Heeeeere Fishy Fishy!

So, yesterday I hit 60…woo! After handing the warlock trainer a sizable chunk of gold, I headed for Dun Morogh to pick up my epic mount. After a few minutes of debating between the three available, I chose a swift yellow mechanostrider for myself, because it looked cool and it’s the color I see the least people with. It really is cool, too! I feel like I’m riding a rocket when I run around on it…I guess I sort of am, it does have rockets attached to it. This definitely ranks among the best mounts I’ve gotten my hands on…I like it at least as much as my talbuks.

Anyway, after spending the better part of my cash on the mount, I decided it was time to train…dun dun dun…fishing. I do. not. like. fishing. I’m not that far from heading to Zangarmarsh, though, and I didn’t want to miss out on all of the great fish pools that spawn there.

I hit the AH first, but to my dismay, nobody had a big iron fishing pole (+20 to fishing!) up for sale, so it was off to Desolace with me to spend nearly 45 minutes swimming around opening shellfish traps in an attempt to find one.  I am really, really, reeeeeeally grateful for underwater breathing.

So I finally get my big iron fishing pole, and I head off to Booty Bay to do some fishing! I wasn’t horribly worried about running around finding pools to fish from…I just wanted my fishing levels (and the resulting cooking levels) asap.

I was already 154 fishing to begin with, thanks to some work at my noobier levels, so with my spiffy new fishing pole and a few shiny baubles I was able to avoid those annoying “your fish got away!” messages. Nearly 300 fish (and 3 locked trunks) later, I had hit 225 fishing, and it was off to Nat Pagle near Menethil to get the fishing quest to allow me to advance.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the fishing quest, it involves catching 4 quest-only fish in various parts of Azeroth. This quest annoys me to no end, because it is ridiculously biased towards Horde. Allow me to explain.

• Fish #1:  Misty Reed Mahi Mahi. This fish is caught in the Swamp of Sorrows, less than a minute away from the Horde town here. Alliance doesn’t even HAVE a FP in this zone, we get to fly into Blasted Lands and walk the rest of the way.
• Fish #2: Sar’theris Striker.  This fish is caught off the bit of the coast in Desolace that is literally right where the Horde town for he zone sits. You can catch this fish off that town’s dock, for goodness’ sake. Alliance? Either we fly into Nijel’s Point, literally in the opposite corner of the zone, or we fly into Feathermoon in Feralas and run up to Desolace.
• Fish #3: Feralas Ahi. This fish is caught from the river right in the middle of Feralas…again, a minute or less from the Horde town in the zone. Alliance has 2 FPs in Feralas…one on the far east edge, and one on the far west edge, meaning no matter which you use, you’re as far from this river as it is possible to be and still be in Feralas.
• Fish #4: Savage Coast Blue Sailfin. Even this one is slightly biased towards Horde…they can walk out of their town in Stranglethorn and be right on the Savage Coast, while Alliance has to ride up the coast a bit from Booty Bay. Not nearly as much of an inbalance on this fish, but a slight one.

You would think that Bliz would be able to balance this quest out…maybe 2 fish easier for Alliance and 2 for Horde. Or just make all 4 fairly equal for both sides. This, however, would require Bliz not being biased towards the Horde.

Bah…anyway, after I did the annoying fishing quest, I hit Tanaris for some more fishing. I ended up making it to 248 before calling it a night. I shall be going for 300 either today or tomorrow, depending on whether or not I can bring myself to look at a fishing pole today or not.