The three “forgotten” professions.
Okay, maybe not forgotten per se, especially with all these achievements and titles all over the place now, but they’re sort of the three we don’t think about often. You know the ones I’m talking about: First Aid, Cooking, and Fishing.
Anyways, I was thinking today about my relationship with them and how it seems to be somewhat interesting. Observe…
First Aid: I love First Aid. I don’t know why. It’s basically the first thing I train on any new character I make and I level it up to max as quick as I can. I went to WTA and did a course on first aid that helped me learn alot. Heck, I have a level 69 full-blown restoration druid and she has a high first aid skill. Perhaps I’m psycho, or perhaps it’s me being smart in a roundabout way because I have a tendency to tote around a full feral set with her and kitty things on my rare excursions outside of instances, and bandaids allow me to stay in form. Regardless, it’s true, my resto druid is also a first aid freak.
I love when you get about halfway through First Aid and you have to go do the Triage quest. At first it was the most frustrating quest in the world but having done it several times by now I’ve learned to really like it. Plus, it makes me all giggly that they call you “Doctor”. I wish Doctor was an actual earnable title. Then I could go around either informing people that it wasn’t Lupus, or freaking out when people ask me to do stuff because “I’m a doctor, not a hunter!” Er… something like that. /cough
Cooking: I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. I like the general idea and the process, but the problem tends to be that cooking mats go for an arm and a leg on the auction house and I’m too lazy to go farm them. In that sense, it’s not at all like First Aid where cloth just sort of comes to you as you go along.
My main, Tawyn, is at a decent enough cooking level– she can make various moderate-level stat food like Wyrm Delight although I don’t really go out of the way to level her cooking. None of my other alts have gotten anywhere near that point; poor Lunapike is still puttering along with the food that restores like 552 of your health and gives you 4 spirit. She did get a Savory Deviate Delight recipe as a random drop when she was but a wee young taureness in the Barrens so she can make that, so that’s at least impressive!
Fishing: I have a confession to make, I actually don’t hate fishing. In fact, I find it rather relaxing if it’s done in conjunction with something else (the other day we had a Standup-Comedy-bot running in the guild Ventrilo and I was fishing while listening to that). However even then I’ve never gone above about 200ish in fishing. Lunapike is my character with that honor for some weird reason, while Tawyn is still floating around 155 or something. I keep telling myself that one of these days I’m going to sit down and powerlevel fishing because I want the minipets you can get, I want to be able to fish up Dalaran coins, and I want to be able to sell all the fish I get, but the fishing leveling process just goes so slowly that it hasn’t happened yet.
Now for a hunter, all of these professions are useful to have at a decent level. First Aid because there are many times when it’s nice to have it as a backup heal, Cooking so you can make your own stat food, and Fishing to power the cooking (and it used to be to feed your pet, as well, but I hardly have to worry about that these days. Though have you noticed that owls can eat fish now? About time, I say. I always wondered why they couldn’t pre-WotLK.) But none are really super-super-mandatory though I’d advice one to at least get First Aid. For me, the secondary professions are really mostly about having another mini-goal to work on while waiting for something else to happen. And because I love having goals in this game, even mini-goals, I’m rather content with that!
I am on the same page.
My first aid is always the first profession that maxes out. Even Colemand made a point to get a lot of netherweave quickly so that by the time he got to falcon watch post, he could hit 375 in first aid. I did that by accident while hunting in Outlands.
My fishing is still 50 something, and cooking is 75. I really need to actually go and finish them up… after I’m done with mining(441) and Engineering(407).
First thing I did, when Wrath launched, I got my fishing maxed. Took 6 hours! But, once I’d bought a port to Dalaran, I could fish all I wanted 🙂 Being able to fish up the different food-fish can be very profitable, as well. But, I guess it wouldn’t be so profitable if everyone did it, eh? So, for me, fishing is my alt-craft to max first. Along with skinning and mining/herbing, can be very profitable on a new server 😉
LOL….so I am not the only one.
First the First Aid: My two main alts are a Holy Priest and a (former) resto Shaman. Both have high-maxed FA (as does Guns).
Cooking:…..450 anyone (And I don’t want to talk about the farming involed)
And fishing: I have several toons over 375 and at least one of them is at 450. I found that if I put on a video or sometime, and turn up the game sounds just right, I can fish by sound while watching a video……very relaxing. Or just sit and talk to people in vent.
Gunsnbutter on Uther
>.>
I hate fishing. S’boring.
FA is mandatory on all characters as soon as they ding lvl 5! Healers and all get FA. A few runs through DM/Stocks/SFk/SM and plenty of low level cloth stockpiled for any baby alts.
Cooking – I only max level that on one character per server. It’s hard enough getting the mats/recipes. Most rarely get past level 1 or so. So, one is the cook for the rest.
Fishing – the same as cooking. Usually only one is maxed, the rest have the skill but rarely get high level. I don’t dislike fishing (or cooking for that matter), it’s quite relaxing at times.
Fishing is boring, but that’s what so good in that. Just fire up some movie or a podcast or whatever and fish away. 🙂
And I tend to max everything I can see on the skills page – always on my main, if I have spare time, on the alts as well. I hate having these bars not filled. 😉
I have both my cooking and first aid leveled to about max, 404 and 449 respectively. I used the time I was waiting for the rare gorilla to spawn in Un’Goro to do those silly quests in Silithis that let you level your cooking up to Outland level.
My sister laughed at me when I spent so much time leveling my cooking, but it’s so worth it for that delicious 60AP buff food. And soon…once I get to 450 cooking savory 80AP buff. <3
Also…having 30Str and Stam for my pet is always nice. 🙂
I’ll likely be using some +hit food until I’m hit-capped and making it myself does save me a pretty penny. Not to mention Northern Spices sell VERY well on the AH until I can use ’em. 😀
The only secondary profession I haven’t worked to level is fishing, which is sitting at 126 (mostly from waiting in BG Queues). Though…once I hit 80 (One level!) I’ll start working on leveling it…maybe. 😛
http://www.itsnotlup.us/ <3
One of these days I have got to level my secondary professions, they’re in a lamentable state…
Once I make the final 7 levels to 80. And run the rep for my netherwing drake. And tame a spirit beast of some description…
In about six months then 😛
It’s good to know I’m not the only one slightly neglecting my secondary professions. Seems like all the people in my guild have either maxed everything out or haven’t bothered at all.
Durkon and Nimitz.
My Hunter is actually my only character to have progressed in the secondary professions. He just got the Chef title, and his fishing is maxed. FA is not but he can make Heavy Frostweave so that’s all I need there.
My Shaman alt is sorely lacking in his secondaries and that’s par for the course with me.
First Aid is always good to have while levelling, and even at max level when you go out and solo the random group quest (can you tell I love being a hunter) it’s always good to have some form of instant health restoration that’s not a potion.
I don’t actually remember when I levelled cooking and fishing (wow has it been that long) but I do remember having them maxed in BC, and the fishing dailies have always been fun. I even got a croc out of it! I’m really looking forward to the new fishing dailies in 3.1, you can get a turtle mount as a rare drop. 😀
Cooking is just one of the many ways I’m trying to amass a virtual fortune now. You have no idea how much people will pay out of the nose for good buff food! It’s awesome!
I still use first aid
…actually, Blizz invested rather much love into fishing. It is very original gathering skill, looking a bit like a mini-hunt to me: messing with all those fishing gear to at least be able to fish something out in some zones; trying to catch some rare stuff… and now — all those achievements to make things even more interesting. There’s a website describing all the depths of fishing. This one give me much love to it. And it even have guides to max both Fishing and Cooking at the same time.
I really like first aid. I’ve got a stack of bandages on me at all times even though I barely use them anymore since Gift of the Naaru got buffed. (But I’m just obessive about being prepared for anything. I keep a stack of health pot and mana pot injectors, buff food for me and my pet, normal food (festival dumplings at the moment >_> ) As well as things like water-walking elixirs, fishing pole&hat and 2 pieces of T5 in my bags.) First aid was the only profession that I actually leveled while I was leveling. I didn’t think I’d ever actually use cooking and I despised fishing.
Now though? I adore fishing. I only bothered to level it up quite a while after I hit 70 when I was bored. (And wanted to go for the crocs and magical crawdad) I leveled my fishing in SW, so at least I was amused by Trade.
But anyway, I love fishing because it’s relaxing, the northrend fish sell for stupid amounts of money (I usually get 70-80g per stack for dragonfin angelfish) and there’s all the neat things you can fish up like the coins and giant sewer rat like you mentioned. I can spend hours and hours just fishing in Grizzly Hills and it’s really enjoyable to me because I am totally in love with the scenery there.
Also, with 3.1 there’s going to be even more incentive to fish. The new fishing dailies are really neat and have some awesome rewards. (Jeweled fishing pole or crab mini pet anyone?) The other huge thing is the very rare mount you’ll be able to fish up from Northrend pools. (I am so hoping for a turtle mount)
As for cooking, I leveled that when I started to get into raiding in TBC and didn’t want to bug my husband to do all my cooking for me. XD Now I adore cooking. I actually took to keeping a flint and tinder and stack of simple wood in my bags just so I could cook anywhere. I am glad that they removed simple wood as a reagent for the campfire, though. Not needing flint and tinder in 3.1 will take some getting used to, I think. (I have a gnomish army knife and without needing flint and tinder I won’t have any use for it anymore. QQ )
I also took great amusement out of trying to get every single recipe that I could find. The only ones I don’t have are the one from the AQ septre questline and the rogue-only recipe. I leveled cooking on a horde alt just so I could do the Dig rat stew recipe to transfer over to my main. XD
I do wish they’d added more first aid achievements, though. And a title like cooking and fishing have. (I have Chef but not Salty since I really dislike the fishing tourney >_> )
My main is the only character that have fishing, cooking, and first aid over 425, with cooking and fishing being maxed. I do plan on getting my cooking up, but with only the small and giant feasts being yellow, I can’t bring myself to farm up the stuff to make enough of em.
Getting my WoW fix this weekend I rolled a Human Mage and in her low teens ran into a problem fighting Westfall’s Defias; most of them come in twos or threes. I Sheeped one Defias Mage then the second Defias Mage and I exchanged Fireballs. By the time he went down I wasn’t in good shape myself…and I hadn’t bothered learning First Aid. Sheep broke and the indignant, but no longer wooly, Defias Mage one-shotted me.
Oops.
If you’re not going to level First Aid, you need a really good escape plan.
I find fishing a useful thing to do during guild meetings or while waiting for raid to finish forming (I’ve been catching a lot of salmon in Grizzly Hills waiting for Naxx runs to start). That, and my raid loves the Fish Feast.
My poor wolf gets bored stiff while fishing, though. I really should learn to put him away while fishing.
I like the secondary professions in a sort of rp kind of way. I enjoy anything that fleshes out my character and gives depth to his adventures.
Pike the minipet lover doesn’t have the fishing skill for even the Shattrath fishing dailies? I am in shock! (Although I admit that I have never achieved a fishing pet myself, despite levelling my fishing to 400-ish down in the Dalaran sewers hoping for that stupid rat…)
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OMG. We can use bandages in forms? WHY is this not written in 40 FOOT TALL LETTERS somewhere?! Why do I not know this?
I will go test this NOW.
<3