This page summarises how to catch Curious Crate.
About Curious Crate
- Contains: 2-6 Knothide Leather Scraps, 1-3 Netherweave Cloth, or 1-3 Fel Iron Ore. May contain Weather-Beaten Journal.
- Value:
- Vendor: 20c - Contents worth more.
- Auction: Varies. Most of the contents of Curious Crates will sell at auction.
Catching Curious Crate
Notes: Rarely caught from any pool in Outland (4-5% of the catch). Also from open water in Nagrand, Netherstorm, Terokkar Forest and Zangarmarsh (under 1% of the catch).
Commentary: There are no pools primarily containing Curious Crates.
History: 2.3: Weather-Beaten Journal first found in contents.
| Water | No-junk skill | Areas | Catch Rate * | Commonly caught fish | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % of Catch | Source | |||||
| Bluefish School - Inland | 475 | 5% | Sample: 234. | |||
| 490 | 5% | Sample: 234. | ||||
| Brackish Mixed School - Inland | 400 | 5% | Sample: 145. | |||
| 450 | 5% | Sample: 145. | ||||
| Highland Mixed School - Inland | 500 | 5% | Sample: 1060. | |||
| Mudfish School - Inland | 475 | 5% | Sample: 93. | |||
| 490 | 5% | Sample: 93. | ||||
| Pure Water - Inland | 475 | 5% | Sample: 384. | |||
| 490 | 5% | Sample: 384. | ||||
| School of Darter - Inland | 450 | 5% | Sample: 105. | |||
| Sporefish School - Inland | 400 | 5% | Sample: 228. | |||
| 450 | 5% | Sample: 228. | ||||
| Steam Pump Flotsam - Inland | 400 | 5% | Sample: 109. | |||
| 450 | 5% | Sample: 109. | ||||
- [*] % of Catch is the approximate proportion of all catches in this area/water, that are the named fish.
Other Tomes
Learn More
- Pools and Wreckage - Describes how to fish pools such as schools or floating debris, where to find pools, and how to efficiently fish them.
- The Burning Crusade - Fishing changes in the first expansion.
- 2.3 Changes - Patch 2.3's changes to fishing, including the pool Tracking Journal.
Below are anglers' comments about Curious Crate.
Outland Crates - Why no Greens?
katie333, June 2008:
When I first starting fishing the Outlands I was pleased to find a variety of different pools and fish. I was a little disappointed that Curious Crates only netted (literally!) a few Fel Iron Ore, Leather Scraps or cloth. I have never seen anything other than these (or scrolls, steam pump flotsam etc). Pre-outlands, crates yield (small amounts of) silver, multiple crafting reagents, as well as a fairly good ratio of greens and even the occasional blue.
So, why, I wonder did they stop this practice in the Outlands, where they improved overall loot everywhere else?
el, June 2008:
The lack of anything exciting in the Outland crates is seen as a let-down by a lot of people. It's a missed opportunity to add that little element of surprise.
The most likely explanation is that fishing was forgotten in the rush to get TBC finished. The clearest evidence for this can be seen in the last 2 zones to be completed: Shadowmoon Valley consists entirely of useless catches, while water in Blade's Edge isn't even fishable. So the theory goes that the crates were intended to contain Outland greens, but Blizzard simply never found time to put them in.
It is also possible Blizzard decided that fishing was already very profitable, and adding potentially valuable greens to the mix was excessive.
More generally there are 2 factors that seem to dictate design decisions:
- Fear of fishing 'bots: Hence the bias to pool fishing, which is exceptionally hard to automate.
- The Social vs Gameplay pendulum: Sometimes Blizzard view fishing as an entirely social activity, and sometimes as something that is core to success in other parts of the game. The balance between these objectives seems to change, often without apparent reason.
The Burning Crusade introduced Furious Crawdad, which were very hard to catch when TBC was launched. They cooked up to provide the only +30 stamina food in the game, so became an essential buff on a raid tank. Clear example of fishing for gameplay reasons. But then the pendulum started to swing again: When the Skyguard faction first appeared on test servers, a +30 stamina buff food was found on their vendors (with Friendly reputation, which is easy to attain). Basically removing the role of fishing to provide that food. The change didn't occur, but Highland Mixed Schools were tweaked to make Crawdad fishing easier.
