Angling in wow was always something weird. With the exception of the (awesome) Legion Legendary Questline, it is the most sedate, calm and relaxing thing you can possibly do.
Compared to other gathering professions, there used to be little incentive to fly from node to node, always eyeing the minimap for that ressource icon - you could just find a body of water, sit down, drop your line and fish.
Now, granted: that is still possible. But I feel like in TWW, the open water catches have gone down in quality so much that it really feels like a waste to fish anywhere without a pool.
Thus fishing, my favourite thing to do while waiting for shuffle queue pops, is now being reduced to the same unappealing running-from-node-to-node gathering loop than the other gathering professions.
Can we please make fishing less like other gathering professions and keep the open water loot rewarding?
Alternatively, make pools last 10min or something.
It really started with ZC patch in DF. Suddenly fishing in open waters just starting yielding more junk than anything else unless you hopped to fishing pools. I eventually just gave up and barely touched fishing in TWW as I have picked up the same trend.
This still burns me. Have no idea why we had to go through the trouble of getting this fishing rod only to have it reduced to nothing with the profession revamps. We don’t even get to enjoy the fruits of our labour. Really miss the walking on water and catching barrels of fish.
It’s about finding spots with a good loot table.
In Dragonflight I found a few spots with 0% junk.
In TWW I havn’t been fishing much but I already have a spot with only about 30% junk.
I was gonna say no, then realised what you are actually telling me. Then I just want to go back to how it used to be. Pools just being that little extra, but fishing anywhere would be rewarding. Easier to pick a favourite spot in the world too, for the fish you wanna catch. RP win.
Fishing should never have the same node system as herbalism and mining.
I have not had time for serious fishing in a few years, so not noticed this.
In my wow life, I fished a tiny amount in TBC and then I also done the world quest in DF, so I don’t really know what these good old times were like. However, I think the pools are acceptable and an easy way to combat bots, who could be fishing open waters 24/7 and the fish market would be ruined.
I like seeing a certain pool and knowing that there is a very high chance that I’m going to getting something good from it. If you know, you know.
Pools were always there, so you would still be able to do that. It’s just that you could also choose to fish in open waters and get the same fish, between several other ones. Then you also had the pools full of crates, that gave random stuff.
Certain fish was also only fishable in certain waters, but as mentioned, didn’t need pools.
I have hardly done fishing the last 2 expansions, so not noticed the changes, but sad to hear if it’s changed into whatever OP is describing. Me not fishing has nothing to do with the fishing itself, it’s just lack of time to play and therefore priorities around it.
I just realised you fished in TBC - that’s good enough to know how things used to be like. I always had to fish from the river in Terrokkar to get my healing buff fish .
However, I think the pools are acceptable and an easy way to combat bots, who could be fishing open waters 24/7 and the fish market would be ruined.
Bots can fish pools, as they can mine nodes or gather herbs, that is not really a deterrent. I think the degradation of the open water loot pool is a misguided way to “spice up the fishing mini game”, completely missing the point of fishing.
Look at every fishing-related NPC. Look at the RP they do.
They stand, or sit, relaxed, not moving. There has been a toy for an angling chair. THAT is what fishing should cater to: sit at a spot, relax.
Give us rare or super-rare catches, diversify the loot pool between the different bodies of water - but don’t make us run from pool to pool. Thats not fishing, thats doing chores.
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