Please fix this part of fishing :{

I have the latest lvl 90 FSH BiS (ilvl 620 with ilvl 630 relic tool) with 3233 gathering point, and still takes ages to catch big fish in ARR areas that are meant for lvl 50. I can understand having to wait for the open window and then wait for the right fish to bite, its fair. but then not being able to catch them right away when they finally bite when I'm already way overlevelled and overgeared, is ridiculous.
What's the point of gearing and grinding for the relic tool then, if it doesn't help you making fishing easier? Imagine having 3k gathering point stat, but the chance of catching big fish that have taken the bait is just the same as those with 500 gathering point stat, which can go as low as ~25% success rate.
If it's to keep hard old content stay hard for the hardcore players, then maybe make it work like ultimate fight, make the gear synced down, and make it that way only on a handful of them, instead of one in every fishing hole.
Waiting for the window to open & for the big fish to bite is hard enough. Adding another RNG on top of it that's uncheeseable by gear & lvl is too much for a casual player like me I think.
So yes, I hope Yoshi-P's team reads this and consider doing something about it. :')

The relic tools do improve the part of fishing that is related to useful gathering.

They do not improve the Big Fish part of fishing that is designed more as a hobby than as a gathering activity. The RNG on ARR Big Fish even at higher levels is intended.

If you find it frustrating, don't worry about going after the Big Fish. There's Ocean Fishing for a more fun and casual fishing experience.

well I just want to clear the logs.
clearing MNR & BTN logs need some effort, but still doable.
clearing crafting logs of all 8 crafter jobs is a lot of work, but again still doable.
clearing FSH log on the other hand, the sheer amount of fish to fish (1000++) already makes it a daunting task. now added with 200++ big fish that has multiple RNG on it, if one big fish take half an hour to catch, it would easily take 100 hrs just on the big fish alone.
the problem is the difficulty spike.
and again they can make the big fish of the current patch to be very hard & slippery to catch, but let the old ones get easier to catch as you get 'stronger', just the way how most of the thing in the game is, which is basically to give a sense of progression.

If you want to clear the log you have to catch the fish. You can pretty easily get most of them in a couple of weeks because there’s so many windows open at the start. Prioritise the rarer windows, don’t forget surface slap and stop asking for freebies.

Really, what’s the point if it’s just handed to you?

?? what freebies? having to pick the right bait, while fulfilling the condition is not freebies, and that should be the main challenge of fishing. But the current design has more RNG on top of RNG, with barely any player skill involved. no sense of character progression/grow too since stat doesn't matter. I would say the current RNG heavy fishing design is bad compared to the rest of the game.

to make it clear I'm not asking for the big fish to be completely nerfed. I'm asking for the success rate to be affected by stats, so the higher your stats the more likely you'll catch them once they're hooked. which means the big fish on the latest patch would still be as hard to catch as it is now. definitely not being 'just handed over to you'

There is 1 (one) big fish that does not have a !!! bite.

Selecting the correct bait is the bare minimum and not strictly necessary when versatile lure exists.

Some fish are slippery ie will probably escape if hooked, some are shy and won’t bite often and others are both. Why should this change?

The entire fishing kit revolves around mitigating rng as much as possible; nearly every fish can be isolated based on bait used, bite time and surface slap if need be. Double/triple hook and identical cast can be used to control intuition windows, chum is invaluable in getting more attempts in and angler’s art stacks have very possibly gone too far in helping gp management. Not to mention just how far patience 2 and msb can take you on mooch-based fish.

If you don’t like fishing then don’t do it, the older fish are already easier than they were thanks to new skills and changes. Not that old fish eyes was a particularly good mechanic.

I would also like them to not feel the need to introduce fish with even shorter and less regular windows - ealad skaan last expansion is up for 30 seconds with a time and rare weather->weather condition. I strongly suspect deleting one type of gate will only lead to it being factored out and heavier dependencies on the others.

Fish Eyes nerfed old Big Fish way too much already.

it should change because just as I said it involves too much of RNG and lacks of player skill & the sense of character growth.

see, there are three main elements in most games:
1. player skill
2. character stats
3. RNG

FFXIV has a nice balance of all three of them in most of its content. but currently the big-fishing part leans toward RNG a bit too much. feels like 80% RNG, 10% player skill, 10% char's stat.
Even if it's designed to be an RNG heavy content, 50% RNG, 30% player skill, 20% char's stat would be better, basically make player skill & char stat matter more than it currently is.
Sure, now we can do the things you listed with our current skillset, but in reality it only raise the probability to catch the big fish roughly from 5% to 30%. If only they make the player skill matter more, like by using the skills properly it would raise the probability from 5% to 60%, then it would be overall a better design.
and currently the char stat is mostly only used to unlock more fish that you can catch, without really reducing the difficulties of catching them.

Actually if they choose to keep the success rate unaffected by the stat, but they do something with the skills and make them more useful in raising the chance of catching the big fish, then I would still be fine with it.

See the thing about this is, fish are alive autonomous creatures.
They don't want to be caught.
Rocks and trees do not have this sentience.

It entirely makes sense that fishing isn't going to be guaranteed. Just like IRL.

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Originally Posted by Ianmaru

it should change because just as I said it involves too much of RNG and lacks of player skill & the sense of character growth.

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Big Fishing is an entirely niche collection side of a class that's already relatively niche to begin with, outside of a handful of fish that are used in CUL recipes. It doesn't need a "sense of character growth".
Do Big Fishing if you enjoy going for it, not if it's just another thing to check off on a to-do list.

that's the problems with achievements related to the fishing log and big fishing, for some people it makes it a check off on a to-do list unfortunately. you must resist this.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

See the thing about this is, fish are alive autonomous creatures.
They don't want to be caught.
Rocks and trees do not have this sentience.

It entirely makes sense that fishing isn't going to be guaranteed. Just like IRL.

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Yeah same as our enemies in battle contents. They don't want to be defeated but the stronger we get, the easier it gets to defeat them. And hardcore realism is a thing from old MMORPGs like FFXI & FFXIV 1.0, which is proven not a very fun design, hence the current FFXIV has the realism reduced to make it more enjoyable, and a lot of ppl like it.
And again being RNG heavy is ok, but they need to make the player skill & character stat matter more in manipulating the RNG, even more than how it currently is.

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Originally Posted by Nezerius

Big Fishing is an entirely niche collection side of a class that's already relatively niche to begin with, outside of a handful of fish that are used in CUL recipes. It doesn't need a "sense of character growth".
Do Big Fishing if you enjoy going for it, not if it's just another thing to check off on a to-do list.

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Please explain why it does not need a sense of character growth while almost every other aspect in the game has it.
And 'sense of character growth' corelates directly with being rewarded of our hard work in leveling up & gearing our character. and that's what makes gaming fun. it has challenges and rewards. and the most common & basic formula is 'making your character stronger' is the challenge, and then 'the challenges become less difficult' is the reward. which doesn't really happen with ffxiv big fish.

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Originally Posted by DrWho2010

that's the problems with achievements related to the fishing log and big fishing, for some people it makes it a check off on a to-do list unfortunately. you must resist this.

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Exactly. That's why I said if they want to have some big fish that stays hard to catch forever, then they should make fewer amount of these 'ultimate' big fish instead of one in every single fishing hole. and definitely exclude them from the log.

I will not resist it though. I will still do it despite so many of you telling me to just not do it. I will do it even with the current broken design. Still doesn't change the fact that the current design needs fixing.

"please fix ultimates I can't unsync them to show my sense of progress"

It's working as intended even if you disagree with the design goal.

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Originally Posted by Ianmaru

Please explain why it does not need a sense of character growth while almost every other aspect in the game has it.
And 'sense of character growth' corelates directly with being rewarded of our hard work in leveling up & gearing our character. and that's what makes gaming fun. it has challenges and rewards. and the most common & basic formula is 'making your character stronger' is the challenge, and then 'the challenges become less difficult' is the reward. which doesn't really happen with ffxiv big fish.

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What more explanation do you need, that I haven't already stated in my post? Do you not understand what it means for a part of the game being catered towards a niche audience? Big Fishing is designed for players who enjoy hunting for rare fish for the sake of hunting for rare fish, not to "make their character stronger", or to "make the challenge become less difficult". This is why Big Fishing rewards are generally just titles.

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Originally Posted by Ianmaru

Exactly. That's why I said if they want to have some big fish that stays hard to catch forever, then they should make fewer amount of these 'ultimate' big fish instead of one in every single fishing hole. and definitely exclude them from the log.

I will not resist it though. I will still do it despite so many of you telling me to just not do it. I will do it even with the current broken design. Still doesn't change the fact that the current design needs fixing.

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SE already limits the amount of Big Fish added with each patch to about 6-9, with the initial expansion patch not even adding a single one. There have been about 28 Big Fish added with Endwalker, compared to almost 200 normal fish.

You sound like you're just stubbornly trying to complete a collection, despite not enjoying it, simply because "so many of you telling me to just not do it". Stating that the current design is broken, even though you're missing the point of the design completely. But enjoy wasting time on doing something you don't enjoy, I guess.

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Originally Posted by Ianmaru

And again being RNG heavy is ok, but they need to make the player skill & character stat matter more in manipulating the RNG, even more than how it currently is.

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But that's not how real life fishing works and the system here is the game's attempt to replicate that.

Every dedicated fishing hobbyist has their tales of the big ones that got away and rarely have a tale of the big ones they've actually caught. Even with the RNG in game stacked against you, your odds of success here are still much greater than they are in real life. But it does require a lot of time and a lot of patience.

If you would rather invest the time in other things, then don't worry about completing the log.

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Originally Posted by Nezerius

You sound like you're just stubbornly trying to complete a collection, despite not enjoying it, simply because "so many of you telling me to just not do it". Stating that the current design is broken, even though you're missing the point of the design completely. But enjoy wasting time on doing something you don't enjoy, I guess.

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It doesn't make them any different from a significant part of the player base that feel like they must do it all and have it all. I used to be that way until WoW broke me of the habit. I'm currently trying to help my cousin break the same habit.

If it's not fun, it's not worth doing in a game. It only leads to stress and unhappiness to push yourself to do things you do not enjoy. We already put up with that in real life, better to leave it there.

Leave the big fish log to those who truly enjoy doing it.

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Originally Posted by fulminating

"please fix ultimates I can't unsync them to show my sense of progress"

It's working as intended even if you disagree with the design goal.

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Invalid. I have stated in my first post that if they want to make it work like ultimate, then sure its fair but the problem is the number of them is way too many. make only a bunch of them instead of one in every fishing hole. currently theres 200++ big fish out of 1500++ fish in total. that's like 12% of the whole fish in the game, while the ultimate fight in battle content is only 5 out of 200++ 8 man content, which is only 2.5%.

And they definitely should be out of log. just like how the master recipes in crafting log is uncheckable, because they're meant to be the hardest part of crafting, only for those who need it. and not for being cleared as log entries.

Plus ultimates are fine despite can't be unsynced, since it involves a lot of player skill, not just RNG.

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Originally Posted by Nezerius

What more explanation do you need, that I haven't already stated in my post? Do you not understand what it means for a part of the game being catered towards a niche audience? Big Fishing is designed for players who enjoy hunting for rare fish for the sake of hunting for rare fish, not to "make their character stronger", or to "make the challenge become less difficult". This is why Big Fishing rewards are generally just titles.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

But that's not how real life fishing works and the system here is the game's attempt to replicate that.

Every dedicated fishing hobbyist has their tales of the big ones that got away and rarely have a tale of the big ones they've actually caught. Even with the RNG in game stacked against you, your odds of success here are still much greater than they are in real life. But it does require a lot of time and a lot of patience.

If you would rather invest the time in other things, then don't worry about completing the log.


It doesn't make them any different from a significant part of the player base that feel like they must do it all and have it all. I used to be that way until WoW broke me of the habit. I'm currently trying to help my cousin break the same habit.

If it's not fun, it's not worth doing in a game. It only leads to stress and unhappiness to push yourself to do things you do not enjoy. We already put up with that in real life, better to leave it there.

Leave the big fish log to those who truly enjoy doing it.

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hmm now this makes me think.
Is it not fun because its catered toward the niche audience? Or does it have a small amount of audience (hence niche) because its not fun?
If it's the latter then that's a good reason for them to fix the design, basically to make it more fun so a lot of ppl would do it. I believe the dev wants that every content in the game to be enjoyed by as many players as possible anyway.

The attempt to make every job appealing to everyone has removed more fun than it added. You are not entitled to log completion without putting in the requisite effort. You also appear to have a more niche view than those who like big fishing in that you are the only person arguing for its deletion.

1 king of each pond + 6 legends spread across each zone is a pretty good distribution. Some are significantly easier, some tend to be the last caught. You are probably not approaching it efficiently if you don’t have at least 100 - you can catch most big fish in nearly no time. My fishing alt did
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...7038/image.png
in a few days. It's even easier when you start due to the sheer number of attempts and windows you can make.

Honestly it's in your own best interest right now to not continue further with Big fishing just for the sake of "completing the log." Remove that desire entirely. Sure, it's quite often an initial motivator. But, along the way, you have to develop some enjoyment from the process, or it will burn you, hard.

You're complaining about ARR fish being a struggle? Those are among the easiest and most nerfed fish in the game, due to the complete lack of skills when they were introduced compared to the tools we have now. There's only a few that may qualify as troublesome still, and none on the level of fish in later expansions.

Big fishing is a test of wills. And if this is all it takes to get under your skin, your sanity is at risk in the face of even more notorious targets.

The funny thing about burnout?

Fishing is what I do WHEN I burn out on other things.

When the hype is huge, and everybody is excighted, and I'm just burnt out and just don't CARE...

... you'll find me fishing in some volcano somewhere.

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Originally Posted by Ianmaru

Is it not fun because its catered toward the niche audience? Or does it have a small amount of audience (hence niche) because its not fun?
If it's the latter then that's a good reason for them to fix the design, basically to make it more fun so a lot of ppl would do it. I believe the dev wants that every content in the game to be enjoyed by as many players as possible anyway.

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Fishing in most games is something that is added just to satisfy a niche audience, because there will be that one person that is like "why can't I fish in this game?"

The amount of people that fish consistently in this game is very small.

Hence not a lot of resources are allocated to the niche activity, regardless of the "fun level" of it.

It's continued to be developed because it's part of the game and actually a larger amount of people that don't fish would complain if development stopped on it and no more resources went towards keeping fishing levels going as expansions keep going.

Sure, the devs "want" (re: would like) every content in the game to be enjoyed by as many players as possible. But that is an impossible goal to attain.

Impossible goals are not something to be chased (or extra amounts of money put into). That just leads to wasted resources that are not a good return on investment. (ironic considering the financial state that Square Enix is in right now because their business choices lately)

I get that some things are supposed to be more difficult. Tedium is not something I've ever had a problem with.

Yes, I AM a completionist and I collect achievements.

When the line is crossed where even *I* am starting to pull my hair out - something is up.

It all seems to be in the lower levels. I'm wondering if there is something broken in the code where if you have too MANY stats - you miss.

Cause that's what happening. Ignus Horn - I'm looking at you.

I have hit dozens of windows. Many have no bite - and the few I've had - were misses.

Do I need to strip naked to fish? That doesn't seem right at all.

Just because RNGesus isn't being kind to you doesn't automatically translate into "the game code is broken".

If there was an actual bug, you should report it.


If not, game is playing out as intended and you're just having a run of bad numbers not rolling in your favor.

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Originally Posted by fulminating

Selecting the correct bait is the bare minimum and not strictly necessary when versatile lure exists.

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Uh, unless it's mooched from another fish, you definitely can't catch the big ones with a versatile lure, or at least it's virtually impossible.

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Originally Posted by DrWho2010

Just because RNGesus isn't being kind to you doesn't automatically translate into "the game code is broken".

If there was an actual bug, you should report it.


If not, game is playing out as intended and you're just having a run of bad numbers not rolling in your favor.

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That is why I came here - to see if it matched up with anyone else's experience. Trust me - there are things that can happen after this long a time and very old content.

Whether it has or not, is what I'm trying to determine. But when I am sitting in maxxed out gear and lvl 90 for hours - and I see sprouts land beside me and THEIR catch lands, it does make me wonder.

It's not that the bites are few and far between - which they are, it's that I can't seem to land them for the life of me in ARR content.

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Originally Posted by Ianmaru

hmm now this makes me think.
Is it not fun because its catered toward the niche audience? Or does it have a small amount of audience (hence niche) because its not fun?
If it's the latter then that's a good reason for them to fix the design, basically to make it more fun so a lot of ppl would do it. I believe the dev wants that every content in the game to be enjoyed by as many players as possible anyway.

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You're making a couple of assumptions that you shouldn't make.

1- The developers are not trying to make every content appealing to as many players as possible. They know that isn't possible. Instead, they're trying to create a good experience for those who do enjoy that content type.

2- The "niche" audience for big fish content isn't small. It's rather large. Fishing is a popular pastime in Japan and the JP player base, along with a fair number of NA, EU and OCE/SEA players, enjoy the big fish content.

Do not expect SE to make any changes to big fish content beyond adding more big fish to catch. If you're not enjoying the system as is, the best thing to do is ignore it. You can always fill your fish log with all the normal fish then ignore the big fish that you haven't caught.

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Originally Posted by DrWho2010

Fishing in most games is something that is added just to satisfy a niche audience, because there will be that one person that is like "why can't I fish in this game?"

The amount of people that fish consistently in this game is very small.

Hence not a lot of resources are allocated to the niche activity, regardless of the "fun level" of it.

It's continued to be developed because it's part of the game and actually a larger amount of people that don't fish would complain if development stopped on it and no more resources went towards keeping fishing levels going as expansions keep going.

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This. THIS. Someone who actually identifies the problem instead of just blindly defending the current design and be like, "it is what it is man, take it or leave it". I agree with everything you said.
Talking about niche, there was another niche content in the game: PVP. It was niche until they finally reworked it and made it fun.

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Originally Posted by fulminating

1 king of each pond + 6 legends spread across each zone is a pretty good distribution. Some are significantly easier, some tend to be the last caught. You are probably not approaching it efficiently if you don’t have at least 100 - you can catch most big fish in nearly no time. My fishing alt did in a few days. It's even easier when you start due to the sheer number of attempts and windows you can make.

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Ok first, I got your point. You want me to know how doable the big fishing is. Yes I know it is doable. But is it actually fun? If it was fun it would have attracted more ppl to play it. And if you think I say its not fun because its difficult, then that's wrong. Ultimate fights are difficult, but they're fun.
And saying that the current big fishing design work as intended is just like saying pre-rework PVP worked as intended. It did work, and it did have niche audience. But should it be improved? Obviously. They reworked it and not only the niche pvp audience, but also those who are not into pvp enjoy doing it more than before. Same as current big fishing. It has obvious flaws that can be fixed.

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Originally Posted by Everra

Whether it has or not, is what I'm trying to determine. But when I am sitting in maxxed out gear and lvl 90 for hours - and I see sprouts land beside me and THEIR catch lands, it does make me wonder.

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Yes I definitely feel you. Although I believe its just RNG messing with you, not a bug. That's why I'm saying RNG is the source of the problem.

Again, im not asking big fishing to be nerfed. But to be less RNG heavy and make the player skill & character stat matter more than it currently is. They can stay elusive, but not because of RNG, but because they need the player to be skillful enough to catch them.

Fun is subjective. The fishing discord has around 10,000 online members with another number offline and mainly revolves around big fishing. It's a subset of the population that enjoy fishing as it is. As a subset of the population, it's a bit larger than blue mage discord, larger than the eureka/bozja one and larger than an ultimate one. Not everyone shares your view.

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Originally Posted by VictorSpoils

Uh, unless it's mooched from another fish, you definitely can't catch the big ones with a versatile lure, or at least it's virtually impossible.

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Versatile should work on everything up to legendary big fish. I'm fairly certain I caught at least one ARR fish with it (green jester) and a sanity test in moraby bay yielded a !!! bite that escaped with no message about unsuitable bait/stats etc. It's not as efficient as using the correct bait for certain, but should work.

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Originally Posted by Ianmaru

This. THIS. Someone who actually identifies the problem instead of just blindly defending the current design and be like, "it is what it is man, take it or leave it". I agree with everything you said.
Talking about niche, there was another niche content in the game: PVP. It was niche until they finally reworked it and made it fun.

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Except waaaaaaayyyy more people PVP than fish so good luck getting the purse strings loosened to get resources allocated to fishing.

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Originally Posted by Ianmaru

That's why I'm saying RNG is the source of the problem.

Again, im not asking big fishing to be nerfed. But to be less RNG heavy and make the player skill & character stat matter more than it currently is. They can stay elusive, but not because of RNG, but because they need the player to be skillful enough to catch them.

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There's not enough interest from either the devs or a scant few threads on the forums to change the system. Want to see change? You're going to have to start a movement.

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Originally Posted by fulminating

Fun is subjective. The fishing discord has around 10,000 online members with another number offline and mainly revolves around big fishing. It's a subset of the population that enjoy fishing as it is. As a subset of the population, it's a bit larger than blue mage discord, larger than the eureka/bozja one and larger than an ultimate one. Not everyone shares your view.

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Firstly, discord member count doesn't prove anything. I hate the current design but I would still join the fishing server because I need the infos shared there to make things easier for me.
Secondly, you're right. Fun is subjective. But the formula is not. There's a set formula in designing a game to make it enjoyable. FFXIV wouldn't be as successful as it is now if it doesn't use a good formula. And this formula is used nicely almost in every contents in FFXIV except big fishing. And that's what I meant when I said that the current big fishing is not fun compared to the others.
Thirdly, ok sure I believe what you said about how you and everyone in the big fishing community enjoy the current design. But then it doesn't mean improving the design would make it no longer enjoyable for you.
See, the goal is not to take away 'the kind of fun' you're currently having. But to improve it so it's not fun only for you, but for others who don't share your view too.

Telling a lot of ppl who are not lucky enough with the RNG to just give up with clearing the log is selfish & gatekeeping at best.
The least the dev can do is, again, taking the big fish out of fishing log the way they took out master recipes from crafting log checklist.

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Originally Posted by DrWho2010

There's not enough interest from either the devs or a scant few threads on the forums to change the system. Want to see change? You're going to have to start a movement.

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Yes I noticed that's why I decided to make a thread and hopefully get their attention.
One thing I'm sure of is, there's barely any complain thread about fishing is not because the design is already perfect, but simply because there's not enough ppl doing big fish to get to that point.
Idk about starting a movement though, sounds like a big deal. Wouldn't be harder than clearing the fishing log with the current design though LOL.

Has anyone pointed out that the original and still intentional design of fishing is not to be a collectables thing, not to be something players just do and move on with, not even meant to be a place for players to show off their 'skill'?

It is - instead - designed to be a part of the game that intentionally slows the player down. It has, and continues to be, designed in such a way that the player has to stop and appreciate the environment and the world. "[Fishing] is a way for the player to communicate with the environment of Eorzea" is the quote from YoshiP around the launch of 2.0, I believe. You can even look at the fishing log to see how fishing and the world itself are intertwined.

Now, to your point on catching Lv50 fish in 90 BiS, and claiming "what's the point if it's not making it easier to catch?" The thing is, it does make it easier.

At Lv50, when the fish would be 'on content' - you have barely any skills. Fish would be significantly more difficult to catch. Even if you're, Lv90 in Lv50 gear, you won't have enough GP to utilize some of the recent skills. Shonisaurus, over in Witchdrop - when it was released back in 2.5 or something, you had only Mooch to use, which means (at the time) you had to get lucky with your bites and hope for multiple HQ (now large-sized) fish in a row to even had a chance.

Come Heavensward and the level cap of 60, Fisher's got Patience I and II (P1 was originally a Lv50+ skill!), meaning you didn't have to hope for luck to get your HQ fish to mooch; a HUGE nerf to the fish. Add in some new baits and in just one expansion, it went from being one of the hardest fish to catch to one of the easier ones.

Then Stormblood, we get Double Hook. All those Heavensward fish like Charibenet or Sea Butterfly that required multiple fish to trigger Fisher's Intuition? All nerfed because now you could catch more than one at a time, meaning more intuitions per window, and more chances to catch the fish.

Jump ahead to Shadowbringers and we get Identical Cast and Surface Slap - the latter being the most powerful skill in a fishers arsenal. Literally able to affect the chance of a fish biting. Unconditional, a Stormblood Legendary fish in Azim Steppe overnight became one of the most straightforward fish to catch. Use Stonefly Larva, catch a Nhaama's boon, and Slap it, and the next fish that'll bite in the window will be Unconditional, 100% of the time. Will it stick? Not as often, but it went from being "it'll take me multiple windows to catch" to "I can probably catch multiple in a single window." ... and this is before we even talk about the new Fish Eyes change.

(Continued because I ran out of post space)

You say "What's the point of gearing and grinding for the relic tool then, if it doesn't help you making fishing easier?" - the point is to give you access to as many of the tools as you possibly can to improve those RNG chances that you are concerned about. Leveling and getting gear means you can actually catch the fish (as all big fish have minimum gathering points you need to meet in order to have a chance to catch when they bite). Better gear gives you more GP to utilize the skills that have been added over time to make fishing easier and more accessible to casual players (as you call yourself).

It's as you requested: "again they can make the big fish of the current patch to be very hard & slippery to catch, but let the old ones get easier to catch as you get 'stronger', just the way how most of the thing in the game is, which is basically to give a sense of progression."

This is exactly what happens, however unclear as it may be. Fishing has, and remains, a progressive job that has the player slow down to soak up and enjoy the world. It is uniquely the ONLY feature of the game that does this. If you're in it just to check the boxes and then move on as quick as you can, you are in for a bad time.

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Originally Posted by Everra

That is why I came here - to see if it matched up with anyone else's experience. Trust me - there are things that can happen after this long a time and very old content.

Whether it has or not, is what I'm trying to determine. But when I am sitting in maxxed out gear and lvl 90 for hours - and I see sprouts land beside me and THEIR catch lands, it does make me wonder.

It's not that the bites are few and far between - which they are, it's that I can't seem to land them for the life of me in ARR content.

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If you think a fish is bugged, the best angle is to bring it to other fishers. 'Sample size of one' is a killer in fishing experiences, especially when you're going through the journey solo; Sometimes you just roll a critical fail, and a random completely unimpressive fish becomes your nemesis. In fact, most people who are big into fishing can probably name one or two of them in their experience (mine are Golden Pipira and Cosmic Haze). Mostly fishing people hang out in dedicated discord servers, but they are public.

Of course, there's no way to increase your chance to catch a fish after a point; rare fish especially will always have a chance to get away. It doesn't matter how good your Gathering and Perception rating is, the chance for losing the easiest big fish to catch in the game is always the same once you meet the Gathering rating catch it in the first place.

All that said, while I very much doubt you're hitting a bug, Ignus Horn is exactly the sort of fish that could be bugged for a while; as it's been explained to me, the rarest fish in the game are often the ones with the most active people watching them. So despite the really low odds for catching, say, Cinder Surprise, the collective community would still notice if something about it broke, because there's enough people all going for the exact same fish that we'd notice a change in statistical odds. But something relatively 'quiet' like Ignus Horn wouldn't have that level of attention on it; if something somehow broke that fish, it would be much harder to notice.

So if you really, genuinely think that a fish is broken, the best choice is to get a crowd of fishers together and test it; create enough of a sample size so as to be statistically significant, and then prove that the average of what you get is lower than the average we all expect. Yeah, that's a bit of a pain, but it's the only way to prove that something isn't working as intended in a fundamentally luck-based part of the game.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fruity_Snacks

"[Fishing] is a way for the player to communicate with the environment of Eorzea" is the quote from YoshiP around the launch of 2.0, I believe. You can even look at the fishing log to see how fishing and the world itself are intertwined.

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I can't speak for any statements at launch, but a very similar quote came up in the lore and localization panel in the latest FanFest, so it's still a direction they hold to!

ealad skaan doesn't exist