New Player Tips: We're Going To Need A Bigger Boat

New Player Tips is a recurring feature in which we ask World of Warcraft veterans to share their thoughts and advice for new adventurers on a variety of in-game topics.

This week's topic is: fishing.

Fishing is one of the four secondary professions available to all characters in World of Warcraft, along with first aid, cooking, and archaeology. Training and improving your fishing skill gives you the opportunity to capture all of the different creatures that lurk in the various waterways of Azeroth and Outland, supply the raw meats for many cooking recipes, feed hunter pets, and sell your surplus to other players.

Characters of all races have been known to catch all manner of unexpected objects while fishing.  You might haul up a crate full of goods that fell from a ship, or a long-lost weapon, or a fish so big that you can equip it in your off-hand. Dedicated anglers may even find companion pets and mounts that can only be obtained by fishing.

What are your favorite spots to fish? How do you suggest a fishing beginner go about starting out, and where would you send a person to get their feet (and their bobber) wet? If you had it to do all over again, what would you have done differently in your pursuit of the one that got away?

For more information about fishing, feel free to join the many discussions in the World of Warcraft Professions forum. For a crash course in fishing, check out the Getting Started guides at El’s Extreme Anglin’.

See what players had to say last week about add-ons.