One of the most profitable gold farms in WoW Season of Discovery involves the Big Iron Fishing Pole, which is currently the best possible pole that you can obtain during Phase 1, providing a whopping +20 skill bonus. If you master this method, it will be very easy for you to earn a lot of WoW SoD Gold!
Intro
Big Iron Fishing Pole is significantly stronger than all other options, making it extremely valuable to any player interested in fishing.
However, actually getting your hands on one of these poles is much easier said than done. The item has a 1% chance to drop from Shellfish Traps in Desolace, which can be found underwater in this part of the zone.
Since this area is directly below Shadowpre Village, Horde players have a clear advantage for this farm. But Alliance players can still get here fairly easily by flying to Feathermoon Stronghold and then swimming north along the coast.
Challenges Of Accessing The Shellfish Traps For Big Iron Fishing Pole Farming
Reaching the farm spot is the easy part, though as actually opening up these Shellfish Traps is extremely deadly.
For starters, this entire section of the zone is swarming with level 35 mobs. And since you’re underwater, it’s really hard to escape if you accidentally pull a few mobs.
In addition to having hard-hitting auto-attacks, many of these hostile Makura will also Frost Shock you, which reduces your speed and makes it even more difficult to escape.
While many of these patrolling mobs can easily be avoided, there’s still a 50% chance for a hostile crab to spawn directly on top of you whenever you attempt to open a Shellfish Trap. This means that even if you perfectly avoid pulling extra Makura, you’ll still have to deal with these high enemies and their nasty abilities.
These mobs are the primary reason why farming a Big Iron Fishing Pole is so difficult, as many classes simply don’t have any good ways to deal with them.
The positive side to this is that a huge chunk of the player base won’t be able to reliably do this farm without dying constantly, and this is a good way of keeping competition low.
Additionally, if you’re able to consistently escape from the crabs without dying, you’ll be able to farm traps much faster, increasing the profit that you’ll be making from this farm.
Quick Tips
With that being said, here are a few quick tips that I’ve been using to survive the crabs and increase my farming efficiency.
First and most obviously, Druids are the undisputed kings of the Big Iron Fishing Pole farm. You don’t need to be a Druid to participate in this, but if you have one as an alt, you should probably be using that character.
Aquatic Form is extremely powerful both for moving between different traps and escaping the hostile Makura.
It is still technically possible to die while swimming away as a Druid. But by using your self-heals and abilities like Nature’s Grasp, you can usually escape from the mobs before they manage to kill you.
Another crucial buff to consider is Water Breathing. And while Druids, Warlocks, and Shamans can achieve this with spells, other classes will need to rely on Elixir of Water Breathing.
You can technically get away without using this by swimming to various air vents on the ocean floor. But this runs the risk of pulling additional mobs, so I wouldn’t recommend it.
For pet classes, such as Hunters or Warlocks, you can also use your pet as a distraction while you swim in the opposite direction.
I’ve sometimes run into issues when my pet is unable to land a hit, and the mob continues to chase me down. But in most cases, I can swim a far enough distance away before the Makura finishes off my pet and hunts me down.
Finally, you could rely on Swim Speed Potions to quickly escape from the mobs. But I would only recommend doing this if you’re consistently dying without them.
The cost to craft these things can be a little pricey if you’re using one to escape from a crab every single time. But they are nice to have if all else fails.
As a final note, while no section of the subzone is truly safe from the mobs, I’ve generally found that the traps directly below the docks of Shadowpre Village are the easiest to farm, especially if you’re a Horde player. This section of the water contains relatively few patrolling Makura. And if you’re fast enough, you can try to run into town and get the guards to help you out.
Options After Obtaining The Big Iron Fishing Pole
Once you finally manage to loot a Big Iron Fishing Pole, you’re left with 2 options.
You can either sell it for a small fortune to an enterprising fisher, or you can use it yourself to make even more money by fishing in high-level areas across the world.
