Secondary Skills

We've talked about skills for various classes. Today, I'd like to touch on each of the secondary skills. You know, the ones everyone can learn in addition to the two primary trade skills you're allowed. I'm talking about cooking, fishing and first aid.

Let's start with first aid. There is no reason for any character to not learn first aid. Yes, it takes cloth. Yes, the cloth resources may be stretched if you're also leveling tailoring as one of your primary skills. However, it's my belief that there will be (nearly) enough cloth drops from mobs you kill to support both first aid and tailoring. But, I hear you say, why should I learn first aid on my class that can heal? Priests, paladins, shamans and druids can all heal themselves. But I know I've been in situations where I was totally out of mana, in combat and had time to bandage. What I didn't have was the mana to finish the mob and heal myself. Most of those classes have ways to put a single mob out of commission long enough to get a few ticks in from a bandage. Stuns, fears, and roots can handle that job nicely. I think the taunt totem would also allow you a few ticks of bandaging. And sometimes in an instance, a bandage will serve any of those classes well. Please don't ignore first aid. As a tip, you can use some bandages before you can make them. Wowwiki has a nice chart, so if you have other characters that can make bandages and "outgrow" something they've made, consider sending them to a lower level alt who can benefit from the bandage before it can be manufactured.

Cooking also is something that I think everyone should learn. I find a total of 26 cooking recipes that are quest rewards. These quests are likely going to be in your leveling chain anyway as you level. Additionally, many mobs will drop items that can be cooked. Most of the time, I do not "cook in the field." I collect the bits & pieces as I quest and when I'm back in town I hit up the (usually) handy trade vendor, buy the spices I need, find a fire and cook up everything I have. Rarely will there be no fire (or cookpot or stove) handy. In those cases I often carry a stack of wood and flint & tinder. Just in case. The last couple of times I've leveled a character, I found it very easy to keep up with cooking. There is a pronounced deadspot around 270 where nothing you can cook will come from drops. You'll have to fish. This is supposed to be fixed in the next patch, but for now you need some fish to get to 300. From 300 on it's easy. For those of you that have leveled fishing, there's currently a market for fish to get you to 300. I got all of mine from Azshara. Tip for fisherman who want to make some gold. And past 300, some of the easiest to acquire buffs in the game come from eating cooked food. And things like Golden Fishsticks or Ravager Dog also sell pretty well on the auction house.

This leads us to fishing. I do not recommend leveling fishing "as you level." I find that fishing takes too long to make significant gains while I'm focused on leveling my character. I usually get fishing to 75-ish and then carry my pole with me. Whenever I'm waiting on a party member or a boat, I fish. It never seems to go up fast enough. This is definitely a skill that I tend to level post 70. However, keeping fishing in line with cooking will make the cooking even easier to level.

Drop a Hook in the Water.

“Ah, Fishing. Yes. Fishing.” That’s a modified /silly from the male dwarf and the closest feeling that I can find in-game to how I (and presumably many others) feel about fishing. Prior to Burning Crusade, fishing was not something I felt I absolutely needed access to. I leveled the fishing on my priest mostly because it was my third character to hit the level cap and I wanted to do something I’d never done before. Hence, I started running up fishing.

Getting myself to 225 was a Sisyphean Task. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. In fact, I never hit 300 fishing before heading to Outland. By getting my engineer to send me lures, I was able to eke out just enough skill to be able to cast in Zangarmarsh. As soon as I could fish in the waters near Allerian Stronghold, that became my new favorite fishing hole. The call of the darter was too strong.

So, why should anyone learn to fish? Good question.

• Fishing can be at least semi-profitable. Golden Darter was going for at least 1G apiece last time I checked. For a fairly low-risk activity, this is an awesome return.
• Fishing provides a method to get to 300 Cooking. Apparently, something was mis-aligned in a previous fix that (almost) requires fish to cook to reach 300 cooking.
• Fishing can provide nearly free pet food for some pets. Not all pets will eat fish. I know my raptor won’t, but there are pets that do.
• Fishing provides materials for alchemy. Granted these can be purchased on the auction house, but fishing is essentially free.

All of these are great reasons to learn this remarkable secondary skill. But what are the real downfalls of this activity.

• It’s slow and boring
• It’s slow and boring
• It’s slow and boring
• It’s slow and boring

Fishing is not like other skills. There aren’t any orange, yellow, green or grey fish. You can spend your entire fishing career in the sewers of the Undercity or the Stormwind canals. The only thing that choosing a particular pool over another accomplishes is the type of fish you catch. The only way to get skill points is to successfully catch fish. If you aren’t catching fish where you are (“Your fish got away”) try applying some bait. Bait comes in several skill-up values. Shiny Baubles will add 25 (the least) while Aquadynamic Fish Attractors add 100 (the most).

The approximate number of successful catches needed to gain a skill point is determined by the following equation

# successful catches per skill pt = (Fishing Skill – 75)/25

That means that you’ll need to catch over two thousand fish before reaching 375 skill. That’s successful catches. This isn’t counting “Your fish got away.” This is summarized in the following graph:

All this really means is the better you get at fishing, the harder it is to get even better. I suppose that's somewhat like life.

I suppose this post is already getting long, but I did want to address what you can do to increase your fishing. Above I mentioned the lures available. There are various fishing poles scattered about the world. And there's the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza on Sundays. Winning that contest awards you with the best fishing pole in the game with a whopping +35 fishing skill. Other rare fish that spawn during that event can award hat, boots or fishing line that give +5 fishing each.

As much as I"ve disparaged the fine art of fishing, it really is worth it. On at least one of your characters.