Dragonspine, am I doing it wrong?

I seem to get about 7-8 of them per hour. Using Patience II all the time, using a macro (see below). I mostly get Ogre Horn Snail, and the occasional Cherry Trout (even if using Precision Hook, but 95% of them get away). I fish at and around 9/10 in Coerthas Western Highlands. Bait is Signature Skyball.


/ac Cast <wait.13>
/ac "Precision Hookset"
/ac Hook

EDIT:
Gathering: 2100, Perception: 1798, GP: Way up in the 800's

I'm not 100% sure but your stats look low. More gathering would probably help

7-8 an hour seems really low. IIRC I caught all 60 in just a couple of hours. Maybe the issue is your macro? That's a lot of time and GP wasted reeling in everything, even ones you know are wrong.

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Originally Posted by SnowVix

I'm not 100% sure but your stats look low. More gathering would probably help

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My stats look low? With all Aesthete's and all overmelded with 5 materias?

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Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

7-8 an hour seems really low. IIRC I caught all 60 in just a couple of hours. Maybe the issue is your macro? That's a lot of time and GP wasted reeling in everything, even ones you know are wrong.

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I tried it with 20 seconds, but it didn't help much. Maybe 20% bite after 13 seconds, and the extra casts you get in, with Patience II, should more than make up for it.

Are you using Identical Cast?

The macro is interesting, are they actually all 13 sec bites? Seemed to remember it as more like 12-15 but could be wrong if you're not getting any misses.

I'm betting it's the macro and at 13 seconds you're just plain missing a lot of bites. And I also second using Identical Cast if you have the GP to spare. It helps a lot.

13 seconds is too low.
The catch window opens at a bit under 20 seconds and closes at 25 seconds.

This is the timer macro I used, I still had to manually catch the fish with Precision Hookset, mainly due to a fixed timer on activating Precision is useless due to the bite can happen in a 5-ish+ second range.
It was mainly a way to display on screen when the window would open and when it had passed, which the Hook action would activate as to not to waste the bait nor GP. Basically, when the countdown got around the 5 second mark and lower, any one ! bite was likely a Dragonspine.
With this timer, for each 2 minute window of Patience2, I would almost always get 4 Dragonspine (on a successful catch activate Identical Cast) and occasionally 5
This is not without downtime and lotsa High Cordial, the downtime being waiting on GP to max out and Cordials going off cool down.

/ac "Cast"
/wait 1
/countdown 22
/wait 24
/ac "Hook"

Wait for GP to be 100% full, use Pacience2, chug a High Cordial, then click the timer and be ready on Precision Hookset while watching what ! you got in the correct time frame.... any non one !, let the timer run out.
This way you will have enough GP for two Identical Cast attempts and more than enough for Precision Hookset for each.

Early theorycrafting had assumed the coral shared the same bite timer as the spines, they do not.
The coral works around the times you used in your macro.

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Originally Posted by Kirika-

13 seconds is too low.
The catch window opens at a bit under 20 seconds and closes at 25 seconds.

This is the timer macro I used, I still had to manually catch the fish with Precision Hookset, mainly due to a fixed timer on activating Precision is useless due to the bite can happen in a 5-ish+ second range.
It was mainly a way to display on screen when the window would open and when it had passed, which the Hook action would activate as to not to waste the bait nor GP. Basically, when the countdown got around the 5 second mark and lower, any one ! bite was likely a Dragonspine.
With this timer, for each 2 minute window of Patience2, I would almost always get 4 Dragonspine (on a successful catch activate Identical Cast) and occasionally 5
This is not without downtime and lotsa High Cordial, the downtime being waiting on GP to max out and Cordials going off cool down.

/ac "Cast"
/wait 1
/countdown 22
/wait 24
/ac "Hook"

Wait for GP to be 100% full, use Pacience2, chug a High Cordial, then click the timer and be ready on Precision Hookset while watching what ! you got in the correct time frame.... any non one !, let the timer run out.
This way you will have enough GP for two Identical Cast attempts and more than enough for Precision Hookset for each.

Early theorycrafting had assumed the coral shared the same bite timer as the spines, they do not.
The coral works around the times you used in your macro.

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I would rewrite that macro to the following

/ac Cast <wait.25>
/ac Precision Hookset
/ac Hook

I don't think Countdown has any effect on fishing, or does it? Use Precision Hookset to make sure that last second bite isn't wasted on Hook. And if Precision Hookset can't be used, Hook will reel in.

They start biting as early as around 6-7 seconds. Most bite before 13 seconds, as far as I've found. Using 13 seconds should in theory get you more of them, since you can use Patience more of the time. I'll give yours a try next time I have an hour to spend on this annoying "quest". :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

I'm betting it's the macro and at 13 seconds you're just plain missing a lot of bites. And I also second using Identical Cast if you have the GP to spare. It helps a lot.

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I commented on the 13 seconds earlier.

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Originally Posted by Liam_Harper

Are you using Identical Cast?

The macro is interesting, are they actually all 13 sec bites? Seemed to remember it as more like 12-15 but could be wrong if you're not getting any misses.

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From what I've found, so far, they start biting around 6-7 seconds and most bite before 13 seconds. I can be wrong, since I've only gotten 30 so far (haven't done it for a couple of days). I will try the 25 second suggestion (from another player) later.

I have an alt with worse stats than yours, fishes enough each week for the challenge log.

Usually 10 - 12 dragonspines / session. WAY less than an hour.

My advice. Drop the macro, pay attention. If netflix is that important tune your macro and accept the lower catch rate.

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Originally Posted by Shadygrove

I have an alt with worse stats than yours, fishes enough each week for the challenge log.

Usually 10 - 12 dragonspines / session. WAY less than an hour.

My advice. Drop the macro, pay attention. If netflix is that important tune your macro and accept the lower catch rate.

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I have Bipolar Disorder, and my hands are kind of shaking a little in addition. Not easy to keep up with modern games, so I prefer macros when things are time sensitive.

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Originally Posted by Shadygrove

I have an alt with worse stats than yours, fishes enough each week for the challenge log.

Usually 10 - 12 dragonspines / session. WAY less than an hour.

My advice. Drop the macro, pay attention. If netflix is that important tune your macro and accept the lower catch rate.

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And why are people commenting as if my stats are bad? I have the best gear available in this patch, and everything is overmelded.

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

And why are people commenting as if my stats are bad? I have the best gear available in this patch, and everything is overmelded.

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That player was saying that "Their alt (Shadygrove's Alt) has worst stats that you (Angelhearth)"
They did not say that you have bad stats.

And the point they were making is that the target fish can be caught with less than optimal stats, which is true... They can be caught with gear and stats that was previous patch less than optimal.

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Originally Posted by Kirika-

That player was saying that "Their alt (Shadygrove's Alt) has worst stats that you (Angelhearth)"
They did not say that you have bad stats.

And the point they were making is that the target fish can be caught with less than optimal stats, which is true... They can be caught with gear and stats that was previous patch less than optimal.

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That was the second or third time someone mentioned it, so I was starting to wonder, because, so far, no one has said, you have more than high enough stats, or, your stats are to high, and because of that you get more bites from other fish.

Well, while high stats help with most fish, rare "big fish" and quest-only types are generally just on a set RNG table.
Meaning, if you do have the minimum required stats for the fish to be in the loot-pool, and you have the correct bait/time of day/weather/location/active quest/any-other-variable that effects the direct ability to catch said fish, then that fish will be in the RNG loot pool but subject solely to it's fixed values and RNG.
The fish's "hidden stats" come into play of which we can only theory about it's effect, meaning, lets say for example, the target fish has a "hidden stat" of it has a 70% chance on a bite to get away, so no matter how high your FSH job level is over the fish's level or how high your Gather/Perception/GP is, 70% of the time it will always get away.
It gets really annoying on old ARR content "big fish" which have an on bite fixed value to get away (among other hidden stats), generally always getting away it seems, when you should be the god of the fishing pole having stats a couple thousand points over what is required to get a bite from one.

However, that is one of the reasons that the FSH job is closer to real life, as while stats help to unlock the fish in question, it really boils down to if the fish will let you catch it.

What I ended up doing, and that seems to give the best result, is to dress up in Dwarven Cotton/Swallowskin/Lignum Vitae. Mend max GP and nothing else. Wait until GP has maxed out and you have a HQ Cordial ready. Use Patience II followed by the HQ Cordial. Never try to reel in a !!. Use Precision Hookset on ! and Identical cast when enough GP + enough GP to use Precision Hookset once more. This method, with the mentioned gear, got me a regular 3 HQ Dragonspine, sometimes even 4 or 5, a few times 2, per Patience II. Using my regular gear seems to get me unwanted fish too much. RNG is RNG, sure, but with too high stats you seem to get the unwanted fish too many times. I have not taken into account the weather, as this is hard for a single person to do, with so low drop rate, but I don't think the weather has any influence, neither time of day.

Stats don't affect what fish bite in a pool. All fish in a given spot will bite at the same rate no matter what your stats are. Gathering only determines whether or not the fish will get away when it does bite, and perception only affects HQ rate. The only thing that affects what fish will bite are bait, time, and weather. Wearing lower level gear just gimps your stats for no benefit (higher spiritbonding speed is still a valid reason to do it, though).

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Originally Posted by Espritduo

Stats don't affect what fish bite in a pool. All fish in a given spot will bite at the same rate no matter what your stats are. Gathering only determines whether or not the fish will get away when it does bite, and perception only affects HQ rate. The only thing that affects what fish will bite are bait, time, and weather. Wearing lower level gear just gimps your stats for no benefit (higher spiritbonding speed is still a valid reason to do it, though).

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I thought so too, but I tried it as a last resort, because the rate of getting the damned fish was so extremely low.

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Originally Posted by Angelhearth

I would rewrite that macro to the following

/ac Cast <wait.25>
/ac Precision Hookset
/ac Hook

I don't think Countdown has any effect on fishing, or does it? Use Precision Hookset to make sure that last second bite isn't wasted on Hook. And if Precision Hookset can't be used, Hook will reel in.

They start biting as early as around 6-7 seconds. Most bite before 13 seconds, as far as I've found. Using 13 seconds should in theory get you more of them, since you can use Patience more of the time. I'll give yours a try next time I have an hour to spend on this annoying "quest". :)

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This has helped me greatly. The timer is nice and I've gotten about 12 in 20-30min. I was a doof and was using Patience I. XD
Thank you for the insight!