The Game Dame

Izo over at Murdering Murlocs has broken a story that I hadn’t read until just now. Izo says that two WoW UI mods have had keylogging viruses hacked into them. Go here to read more and find out what you can do to repair or prevent this problem.

Here are some more pictures from my first tour of Outland the other day.

	Riding out from the Dark Portal into Outland. Graphics quite impressive, as are the monsters! I’m not sure what those castles mean at the top of the screen. I am guessing is some kind of Horde vs. Alliance PvP control meter. FOR THE HORDE!!!
	Taking my first flight in Outland. You fly past these floating rocks, meteors, and even cities in the air! I guess gravity works differently here. If you get a flying mount, maybe you can visit these floating places and kill stuff.
	Stay close to your level 70 bud! A ginormous THING started chasing me that could’ve killed me with one stomp. You can see from my chatter with Charah that I was running for my life most of the time. On the horizon was a glorious vision of peace.
	Cenarion Refuge. A wonderous place filled with beautiful glowing mushroom… buildings? I have no idea what those things are because we didn’t stop. I had a date with Shattrath, after all! But the Refuge was a thing of beauty, Alliance & Horde, dogs & cats, all living together in harmony. Or at least in day-glo colors.

[digg=http://digg.com/pc_games/How_I_Won_the_Stranglethorn_Vale_Fishing_Contest]This past Sunday I won the weekly Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Extravaganza on the Thorium Brotherhood server!!

I first heard about the contest by accident about a month ago when I was in Booty Bay waiting for an instance group (which never materialized, of course). I saw the goblin contest/quest giver and he explained the contest to me.

That first day must have been special because not only was Stranglethorn Vale full of fish pools, but there were also a lot of Floating Wreckage spots from which I fished much treasure, including some greens! I think I made 10 gold in 2 hours of fishing that day so I was (wait for it…) HOOKED!

For some reason, every time I’ve done the fishing contest since, there haven’t been any pools of wreckage. However, the contest’s special fish, called Tastyfish, net you 23 silver for every 5 fish — that’s 4.6 silver per fish! — so it’s still fairly lucrative. There are also rare fish that can be turned in for greens that improve your fishing ability. My second week, I snagged Brownell’s Blue Striped Racer, a rare fish which earned me my super fantastic fishing boots.

So what did I win from the contest? I could choose from one of two prizes and I went with the Hook of the Master Angler. This trinket turns you into a very ugly fish which can swim as fast as a druid’s water form. It can get you out of tight spots you might otherwise drown in.

Here’s a shot of what I look like as a fish and the moment when that goblin dude yelled my name all over STV declaring me the server-wide winner!

Okay, but here’s what you really want to know: How can you win too? I offer what I’ve learned so far.

Tips for Winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Contest

Before You Go

• Before your first contest, do the fishing quest in Revantusk Village (The Hinterlands). The guy on the dock will give you a super fantastic fishing pole that’s second only to the pole you can win in the contest.
• The contest is held every Sunday from 2pm – 4pm server time, but I recommend you log on at least 30 minutes prior to get situated.
• A person usually wins the contest 25 – 35 minutes after 2pm, so punctuality is KEY if you are trying to win.
• Read what the quest giver says because he tells you important things about where to cast your line.
• Get a whole bunch of bright baubles and Aquadynamic Fish Attractors from the store next to the quest giver.
• If you’re a shaman like me, bring your bottles of fish oil so you can walk on water.
• You don’t have to start the contest next to the quest giver. You can go anywhere in Stranglethorn Vale. When he yells that the contest is starting, you’ll hear it all over STV. As such, I recommend waiting by the water’s edge north of the bridge by the Bloodsails so you can find a pool of fish right away.
• If you’re level 48 or lower, bring a higher level buddy to fight away the mobs that you will DEFINITELY aggro. Bring your weapon in case you get attacked — don’t whack mobs with your fishing pole!

During The Contest

• Your basic strategy is to work your way up and down the coast from Booty Bay to Grom’Gol and back again. Back and forth as many times as it takes.
• Look for pools of fish that look like oil slicks on the water. They will be tagged “A School of Tastyfish.”
• When you cast your line, make sure your bobber hits INSIDE THE OIL SLICK! A lot of people don’t know that you can re-cast your line. Keep recasting until the bobber’s in the oil slick. I map my fishing button to a key so I can just keep pressing “7″ until my bobber hits the right place. If it’s outside, you’ll catch a fish, but it won’t be a Tastyfish.
• Avoid fish pools that look like they are only half circles. They are bugged and you’ll never get any fish from them.

Get your bobber in the oil slick!	Not like this!	Avoid bugged pools!

• The pool will disappear when all the Tastyfish are gone.
• Move as quickly as possible to the next pool. That means: mount up, walk on water, use your water form, whatever it takes.
• Avoid fishing in pools where more than one person is already fishing. You won’t catch much there anyway.
• It takes only 40 Tastyfish to win the contest. When you’re getting close to 40, make sure you’re working your way south to Booty Bay so that you’ll be as close as possible when you get them all.
• When you get your 40th fish, RUN FORREST RUN as fast as you can back to the contest giver. If he still has a blue question mark over his head, you have a chance of winning. If the question mark is gone, however… well, bummer for you.

After a Winner is Declared

Don’t give up fishing after a winner has been declared. Keep fishing as long as you like until 4pm server time, racking up those Tastyfish as you go. You might also get lucky and get a rare fish too. After 4pm, you’ll have another hour to turn in all your Tastyfish for cash. The goblin female near Riggle will take your Tastyfish and the robot takes your rare fish.

Other Resources

There is more information about the fishing contest and other fishing tips on El’s Extreme Anglin’ site. But keep in mind, sometimes rules are made to be broken! When I won the contest, I did everything the opposite way that you’re “supposed” to do it:

• I started just south of Grom’gol and worked my way south rather than starting near Booty Bay and going north.
• I didn’t set my hearth to Booty Bay so I was just lucky that I got my 40th fish close enough to book it back to the quest giver.

Good luck and let me know how your fishing goes!!

I dinged level 58 last night on Slig, my Tauren shaman! So, of course I had to crawl through the Dark Portal to check out Outland. Fortunately, I had my buddy Charah with me to help me pick up the flight paths and protect me from the very bad mamma-jammas out there. I took some pictures on my tour; click them to see larger versions.

	Here I am standing in front of the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands, getting ready to go through it to Outland. Even for a Tauren, I felt really small.
	All I could think of was, “My God, it’s full of stars!“
	Here is the first sight I saw coming out of the Dark Portal into Outlands. Incredible!!
	Slig contemplates his next move. (Itchy!)

I couldn’t take many shots of the doings in Outland because it was SO INSANE and I really had to run like crazy after Charah in order to make it to the city of Shattrath alive. When I go back out there I’ll take some good tourist pictures to show you the chaos and war that rages out there.

Games I’m Playing Right Now

• World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
• BioShock
• Final Fantasy XII (kinda, it’s been a long while)

New Games I Own & Can’t Wait To Play

• Mass Effect
• Project Sylpheed: Arc of Deception
• Blue Dragon
• Halo (don’t have 2 or 3 yet)
• Kameo

Games I Don’t Own Yet But MUST One Day Soon

• LittleBigPlanet
• Halo 2 and Halo 3
• Whatever Oddworld Inhabitants cooks up next

Any thoughts? (No spoilers, please!!)