{"id":1951,"date":"2012-09-25T20:20:51","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T03:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bytica.com\/?p=1951"},"modified":"2012-09-25T20:36:50","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T03:36:50","slug":"wow-angling-for-a-realm-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bytica.com\/?p=1951","title":{"rendered":"WoW: Angling For a Realm First"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

WHEN CATACLYSM LAUNCHED two years ago, I made a completely unplanned and half-assed attempt to get the achievement for being the first person on the server to max out their fishing skill. It was so spur-of-the-moment that it was a half hour before I actually started fishing, which was about the same amount of time I lost by. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, I’ve acquired the <Salty> title on two characters and won the various fishing derbies six or seven times, so with the launch of <\/span>Mists of Pandaria <\/em><\/span>last night<\/span>, I felt obligated to make a proper attempt at the [Realm First: Zen Master Angler]<\/span><\/strong><\/a> fishing achievement. Interestingly, you could argue it was more about the planning than the fishing. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As Fast As You Can<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There are a number of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Realm First\u00e2\u20ac\u009d achievements that come along with each <\/span>WoW<\/em><\/span> expansion. There’s one for being the first person on the server to reach the new level cap, as well as one for each individual class. It’s never appealed to me, the gaming equivalent of choking down a five-course meal in 60 seconds. Except here, you’re talking about being glued to your computer for 15-30 hours straight. Not for me. There are also firsts for various boss kills, but those won’t happen for weeks. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then there are realm firsts for each profession. Skills like tailoring and blacksmithing generally take some planning, and firsts generally go to people who’ve seen the content in beta and worked out a solid strategy for acquiring all the necessary materials. Gathering professions, on the other hand, are just a straight-up race, where firsts for max mining and herbalism rarely last an hour. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And there’s fishing, arguably the purest race of the bunch. There’s no real advantage to having played in the beta, and as far as I know, you don’t get extra skillups from being in a level 25 guild. It’s just a question of picking a good spot, fishing as fast as you can for two hours and hoping you have decent luck with skillups. So for me, the question was: what can I do to give myself the best chance of hitting 600 first?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Location, Location, Location<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The main order of business: where to fish? I wanted to be near a trainer at midnight to buy the upgraded fishing skill and not waste time getting to a fishing spot, but there were other factors to consider. I ran through a list of possible locations:\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Stormwind: <\/strong>An obvious spot, although not necessarily the best. On the plus side, you’ve got your trainer and plenty of fishing spots. And I’d banked a +2 fishing skill quest that I wouldn’t turn in until after the expansion launched, so I was obligated to hit SW at some point. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But Stormwind also meant two things: I’d fish up nothing but junk, and run a high risk of getting griefed. I found this out the hard way at the start of Cataclysm: <\/em>several random people spotted me fishing in Stormwind and parked mammoth mounts on top of my lure so I couldn’t fish. Hey, it’s 1AM, you spent $50 on an x-pack and there’s all sorts of new content; why wouldn’t <\/em>you be a dick to total strangers? This time, I wanted to fly under the radar, making Stormwind a last-resort option. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pandaria: <\/strong>I considered fishing in the new zone, which would offer the obvious bonus of fish for new cooking recipes. Having not played the beta, however, I had no idea how long the intro quests might take or if the zone might be totally lagged out. It seemed pretty risky, so I scrapped the\u00c2\u00a0 idea. It turned out to be the right call, as players on my server ran into a few delays trying to get to the new continent right after midnight. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Other Capital Cities.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong>Ironforge only has one place to fish, which again would produce nothing but junk and make it obvious I was chasing the realm first. And then there was a whole new variable to consider in the form of Blizzard’s new cross-realm zone technology: would IF’s one fishing spot be crowded with people from other servers?\u00c2\u00a0 Eww. So I ruled Ironforge out, along with Dalaran and Shattrath, thanks to the added element of griefing from Horde players.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The only capital city I seriously considered was Darnassus. I figured there would be tons of quiet coastline by the docks outside, obviously free of Horde and close to a fishing trainer. Still, not wanting to end up with nothing but junk, I scrapped this plan, as well as any other involving old-world locations (which would likely involve extra traveling time).\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Cataclysm Zones. <\/strong>In the interest of getting some fish I could use, Uldum was my first thought, but I worried that cross-realm zone tech might result in stray players griefing each other. A superior option seemed to be the area behind the keep in Twilight Highlands, as it would likely be deserted, free of enemies or Horde, and seconds away from Stormwind. I liked it. And I’d pretty much decided on that spot, until I thought of… <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

…Tol Barad. <\/strong>I initially dismissed this idea because it seemed too risky. Most fishing spots would have lots of mobs nearby, and on the off-chance other players were around, griefing could quickly escalate to total chaos \u00e2\u20ac\u201c maybe even death, a worst-case scenario for this kind of sprint.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But then I realized there was a great spot: the cliffs behind the Alliance camp. No mobs, no Horde \u00e2\u20ac\u201c nothing, really. Once in place, no one would even be able to see me \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I could get there quickly, fish with little chance of interruption and even catch some fish I could use later on. Perfect.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

No Battle Plan Survives Contact With The Enemy<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A few hours before launch, I started to get things into place. I had my engineer create a bunch of +150 fishing lures, and my alchemist create a few stacks of Captain Rumsey’s Rum (+10). I had my +5 fishing hat and +40 pole from the STV derby, giving me an effective starting skill over 725. There was nothing from the beta indicating a higher skill level would produce faster skillups, but it seemed like a smart move anyway. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I parked my angler in Ironforge near the fishing trainer, just in case some doofuses tried to block the Stormwind trainer at midnight. Once the expansion went live, I’d train, use my Tol Barad tabard to port to the Baradin base camp, fish to 595 or so, and return to Stormwind to turn in my fishing daily and get my last few points. If Tol Barad didn’t work out, I’d use TwiHi as a backup, and in a worst-case scenario, Stormwind. A decent plan, I thought. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ten minutes to midnight, I made my final preparations. I threw some popcorn in the microwave, took a bathroom break and settled in for two hours of hot! fishing! action! At 11:57, knowing that previous expansions have always required a logoff\/logon to kick in, I loaded up a different character, waiting for the server message that Pandaria<\/em> was live. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Except it was already live. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Confused, I looked at the in-game clock, which now read 11:58. Below it, a new quest telling me to go to Stormwind Keep to start my Pandaria adventure. I quickly switched to my fisherman, hoping the login server wouldn’t pick that moment to crash. I arrived in Ironforge to find that indeed, I could train the new fishing skill. I threw on my tabard and ported my ass to Tol Barad as fast as possible. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hilariously, the TB base camp was flooded with people who’d banked daily quests in advance, turning them in now for a small XP boost to get them started towards 86. I have no idea if any of them noticed the guy in the fishing hat run to the cliffs and jump off,\u00c2\u00a0but if they did, they didn’t say anything. So, still a little thrown by the early start, I got to work.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

100 Minutes To Glory<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On average, I complete about 4-5 fishing casts per minute, and reports from the Pandaria<\/em> beta made it sound like the average skillup took 7 or 8 casts. So my initial guess was that it would take me between 90 and 120 minutes to max out. On my server two years ago, the Cataclysm<\/em> fishing achievement fell before 2AM, so in the back of my mind, I established 100 minutes as an early baseline to shoot for. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Within 10 minutes, it became clear that the skillups would not come at a steady pace. My first skillup took 12 casts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c long enough that I started to worry if skillups were working or not. My second took 2 casts. The next three: 10, 3 and 3. So even though that averaged out to 8 casts a skillup, I couldn’t help but feel the race might come down to dumb luck. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The first half hour of fishing, honestly, was pretty uneventful. I don’t use any mods or macros, so for this event I simply bound casting to the 1 key and looted with the mouse. I bounced between Letterman and sports shows going nuclear over the Seahawks\/Packers ending (comedy!), and by 12:30 I’d reached 548 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c almost a third of the way home. At that pace, I probably wouldn’t make 90 minutes, but definitely under 120. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At 12:40AM, I had a small scare when a [Realm First!] message popped up in chat…for mining. Although I knew the gathering achievements would fall quickly, I still felt a twinge of panic five minutes later when the herbalism achievement went down as well. (Oddly, I didn’t see a skinning first at all; as mentioned, I avoided the beta, so I’m assuming it requires reaching a higher level zone to complete.) <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At 1AM, I’d reached 569. Some of-the-cuff math told me 44 points in an hour hopefully meant 22 more in the next 30 minutes, getting me into the 590s with a +2 quest still in my log. And that’s exactly where I was at 1:30, at 591 and closing in on the finish line. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/span><\/span>t was around this point that I started to get nervous. If someone beat me by 10 minutes, I’d be fine with that. That guy (or girl!) would have earned an impressive win and I’d still have a bunch of useful fish and one profession maxed out. But if I lost by 10 seconds, that would be way worse. I’d rather know I was outclassed by a better opponent than come this close<\/em> and lose. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At 1:35, it was time to make my move. At 595, I’d have to port to Stormwind soon to turn in my fishing quest and finish things off. At 597, I quickly hearthed and flew to the SW fishing trainer to turn in my +2 quest. One skillup to go! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now panic starts to set in as I’m on this dock trying to get this final skillup before someone else beats me to it. First cast, second cast, no skillup. Third cast, nothing. Now someone lands on the dock to talk to the trainer, and I’m hoping he’s not turning in a quest to hit 600. Fourth cast, no skillup. And this guy is still talking to the trainer. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On the fifth cast, the guy flies away, which gives me a huge sense of relief. And on the sixth cast \u00e2\u20ac\u201c exactly 100 minutes after I started, exactly as long as I suspected it would take to win \u00e2\u20ac\u201c victory: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe the most surprising thing after getting the Realm First was the amount of congratulatory messages I got from strangers. I’m so conditioned to people being godawful to each other in trade chat and LFG, it was a nice change of pace to have strangers sending me cheers . Even other anglers were cool about it, as I got a few \u00e2\u20ac\u0153grats!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from people telling me they were at 591, 593, etc. No\u00c2\u00a0bitter griping or even anything implying anyone else was close to 600. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Did I win anything here? Not really. There’s no special tabard, no unique title, just a Feat of Strength that no one will ever see outside this screenshot or the server message that got broadcast when I hit 600. But at the same time, it was a wonderfully pure gaming moment: one\u00c2\u00a0requiring you to draw on experience, build a strategy and execute it with skill. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now if only Blizzard would add another fishing derby to the game. Or turn me into a fishing NPC. Either’s cool with me, guys. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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