Guide to Non-Stamina Food Buffs in World of Warcraft

Food buffs in World of Warcraft can do one of two things - boost your stamina or boost your damage. Tanks will generally choose the stamina buff over any other kind. Everyone else will opt for food that can give you bonuses to damage or healing.

There are a number of different buffs including +23 Spell Damage, +44 Healing, +40 Attack Power, +20 Agility, and +20 Strength. Each buff also gives you +20 Spirit, although this is of little consequence except for healers.

Spell Casters

The +23 Spell Damage buff is the normal choice for casting classes. You can obtain this buff from three different foods.

• Blackened Basilisk
• Poached Bluefish
• Crunchy Serpent

I chew through a lot of this stuff as a mage, and I find the Blackened Basilisk to be the easiest to farm by far. Any Basilisks in Outland have a chance to drop this meat, but I always farm the ones in Terokkar Forest.

The green Basilisks are densely populated along the river banks, so I travel up and down the river killing them. They are level 63 and they die in a couple hits. They have a fairly good drop rate, and I can gather a stack in 10-15 minutes.

If you like to fish, you can catch the Icefin Bluefish in Nagrand and cook it into the Poached Bluefish. Crunchy Serpent is made from Serpent Flesh, which you can get from the flying serpents in eastern Blade's Edge Mountain.

Healers

The +44 Healing buff can only be obtained from one food and it is one of the best reasons to learn how to fish. Golden Fish sticks, made from Golden Dartar, is the only way to get a + Healing buff from food.

Once you have a fairly high fishing skill (400+), you can find Golden Dartar in Terokkar Forest. The most efficient way is to fish any open water in Terokkar Forest. You'll get about 20% Golden Dartar, according to El's Extreme Anglin' Guide, so you can expect to catch a stack or two in an hour. You could also fish in schools of Dartar, but the time spent looking for them will make it less efficient then fishing open water.

Finally, you can get some of these out of Mixed Highland Schools. It is not an efficient way to get Golden Dartar (at most 1 Golden Dartar per school), but if you are looking for Spicy Crawdad then you can expect to get some Golden Dartar as well.

There's no way to do this without fishing... so go back to Elwynn and learn to fish if you haven't already.

Rogues

+40 Attack Power is suitable for most melee classes. Warriors, Feral Druids, and Retribution Paladins won't see much of a difference between this and the +20 Strength, so they can be used interchangeably. This is most suited for Rogues, though, who are looking to maximize their Attack Power and are willing to give up a bit of crit to do so.

The buff is available from one type of food - Ravager Dog. You'll need to gather up some Ravager Flesh to cook it. The meat is most plentiful among the Ravagers in southern and southwestern Hellfire, but you'll also find some in the desert around Toshley's Station.

Warriors, Paladins, and Druids

Similar to the +40 Attack Power is the +20 Strength buff. This is most suited for Warriors, Feral Druids, and Retribution Paladins. It still grants them +40 Attack Power, but strength can be modified by Blessing of Kings for a further buff.

This buff is obtained from Roasted Clefthoof, which is made from Clefthoof Meat. You can find Clefthoofs in several places, but the best place to farm is around Nagrand.

There's no significant difference in drop rate between the three types of Clefthoofs in Nagrand, so kill whatever is around. You'll probably find Talbuks in the area, so you might as well kill them as well to get some Stamina food. This will give your Clefthoofs a chance to respawn.

Rogues, Hunters, Tanks

Finally, you can get a +20 Agility buff. This is well suited for Rogues concerned with their crit strike chance. They sacrifice 20 Attack Power (vs. the Ravager Dog) in exchange for a bit more crit.

It is definitely the food of choice for Hunters, though. They'll get an equal amount of RAP as with the Ravager Dog and they will also get some crit strike chance.

A tank may also wish to use this food (especially a Druid, but also a Paladin) in order to maximize their avoidance. A druid will get about 1.33% Dodge and a Paladin will get about .80% Dodge.

You'll find the Agility Buff on two foods - Grilled Mudfish and Warp Burgers.

The Grilled Mudfish can be cooked up from Figluster's Mudfish. This fish is found in Nagrand, and like the Golden Dartar you have about a 20% chance of catching a fish while fishing in open water.

This is a fairly straightforward way to farm, but I prefer to go after the Warp Burgers. Warp Burgers are cooked up from Warp Flesh, which can now be found in abundance around Skettis. If you spend a lot of time in Skettis, you can kill a few Warp Stalkers while you're there. They drop the meat fairly well - about a 50% drop rate - and they are very densely packed. Farming a stack of food shouldn't take more than about 15 to 20 minutes.

Figure out what food buff is best for you, and happy hunting! Never show up to a raid hungry again.