Catching Mr. Pinchy

..or how to open your own Sushi restaurant in WoW.



Since i heard about Mr. Pinchy during the TBC beta and knew you could get a very rare pet by fishing - i wanted one! So after i leveled all my other tradeskills and got my flying mount, on one day i decided to level up fishing and try to catch one.

Mr. Pinchy is a rare catch from Highland Mixed Schools, which are only found in lakes in Terokkar you need a flying mount to access. While two are rather small and abandoned, the largest Lake is packed with level 70 mobs. In addition there are two 71/72 elite giants roaming around, who tend to step on the unwary fisherman. In the sum up, until you get to know that place, it's a pain to fish there. The first day i went up there to fish, i died several times from mobs trying to gnaw a piece off me.

Exactly 10 days ago I fished my first Mr. Pinchy. Yay! The three wishes have a cooldown from two days, so it's a long wait. From the possible five wishes you'll be granted, only one yields the crab pet. So it's not only rare to catch it, you'll also need to be lucky to get the right wish. My first wish resulted in the blessing. The next one in the guardian and the last one in the furious Mr. Pinchy, who attacked me. You may understand my disappointment after the three wishes did not grant me the pet.

So what should i do? Surrender? No way! I went back to fishing... after hundreds of fishes catched.. i got a 2nd Mr. Pinchy. Yay again! The first two wishes granted me the blessing again. While having only one wish left i did not had faith in Mr. Pinchy and went back to fishing again, to catch my 3rd one. I did not catch one for some days now tho. Today i could use my last wish... and rejoice! I was granted the magical crawdad pet. *happy* If you are going to try to catch one, be aware it is very hard work. There will always be the lucky bastard (hello Malass! *g*) who just hangs in his pole and after a hundred fishes will get the pet with the first wish. But for me it took two Mr. Pinchy catches and *hundreds* of fishes. My bank is filled with approx. 400 Spicy Crawdad now. So you can imagine how many catches i had in total, counting in all the other stuff i got while fishing.

The Spicy Crawdad is the best stamina food at the moment, so it will definately come in handy for heroic dungeons or raids, so I'm not sad to have stocked up on those. I'm one Shadow Lab run away from being revered with Lower City, then it's only the Honor Hold key to go. I improved my gear as much as i could and fully buffed (no flask etc.) have now more then 15k HP - heroic here i come.

Heroes in Heroic

A few days ago i went into the Black Morass Instance (2nd in Caverns of Time) to complete my Karazhan attunement. After you "beat" the instance, you get the chance to talk with Medivh about your key. So finally I'm attuned for Karazhan! I should try to set up a group or join somewhere else to get a sneak peak into the instance - from what i hear it's lots of fun. BTW, the recent patch changed it, so those attunements like the one for Karazhan or Arcatraz will only be possible to complete by the actual group starting the instance - so far it was possible to just hold the door open for someone else. But tbh, it's all not that hard.. so no big deal.

If you want to have a look at the different attunement quests/keys, you can check them all out here.

Since i went into BM with friends and we had a really good group, we decided to grind reputation with the Keepers of Time until all of us hit revered. I think we did like 5x Black Morass and 2x Old Hillsbrad Foothills until all were done. This was a great thing to do, as for a tank there are some nice reputation rewards available, especially nice leggings and a tank head enchant. Talking about tanking, i think i did not report it in detail in my blog yet... but yes, Thulf respecced to nearly (I think Piercing Howl is very valuable) full protection again when i hit 70. It's nice to be back to tanking, but i seriously miss the DPS i had solo before. Ah well, i guess you can't have everything. ;) What is very annoying tho, is all those whispers i recently get, only inculding "What specc?" or even only "specc?". What's wrong with people?!? You think that's the best way to win a tank to come to an instance with you? Sorry, but it's not.. and what specc i have is none of your freakin' business. I tanked all 5ppl instances i went to before 70 just fine being full fury specced btw. I just think if you want someone to tag along with you and your group, put at least enough effort in it to write full sentences, increases the chances of success exponential.

After we all got to revered, we decided: "Heh! All got their heroic key, lets do Old Hillsbrad heroic!". Mind you we were running instances for hours before and BM is fun and fast paced once or twice, but after that it turns into hard work. So we turn on the hardcore switch and enter the instance... Hmm.. first thing you realize is, that all trash mobs switch to 71/72. In full tanking gear they did hit me for approx. 1500 dmg per hit, you can imagine a cloth wearer won't survive many hits from them. The first pulls went ok, nothing major problematic.
Next thing we encounter is one of the Lookouts with a dog. As soon as he spots us, he sounds the ALARM and two more mobs spawn, those were immune to many CC abilities. O.o We were so surprised, it was a fast wipe. hehe. We went deeper into the barracks, pulls went ok after some tactical adjusting. The next thing we had to realize was, that the patrols are on a respawn timer of approx. 10-15 min. After we wiped from respawning patrols, we called it for that night as we were already tired. But heroic was definately fun! Hits you right in the face... we'll be back, you bet.

I got heroic keys for Coilfang, Tempest Keep and Caverns of Time so far. Should you try heroic on these, feel free to invite me. ;)
Talking about keys, did you know that keyrings automatically expand now? No need to throw some away if you feel you get low on space.

I'm also up for Mana Tombs and Old Hillsbrad, as there drop the last two BoP alchemy recipes i still lack. Seems like every profession got a longer list of BoP drops you can farm. Here is a post with all the necessary info, should you have missed it: TBC BoP recipe drops

On a final note, i got a new ranged weapon in Black Morass, a wicked bow: Melmorta's Twilight Longbow
The ends of that bow got a particle trail attached. When you move it looks a bit like the wings from a Netherdrake, very cool.

Hell yes...

...I'm still alive. :P
I was just too busy to explore the Outlands to write in my blog. What the hell happened? Way too much to sum it up in just one post. But I'll try to take the time to shift through the tons of screenshots from time to time and write about some adventure/encounter i had during the leveling.. and also currect ones.

How does it look for me... Thulf is level 70 since some time now. The night i *dinged* 70, i went immediately to the Wildhammer to purchase my epic flying mount - just love the flying part. While working on 70, i still did spend some time on my tradeskills/professions... so maybe i leveled slower then some, but still faster then others. ;)
All my tradeskills, beside fishing (which is close) are 375 meanwhile. I know all new cooking recipes and my alchemy progress you can follow through the "In the Lab" post. Looks quite good as well in my opinion. Only one BoE recipe and two BoP recipes left which are drops, the rest is faction based. Working on it. Although i have to say demand for the new potions is not that high so far.

While working on my alchemy profession, i discovered the Flask of Relentless Assault potion. Heureka! It's quite funny when you discover something, as all players around you can see the orange text with the info and see the orange "level up animation". I discoverd mine in the middle of the night and this resulted in a bunch of spontaneous whispers and chats.


Talking about faction, meanwhile I've been in most five people instances. Auchenei Crypts and Black Morass is missing, the 2nd definately high up on my list as it's the last part missing for my Karazhan attunement. I got attuned for heroic Coilfang Reservoir and will be (approx. 300 rep missing) for Tempest Keep as well. I also worked on instance keys and got Shattered Halls, Shadow Labyrinth and Arcatraz keys.

As i always try to keep my addon list updated, here are the three latest additions: ChatMats in an updated version, just saves you a bunch of typing should people ask for mats. As Tab was broken i searched for another name completer and found Nick Completer. Really great to call people with their proper name, even when long and complicated. ;) Since i got my flying mount i also installed AlphaMap, really helpful so you won't get lost while flying around.

I'll try to update my blog more regular now.. stay tuned and check back.