Fishing, Its time to bring it in line with the other gathering jobs!!

[Kaurhz]

discussing whither or not fishing is a flawed system

On this note, IMO I wouldn't say it's a flawed system if you still think it has elements to it that can help determine success - If you pit 2 people on a fishing hole - 1, and 1 has absolutely no experience whatsoever, and no understanding of the core mechanics with fishing, against someone that has even an intermediary knowledge of fishing - The person with that knowledge in the vast majority of cases will yield more success. - Sure, someone may come around, and catch the fish a lot easier, but they will equally have many other fish that become the bane of their existence. Some people may have also been trying a lot longer, e.g., if someone comes along and simply catches Ealad Skaan in a few tugs, there is no way of telling whether this player has been trying for several months already or not.

It just comes down to who you think the target audience is or isn't as to whether it is flawed, this is why you need to understand why people do fishing in the first place. Is a solo deep dungeon for everyone, absolutely not, but those core mechanics with PotD is what draws the intrigue for many people. Fishing is really no different, and with some fish, there is an amount of satisfaction you get that is still difficult to replicate in many facets of the game when you catch certain fish.

Many people want to try Big Fishing and it isn't for everyone. - Many people want to try solo running deep dungeons, and it isn't for everyone. - Many people want to try raiding be it savage or ultimate's, and it isn't for everyone. It shouldn't be about making it for everyone, this is the reason we have so many complaints about certain facets of the game because they have eliminated everything which draws that initial intrigue all under the crusade of having it appeal to everyone. Fishing is genuinely one of the fewer activities in the game that are timeless. In that no amount of gear will solve all of the issues, there are still hurdles to overcome. - I do know quite a few people that have tried big fishing just recently because of the Adventurer Plate template locked behind it. Historically it has been almost exclusively for the title, achievements (and these people are insane regardless) or just self-satisfaction

Ultimately, everyone is on the same baseline with the fish some people are lucky, and some people are not - It's the same with loot, mount farming, minion farming, reaching high floors in treasure maps, and IMO to a degree if big fishing were as simple as getting gear, and winning with a 100% success rate on the tug, then that could easily come under bad design, depending who you see as the target audience.

I don't think fishing itself is a flawed design. I would, however, go on record to say that there are some fish that are abysmally designed in their conditions, e.g., Cinder Surprise, Bobgoblin Bass, and Ealad Skaan to name a few. - In that, some of these fish can have downtime which extends beyond a week before it can be next caught, and then on top of this you have the question of whether the fish aligns with your schedule, e.g., are you at work? Are you on other matters? - I've met people that make it so their schedule fits around these fish, e.g., doing a Work from Home, skipping raid. - This is why to a degree I will always get a bit of comedy from people that say it's flawed etc., just because they've spent a couple of hours trying to catch a fish that has a 40%+ window rate.