No Way But The Hard Way

Cooking and First Aid have always been fairly easy to level in World of Warcraft. These 2 secondary professions could easily be progressed via the random drops in the expansion levelling process. The key components are cloth and meat, which are always in abundant supply or alternatively for those with a bigger budget, they could be levelled via the Auction House in a matter of minutes.

Fishing and Archaeology take a far more leisurely approach, but have been significantly streamlined over the years with daily quests for fishing and more fragments per digsite in the case of archaeology.

First Aid is still as easy as ever but the new grindy profession is Cooking with the new ‘Way of’ system. Levelling from 1-525 is now a one stop shop, but 525 to Zen is a different kettle of fish.

It is only 2 days ago, I was espousing the need to only do the parts of the game that you want to, and yet I am here today to complain about the jumbled mess I am in, trying to complete all 6 ‘Way of’ at the same time. The figures below tell their own story.

 

Total Ingredients to Complete all 6 Way of
	Brew	Grill	Oven	Pot	Steamer	Wok	Total
100 Year Soy Sauce	5	5	5	5	5	5	30
Ginseng	25						25
Green Cabbage	250						250
Jade Squash	65				250		315
Witchberries	315						315
Jade Lungfish		13		25			38
Raw Crab Meat		50					50
Raw Tiger Steak		25					25
Redbelly Mandarin		50					50
Striped Melon		65					65
White Turnip		250					250
Krasarang Paddlefish			76				76
Mogu Pumpkin			250				250
Raw Turtle Meat			50	13			63
Wildfowl Breast			25		50	13	88
Juicycrunch Carrot				315		50	365
Mushan Ribs				50			50
Reef Octopus				50		13	63
Emperor Salmon					63		63
Giant Mantis Shrimp					25	50	75
Scallions					65		65
Crocolisk Belly						50	50
Red Blossom Leek						250	250

There are 22 items involved so that is potentially 22 bag slots or nearly an entire bag devoted to the basic ingredients, and that is before you start making the end product. Of these items only 2 are purchased, these items are Ginseng and 100 Year Soy Sauce.

Vegetables

Vegetables can of course be grown on the farm or alternatively a bag of 25 can be purchased with an Ironpaw Token.
 

Green Cabbage	250
Jade Squash	315
Witchberries	315
Striped Melon	65
White Turnip	250
Mogu Pumpkin	250
Juicycrunch Carrot	365
Scallions	65
Red Blossom Leek	250

Although at first glance the figures look on the high side, it is quite easy to achieve when the farm is in full operation with 16 slots. The downside is the opportunity cost of not growing Motes of Harmony.

Meat

Meat is the by-product of killing beasts and you will naturally accrue a sizable stash through levelling and daily questing. It could be argued that 88 is a lot of birds to kill.
 

Raw Crab Meat	50
Raw Tiger Steak	25
Raw Turtle Meat	63
Wildfowl Breast	88
Mushan Ribs	50
Crocolisk Belly	50

Fish

Fish is the result of fishing (duh), and in my opinion is the part where the ‘Way of’ system falls down. These appear to be very large quantities of fish, and in particular 75 Giant Mantis shrimp.

Jade Lungfish	38
Redbelly Mandarin	50
Krasarang Paddlefish	76
Reef Octopus	63
Emperor Salmon	63
Giant Mantis Shrimp	75

For anybody who has gone off in search of the fabled Giant Mantis Shrimp, there are not many pools available and you will spend plenty of time flying around the coast of Pandaria looking for them.

Fishing and Cooking have always had a symbiotic relationship but there was nearly always an alternative. Now the budding chef must also be a fisherman, and quite frankly this is another grind on top of our other grinds. In many respects it mirrors the issue of gating reputation behind another reputation; it is double trouble and will only lead to more complaints and extra discontent.

Blizzard has to traverse the rocky road between content and repetition, and at the moment repetition is winning.