Alliance Fishing and Cooking Leveling Guide

Sorry Hordies - Alliance FTW!!!

This guide is nothing more than the Alliance portion of the very comprehensive WoWwiki guide I referenced when I started levelling my fishing skill. I had really neglected cooking also, so levelling them both at once had a lot of appeal. What I will do in this guide is to use the Alliance portion as a base, and add my observations as I’ve gone through the process. I find that it’s these personal observations from following the guide that can be most helpful. If you’re just looking for the basic guide, or want the Horde portion, by all means head over to the WoWwiki link above - it’s a great, comprehensive guide.

Things to keep in mind:

• Other than when you first start, cooking will always level faster than fishing. As your fishing increases, the use of lures and equipment with plusses to fishing will become ever more important.
• This guide is strictly for levelling fishing and cooking at the same time - levelling cooking with the fish you catch thereby levelling two professions without having to buy stuff off the auction house.
• I’m assuming you are level 70 and I’m not working in any needed character progressions throughout the process. I assume you can go anywhere in Azeroth as needed.
• I never carried around flint, tinder and wood to cook with. Almost all towns and villages have either an inn with a kitchen or a campfire somewhere.
• Alcohol and background music, while recommended, are not essential to the levelling process. Levelling the fishing profession is a time sink and a grind - be prepared for it. The good news is, you now have something to do while you wait on groups to form, raid members to show up, mobs to respawn, etc.

Levels 1-50

The WoWwiki guide said:

“Go to your fishing trainer and cook and pick up Fishing and Cooking skills. Buy a fishing rod and a stack of Shiny Baubles (a lure that adds +25 to your fishing skill). You are now ready to begin.

The best place to start is in Elwynn Forest. Speak to Tharynn Bouden in Goldshire and buy the recipes for Brilliant Smallfish and Longjaw Mud Snappers. Start fishing in Crystal Lake. You’ll want to catch 50 Brilliant Smallfish to get your cooking from 1 to 50. “

These first 50 levels are by far the easiest you will find in the process. Virtually any starting zone with water will suffice. I started in Auberdine in Darkshore and had these first few levels under my belt in short order. The advantage of Auberdine is you can talk to Gubber Blump and get a fishing quest with a +3 fishing skill pole as a reward. However, since your next stop in this guide is Stormwind City, it certainly makes sense to start in Goldshire.

The downside to starting in Auberdine is the lack of both cooking and fishing trainers. However, they are both available in Darnassus, just a short hippogryph ride away. The other downside is acquiring your starter cooking recipies. They are not available in Darnassus, but you can get them in Teldrassil.

50-75

The WoWwiki guide says:

“Go to Stormwind City and fish the canals for Longjaw Mud Snappers. You’ll need 56 of them to raise your cooking to 100. Between levels 50 and 75 go learn journeyman fishing and cooking. Go to Southshore and speak to Lindea Rabonne and buy the recipes for Bristle Whisker Catfish and Mithril Head Trout.”

Again, this will go fairly quickly for you. Around level 75 you’ll notice that it will start taking more than one succesful catch to raise your fishing skill a level. Get used to it - at upper levels it will take ten successful catches to raise one level!

You’re going to be in the area anyway, so fishing for the Snappers in Stormwind does make sense. However, the next step of the guide takes you to Southshore and you fish in the river east of the city for Bristle Whisker Catfish. I ended up catching quite a few of the Snappers along with the Catfish, so you may consider just heading to Southshore. I’m not sure how the levels stack up though and you may find the fishing tough in Southshore without levelling in Stormwind first. Either way, be prepared to catch quite a few Snappers in with your Catfish there.

Fishing and cooking trainers are both available in Stormwind; just ask a guard for directions. Lindea Rabonne not in any of the Southshore buildings. She is located on the docks down by the water. There is also a fishing trainer right next to her. This would be a good time to stock up on lures also.

75-150

The WoWwiki guide says:

“Go to the river to the east of Southshore and fish for Bristle Whisker Catfish. You’ll need about 80-100 of these to get your cooking to level 175. Between levels 125 and 150 go to Shandrina by Mystral Lake in Ashenvale and buy Expert Cookbook. You’ll need to go to Booty Bay and buy a book for your Fishing level. Speak to Old Man Heming and buy the book Expert Fishing: The Bass and You. Alternatively, if you are lazy and are not bothered spending a bit of gold, someone always posts a few copies of this book in the Auction House.”

At this point, you may start having some extra raw fish depending on how your catches go. Bristle Whisker Catfish were the first fish that seemed to sell fairly well on the auction house. I didn’t make a ton of gold, but at this point you can definitely start shipping your cooked fish off to your banker alt to dispose of. However, the raw fish seemed to sell a bit better than the cooked version. My guess is they are being bought to level cooking, but that is just a guess. At the higher levels, the cooked versions start to sell much better.

Old Man Heming is on the lower level of Booty Bay in a shop towards the back. If you jump in the water and start swimming away from the dock, you will eventually come across a little plank leading up out of the water. Go up this plank, take a right turn and he is in the building you are looking at.

150-225

The WoWwiki guide says:

“Now go to the Lakes outside Stromgarde Keep in Arathi Highlands and fish for Mithril Head Trout. You’re going to need about 60 of these to get your cooking up to level 225.”

Right about here is where I noticed the fishing levelling feel like it was really slowing down. It’s all relative really as it’s still not too bad versus where it will end up, but be prepared. The Mithril Head Trout rate here isn’t great, but since levelling the fishing is starting to take longer, it all kind of works out.

Remember Stromgarde Keep and how many times you got killed in there? If you need a break why not wander in and kill some things. It was kind of fun. I ended up helping a small group that was questing there and having some problems. Good karma.

Off Script - Become a Professional Fisherman

Once you make level 200 fishing, it’s a good idea to start accumulating some gear with plusses to fishing skill on it. The best way to acquire this gear is through the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. This server-wide event happens every Sunday afternoon from 2-4 server time, and is open to Alliance and Horde alike. Several pieces of fishing gear are available:

• Arcanite Fishing Pole - for winning the tournament, you can select this +35 fishing pole
• Lucky Fishing Hat - for catching a rare Keefer’s Anglefish you are rewarded this +5 hat
• Nat Pagle’s Extreme Anglin’ Boots - for catching a rare Brownell’s Blue Striped Racer you are rewarded these +5 boots
• High Test Eternium Fishing Line - for catching a rare Dezian Queenfish you are rewarded with this +5 fishing line which can be used as a permanent enhancement to your fishing pole

To win the tournament, you have to be the first to catch and turn in 40 Speckled Tastyfish. I have not attempted this tournament yet, but there are several good guides out there. From what I read, even though this event takes place in “classic” Azeroth, it is still well attended and hotly competed. Be prepared for all types of tricks both dirty and sneaky, as you compete for that Arcanite Fishing Pole. Here’s a couple posts with some tips:

• Keredria’s Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza tips
• The Game Dame’s tips

+5 to fishing skill may not seem like a lot, but it all adds up and every little bit helps. I will definitely be heading for this tournament every Sunday I’m able.

If you haven’t hit Stranglethorn yet, or don’t plan to, and are finding that you need some fishing plusses past your lure, then there is an easily obtainable fishing pole with +20 to fishing skill. Seth’s Graphite Fishing Pole is yours for completing a simple farming quest just outside Shattrath. Head to Shattrath and look up Seth to get the quest Rather Be Fishin’. (Seth is in the Lower City area - and he’s a kid not a grownup). Once you get the quest, the lake you can find the eels in is just over the wall toward the northeast. Ironically, you kill the eels, not fish for them. Also, they are underwater, so either bring a means to breathe underwater, or be prepared to kill quickly and swim to the surface. The drop rate on the quest item isn’t too bad and I had my 8 in about 10 minutes.

225-226

The WoWwiki guide says:

“At this point you should now have level 225 fishing and level 225 cooking. If you’re not level 35 yet, then this is as far as you can go. If you are level 35+ then you have two quests to complete before you can continue.”

Well - you may or may not be level 225 fishing depending on how it all works out. I wasn’t. Just keep fishing until you are.

First quest: Cooking

Requirements: Level 35, 225 Cooking.

“Go to Gadgetzan in Tanaris and speak to Dirge Quikcleave. He is in the tavern. He’ll want you to bring him 12 Giant Eggs, 10 Zesty Clam Meat and 20 Alterac Swiss. You should actually be able to buy the eggs and clam meat off of AH, but in case you can’t here’s where to find them. Now according to the quest Giant Eggs drop off of Rocs in Tanaris or any large bird. The best place I found for the eggs, was the owlbeast in The Hinterlands. Only needed to kill about 20 of these to get my 12 eggs (about a 25% drop rate). They are about level 43′ish, so if you’re not that high a level, get help or wait till you can handle them. The clam meat comes from clams, naturally! Well to save you swimming around the sea looking for clams, you’re better off killing turtles at Steamwheedle Port or Revantusk Village. The drop rate is quite high and you’ll have your clam meat in no time. The levels are 41′ish for Steamwheedle Port and 49-50 for Revantusk Village. The Alterac Swiss is the easiest part. Go to the Cheese Shop in Stormwind, and buy them from the cheese vendors there. Hand them all in and you’ll get your Artisan Cooking.

Since the opening of the Caverns of Time, the provisioner inside, Galgrom, sells Alterac Swiss. You can now get all the drops necessary for Artisan cooking in Tanaris.”

Hmmm. I departed from the script a little bit here. I did indeed try to fulfill this quest via the Auction House and was able to get my Zesty Clam Meat there. I found a few Giant Eggs, just not enough. Plus, they were very expensive. I smelled opportunity, and started farming my own Giant Eggs. Instead of heading to The Hinterlands, I went into The Wetlands and started killing those little purple dinosaurs. They drop Giant Eggs pretty good too. I got enough for Dirge, then farmed a 20 stack to repay myself for what I had spent at the Auction House. My cheese I just picked up at the Cheese Shop just inside the front gates at Stormwind while I was visiting the Auction House.

The Zesty Clam Meat was a little pricey, but still in the silver, not gold, range.

I have a banker alt, so I wasn’t flying all around doing this. Anything I need from the Auction House is processed by my alt. She’s parked in Stormwind, which means I also have access to most all general goods items I may need. If you don’t have a banker alt, I highly recommend one. You can start a level one human character in Northshire Abbey and make the run to Stormwind without having to level.

Second Quest: Fishing

Requirements: Level 35, 225 Fishing.

“You need to go and find Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh. He is standing on a small island to the West of Theramore (58,60). He’ll ask you to catch four rare fishes for him. This quest is actually really easy and the only hard part is the amount of travelling involved. The fish you need to catch are:

Feralas Ahi - West from Camp Mojache. Fish the Verdantis River where the small bridge is by the Ogres, you’ll soon catch one.

Sar’theris Striker - South or North or Shadowprey Village. Make sure the area comes up as Sar’theris Strand.

Savage Coast Blue Saffin - Just outside Grom’gol Base Camp. Make sure the area comes up as Savage Coast.

Misty Reed Mahi Mahi - Directly East from Stonard and the Sunken Temple, all the way on the east side of the map. Just avoid the Murlocs. You should be in the Misty Reed Strand area of the minimap.

(Note: There isn’t a particular spot that is best to fish at. As long as your mini-map zone name matches the zone name in the quest log, you are in the right spot. You DO NOT need to move around once you are in the correct zone. You should hopefully catch these fish within 5 to 25 casts at each location. So it wont take long.)

Now go back to Nat and get your Artisan Fishing. (There is apparently a bug with this quest, if go away from Nat before getting your fishing level to 226, the quest can bug and you’ll be stuck on 225 for good. Didn’t happen to me, but I’ve seen a few posts from people who it’s happened to.)”

Well, this is a bit of running around, but certainly manageable. Most of the fishing spots were pretty easy to find. The only one that took a little bit of extra fishing was the Verdantis River. I had to fish about 10 minutes there before I got my rare fish, but that could just be random odds.

It was on the Sar’theris Strand that I had a couple fishing revelations. Yes, yes - everyday knowledge to you fishers, but for first timers reading this guide, maybe they haven’t figured these out yet either:

1. By now you’ve probably seen those specific pools of fish in the water. They look like big bathtub rings and if you hover over them, the tooltip tells you what kind of fish it is. You can also find pools of “floating wreckage” that you can fish for crates, supplies, even sellable gear. I know now that it was dumb luck, but the first time I tried to cast into one of these pools, my bobber went right into the middle of it, leading me to believe that was normal. It isn’t. If you want to catch something out of a pool, then your bobber has to be inside the pool. Simply re-cast until your bobber is located inside the ring.
2. It took a while to sink in that I didn’t have to let my current cast time out to re-cast. If you’re trying to get your bobber inside a fish or wreckage pool and it doesn’t land there, no need to wait until you catch something. Simply re-cast your bobber until it lands where you want.

At the Sar’theris Strand in particular I found two pools of floating wreckage to fish - the first I had found anywhere. I got a number of chests that contained bolts of linen and silk that sold well on the auction house. Never pass up the opportunity to fish out floating wreckage. You should get 3-4 successful “catches” out of it, containing anything from trade goods to green BoE gear.

——–> More details coming soon. Look for announcements of further updates via my blog <———

226-250

Go to Steamwheedle port and speak to Gikkix, You’ll want to buy the following two recipes: Spotted Yellowtail and Poached Sunscale Salmon. Either fish for Spotted Yellowtails at Steamwheedle Port or go to Revantusk Village (well… not to it, just a little North of it) for the slightly better drop rate. You’ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 225 to 250.

250-275

Now go to Bloodvenom Falls in Felwood and fish for Sunscale Salmon. You’ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 250 to 275. You may also fish for Sunscale Salmon and Nightfin Snapper in Lake Elune’ara

275-300

Then go and speak to Vivianna in The Feathermoon Stronghold of Feralas and buy the recipe for Mightfish Steak. Whilst you’re there buy about 40 Hot Spices and 40 Soothing Spices as you’re going to be making the food that you will want as a level 60 (without going into instances that is). It gives a +10 stamina buff for 15mins which is always helpful.

Now go to Scalebeard’s Cave (54,49) in Azshara (it’s one of the islands to the East) and fish for Mightfish. (This is also one of the best fishing spots for Stonescale Eel, a profitable fish, used to make Stonescale Oil) You’ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 275 to 300. You may need to bring some lures with you at this point, as your cooking will level up faster than your fishing and Azshara is a 330 fishing zone. You will need something in at least the 380 skill range, so if you try to come here right at 260 fishing bring a +20-25 rod and +100 lures. Once your cooking is a 300, keep fishing till you’ve maxed out that too. It will take 7 to 10 catches to get one skill up at this point, so take your time. At first, you may experience “Your fish got away!” quite frequently, but as your skill level goes up, you will catch more and more fish.

Powerleveling Fishing from 300-375

Ok, first things first. A quick shopping trip. Buy lures!! +75’s preferably. Now go and buy the Master Cookbook, to give yourself master cooking level. If you are Horde, buy it from Baxter in Thrallmar (Hellfire Peninsula). If you are Alliance, buy it from Gaston in Honor Hold (Hellfire Peninsula).

Master Cookbook is also sold by Naka in Cenarion Refuge

Now go buy Master Fishing - The Art of Angling from Juno Dufrain in Cenarion Refuge (Zangarmarsh).

Now go buy Recipe: Blackened Trout. If you are Horde, buy it from Gambarinka in Zabra’jin (Zangarmarsh). If you are Alliance, buy it from Doba in Orebor Harborage (Zangarmarsh). Whilst you’re here buy Recipe: Feltail Delight.

Horde can go back to Swamprat Post and buy Recipe: Feltail Delight from Zurai.

Head back to Cenarion Refuge and fish for Barbed Gill Trout and Spotted Feltail. You only need to catch about 25 in total to get your cooking up to 320. Your fishing level will probably only be about 305 by this stage, if you’re lucky (it’s a long, slow process and not for the easily bored). Cook up the Trout and Feltails.

Now take a trip to see Nula the Butcher in Garadar if you are Horde or Uriku at (56,73) in Telaar if you are Alliance, both are in Nagrand. Buy Recipe: Poached Bluefish and find a nice quiet spot in Nagrand to fish for Icefin Bluefish. You are really going to need to have lures attached here, unless you spent a lot more time in Zangarmarsh fishing. Keep fishing till you have about 40 Bluefish and then cook them to take your cooking to 350.

By this point, your fishing will probably only be about level 320. You might want to go to Terokkar Forest and fish for Golden Darters. When cooked, these give a +44 healing and +20SPI buff, so they are great to sell to healing classes. Or you can head back to Nagrand and fish for Figluster’s Mudfish, which give a +20AGI and +20SPI buff when cooked. Either way, to get to 375 you’re going to have to make about 650 successful catches. That should take a normal person about 8 hours, so you’ll want to break that up into something like 30-60 minute chunks, spread out over a period of time.

(NOTE: Highlander’s guide originally discussed fishing for Furious Crawdad before maxing your skill. However due to the extreme difficulty of the highland lakes — requiring 430 skill to even cast there and 525 to completely avoid fish getting away — I would not recommend fishing there without very high skill and good equipment.)

The final challenge of fishing in Outland requires a flying mount, as the best fish are only found in Highland Mixed Schools in three lakes in Terokkar Forest, all of which can only be accessed with a flying mount. In these schools you can catch Furious Crawdad, used in Spicy Crawdad the only cooking recipe that will take you to 375 easily. Spicy Crawdad is also valuable because its food buff grants +30 stamina, more than any other food in the game.

The three lakes are:
Lake Jorune - north west of Stonebreaker Hold.
Lake Ere’Noru - south east of Allerian Stronghold.
Blackwind Lake - in the south east corner of the map, in the Skettis area.

If you are Alliance, go see Innkeeper Biribi in Allerian Stronghold (Terokkar Forest) and buy Recipe: Spicy Crawdad. If you are Horde go see Rungor in Stonebreaker Hold (Terokkar Forest) and buy Recipe: Spicy Crawdad.