Ever since 2.3 went live, it's been a bit of a struggle to make the leap from the 260 cooking range to the 300 cooking range, as both my poor Paladin and Shaman can well attest. With recipes such as Tender Wolf Steak and Monster Omelet, once the mainstays of any aspiring chef's training, going green and gray much earlier than before (That is, gray at 275 rather than 300), It's been a bit of trouble getting the needed skill to start cooking up the buzzard and ravager meat that makes the mainstay of the early post-300 cooking grind. Luckily, the developers heard the cries of horror from all the cooks who thought they might have to grind up fishing to get the materials they needed to skill up, and promised us new recipes.
And today, European CM Vaneras let us know the details. New cooks will need to head to Felwood and Western Plaguelands and start killing themselves a few bears. New meat drops from the bears will allow you to make either spell damage or attack power food, not only removing fishing as a requirement for skilling to 300 cooking, but also giving players in the level 45-60 range a nice stat boost while grinding, questing, or leveling. The recipes themselves will be purchasable from Bale of the Horde or Malygen of the Alliance, both in their respective outposts in Felwood.
So put down your fishing pole and pick up your frying pan again, cooks. Salvation is on the way!
Subscribe
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-05-2008 @ 7:44PM
JPN said...
I've never fished and I got my cooking to 375....maybe I bought fish off the AH.
Reply
2-05-2008 @ 7:48PM
Daniel Whitcomb said...
Well, JPN, If you skilled up before 2.3, a lot more recipes went straight to 300 cooking, and you didn't need to fish. I also think there's a few scattered specialty recipes that don't require fishing that you can still use, such as the tubers from Dire Maul or the Smoked Desert Dumplings from the worms in Silithus, so you might have used those too.
2-05-2008 @ 8:07PM
emodeathmachine said...
I just power leveled my cooking and fishing at the same time. It took like a week to get to 350 around raiding and pvp. I guess I could see the draw of not leveling fishing though.
But what about Lurker Below?
Reply
2-05-2008 @ 8:13PM
Ametrine said...
My warrior (who I mostly keep around now to avoid the hassle of trying to hunt down all those cross-faction recipes again) maxed out cookery pre-2.3, so fishing wasn't needed... but I'll probably still grab these recipes too, just for the sake of completion.
Reply
2-05-2008 @ 8:36PM
Krush said...
I used to do things the other way around, and level my cooking with my fishing (usually, as a hunter with a pet who ate fish). Unfortunately, fishing cooking recipes also got the nerf bat (seems like leveling EVERYTHING did :( ). Trying to get to 300 with fishing now means finding more rare fish, and using a lure in those upper areas (or just fishing more in lower areas, but getting fish my pets will not eat anymore...)
K'
Reply
2-05-2008 @ 8:28PM
PeeWee said...
You can skill fishing to 375 fishing from the canals in Stormwind. Or the pond in Orgrimmar. Or whatever floats your boat. What fish you are catching has nothing to do with whether you will increase your skill or not, only the number if fish will. When you have caught the required number of fish to gain a skill point, you do, regardless if you've been catching MIghtfish or Smallfish.
2-05-2008 @ 11:42PM
Krush said...
True, but catching nothing but Mud Snapper is not going to also
1) help level cooking... cooking them will eventually turn grey...
2) is not going to keep my pet happy (assuming I level him rather than fish all day)
2-05-2008 @ 9:41PM
Ngnsewa said...
WTH! My warrior is stuck on cooking and his window looks pretty much like the on in the image. Just under 275 with only squid and eggs to cook O_o
Reply
2-06-2008 @ 10:29AM
SilentBob said...
Go to Silithus and get this quest http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=8307
2-05-2008 @ 10:26PM
User1138 said...
this is the worst news ever. My monopoly on the fish needed to hit 300 cooking is now worthless. over 1k G made in January, yet still so far from epic birdie. If they are gonna make the cooking side easier, why not get rid of the fishing quest to level past 225.
Reply
2-05-2008 @ 10:49PM
Upas said...
User, if you're that worried, then just do dailies. You can easily make 700g a week doing dailies.
Also, I'm stuck on cooking, but I've been planning on leveling Fishing anyways, so this really doesn't matter for me.
Reply
2-06-2008 @ 3:22AM
denigrate said...
if you want to hit 300, go spend like 1 hour in silithius farming sandworm meat
ez
Reply
2-06-2008 @ 3:23AM
Tuberon said...
There is an alternative for those 70 types who can solo instances.
There is a boss in Dire Maul east that drops a recipe for runn tum tuber suprise, using runn tum tubers, which can be looted from pods inside DM:E
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=18267
Needs 275, Yellow at 300. I hate fishing, so this route has gotten me past the deadzone.
Reply
2-06-2008 @ 10:30AM
SilentBob said...
http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=8307
Easier to farm meat and no fishing required.
2-06-2008 @ 4:55AM
jay said...
On another note.... getting to 375 cooking was indeed a pain in the ass.. and I leveled fishing at the same time to get there.
So I reiterate .... these changes are for the better, if not to attract more people to the benefits of having max level cooking:)
Reply
2-06-2008 @ 4:57AM
jay said...
In my view this is a much needed change that makes sense in terms of progression expansion wise.
Think about having to level from 1 - 80 as a new subscriber.. nothing short of daunting, which understandably brought about the leveling changes to make it easier to get to 60 faster (and as will be expected towards the end of WOtLK's life will change to 1 - 70 etc)... for all the purists out there (and I'm one of them) this indeed will be needed, and to be honest is expected to make the transition to the next phase of WoW's life span not so much a chore but something that is challenging and less of a time consuming effort for something that is viewed by most as a novelty extra to the game but in actual fact is just as important as having first aid as a back up token heal.
Reply
2-06-2008 @ 5:04AM
jay said...
Tip: Golden fish fingers stacks with Elixer of Healing Power for a total of 94 extra healing... but most people (raiders) would probably know that, but for the general wow public that only have time for 5 man instances this is a god send.
Reply
2-06-2008 @ 9:01AM
Reddarin said...
This is so funny. I just went through this exact issue. When my warrior reached 63 I decided to power level my cooking for the health and the buffs. So I sat at the AH and spent the coin for all the mats...everything was going well until...260ish arrived. The only yellow or orange recipes I had were Nightfin Soup and Poached Sunscale Salmon. The rest were green or gray.
At 285, there is a quest in Silithus called Desert Recipe that begins a 3 part quest which gives you a recipe called Smoked Desert Dumplings...this will get you to 300 easy.
But getting to 285 was a task in itself. I needed Raw Nightfin Snapper and Raw Sunscale Salmon to reach my goal and the AH was the only way I was going to get it...and they were fresh out.
But this last Friday, I once again checked the AH and low and behold...not just snapper but salmon as well...10 of each. I busted out my skillet and then made my way Silithus. A little while later I was living the high life on Buzzard Bites and Ravager Dogs.
It was my own fault for not leveling Fishing but it looks like the chefs at Blizzard have worked their culinary magic once again. I will agree that the price of fish will prolly drop on the AH, but Bear Meat should begin to rise. You see USER1138..its all about adapting to the market...see ya in Felwood.
Red
Reply
2-06-2008 @ 9:27AM
Naturii said...
I just capped out at 275 myself. I have another toon that has 375 cooking and he does not fish. You used to be able to cook Wolf Steaks and Monster Omelets to 300...If you are like me the only way to get from 275 to 285 (for the Silithus quests) is to fish or run Dire Maul. This patch can't come soon enough.
Reply
2-06-2008 @ 9:44AM
rainnajax said...
You can find the Nightfins in Winterspring, as you come out of the timbermaw hold, on the left is a small lake. I got both the nightfins and salmon there. Nice drop rates too.
:-)
Rainnajax
Uldaman Server
Reply