Fishing RNG... Really!?

[Garlyle]

Also the only gatherer with no off hand that gives some additional stat boost. Useless GP. Have to over meld the over melds just to get gathering stats up to par with a non-melded BTN/MIN.

The classes have completely different expectations of players stats, you realise. If fishing actually expected BTN/MIN tier stats it'd be impossible, but it doesn't - the stat cutoffs for catching fish are based off of what a Fisher can actually get.

Also having an off-hand for an additional stat boost literally just means you have to sink more money into the class. I'm actually quite happy Fisher doesn't need to do that.

[Eye_Gore]

The classes have completely different expectations of players stats, you realise. If fishing actually expected BTN/MIN tier stats it'd be impossible, but it doesn't - the stat cutoffs for catching fish are based off of what a Fisher can actually get.

Also having an off-hand for an additional stat boost literally just means you have to sink more money into the class. I'm actually quite happy Fisher doesn't need to do that.

Tell that to the Titanic Saw fish. What I have to sink money into is materia. If it had an off-hand I could craft it for free.

[LineageRazor]

Tell that to the Titanic Saw fish. What I have to sink money into is materia. If it had an off-hand I could craft it for free.

I almost burst out laughing when I read this - off-hands are the farthest thing from free. Crafting and Gathering off-hands may well be the most expensive single piece of equipment to meld in the entire game, since they have only one slot and can fully utilize FIVE Tier IV materia. I am SO glad that I have at least one crafting/gathering class where I don't need to worry about the dizzying amount of gil (or time spiritbonding) I'll need to spend to meld the off-hand.

But yeah, fish stat requirements are lower due to the lack of an off-hand boost. As for the RNG, it was made a part of FSH as a deliberate appeal to folks that LIKE the randomness, people who get a rush out of finally seeing that jackpot catch. Because of this FSH was also deliberately made a very low-impact part of the game; there's very few things that FSH provides that are needed by crafters or anyone else, and of those things almost all of them can be caught by a lvl 50 FSH in basic gear. People are encouraged to fish because they like fishing, not because FSH is an important part of the game.

Worm of Nym (and possibly Emperor Fish) are really the only exceptions to this.

[Eye_Gore]

if you had an off hand all the caps would be increased accordingly and you wouldn't have more chance to it. But nice try

But I would have another slot basically to stick some high level matetia on it instead of trying to over meld the over meld.

I almost burst out laughing when I read this - off-hands are the farthest thing from free. Crafting and Gathering off-hands may well be the most expensive single piece of equipment to meld in the entire game.

At this point that I'm at in game, it won't cost me anything to make an off hand unless it had some primal or high end 4 star material needed. But since no other ilvl 55 off hand has that, I doubt I would need any of that and I could make it.

[LineageRazor]

At this point that I'm at in game, it won't cost me anything to make an off hand unless it had some primal or high end 4 star material needed. But since no other ilvl 55 off hand has that, I doubt I would need any of that and I could make it.

The trouble with this is that if there WAS an off-hand, all the fish would have higher stat requirements to cover it, PLUS require painful melds just to get on-par with where you are right now:

SE Dev Chief: Okay, word from above is we need to give FSH an off-hand. Forager's Net, or whatever.

Dev 1: Won't that make fish too easy to catch? Gather off-hands give 72 Gathering stat, and that's just the NQ version! Newbie fishers will be able to catch three star fish without even trying!

SE Dev Chief: Naturally, we can't allow that. We'll need to boost the catch requirement for all fish by an appropriate amount to account for the new gear. For endgame fish, we'll need to pump them up by at least 82. But then, we need to account for Materia...

Dev 2: Well, stat caps for Gatherer off hand can get as much as much as 14 additional Gathering...

SE Dev Chief: Well, we don't want to kill them. Let's set the new gathering requirements at plus 94. They can manage that with just two Tier IV materia melds.

Dev 2: Sounds good! We'll get right on it.

Dev 1: Man, just think... We're adding a new piece of gear to FSH, and not only doesn't it help them in the least, they need to get an expensive piece of gear AND meld it with pricy materia just to get to where they were before! Glad I'm not a forum monitor; this isn't gonna be pretty...

[Garlyle]

But I would have another slot basically to stick some high level matetia on it instead of trying to over meld the over meld.

You're still forgetting that catch requirements would adjust for that. You'd be paying more just to be at the same point you're at.

Either way, higher Gathering literally has 0 impact on whether a given fish can be attempted to be caught - only which of the three results you get: "Your gathering is insufficient to land this catch", "It got away", or "You caught an x!".

If the fish doesn't want to show you could have 999 Gathering and it would make 0 difference to your ability to actually catch it.

[Kuwagami]

If it had an off-hand I could craft it for free.

if you had an off hand all the caps would be increased accordingly and you wouldn't have more chance to it. But nice try