Fishing needs a total overhaul

[KageTokage]

I really hope that they keep spearfishing relevant to crafting throughout the whole of Endwalker because with it being impervious to bots (At least as far as I can tell...), it would give FSH a convenient niche in the economy.

I still just really hate the rare fish with time requirements and crap like that.

It's not like you're being forced to catch them so I don't really what the issue is.

[Brightamethyst]

I still just really hate the rare fish with time requirements and crap like that.

If that was true of common crafting materials I'd agree, but that's not usually the case. Like 85% of fishing is a self-contained, completely optional collectathon so the RNG is fine (if admittedly annoying at times.)

[Bloodbeat]

So, from my observation of the Shark Tuna window in Costa Del Sol:

I identified 15 opportunities to catch the fish in question.

I had ONE eligible bite, which failed (at appropriately geared level 90)

I had 8 silver sharks from a variety of large fullmoon sardines and Mooch II when available

I had 6 fullmoon sardines, that were not large, and Mooch II was not available

This is not a worthwhile experience. It's far too many layers of RNG. Ultimately, when a player catches these fish, they cannot reasonably claim any input besides they had enough gathering/perception, and they were fishing at the appropriate time/weather, That's it. It falls short of what I'd consider actual gameplay.

The solution(s) seem fairly obvious.

Get rid of Mooch II. Large fish are acting as pseudo-HQs, It's unnecessary. Mooch with *any* fish will still require the RNG of time/weather as well as actually getting the eligible fish to mooch with, as well as getting the correct catch from the Mooch.

Fix Fish Eyes: Longer duration/Persistent duration, lower GP cost, Makes only timed fish catchable for duration.

Introduce a threshold in gathering/perception where fish cannot get away.

Yes, I know, nobody forces people to fish. It's not mandatory for progression, but at the same time, don't make it this unwelcoming for people that choose to do it.

[Brightamethyst]

I had 6 fullmoon sardines, that were not large, and Mooch II was not available

Between Patience 2 and Makeshift bait you should be able to Mooch almost 100% of the time.

[Bloodbeat]

Between Patience 2 and Makeshift bait you should be able to Mooch almost 100% of the time.

Perhaps, but it's that gruelling RNG again. You have the mooch success RNG, then the correct moochable fish RNG, then the mooched catch RNG.
Let's not forget you have to bypass ALL of that in 9 minutes before you start relying on Fish Eyes and the weather not changing.

[Bloodbeat]

Perhaps, but it's that gruelling RNG again. You have the mooch success RNG, then the correct moochable fish RNG, then the mooched catch RNG.
Let's not forget you have to bypass ALL of that in 9 minutes before you start relying on Fish Eyes and the weather not changing.

Oh, I also forgot the "fish doesn't feel like being caught" RNG

[Brightamethyst]

Let's not forget you have to bypass ALL of that in 9 minutes before you start relying on Fish Eyes and the weather not changing.

Fish Eyes doesn't affect big fishing in the first place. It's just for regular timed fish.

From the 5.4 patch notes: "This action has no effect on legendary fish, fish found when ocean fishing, or any fish introduced from Stormblood onward."

[KageTokage]

The actual specification for Fish Eyes is "does not work on big/legendary fish introduced in Stormblood onwards".

It definitely works on all of the fish in ARR/HW.

[Brightamethyst]

The actual specification for Fish Eyes is "does not work on big/legendary fish introduced in Stormblood onwards".

It definitely works on all of the fish in ARR/HW.

Did that change recently? The 5.4 patch notes literally say:

[Arohk]

Can they perhaps change the fishing log to give actual information once you cought a fish? It is really annoying that every time you need to look up on a website at what time and weather something is there or not.
You got timers on gathering too once you gathered it, it shows the EZ time of the spawn.