Learning from the Best

6.0.3 WoD Update: There is now a faster and more-relevant way to get this. Read my comment just below for how you can obtain this achievement in WoD!

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I'll summarize what I know about obtaining this achievement(/rewards) as well as all useful tips I've come up with thusfar. These tips will include information that will help you obtain credit toward Glorious! and Is Another Man's Treasure, if you are interested in either of those!

To raise your rep with Nat Pagle, there are three rare fish you can catch.

[item=86542]
You can fish this fish up in any inland water that doesn't have Spinefish. I'd recommend you do your Cloud Serpent dailies before fishing this, as I have (once) found the flying tiger gourami while fishing up my Sugar Minnows.

If you plan on making your raids' feasts ([item=74919]/Great Pandaren Banquet), you will eventually need a lot of Jewel Danio. Jewel Danio schools are plentiful in the Vale, and owning a [item=85973] would greatly help. I have one, and I'd highly recommend it! For that reason, I'd recommend fishing near where [npc=64004] spawns. That is where I fished for mine. I also posted some helpful tricks on that page about obtaining one, and can personally confirm he DOES spawn after an unscheduled server restart.

There are MANY rares and rare items that you can fish near while you go for this. So many that I won't bother to list them. Nearly all rares in Jade Forest, Valley of the Four Winds, and Krasarang spawn near an inland pool, for example.

Otherwise, my preferred farming spot: Arboretum (Jade Forest) or Dojani River (Krasarang)
Reason: Jade Lungfish/Redbelly Mandarin vs Krasarang Paddlefish/Emperor Salmon, which do you need more?

[item=86545]
You can fish these up anywhere that you can catch Reef Octopus, so basically any coastal water.

I guess there are some neat things you can farm/camp for when doing this. If you fish the waters in southern Krasarang you can camp for both [npc=50830] and [object=214439] while you fish. You could alternatively fish near [object=213653] in Krasarang. Over in Dread Wastes, fishing near [object=213968] or [object=213969] could also work. Near [object=213970] would be fine if you don't mind fishing inside the grotto, or just fishing aboveground for it can lend itself to checking 1-2x (beginning/end) to see if it's respawned, and is also near [object=213972], so you can check that a few times as well. Another great thing about fishing here is its proximity to other rare mobs ([npc=50821], [npc=50334], [npc=50739]) and rare items ([object=213966], [object=213964]) in the zone, as well as its nearness to one of the Spinefish Alpha locations I am about to mention.

My preferred farming spot: Angler's Wharf.
Reason: What's cooler than the Angler's Wharf? I like to fish on the dock NEAR Nat (NOT ON HIS BOAT) and think to myself "Some day, when we're BFFs, I'm gonna fish from your boat!" - it keeps the dream alive! When I hit revered with Anglers, I got my raft and now sit on my raft right next to his boat when I fish. One step closer!

[item=86544]
You can catch these anywhere you can catch Spinefish.

My preferred farming spot is between that little lake slightly northeast of [npc=50821] (her drop is [item=86589], like a shimmery potion of illusion, very cool minus the CD!) and Kun-Lai Summit's Inkgill Mere (northern part, nearest the spawn of [npc=50769] -- the item he drops works like the old "Farsight" skill and is AWESOME). They're both worth owning, and farming while you fish? A++

Once you have both, it's really up to you. I find that Kun-Lai tends to have WAY less ganking, but the spot in Dread Wastes is a real gem due to its proximity to both [npc=50334] and the northern spawns of [npc=50739] -- the latter of which drops a very nice item ([item=86578]) -- as well as [object=213966] and, to a lesser extent, [object=213964].

To the best of my knowledge, these are each 1% chances to drop. I've heard that you can only catch them in open waters, but a few people (who were downvoted significantly for some reason?) claimed they caught the flying tiger gourami in pools. I've personally caught them all exclusively in open water. In addition, I've noticed that they do not REPLACE the fish you catch, but, rather, ADD to it. I find this information useful: I watch TV or whatever while I fish with the volume up. I only look at the game to do the cast and get my mouse over the fishing icon. I then watch TV until I hear a splash. I then right click. If I hear one 'thump' (ie, one fish entering my bag) I just keep fishing as normal. If I hear 2, I look back (because I got the rare!). Helps ease the tedium sometimes (I've typed this entire thing up while just fishing ONE of the fish, and had to refresh my lure THREE TIMES in the process - it can take a while!).

Each of these fish begins their own respective quests, which can only be completed once per day. However, the fish themselves can be caught multiple times per day (catch -> turn in -> catch). Due to their unique flag, you cannot catch multiple to stock up more than one day in advance.

Each turn-in rewards 500 rep (550 with guild perk, more for humans obviously) with Nat (and 350 (385) for Anglers, but who cares? You'll exalt them FAR before Nat!). To get from 0/8400 Stranger to 999/1k BFF with Nat, you'll need 42999 rep (same as normal factions, actually, though broken up differently!). Turning in all 3 of these a day would net you 1500-1650+ rep (depending on guild perk/human racial).

Turning in all three every day, it will take you 25-30 days (depending on what perks you have and such). For the majority of us (guild perk, no human perk), it comes out to 27 days + 1 fish on the 28th, I believe.

Getting exalted with him nets you both [item=88710] (which is a great upgrade over [item=33820] if you can handle the hit in spirit) and [item=86596] (sent to you by mail). "Revered" (4200/8400 Buddy and higher) with him allows you to purchase [item=88563]. The book can be mailed to alts and costs about 1k a piece (lowered by rep/guild perks to 700g) and is re-usable. Thus, for 12 tomes (8400g) you could level an alts fishing all the way from 1-600.

Another thing worth noting: Fishing for the Spine Alpha is harder because it is a higher level area and requires a higher level of fishing. Even with my (buffed) lv712 fishing, I still fail around 50% of the time. I'd suggest not bothering with it until you approach lv600 fishing, and get the best lure you can (don't be lazy like me and use your +75 from your hat!). Between its worthless drops and high chance of failure, this one requires the most patience by far. I've found that even with lv802 fishing, I STILL get failures (over 50% still, it's brutal). I have also noticed that you can catch the spinefish alpha even when getting a failed catch. MOST of my spinefish alpha loots involve getting a junk catch + the alpha

Guess who's back for WoD!

Our buddy, Nat, is back as a follower in our garrisons! Better yet, our hard-earned MoP reputation will still matter!

Sure, there's a catch-up mechanic for others, but we still get there first. And they can finally bask in the glory of being buddies with Nat.

That said, I'm going to give you the down-low on getting BFFs with Nat in WoD! Let's begin!

Prereqs: you need to have a level 2 Fishing Shack and a level 3 Garrison, which requires you to be level 100 minimum.

You begin your WoD journey with Nat by working towards Draenor Angler, which requires you to catch 100x of every type of Enormous-fish in WoD except the Crescent Saberfish (as it's basically the Golden Carp of the expansion). There's a coastal one + an inland one in every zone. This takes approximately 7 hours to do in total, starting from level 600 Fishing with roughly +200 skill in buffs, fishing in open water.

Once you've unlocked that achievement, you can go ahead and buy [item=111928] and upgrade your Fishing Shack to level 3. After its completion, it opens up a new quest: Luring Nat (H). You basically fish up the quest item, talk to Nat in the future (ie, in Pandaria, at the Angler's Wharf) and then he shows up at your Garrison!

There, he offers a new quest: A True Draenor Angler. In this quest, he has you use his special 'bait' to attempt to fish up special quest items called Lunkers. There is one for each zone -- similar to the achievement above, except without the coastal Scorpions. Completing this quest has Nat join you as a follower! He has the 'Fishing' trait, which means you can assign him to your Fishing Shack.

When assigned to your Fishing Shack, you have a low (~1%) chance on every fishing cast to find a Lunker for that zone. These lunkers are Unique (5), so that you cannot stockpile too many at a time, but you don't have to rush back to turn them in immediately. He also occasionally appears out in the world when you're fishing and greets you! Of course, you could choose to send him out on missions as a normal follower.

When you catch a Lunker, you can turn it into Nat via a repeatable quest, which gives you 350 Reputation with the Nat Pagle Friendship! Since these lunkers have similar droprates to the rare fish in Mists (and you still need to turn in roughly 120 to go from Stranger to Best Friend), I don't expect the reputation to be too much easier to grind (minus the now-lack of daily gating!).

However! These turn-ins give a small amount of gold and a [item=117397]. This item can be redeemed for various collectables (pets/mounts) and useful fishing tools, sold by Nat Pagle, as you can see on its page, for those who didn't find Best Friendship with Nat to be enough of its own reward.

There are 6 levels of friendship for Nat Pagle. They are:

• 
  
• Stranger
• 
  
• Pal
• 
  
• Buddy
• 
  
• Friend
• 
  
• Good Friend
• 
  
• Best Friend
• 
  

To progress through each level, you need to obtain 8,400 friendship (except for Best Friend, which will stop at 999/999, like exalted reputations). So in total, you will need to gather 42,000 friendship with Nat Pagle before reaching Best Friend.