Dragonspine, am I doing it wrong?

[Angelhearth]

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.

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".

[LilithNocri]

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".

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!

[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.

[Angelhearth]

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.

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.

[Angelhearth]

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.

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

[Kirika-]

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

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.

[Angelhearth]

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.

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.

[Kirika-]

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.

[Angelhearth]

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.