Doing well at the Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Extravaganza is hardly about luck. The same people often win several times, so obviously there are some things that a player can do to increase his or her chances of catching a lot of fish.

These practices should help increase the amount of fish that you can catch. If you get good enough at them, you might even win the SVFE sometimes.

Finding a Good Spot

There is a spot on the STV east coast that you can use to catch a lot of fish quickly, especially if you are the only one in that area. It’s around 41,58. You can spot it because there are two tastyfish spawns within thirty yard of each other. If you get really lucky, you might be able to fish one until it runs out, go to the next one, and then return to the first one when the second runs out.

Fish by Yourself

You will also increase the number of fish that you are able to catch by fishing by yourself. Remember that tastyfish spawns only have four or five drops a piece. If you have caught half of the fish in one spawn and someone else approaches you, then it’s time to move on. You don’t need to waste your time fighting someone else over a fish. Any time that you waste means that you are catching fewer fish. When other people come to the tastyfish spawn that you are using, they are doing both of you a disfavor. Just move on and find a new spot where you can catch all of the fish by yourself.

Get a Good Angle

A lot of people find that they frequently get the “your cast did not land in fishable water” message, especially when they are trying to fish in one of those cramped spots along the shoreline. A lot of people get frustrated and give up, but these are a great source of fish. If you can get good at hitting these spots then you will have an advantage over the other players. Try positioning yourself so that there is as much water in front of you as possible. If you find that you still can’t hit the right spot, then try moving into the water.

Take the Time to Line Up Correctly

Taking the time to line up correctly is often the difference between casting a good line and missing your mark. Try not to be in a rush. Yes, this competition is a race against the clock, but you will be rewarded for catching the most fish not for throwing your line the most. Line yourself up well and you will hit your mark more often, which means that you will be catching more fish. Plus, as you continue to develop good form, you will become quicker at lining yourself up properly.

There is a lot of competition for the SVFE, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t become the top competitor. By following these simple guidelines you should be able to increase the amount of fish that you catch.

These WoW user submitted guides are becoming extremely popular and the best part about them is the fact that I can not read everyone’s minds when it comes to finding guides for this website. Everyone has their own unique way of doing things in-game and this is just another FANTASTIC guide from Sheytan who has put this to the test. Ok, ok…I’ll quit boring you now, read the guide below…

I have noticed several guides online for fishing. Most have been for high level characters fishing in places you can’t reasonably get to until your level 50+.

I’ve done some research on my own to find out the best places to fish for “money fish”. This is done from the perspective of a level 31 horde character.

There is alot of money to be made in fishing. Maybe not as fast as other professions but steady income with just 30 minutes to an hour of your playing time. It is also one of the cheapest professions to make money with.

I also recommend getting your cooking skill up as you get your fishing skill up. Several fish sell better when cooked. Raw Sagefish and Deviate Fish are the main midlevel money fish that require cooking.

First, you should go to a fishing trainer in your city. I suggest fishing in the waters there because it is safe, no threat of anything attacking while you are leveling up your fishing skill. Thunder Bluff has a pond, Org has a pond and you can fish in the sewers of Undercity. Level your fishing up to 75. You will miss a few at first and the fish will be “throw aways”. Retrain.

At this time I suggest either buying a fishing enchant to your gloves or investing a few silver in a fishing pole that will give you +fishing. The following is a list of fish and where to find them. I fished most places until I caught 35 fish and recorded what I caught. It took me apx. 15 minutes to catch 35 fish. The exceptions are for places that you need to fish the schools to benefit.

Deviate Fish: Can be sold raw but sell much better when cooked. They require mild spices. They are the fish that cause a “flip out” effect, turning you into a pirate or ninja. Cooked ones on my server bring from 1g-4g. Most of the time I can sell 5 for 1g.

Lushwater Oasis - caught 10 Deviates, 25 Throw Aways. Usually at least 2 schools.
Stagnant Oasis- caught 11 Deviates, 24 Throw Aways. Usually 3 schools.
The Forgotten Pools- caught 9 Deviates, 26 Throw Aways. Usually 1 school.
Wailing Caverns- 19 Deviates, 16 Throw Aways. No schools. (WC has more drops of the Deviates but it is dangerous to fish these waters. It took me an hour to catch 35 fish due to being constantly attacked)

Firefin Snappers: Used in Alchemy for fire spells. These sell really well. Mine are usually sold within an hour of putting them up in AH. I get 1g50s for a stack of 20 on my server.

Blackwolf River in Windshear Crag: They will not drop unless you fish from the schools. They are called Oil Spills. There are also schools of Floating Wreckage in this river that are worth fishing. Usually 12 schools yeilding apx 45 fish. Usually 5 schools of Floating Wreckage.
The Zoram Strand: Caught 3 Firefin Snappers, 13 Oily Blackmouth, 19 Throw Aways.
Booty Bay: Caught 7 Firefin Snappers, 4 Oily Blackmouth, 24 Throw Aways.
NorthWatch Hold: Thottbot says you can catch Firefin Snappers here. I have never seen one there. You have to go to Dreadmurk Coast to find one school and the creatures there are lvl ?? to my 31 mage.

Oily Blackmouths: These are used in Alchemy and Enchanting. I usually get around 1g for a stack on my server.

The Merchant Coast: Start at Ratchet and go all the way up the coast till you reach the end of Northwatch Hold. (If you are an herbalist you will also be able to farm a stack of Stranglekelp while doing this) Usually 7 schools yeilding apx 23 Oilyblackmouths, 3 Floating Debris schools.
The Zoram Strand: caught 13 Oily Blackmouths, 3 Firefin Snappers and 19 Throw Aways.

Raw Sagefish: These fish sell best when cooked. They require mild spices. When eaten they restore both health and mana, very useful to mana using classes. They also give a “well fed” buff.

Hillsbrad Foothills in the river just down from Tarren Mill: I go from the bridge in the road leading to Tarren Mill until I reach the end of Alterc Mountains. I would not suggest going beyond the small waterfall just past the bridge. You will be in Southshore before you know it with lvl ??’s killing you. There are snapjaws in the water but they will not attack unless you do. (Also a good place for herbalists to gather liferoot) There are usually 7-10 schools yeilding apx 50 fish.

Stonescale Eel: These are typically caught in high level places. The reason I add them in this guide is because if you are lucky you can find 2 schools of them in Booty Bay. These have brought me upwards of 5g for stacks of 10.

Using just one hour of my game playing time per day typically gives me 10-20 gold from fishing. It may not seem like a lot but it adds up and will definately help you save up for that mount money or special weapon you want!

I, personally, do not do any enchanting at all. I will start after reading thru these tidbits here as this guide gives just enough information to get started and be on the right path to making a lot of World of Warcraft gold with enchanting!

Enchanting should always be on your alt not your main guy.
–Why? Well your main guy will be your beginning gateway to green items and your main source of income till you get higher in levels/skills

Invest in bank space and big bags.
–Enchants requires a lot of reagents, so space is a must.

Every item you get should be sent to your alt for disenchanting.
– if selling items is how you make your money like me, then send items that will disenchant for useful reagents for higher grade enchants.

Advertise in your capital town that you can enchant
– WTS enchants: +7 Stamina to Bracers, Enchanting items /tell for what you want .. stuff like that…

Let them know that youll enchant again if they need and to have them add you to their friends list.
–Build a clientele. Again you’re enchanting to make money. So the more people you have wanting enchants the faster you’ll make money.

Farm instance often
–Since you need an ample supply of reagents you will need a lot of items to disenchant, so farming instances is a must.

Things you can do during the lower levels of enchanting.
–Enchant the grey items you pick up along the way. If you dont need the reagents, enchant then sell the item to a vendor and make some money for it.
–If you dont need reagents dont destroy them! offer FREE enchanting to lower level players. This will help build clientele.

Tell them what you want for the enchant. This is your enchanting fee / tip.
–Enchanting isnt a big market so YOU’RE the going rate. Tell them what you want for the enchant, but dont say an outragous price. Bear in mind of how much the reagents cost, how important it is for you to skill up, and the potential of a returning customer.
–Negotiating is for suckers. This can work both ways. If you think you can hassle someone out of gold then by all means try. But if you lose him or he gets over on you, your lost. Sticking to a firm but fair price will guarantee you money.

This is where people get confused on how to enchant. So Ill break it down both ways and you can decide on what works better.

I.
Make people get you the reagents for the enchants!
–No point in you wasting your reagents that YOU can use for yourself or guild mates. This will also help you in the future to clear out the AH of reagents for later on… see below..
–AH doesnt have the regeant and you do?
—>Then add that to your price. Since they cant what the going rate is, you can have a little fun with this and mark it up a bit. Whatever the highest cost for the other reagents needed for the enchant should be your starting point in marking up the missing reagent. Again dont go to high, but high enough to keep the person still wanting the enchant.
–AH doesnt have enough of the reagent and you have it.
—>Again add it to the cost but give it a small mark up.

II.
You supply the reagents for the enchants
–You have most of the reagents but are short on another.
—>Have them pick it up at the AH. You, for the most part shouldn’t be spending money on reagents that you can disenchant things for.
–What if want to negotiate?
—>Your suppling the reagents you can remind them of that, but be firm let them know that you wont negotiate the price. But keep in mind losing 5g isn’t the end of the world so use your best judgement
–They think 80g is to high for the enchant.
—>Tell them what the price of the regeants are and let them know you added an enchanting fee/tip. Or tell them to look up the price in the AH. Remind them that you are supplying the regeants so unless they want to buy them thats your price.

Be sure to bookmark this page and check out the other guides to make HUGE amounts of gold in WoW.

If you are like me you have neglected the possibility of leveling up your fishing and cooking skills to level 300. I have recently followed this guide and it has helped me out greatly! I leveled up my fishing and cooking to level 300 together in under 20 hours time. Fishing and cooking are great money makers IF they are totally maxed out at 300.

You need to take these seriously if you really want to have MASSIVE amounts of gold available to you, or you could just go HERE if you don’t have the time available to get the gold yourself. Ultimately, the choice is yours!

For fishing, there is no concern over which zone you are working. As long as you can fish that zone, you get the same skill points for catching whatever drops as you can just going for the Small Brilliant Smallfish of the newbie zone. The fact is you could get to fishing skill level 225 without leaving the n00b zone.

Cooking is a different matter. It is like all the other skills besides fishing, once you do so many of the little stuff, it turns gray to you and you no longer get skill-ups from cooking it.

Thus, while you could stay in the n00b zone to catch the 700+ fish to get your fishing skill to 225, you would not be able to follow it with cooking skill ups after lvl 120, which is where Longjaw Mud Snapper (the highest fish you can catch in the beginning zones) turns gray for you.

Now before I go any further, please understand that while it sounds like a fishing class, the cooking is, for me, a necessary adjunct! If you are going to fish, you are leaving serious money on the table by not cooking them up!

Each of the races has a local starting fish-pond (or sea, as the case may be).
Undead: It is the lake east of Brill.
Taurens: The lake just north of Bloodhoof Village.
Orcs, Trolls: The sea just south of Sen’jin Village.
Humans: Start fishing near Goldshire.
Dwarves, Gnomes: North of Brownall Village in western Dun Morogh
Night Elves: Can choose the lake south of Dolenaar, the waters in and around Darnassus, or the sea near the boat dock in Rut’Theran Village.

Not surprisingly, each of these starting zones has a fishing trainer right there, directly beside the water in which you are going to fish. There are other fishing trainers scattered here and there, the most curious to me is the Goblin in Iron Forge, standing beside water which cannot be fished. However, since you must start in water’s you can fish, use the start zones as discussed above.

If you are starting late in life, so to speak, it doesn’t really matter where you start fishing. You could even go to the fishing n00b zones for the other faction if you were minded to piss people off just out of principle.

Alternatively, you could grow your fishing with your character by spreading the 20 hours across many levels. In fact, there is a strategy in the Guide that suggests that maxxing your fishing at 150 for level 10 would make you an UBER fighter using just your fishing pole as a weapon.

Now, there is a formula for how many fish you need to catch in order to get one skill point. It is N = 1 + (SkillLevel-75)/25. Roughly, 1 skill point per fish up to level 75 then adding another fish every 25 fish. The formula is approximate, there is an element of random distribution around the calculated number, but it means that you can expect to catch between 1300 and 1500 fish to reach skill level 300.

OK, how am I going to catch 1,500 fish in 20 hours? That is like 75 per hour! Actually, it is more like 100 per hour with an hour for moving from zone to zone, another 3 hours for doing the master fishing/cooking quests and an hour for cooking it all up. 100 fish per hour is very realistic, if you are in waters at or below your level and you use the right bait!

The only thing you have to remember is to use a lure! If you can fish a zone without a lure, you will start by getting a lot of “Your fish got away”. That ruins the 100/hour rate. Try the zone without a lure, if you can cast, then add nightcrawlers or better and you will loose very few fish.

Further, since you are leveling your cooking at the same time, when your bags are full of fish, cook up the most common fish until you get no more skill ups from it. You might, at this time, try mailing off full stacks of cooked fish to your AH mule to see if you can create a market for it.

Here is the program:

Lvl 1-75: fish the shit outta the n00b zone. You can do the whole thing in less than an hour. Just make sure you start by adding Shiny Baubles to your pole every 10 minutes for the first 30 minutes. Now, every n00b zone fishing trainer has a fishing supplies vendor or a Trade goods vendor very nearby who sells cooking recipes. You get the recipe for Brilliant Smallfish or Slitherskin Mackerel. Cooking just the fish you catch will get your cooking skill above 50, which is a necessity before moving on the the next zone.

Lvl 50-125 (yes, there is some overlap here) fish in the zone following your race’s transition zone. Horde go to Ratchet or the Silverpine coast, Alliance, fish Loch Moden, Darkshore or the Westfall coast. Make sure you buy the recipe for either Longjaw Mud Snapper or Rainbow fin Albacore, these are the lvl50 cooking recipes necessary for further skill-ups. Again, the recipes are always available in or near the town closest to the waters in which you can catch the fish. At some time, you will start to catch Bristle Whisker Catfish, which requires cooking lvl 100. If you are not to the right level yet, save the fish until your cooking catches up by cooking the Albacore/Mudsnappers you are also catching. This is the last time your fishing will be ahead of your cooking.

Further, in the second zones mentioned, you will start to catch Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper, fish you can’t cook, but which are “money fish” meaning that you can sell them on AH for sometimes big profit. At one time, Oily’s were bringing 15s. each in IF. When I was learning the economy, way back when I was a n00b, I made my first (smallish) fortune just selling Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper which I had caught using a fish-bot, which I have since abandoned.

Also, for you adventurous Allies, the Money fish of all money fish, Deviates can be caught at this level. If you wanna venture into The Barrens for fishing, go for it. My PvE server often has hated Alliance fishermen in the sacred Horde treasure fishing holes. Sometime, I have taken my NE hunter into Wailing Caverns just for the fishing. Inside the instance, Deviates drop twice as often as outside, however, there are no schools like you find in Lushwater Oasis.

One word parenthetically here. Darnassus, Stormwind, Thunder Bluff and Orgrimmar all have waters you can fish. These waters drop a few Smallfish, lots of Longjaws and some Bristle Whiskers. The spread on the fish levels is too great to rely on the city fishing to get too far cooking, but if you are in town with some time on your hands, you can always drop a line for some skill ups.

Lvl 100-175 Take your pick of zones. The rule of thumb I use is that the third fishing zone will give you the fish which you can eat when cooked which are appropriate for lvl 25-35 characters. Your cooking will be the BristleWhiskers and Tangy clam meat from the Small clams from the sea in the 20-something zones. Also, at this level, you should consider fishing the river in Hillsbrad Foothills., Decrepit Ferry in Silverpine, Mirkfallon Lake in Stonetalon Mts and Mystral Lake in Ashenvale for Sage Fish. You can cook these at skill lvl 80, from recipes sold by every cooking supply vendor and will get health and mana from eating them, plus a super buff for mana users of 3 mana per second for 15 minutes. The sagefish are only caught from the swirls which denote schools of fish. After catching 4-5 fish, the school dissipates and you have to move on the the next. This activity breaks up the monotony of fishing and provides you with a mess of food which your mana users will cherish.

There are locked doors throughout World of Warcraft, as well as locked chests in the environment and locked boxes that can be looted from enemy bodies. Blacksmiths can craft keys that will unlock some chests, boxes or doors. Engineers can also craft “charges” to blow open some doors or chests. However, these items require specific materials be used to make them, so many blacksmiths and engineers don’t keep them in stock.

Rogues can readily open any door, chest or box if their Lockpicking skill is near the maximum level of 375 (350+ should actually be enough).

This is just a nice quick overview to increase your lockpicking skill. For an in-depth guide that also includes gold making as well, take a look at this WoW profession guide.

In fact, some groups of players will prefer to take a rogue with them into a dungeon like Shattered Halls, just to avoid taking the long way through a cave full of ooze creatures. But how do you get your skill up to the max?

First, you can learn the Pick Lock skill from your Rogue Trainer at level 16 and you will need Thieves Tools to use it, you can usually buy these from a Shady Dealer or Poison Vendor. This item won’t disappear when you use your Pick Lock skill, so you only need one and you can use it repeatedly.

As a general rule, once you learn the Pickpocket skill, you can use it on any humanoid enemies (mobs) that you quest around. You can get extra money (copper/silver) this way and often you’ll get boxes that you can pick if your Lockpicking is high enough.

You can’t increase your Lockpicking skill without increasing your characters level. Each time you gain a level on your character you earn the ability to increase your Lockpicking skill 5 more points.

Up To 100

Engineers can craft Practice Locks that you can use to skill-up until your Lockpicking is 80, but you can only use each Practice Lock once.

Both Alliance and Horde rogues can get a class-specific quest at level 16. Alliance rogues must go to Alther’s Mill in Redridge Mountains. The same quest for Horde will take rogues to a boat by Merchant Coast in Barrens. Bloodelves can take a quest in Ghostlands to go to Amani Catacombs.

Each of these quests include locked chests that you can open for skill points, they will disappear when you open them and reappear (respawn) a few moments later. You will be able to get your Lockpicking up to the maximum for your level, which is your level multiplied by 5. If you are level 20, you can reach 100 Lockpicking this way.

Up To 150

At level 20, rogues of both factions can pick up another class-specific quest. The reward for this one is the ability to use poisons and the quest item you need is inside a locked chest, but you can pick this chest for skill-ups until atleast 150, probably more like 170 or even 175 if you keep at it. Opening the chest will give you a long-lasting poison called Touch of Zanzil, but you can use Anti-Venom from First Aid, or the racial Stoneform skill if you are a dwarf. When you turn in the quest you will also receive an item to get rid of this debuff.

You’ll need to use your Pick Lock button before you’ll be able to click on this chest.

Up To 200

You can visit Badlands and go to Angor Fortress. The requirements to open boxes here range from about 150 to 175, and by 175 you should definitely be able to open all of the locked boxes.

Or you can find locked boxes underwater along the coast of Desolace, but you might want to bring along an elixir of waterbreathing so you don’t have to die in the process.

You should be able to get above 200 Lockpicking using one or both of these methods, in addition to pickpocketing humanoid mobs of the appropriate level.

Up To 250

Once you are about 205 Lockpicking, you should be able to go to Scarlet Monastery in Tirisfal Glades. There are 4 dungeons there for characters between levels 33 and 40, two of them (The Armory and The Cathedral) are locked. You can pick the locks and go inside, Pickpocket a few of the mobs and go back out, the timer will reset so you can pick the doors again to increase your Lockpicking skill. You can do this repeatedly until you attain 225.

At 225, you can go to the Slag Pit in Searing Gorge to open locked boxes. You can find more boxes in Swamp of Sorrows, underwater near Sunken Temple.

You might also try Lost Rigger Cove on the coast of Tanaris, south of Steamwheedle Port. There are plenty of locked boxes lying around here as well.

Up To 300

Inside Blackrock Mountain, which you can get to from either Burning Steppes or Searing Gorge, is an instance called Blackrock Depths. You can go inside and open the Shadowforge Gate to your left, go in further and pick another Shadowforge Gate, then the East Garrison Gate to the left. You can also try to pick The Shadowforge Lock, but if you’re not level 60 you’ll probably attract the nearby mobs. After you’ve got these 3 or 4 skill points, just go back outside the instance portal, reset the instance by right-clicking your character portrait, then go back in and pick the locks again. You can only do this 5 times, and then you will not be allowed to enter again for about an hour.

Or you can go to Eastern Plaguelands. In the southeastern part of the zone you can find Tyr’s Hand, pickpocket all of the mobs here. If you complete a circle, pickpocketing all of the mobs boxes should start respawning by the time you get back to the gate where you started.

300 And Up

Now, you can go to Zangarmarsh and open all of the boxes in Feralfen Village, south of Twin Spire Ruins. You can also pickpocket the mobs for more boxes that require 300 Lockpicking.

Another great place to find mobs to pickpocket for boxes is Shadowmoon Valley, just outside of Black Temple in the eastern side of the zone.

You might also go to Auchindoun in the Bone Wastes of Terrokar Forest; you should be able to get a few more points picking the door to Shadow Labyrinth.

Whenever you’re out questing, it’s a good idea to pickpocket any humanoid mobs that you find. They may not always drop boxes for you to pick but even if they don’t, who doesn’t need some extra coinage? While you’re in any major city you can offer your Lockpicking services to other players, but you won’t get a skill increase for picking a lock for them inside of the Trade screen.

Once you have reached 350 Lockpicking, have fun being the one who never has to use keys! Good luck being undetected!

Leatherworking Overview

Leatherworkers often double up with the Skinning tradeskill. They can skin beasts that they have slain and use the leather to create armor for themselves and others. Leatherworkers are able to craft an extensive amount of Epic quality armors, both Bind on Pickup and Bind on Equip. They are also able to use Drums – usable items that give short duration group buffs.

Leatherworking Specialization

At skill level 200, a Leatherworker is able to choose a specialization. The options are Elemental Leatherworking, Tribal Leatherworking, and Dragonscale Leatherworking.

This is just a nice quick overview to increase your leatherworking skill. For an in-depth guide that also includes gold making as well, take a look at this WoW profession guide.

Elemental Leatherworkers tend to craft items that increase their resists to different schools of magic. At max. skill level they can make Epic quality Belt, Bracers and Chest called “Primalstrike” that is best suited for Rogues and Feral Druids.

Tribal Leatherworkers tend to craft items with Intellect and Stamina bonuses. At max. skill level they can make Epic quality Belt, Bracers and Chest called “Windhawk” that is best suited for Balance and Restoration Druids.

Dragonscale Leatherworkers specialize in crafting Mail armor, as opposed to leather. At max. skill level they can make Epic quality Mail Belt, Bracers and Chest armor of two distinct varieties. The Ebon Netherscale armor is geared towards Hunters and Enhancement Shamans, whereas the Netherstrike armor is geared towards Elemental Shamans.

Now that you know the basics of leatherworking and what you can do with it, it’s time to get started! What follows is a list of the approximate amount of materials that you will need to level leatherworking from 1-375. After that is the order of what you should make, when you should make it, and how much of it you should make. Enjoy!