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in fact it would almost never make sense to get this rod because the only time it would be useful is when you have 300 fishing. and the chances are rather good that you could complete the quest for nat pagle's rod at that point which gives +25. the only time it would make sense is if you have fishing of 300 but you are under lvl 40.
I completely disagree with this statement.
If you have plans to fish in the high level waters later on you’ll need the +20 the Big Iron Fishing Pole will give you. Even using +100 lures you’ll still need the fishing pole, unless you don’t mind having every other fish escaping off your hook.
The +25 fishing pole you mention if from a horde only quest. Nobody on the alliance side can get that pole. So if someone is playing on the horde side and they are willing to wait until they can kill level 50 turtles to get the quest pole, then they may not need to try for the BIFP. But that doesn’t help anyone playing on the alliance side.
But my biggest objection to your post is in its tone. And I fully admit it’s just a difference in play style. Your post makes it sound like the only joy to be had from WoW is from number crunching. If that’s all there was to the game I would have quit over a year ago. One of the things I enjoy about WoW is setting a goal and trying to attain it. For example, I have one of each color of the non-combat dragon whelp pets. It took me months of killing whelps to get them. In that time I could have easily farmed a hundred times the gold it would have cost me to buy them in the auction house. But I don’t consider it time wasted. The point of this game is to have fun. I had fun killing the whelp with the anticipation that the next one that dropped could hold my precious pet.
The BIFP if a fun item to have. It’s yet another goal. Whether someone farms it themselves, which I always prefer, or farms the money to buy it, the fun of owning the pole makes it worthwhile. And in this particular case there’s an added benefit. The BIFP is a white item. It does not bind when you use it. So if you should ever get a better fishing pole you can pass the BIFP to an alt. Or even sell it if you no longer need it.