This one can be a little tough to do solo, so you may want to have a friend come with you. It is doable at level 42, because that’s what level I did it solo on my shadow priest, but it was a little tricky.

You are given 6 minutes to escort Kindal down into the Grimtotem camp and release the Sprite Darters in the cage. There’s just one catch, though — you have to save at least 6 Sprite Darters from certain death, survive, and Kindal must also survive. This sounds daunting, but it’s not too bad. Kindal has you lead the way down to the camp, and she’ll help you kill mobs. Clear the Grimtotem in the area with Kindal before attempting to open the cage. When the area is clear and most (if not all) of the surrounding Grimtotem are cleared, open the cage. The Sprite Darters will rush out in a large group and most will swarm the nearest Grimtotem NPC they can find. Just help them kill the Grimtotems that they come across, and do your best to catch any stray Sprite Darters who have left the swarm and have started battling a Grimtotem on their own.

It shouldn’t take long, and it seems a little chaotic, but once 6 Sprite Darters survive, your quest will update. Rush back with Kindal hot on your heels up to the ridge where Jer’kai is waiting and turn in the quest. Be sure to note that you have to complete the entire quest AND speak to Jer’kai to complete the quest within the 5 minutes. Don’t dawdle after you get the quest update that you’ve successfully saved the Sprite Darters — you also need to hoof it back over and turn in the quest before time runs out or you’ll have to do it all over again. I almost forgot that and just got it turned in with 4 seconds left on my timer when I did the quest this time for the quest write up. Whew!

Doling Justice (1)
The Moonweaver sisters are very thankful, and now Jer’kai has a quest for you, called Doling Justice (1). To ensure that further Sprite Darters are safe, you’re asked to kill a specific number of the three types of Grimtotems found at the encampment. Kill 10 Raiders, 12 Naturalists, and 6 Shaman, then return to Jer’kai. This is your typical WoW quest to kill x number of mobs, and thankfully there is no timer. So take a break, kill some Grimtotem, and come on back.

Doling Justice (2)
Jer’kai thanks you for your commitment to helping these rare and extraordinary creatures, rewarding you with 4500 experience and 150 reputation with Darnassus. She has another task for you now, and sends you with her signet ring as proof of your deeds to go and see Tyrande Whisperwind, the High Priestess of Darnassus, with the quest Doling Justice (2). Run back over to the flight path you have in Feralas and fly up to either Auberdine and boat across to Rut’theran Village and then into Darnassus, or fly straight up to the Rut’theran Village flight point and into Darnassus. (If you don’t have the flight point yet, be sure to grab it after you boat across or on your way back because it’ll save you a little time when you head to Feralas from here later.)

When you go through the pink glowy into Darnassus from Rut’theran village, head south to the Temple of the Moon. Cross the courtyard inside and up the windy ramp to the second level of the temple. Wind around until you find Tyrande Whisperwind, High Priestess of Darnassus, at coordinates [39,22]. You’ll give her the signet ring and she’ll reward you with a nice chunk of xp (7550 xp at level 42 for me), the Firwillow Wristbands, and 350 reputation with Darnassus. Yay! This is where most people stop, because they don’t realize that there is more to the quest. Most people that stumble upon Jer’kai and Kindal Moonweaver while questing in Feralas and do the first part of this series, eventually turning in this part to Tyrande, have no idea that there is an additional quest that will eventually lead you to getting your own Sprite Darter. This is one of the reasons why the pet is so unique and hardly ever seen. It’s not common knowledge, and the quest series doesn’t really lead you on to the next part or give any indication that there is more to it. That’s why I wrote this guide! :)

An Orphan Looking for a Home
To keep going with this quest line, head back down to Feralas and speak to Jer’kai and Kindal Moonweaver again. You find out when speaking to Kindal that the sisters have made a lot of progress while you were in Darnassus. They saved a nest of Sprite Darter eggs, but sadly, the mother did not survive. Since you’ve helped the plight of the Sprite Darters, Kindal offers an egg to you if you wish to be its mother with the quest An Orphan Looking for a Home. This will require that you go seek out Quentin at the Mirage Raceway in the Shimmering Flats. Accept the quest and Kindal will give you an Unhatched Sprite Darter Egg. Now head back to your flight point of preference in Feralas once again, or optionally you could run east into Thousand Needles (just watch out for the Horde camp on the way!) and down through Thousand Needles into the Shimmering Flats portion of the zone. I chose to fly to Gadgetzan in Tanaris and run back into the Shimmering Flats zone. I hope you have your two Elixirs of Fortitude with you!

A Short Incubation
Quentin can be found at coordinates [78,75] near the spectator’s stands, and is easy to spot since he’s a tall night elf at a mostly-gnome-dominated encampment, hehe. When you show him the egg he will award you with 1500 experience and 25 reputation with Darnassus. Quentin has new quest for you, and this is where you will need your Elixirs of Fortitude, because he will need them to check on the progress of the tiny egg with a method that requires you handing those over to him with the quest A Short Incubation. Since you brought the elixirs with you, this should be cake!

The Newest Member of the Family
Complete that and enjoy the 3000 experience and 75 more reputation with Darnassus. Now it’s time to get ready for the timed portion of this series. Once Quentin is finished with his process of checking on the egg, he is happy to report that your egg is a magnificent specimen! He offers you the quest The Newest Member of the Family, and upon accepting the quest, the timer begins. You need to get to a dwarf named Agnar Beastamer at Aerie Peak in the Hinterlands within 60 minutes, or the egg will die. Now you can see why I suggested setting your hearthstone to Ironforge or Southshore — this should be a quick trip for you to get to the other continent now, and since you already made sure you had the flight point for Aerie Peak, all you have to do is hearth and grab a gryphon. 60 minutes is a long time, thankfully, so if you forgot to set your hearthstone, you still should have no troubles making it there in time.

Agnar Beastamer can be found in the basement of the dwarven fortress of Aerie Peak, Wildhammer Keep. From the gryphon post, head down the ramps and go around and into the main entrance of Wildhammer Keep at coordinates [14,46]. Once inside, head down a side hallway and go all the way down the stairs until you find him. His coordinates are [14,44]. Give him the Fragile Sprite Darter Egg, and he’ll watch over it while you get it some food. He also gives you 6050 experience and 250 reputation with Darnassus. Nice!

Food for Baby
And what kind of food does your baby Sprite Darter need? Agnar gives you the quest Food for Baby, where you are to head out into the wilds of the Hinterlands to seek out 5 Silvermane Stalker Flanks. These drop from (surprise!) Silvermane Stalkers. There’s only one problem… Silvermake Stalkers are stealthed wolves, so they’re not super easy to find until they find you. This is also the part of the quest that will be the hardest for anyone under level 44-45 because these mobs range from levels 47-48, so bring friends or wait to do this portion until you’re a little older.

Silvermane Stalkers can be found on the far east side of the Hinterlands zone, so be ready to travel! Just wander around the trees and listen for the telltale sound of a stealthed mob and then be ready to have your rear end eaten. The drop rate is fairly high, so hopefully you won’t have to kill too many. I found a lot around Skulk Rock and stuck to the roads leading around there and up north to the side of Skulk Rock at the mountain line, where I had the most luck wandering around the trees just off the road and around [61,46]. I turned my volume up a bit to hear the stealth sound so I’d not be caught by surprise. Good luck… you don’t find Silvermane Stalkers, they find you.

Becoming a Parent
Once you have the 5 flanks, head back to Agnar and you’re almost finished! When you give him the meat to feed your baby Sprite Darter, he will give you another 6050 experience and 250 Darnassus reputation, and then he has one final quest that simply requires you talk to him again. He gives you the final piece of the series, called Becoming a Parent. Accept the quest and you’ll receive your freshly hatched Sprite Darter Egg, 625 more experience, and 25 more reputation with Darnassus. Put it in your inventory and onto a spot on your action bar so you can call him out easily. Be sure to give him a name, and take him with you wherever you go, because you’re sure to catch lots of attention with him. Enjoy your new pet! :)

Final Notes
I started this quest about a quarter of the way into level 42, and by the time I was done with all of the pre-requisites to get to the last step with the Silvermane Stalkers, I was a bar and a half from level 43. To hit 43 before I reached the Silvermane Stalkers (I have a death wish), I killed everything in my path on my way to them, and hit 43 just in time to scout out the Stalkers. I was determined, so I buffed up with my buffs, food, and scrolls and took it slow and was able to complete it at level 43 as a Shadow Priest, having done the entire quest from start to finish starting as a level 42 at the beginning of the quest series and finishing it at level 43, all completely solo. Yes, I killed level 47 and even 48 Silvermane Stalkers all by myself at level 43, with some creativity, plenty of heal pots, and my faithful Gift of the Naruu. I died once, and it took 6 Silvermane Stalkers to get the 5 flanks, so the drop rate was really good for me. I was on the brink of death with each kill and had to fully rest up in between, but it was worth it! The Giant Eggs from the Owlbeasts, skins from the wolves, and red wolf meat I gathered from grinding on my way to the Silvermane Stalkers meant I had plenty to put on the Auction House to make money and some meat for leveling my cooking later, too. This quest gave me a lot of experience and a great end result with the rare pet. I wish you the best on your adventure to getting your very own Sprite Darter Hatchling! :)

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (2)

Toque’s Beginner’s Guide to WoW

I like to help others. As a teacher this comes naturally, but I also enjoy sharing what I know about my hobbies and passions in hopes that it will make someone else’s life easier. I wrote this article after “re-starting” the game again recently. I’ve played WoW for three years now, but I had been on a break for a few months and when I came back I decided to start fresh and experience the game from scratch again. My fresh experience inspired me to write up this beginner’s guide. With it I hope to make others’ entrances into the world of Azeroth a little more smooth. And who knows… it may even teach a seasoned veteran a thing or two! I originally wrote this to help out some of the newer members of my guild, but I decided to format it as a general, all-purpose guide for my site here as well. Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this article or have suggestions on things I’ve forgotten.

Basic Tips and Things I Wish Someone Told Me as a Newbie

• Pressing Num Lock makes you auto run without having to hold down your mouse buttons or arrow keys. So convenient when you have to travel down long zones like Stranglethorn Vale or across Duskwood, for example. Especially before you have your mount!
• You can eat and drink at the same time.
• Can’t find something? Certain things such as mailboxes or Stable Masters, are typically found within close proximity to the Inn in whichever city you are in. If you’re looking for the Inn, ask a guard. Right click on a guard to talk to them and they’ll give you a list of things that they can direct you to. This list may include profession trainers, class trainers, mailboxes, inns, or banks. So if you’re in a major city and you can’t find something, “ask a guard.”
• You can send items or cash to yourself on alternate characters via the mailbox.
• You are able to train professions at level 5. If you choose a gathering profession such as mining or herbalism, look in your spellbook for the ability like “find herbs.” Drag that out to your action bar for now, and click it. This will activate your ability to find herbs or mining nodes and have them show up as little yellow dots on your minimap. This way you know when there is a nearby node or herb just waiting to be picked.
• Always, always, ALWAYS train in First Aid. It may seem silly, especially if you have a healer character, but having the ability to bandage is important for less downtime when grinding, and is a good alternative when you get in a tight spot and your healing potions are on cooldown. Non-healers are typically asked to bring bandages with them to raids and instances in case there’s downtime and they need to heal up mid-fight instead of having the healer waste mana on them. It’s just silly not to have First Aid.
• Hippogryphs and gryphons are for flying from place to place on the same continent. To get to the other continent, you’ll need to take a boat. Some boats, such as one of the ones in Auberdine, will take you across to Rut’theran Village, which is on the same continent, but the typical rule of thumb is that if you fly, you’ll end up on the same continent, and if you take a boat, you’ll be switching continents.
• You can walk (the slow walk instead of the default-run-all-the-time) by pressing /. Press / again to go back to running. The / key is a toggle between walking and running.
• To link items into chat, for example, guild chat, /trade or party chat, hold down shift while clicking the item when your cursor is in the chat you wish to link it to. This will send the link to the chat, and is called “shift clicking.”
• When you see items linked in chat, click on them to see the items’ information pop up. Holding down control and clicking on an equippable item will bring up the “dressing room” window that will show you what you would look like wearing or holding that item.
• When you see someone’s name in chat you can shift-click the name and it will automatically return the details of a /who on that person, returning their name, guild, class, level, etc in your main chat frame.
• Speaking of /who, if you do a /who warrior or /who priest, you’ll get a list of all of the warriors or priests that are online right now, and see what level they are and where they are currently in the world. You can filter this even further by typing /who warrior 10 in order to return all of the warriors currently online that are just level 10. Even more? Give it a range, such as 10-20 and it’ll return a list of warriors online currently that are in that range. You can also do a /who spark and it will return a list of those on your realm online currently (if any) that have “spark” in their name somewhere. So if you can remember part of someone’s name and you’re trying to find them, that might help. The /who command is also handy for finding members of certain guilds. For example, if you /who Celtic Dragoons, a list of those online in the guild Celtic Dragoons will be returned. /who is a very handy command!
• You can add new chat tabs to your interface, and this makes life easier. I like to add a separate tab for just private messages, just party chat, just guild chat, etc. I watch all chat in my main general chat frame, but if I want to see if I missed any private messages or only want to focus on party chat, I simply click those tabs. You can set the filters for each chat tab by right clicking the tab name and setting the options from there.
• If you have access to potions, elixirs, or scrolls – USE THEM! The temporary boost to stats are great for those who want less downtime and an easier grind.
• When you purchase something on the Auction House, you’ll find the item you purchased waiting for you in your inbox. Go to a mailbox and the item will instantly be in your inbox after you purchase it or are the successful final bidder on it and win the auction. While it is an instant process to receive the items you purchase on the AH, it takes 60 minutes to get the money earned when you successfully sell an item on the Auction House yourself. Sending items via the mail system, whether a single item, cash or multiple items, is instant. When someone purchases an item of yours up for sale on the Auction House you’ll have to wait 60 minutes for the cash to arrive in your inbox, however. You can see the progress of that pending sale by reading the message sent to your inbox when someone purchases your stuff.
• If you are a wand user or bow user, you’ll find the ability to “shoot” in your spellbook. A lot of people who get their first wand or train in bows aren’t sure how to use them, and it’s not very clear… you need to open your spellbook (the little book icon) and drag the shoot ability to your action bar. When you click or hit the key associated with that spot on your action bar, you’ll start to shoot. Hunters have auto-shoot on their action bar by default, but for the rest of us it’s not so obvious!

Grinding Vs. Questing – How to Level
The most efficient way to level isn’t grinding. Believe it or not, it’s easiest to level when questing, particularly when the quest you’re doing asks you to kill x number of mobs or get x number of items from y mobs, because a healthy balance of questing and grinding together makes for the most experience gain. When you’re asked to go and kill x number of mobs or need to collect x number of drops from y mobs, you’re gaining experience from killing the mobs for one thing, and then once you finish the quest and turn it in you’re rewarded with a huge chunk of experience on top of that, making the combination of questing and grinding the best way to go. Not to mention that the quest lines are interesting and tell you stories about the world that you’re playing in. Azeroth is full of lore and interesting little tidbits that you’d miss if you didn’t quest. Doing quests can also give you excellent reward items that can be green or even blue along with that huge chunk of experience. And then it gets even better if you’re a skinner or other gatherer, because while you’re out there doing those quests and killing the mobs you’re asked to kill, you’ll explore and uncover new areas and level your skinning or gathering as you come across those items in the world. The quests are really cleverly written to help guide you to new areas and onto the next area you’re ready for once you outgrow the area you’re currently in so that you experience as much of Azeroth as possible, making the game a lot more exciting than what it would be if you just sat and grinded all day in the same areas. At various milestone levels you’ll also find that your trainers have class-specific quests for you that sometimes teach you abilities you’d not be able to get from a trainer or give you class-specific items that are superior to what you’re using already. Do them!

Making Money and the Auction House
A general rule of thumb for making money is to sell EVERYTHING that you get from drops, etc. Sell all gray items to a vendor, no matter how little the return seems to be. It adds up! If the item’s name is in white, it is something that is usable by others either as a reagent or ingredient to a recipe of some kind or for a quest. This means you can sell it on the Auction House to those who need it instead of selling to a vendor. Even if you don’t think you’ll get that much for something, when you sell on the AH you have the potential to make even a little bit more than what a vendor will give you, and over time that little trick adds up to big bucks. Cloth is something that always sells well, and cloth drops from Humanoid creatures in Azeroth. If you need a little cash, focus on Humanoids and sell the stacks of cloth that you acquire. At higher levels, cloth is used by those who want to increase their reputation with various factions, so you’ll never have a shortage of people out there wanting to buy cloth from you.

Always check the Auction House search for the items you want to sell to see what the current going rate is for our server. For example, if you want to sell a stack of Heavy Leather, search the AH to see what others are selling a stack of 20 for. If most people are selling a stack for 2 gold, you can sell around 2 gold or even just under 2 gold to ensure you sell your stack. Depending on the supply and demand for that day, you may have something for sale that’s really in demand right now and there’s very little, if at all, of that item up on the AH… this means you’re able to get a little more money for the item you want to sell than you might normally be able to sell it for. That’s why it’s important to do a search on the items you’re about to sell before you put it up, so you can see what kind of range you have to work with.

Another way to play the Auction House market is to supplement the experience with an AddOn called Auctioneer. This one does all of the searching for you basically, and helps you suggest good prices to start with and a buyout price for the item you want to sell based on the current market on your server. If you’re interested in checking it out, it’s available here at Curse Gaming.

Addons
Speaking of Addons — if you’re comfortable with how to use them or how to “install” them, there are a few simple ones that I suggest that simply make life easier in-game. I don’t like cluttering up my client with loads of extra “junk” so I stick to the very unobtrusive things that don’t actually affect my game play, but make getting to locations, for example, easier. Here are the ones I suggest.

LightHeaded
An amazing quest help companion, LightHeaded adds a little pane docked to your Quest Log (that you can minimize or maximize/open or close to your Quest Log easily) that will link directly to WoWHead.com, displaying all of the pertinent info about the highlighted quest in your log in the LightHeaded pane. Stuck on a quest but don’t want to alt+tab out of game to load up WoWHead? The LightHeaded pane shows you everything you need to know about a quest right next to your Quest Log, including comments that others have written about the quest and all of the info you need to complete the quest. Any links in blue within LightHeaded are clickable, and if you also have TomTom (see below) installed, the companion to LightHeaded, it will automatically add an icon of the item’s location to your world map. Amazing! I HIGHLY recommend both LightHeaded and TomTom used together.

TomTom
This is an addon that simply adds your in-game word coordinates for the zone you are in a convenient little pane that can be moved around to wherever you’d like on your screen. You know how all of those help sites out there tell you that whatever you’re looking for is at coordinates x,y? This addon let’s you know what your coordinates are in-game, and when you open your World Map, it puts your coordinates at the bottom of the map and shows you the coordinates of your cursor on the map. So if you’re looking for coordinates 23,10 all you need to do is move your cursor around on your World Map and see where those coordinates are so you know where to go. It even has the ability to type /way 23,10 to put a little dot on your world map so you can find those coordinates easier, with a little arrow on your minimap to point you in the right direction. Works hand-in-hand with LightHeaded. Any quest info that shows coordinates will allow you to click the blue coordinates within LightHeaded and automatically put the dot icon on your map. VERY handy and unobtrusive.

AlphaMap
“Basically, AlphaMap is a scalable, moveable, transparent WorldMap that the user can have on screen while they continue to play and interact with the world.” This is a map addon that in addition to the normal World Map, has maps built in for dungeons and instances with info to help you find your way through the instance. Handy if you get lost in a dungeon!

How Else Can You Make Money? Thoughts on Professions
Gathering professions are good money makers — for example, skinning, herbalism, or mining. These are great because they don’t require you to do anything but gather them, and then you can sell the raw materials in stacks on the Auction House for big bucks to those who use the raw materials in their crafting professions. If you want to craft, I suggest pairing a gathering profession with an accompanying craft profession that uses those raw materials so that you can support yourself and then sell the leftovers. For example, skinning with leatherworking or herbalism with alchemy. Enchanting can be really good, but it is expensive to level and it’ll be awhile before you start getting returns on your investment into this profession. Engineering is fun but is more a money sink than other professions because most of the items you make, especially at higher levels, have an engineering requirement on them. This means that only other engineers can use the items you make, which limits your market. If I wasn’t a purely gathering profession kind of girl, I’d suggest herbalism and alchemy together because all of those potions are used by everyone, and higher level alchemy potions and elixirs, especially the flasks, will be sought after and you’ll have no troubles selling them if you price them right. Everyone needs potions! All of my characters have some kind of gathering profession, and most double up on the gathering professions. I like to have my alts or characters I don’t play as often do the crafting professions. This means that the characters I play the most do lots of gathering and can send my crafter alt materials. Gathering professions are very profitable; I sell all of my herbs, ore and skins and make most of my money from that. I’ve found that for some reason the mid-level skins, such as heavy leather and thick leather, are the most sought after and the ones least available on the Auction House. Even though I’m killing things at my level now that drop way beyond heavy or thick leather, if I’m low on cash I’ll go out and farm lower level mobs that only drop those types of leather and get a few stacks up onto the AH for some quick cash. Because these types seem to be the least readily available, they tend to sell for more. There’s always people out there leveling up leatherworking or in search of skins, so this is good for me.

Other Thoughts
There’s plenty to do in the World of Warcraft. Azeroth is a vast world, and if you’re getting a little burnt out on questing or grinding, try something else for the day. Fishing is one thing you can do to pass the time and enhance your character if you’re tired of the daily grind. Fishing is quiet, simple to do, and can bring in money, too! Some of the higher level (and even some of the not-so-high fish such as Oily Blackmouth or Sagefish) can bring in decent money. Deviant Fish are one of my favourite things to fish for, and while it’s out in the Barrens and not always incredibly easy to get to for an Alliance character, the rewards of nabbing some for myself or selling is always worth the trip. Some of the seasonal fish go for big bucks in cooking or alchemy recipes, too. I like to put on my fishing gear, find a quiet place to fish, and then chat in guild or general chat while I fish to keep me entertained. Cooking pairs really nicely with fishing because there are loads of recipes out there to cook the fish you catch. Cooking is good for anyone, not just Hunters, but if you are a Hunter you’ll find cooking and fishing to be a great way to ensure you always have food on-hand for your pet. Cooked food given to your pet causes their happiness to last longer than raw food. But beyond just Hunters, cooked food that increases stats, for example spirit and stamina, are beneficial to everyone, and better than the typical mage food or basic foods available out there because it’ll help you grind better with increased stats. It’s a simple way to boost your stats when you don’t have elixirs or scrolls readily available, and everyone can use that!

And when that’s not doing it for me, I like to explore. You can read a previous article I wrote on some of the “easter eggs” of Azeroth here. Go and check out the places that are rarely travelled by others and experience the thrill of uncovering places that most don’t take the time to see.

And don’t forget — you can always just go outside, read a book, or do something with your family or friends. While Azeroth is great, real life and its priorities are great, too, and it’s important not to forget that! Feeling like you need to work a little exercise into your World of Warcraft routine? Check out my most popular article, Toque’s WoW Fitness Program, which was featured on the official World of Warcraft front page. Good luck!

Articles may not be republished elsewhere in whole or in part without permission. Feel free to link directly to this post. ©2005-2008 by Lesley Karpiuk (Toque of pinktoque.com)

read comments (0)