Mists of Pandaria is now a reality, and being my third expansion playing the game (I started during Burning Crusade), I wanted to do something a little different this time.

I thought about trying for a realm-first achievement rather than wading through the huge crowds of toons in the starting areas. I settled on trying to be the first person on my server to level Fishing to 600. I perused the Bible of WoW fishing, spend quite a while making sure I had empty bags and my fishing gear ready to fire off – I had an Arcanite Fishing Rod from winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza so I felt I was in with a fighting chance. After some investigation of locations to park myself near a Fishing Trainer, I chose the dock at Menethil Harbor because it was quiet and the trainer was nice and close to the water.

I was banking on Stormwind being a laggy mess, so I didn’t have a daily fishing quest ready to hand in to get a 2-point head-start, instead gambling on getting cracking on casting straight away. I was logged in and waiting to start 15 minutes early, which was a good thing as Blizzard flicked the switch to Mists of Pandaria at 4 minutes to 5pm local time. I trained up, blinked to the spot I wanted to fish at, and…. pressed the wrong key and put myself in an Ice Block. I lost 5 or 6 seconds there cancelling it but otherwise started on time.

There started 1 hour and 50 minutes of tedium although I found it surprisingly enjoyable knowing the prize at the end (plus my GM had offered 10K gold to the first guildy who got a realm-first). As had been predicted, the average casts per skill point was around the 5 mark. Only once did my skill points go up 2 points, the rest were singles. I stuffed up two casts by clicking too early but otherwise had a smooth run. I also used lures half a dozen times but they don’t take more than a few seconds to attach. All up I would have lost one minute max on a perfect run.

I got from 525 to 592 when the dreaded realm-first notice went out – that person obviously had some good luck with the cast ratios and had probably handed in a daily as well. About ten minutes later I pinged 600, at least getting a guild-first. Here’s what I had fished up (I had fished up 3 fish before launch, hence the discrepancy in total numbers):

So there it was – it was disappointing not to pull off the realm-first but not being close made it easier in some ways. And hell, if anyone needs 258 Rainbow Fin Albacore, I’m the guy to see.

What I’ve learnt for next time (if there is one!):

1. Do have an old fishing daily ready to hand in to get a head-start
2. Don’t bother adding a lure to your rod unless you care about the fish you’re catching – it just adds time
3. The whole thing is luck of the draw – if you have a bunch of 2 or 3 cast per skill points you are in with a chance, otherwise you’re pushing it up-hill.

Over to you: did you attempt any realm-firsts and if so, how did you go?