[Contests] STV Extravaganza Support Group

12…5

  1. Triseult <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Thought I'd start a topic for all those of us who are trying desperately to win the Tournament, so we can commiserate and share tips...

    I've been trying to win the Tournament for 5 weeks now. Every Sunday, I mumble an excuse to my girlfriend to become intensely busy for 60 minutes (including prep time.) Each time so far, I've had to stone to BB and then do the "walk of shame" of going back to Grom'gol, taking the Zeppelin to Org, then the Zep to Warsong Hold, then the long Flightpath to Dalaran... Sigh.

    Anyway, what's even more frustrating/exciting is that I'm getting REALLY close now. Over the last 3 weeks, I've scored 37, 37 and 38 when the winner was announced. What a pulse-pounding finish...

    Last week, I tweaked my strategy a bit:

    - Tried to go to the island at the northwest... Found it already taken by 2 people, decided against it.

    - As a result, I went to the west coast of STV (I previously fished at the east side.)

    - I also decided NOT to fight others for the pools... When someone came by my pool, I finished fishing, fished another one if I had just started, then moved on. This was to avoid having 2 people run together looking for pools.

    - I also avoided fishing in someone else's pool.

    My 38 doesn't tell the whole story... I was actually very unlucky with my catches, AND fought too long with a pool that was poorly placed... Also, near Grom'gol, I had a LOT more people than down east, and still pulled in 38, which is amazing. I feel that with a little luck, I would have gotten this.

    So, my advice:

    - Make sure you set your Hearthstone to BB (just in case this wasn't painfully obvious by now.)

    - I don't think either the east or west side is better... Both seemed relatively similar.

    - DON'T fight for pools. Just move on when someone gets to yours, so you can get the next pool by yourself.

    Still, I'm not a winner... yet!

  2. Sythen <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    I would like to add my story here and would hope that you wont see it as boasting, it simply shows how much luck is involved in this competition.

    So I have taken part in the STV Fishing Competiton 3 times and have won it twice.
    The first time I took part and won it was on a character I was still levelling, it was under lvl 60 (no epic mount) and I also hadn't got the Fish tracking either.
    The second and third times I took part was on my main level 70 Paladin (epic mount and Crusader Aura) also had Fish tracking.

    I used the same tactic all three times, get to the south coast of STV about 10 minutes before it starts make sure fishing pole is equipped and the fishing button is hot-keyed properly then wait for the schools of fish to appear. Then just run up and down the south coast fishing out all the schools you see, skip any schools with more than 2 people fishing in them. I didn't even bother setting my hearth too BB on any of my attempts.

    Hopefully from this story you can see that there is only so much preperation you can do before you have to leave it down to luck.

    A couple of top tips:

    1. Make sure you have 30-40 minutes of time where no one will bother you.
    2. You have to concentrate solidly for this time, so make sure you've had plenty of sleep the night before.
    3. Lastly, don't give up if you don't win it first time, like I have said, it's largely down to luck.

    Happy Fishing :)

  3. Acquiesce <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Ok, let's see what I can offer as far as advice.

    First off, I've competed 4 times in the STV-FE and won the contest 3 of those times. Each time, my character was max level (didn't really matter) and Find Fish was not yet working with Tastyfish.

    Tip 1: Set hearth to BB

    Tip 2: Create a macro so you can keep track of your catches without checking your bag

    Tip 3: Know the terrain. Spend a few minutes running around the area you plan to fish. Check for low-water spots and hard-to-cross areas. This'll help you when you want to jump a pool or attempt to climb over a small hill.

    Tip 4: Auto-loot, always.

    Tip 5: When in doubt, recast. Did your bobber land CLOSE to the pool but not quite inside it? When in doubt, recast. Don't risk 22 seconds to find out you were outside the spawn.

    Tip 6: Stay. Don't run up and down the coast, don't switch from West to East of vice-versa. I have a favorite spot. 3-8 nodes pop up and I never travel more than 50 yards in either direction.

    Tip 7: Give other people ideas. When you finish fishing a node, if there's others nearby, mount up and start heading off. Check to see if they do the same. They'll think they're clever and start moving in the opposite direction. That's when you turn around and go right back to where you were standing.

    Tip 8: Just because you're moving, doesn't mean you're winning. I know we can all feel that if we're not running about, on the move, we're losing time. In this competition, you're not. Just stand still and wait for those pools to spawn around you. Every time you head north, you're going to be forced to continue along further when you find someone already fishing a node. Why keep traveling when the nodes practically come to you? Standing in place, you're going to know where the pools spawn. Traveling, there's no certainty. Find that spot near multiple nodes and wait. I've lost a good 5 minutes waiting on pools, but I've still won 3/4s of the contests I've entered (only lost the first one I tried, before I used this technique)

    Tip 9: Choice is yours on whether to share a node or not. I'd like to believe that being considerate is a favor oft-returned, but let's be realistic, some of these folk are bastards. =P

    Tip 10: Be twichy. It's not cool, but have your face right up against the screen if it makes you feel more on-your-toes. Be ready to recast on a moment's notice. While your bobber is just sitting there, plot whether you're going to head north or south next. When you're on your final few fish, think about what direction your character faces when you hearth back to BB and how best to get back to the goblin outside.

    Fishing is meant to be relaxing. This tournament? Not so much so. Worry about having fun later. First time around, just focus on trying to win.

    Anyway, best of luck =)

  4. Triseult <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Amazing... The suggestion to stay in one spot is counter-intuitive, but it might just work. Gotta try that. :)

    Thanks for the recommendations... Maybe it's my server, but I feel it's a very stiff competition despite what I feel is a good performance... I've been fishing almost non-stop this week, but I got a lot of non-Tastyfish, and I was stubborn about a pool that was half-visible... Should have just abandoned it in retrospect.

  5. Samessa <Angler>, 4 years ago:

    Perhaps the stakes have gotten higher since the achievement system started, but I didn't really have much trouble with a win. This is what I did:

    1) Set your hearthstone to BB. This one's obvious.

    2) Head up to Yojamba Island. Get there early and hang out. Chances are some people will come by, see you already there, and decide it's not worth fighting you and leave.

    3) Get a friend. This is actually the biggest piece of advice. When I won, my girlfriend was on another character on the island with me, scouting out new pools. That way, I could go directly from one pool to the next, without any time wasted. Sometimes there were no pools, but I was able to cover twice the territory with her running around too. Another benefit is in an area as small as Yojamba, if others aren't scared off by one, they'll very likely be scared off by two.

    Honestly, I think it's the combination of fishing at Yojamba with another person scouting out new pools that won me the competition.

  6. Acquiesce <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Samessa wrote:

    Honestly, I think it's the combination of fishing at Yojamba with another person scouting out new pools that won me the competition.

    I can't recommend Yojamba because from my experiences, that's where the twinks go when they're trying to fish up the gear.

    With no mobs to worry about, it's safe fishing for them. Might depend on the server though.

  7. Andre <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Hello all!

    The title Salty seemed out of my grasp before this weekend. I didn't have the coin achievement, the rare fish and, most importantly, the fishing tournament. With a little help from my guildies I managed to win it (first time I've tried it too!) and I'd like to share my experience with you guys!

    I started fishing little south of Grom'gol. First thing's first, I've been an avid fisherman for a long time and I have to say that my experience in catching pools of fish really helped on this. You really learn how to position yourself in front of a pool to make sure your bobber has a better chance of landing on it. Also, you get a good experience knowing if your bobber is actually in the pool range, so you know if you need to recast it or not. If you guys really wanna go for it serious, make sure you practice a lot!

    A good suggestion to practice is going for Dark Herring if you guys haven't done the "One that got away" achievement. There are plenty of schools in Howling Fjord and I hear it has a 1% chance to drop from them. But the practice is the most important part!

    Going back to the tournament, I had a group of 4 people helping me. I was always escorted by a ret paladin. He was doing two things for me. One: Scouting the next pool. Two: killing anyone within 50 yards of me. He had a vital role in making sure I didn't get ganked. I only got griefed a couple of times by a shaman who was also going for the tournament but my buddy killed him, so he was just rezzing and trying to put me in combat. But nothing major.

    My 3 other buddies were a rogue, druid and another ret paladin. They were basically walking everywhere killing any horde trying. They didn't take a lot of time griefing alliance bobbers because I told them I trusted my abilities of fishing and they gladly didn't let me down!

    I'm a shaman so I had water walk on all the time. I highly recommend you guys getting a shaman to help you because it is VERY useful, especially since you can mount with water walking now!

    Took me about 20 minutes and I won it. Remember, when you turn in make sure you choose your reward (I chose the pole, obviously) or else you'll get the "Please choose a reward" error!

    After winning the fishing event it gave me motivation go to for the rare fish and the coins, which I did and now I'm Salty!

    Sorry if my english is a little confusing, it's not my first language. And good luck everyone!!!!

  8. erin <Angler>, 4 years ago:

    I've been trying for about 3 months now. I feel your pain. But I think I'm getting better - I think I'm getting to the point where I can't do much more to improve my strategy - I just need to find a Sunday where luck will take me the rest of the way there.

    Some things I've learned:

    1) I tried the first few weeks fishing in places that weren't as popular. I mistakenly assumed that every competitor had done the same research so areas like Twink Island and just south of the base camp would be crowded. I think the crowded thing varies from server to server, so it may take a while to find a sweet spot. Even once you find it, that spot may just have drawn the short stick in the spawn lottery that week. Taking some time to explore doesn't hurt if you're having a bad week and know the win isn't going to happen that week.

    2) The absolute most important advice you can take is not to share a pool. Find an empty one, if someone joins you, finish your bobber out and move on. I read this advice, but I didn't take it at first because I thought I would get too far behind look for fresh pools. One week, I was sure I wasn't going to win, so I tried it out, and low and behold it was my best week out of all the past ones. If the competitor that joins me at the pool is having trouble getting their cast in when my bobber has finished, I'll cast another. I consider them "at the pool" if their bobber is actually in the pool. I can usually get another tastyfish out of the pool because the person next to me has had some unlucky cast lands or just doesn't know what they're doing.

    Next time I think I'm going to try concentrating on one general area. After the loss last week, I wondered around and found some spots that allow me to see up to 5 nodes on my mini-map and several more in camera view all at once, so I think I might camp there. I got my closest this past week, 36 when the winner was announced. I think I might have pulled it off, but I spent too much time mounting up and running north of an area that had a lot of spawn points to an area that only had a few. Then I'd fish those out and have to mount up to get all the way back.

    Also, I might add, Luck works in mysterious ways. I left STV not long after the loss, and went to Dalaran where in just a few casts I had a Giant Sewer Rat in my hands. Since the expac, I've probably had less than 50 casts total in the sewer. I think the RNG was feeling bad for me that day and decided to throw me a bone...er, rat.

  9. Zahana <Angler>, 4 years ago:

    Almost every weekend (missed twice) since I started playing WoW again in August.

    Before then 2 or 3 times a month (got caught up in dailies/heroics/vacations/etc from time to time) from January to May

    Closest I've come, had 40 hearthed to turn in to find him dead, was turned into a zombie and killed, by the time I ressed and got back he spawned and the annoucement went out that someone had won.

    I'm seriously ready to say screw it. After what is close to 50 attempts, I'm just about ready to hang up my fishing pole and just gank every Horde in sight.

  10. ajijika <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    ^^^^ I have only been trying the last two weeks (I know, an STV-FE rookie from the sound of it, but a longtime fishing lover) and the first week I was about 10 seconds off... had 40, hearthed, and saw the guy who won turn the quest in right in front of me. So frustrating!

    Nevertheless, I'll be back tomorrow. This is the last item on the Salty agenda for me. Just fished the Dark Herring with about 100 casts.

  11. Kaiyne <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Won last Sunday (12/6) on Elune for my Salty title in 18 minutes!

    East Coast of STV worked out well for me, being with 2 of my guildies seemed to be enough to chase the other fishermen off before the contest even began.

    7 of my guildies were running up and down the coast flagged, trying to harass as many players as possible and spotting pools ahead and behind me. Packed lots of Swiftness and Water walking potions.

    By the time I turned in for the contest, we had 20 Alliance chasing my guildmates down the coast mercilessly corpse camping them and everyone in my guild receiving tells about we were being reported, totally immature etc.

    Of course, they don't seem to understand that it's not about holding hands and sharing fishing nodes and singing cum-by-ah. It's about WINNING at ALL COSTS!

    Much thanks to this site for the many insightful and helpful tips.

  12. Kahless <Herring Addict>, 4 years ago:

    Real fishermen win the contest using skill.
    There's absolutely no reason to harass other player on a PvE server.
    If you can't win fairly, you're not a winner in my book.

  13. robie69 <Angler>, 4 years ago:

    If anyone is on the US Server mug'thol give me a buzz, twinks name = Koios 19 NE hunter....pst me if u want so me help getting the hat or boots =)

    thank you

  14. Mushroom <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Haven't gotten to compete since I work on Sundays, but today I managed to sneak out early and participate for the first time. Thanks to all the great information and advice on this site, I holed up on Yojamba and found it all to myself for 39 tastyfish, moved quickly between pools, and never let a cast run out if I wasn't sure it was in the pool. 19 minutes after starting, I won my Salty title!

    Thanks to everyone who posted for the tips, and to El for the great site!

  15. Triseult <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Sigh... I usually pull in 36+ in the tournament, but this week the east coast on my server was FILLED with people... And organized people too: they had spotters, and people to fake fishing in the same pool as to scare people away. They still didn't win, though.

    Got a measly 25, which I still consider pretty good considering the level of competition... I have a sneaking suspicion the winner is using Yojamba, though. So next week... that's where I'm headed.

  16. Invisible_Elf <Angler>, 4 years ago:

    Going to share my little secret since I already won the tournament twice:

    North-west of that horde town (can't remember the name) there is a little island with water elementals on. Around that island there are 4 pool spawns, but only 1 of them will be up at a time. Should be worth checking out.

    Also stock up on those elixirs to run on water. If you are a rogue get the sprint glyph for waterwalking.

    I don't think anyone mentioned it in this thread, get the fish school tracking thing too, it works for tastyfish schools

  17. anniefish <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    I won today on Cenarius.

    BEST advice given here is to leave a pool if someone else was there. Made me very nervous to leave a pool and go to the next but I do believe it paid off.

    I will say though, that there wasn't the tons of people fishing as I've seen in the past so maybe that was key.

  18. Triseult <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Alas, the Master Angler crown still eludes me...

    I've tried Yojamba this week, even arrived 45 mins in advance... No dice, it filled up with people fighting over pools. Moved on to the west coast, and experienced frustrating delays trying to fish in the "bugged" pools... I lost with 30 fish.

    Next week, I'm moving back to the east coast, where I had the best luck... And I'll stick to that strategy for a while, until I win or give up. I'm suspecting there's just too many people participating on my server, so I have to start thinking in terms of sharing pools (otherwise I abandon pools and never get my own.) I did that the first week and got 38.

  19. Balsymcgee <Angler>, 4 years ago:

    Tomorrow will be my first time competing in quite a while, and thanks for the helpful advice.

    I was wondering how stiff the competition was going to be, and the closest estimate I can get, comparatively, is by server population. I was under the impression that I was on a really high population server (Hyjal), and therefore, there would probably be more competition than average. While this isn't a totally accurate picture of how many will be competing in the contest, it does reassure me a little bit, since I found out that my server ranks about 138th out of about 240 servers in population. I thought for sure it would have been higher on that list, since there are long queues most evenings.

    Anyway, here's what I've gathered so far, which pretty much constitutes my "plan":

    1. Set hearth to BB.
    2. Show up about 1hr early and try to scout out a good place.
    3. Pools - I will fish them with one other competitor for a couple of casts, but then move on.
    4. Don't try to change spots. It wastes valualble time.
    5. Make sure to auto-loot.
    6. Know which reward you want (pole!).
    7. Track fish.

    Other than that, I guess it's just "feel it out" based on the level of competition on a server-by-server basis, and what your competitors are doing.

    Anyone see any flaws in my plan, or have anything to add?

  20. Kalazia <Salty>, 4 years ago:

    Just wanna say how greatful i am for the resources here. I won today, which was the first time ever i entered the competition. I expected it to be hard on a roleplaying server but it turned out my knowledge of how it works and the preparation based on your info proved to be enough to win :D ... not to get the one that didn't get away and Pinchy :)

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