Sidereal Whale is genuinely awful

[thedude28]

Fishing is generally a "fun" activity when the RNG hits just right, but when the chips and the entire house are against you, it is outright torture.

Such is the case with Sidereal Whale, which is one of the worst legendary fish to catch in the entire game. Every aspect about it is genuinely awful to play around.

• Is only available after a rarest of rare weather changes. If you miss a window, it can take up to two weeks (or more) before you get another chance.
• Requires intuition, meaning you need to fulfill prerequisites just to even get a chance at catching the fish
• Intuition requires Phallaina, an exceptionally profitable yet exceedingly rare fish
• Is a mooch fish in a pool that lets you get 3-10 mooch attempts per 10 minutes
• Phallaina is also a fish that comes from Mooch.

To compensate, the game decides it's "fair" by offering 20 minute windows to Sidereal Whale with a 10 minute intuition buff. This means if you catch a Phallaina at the tail end of its window, you still get a full 10 minute chance at catching Sidereal Whale.

Whoever designed this fish is genuinely evil. There is no other way to describe them. They actively push the extremes of RNG and don't care how much the players end up suffering because of bad RNG. The players DO suffer, because they can end up waking up at ungodly hours just for a CHANCE to catch the fish, and then someone else shows up and catches it on their first try.

Fishing, by design, is cruel and unfair. It absolves itself of all criticism because it's literally an irrelevant RNG casino. But just like a casino, it keeps those who are addicted keep coming back for more because they don't want to be a loser at the end of the day.

I can only wish for this fish to get nerfed and future legendary fish to not require so many stupid layers of unnecessary RNG. But because this is criticism for an activity the devs don't care about having fun in, it's all moot in the first place and I look like a lunatic for having awful RNG.

The melancholy doesn't fade as fast as it comes. It stacks with every consecutive failure, every missed bite. It is definitive proof that the FFXIV fishing gods are inherently evil who want you to suffer before having fun.

[Tint]

I agree.

Catching Phallaina alone took me weeks >.>

At least they should remove these legendary fish from the normal big fish achievments. They are all awful with too much RNG. Normal big fish are fun, the legendary fish are just frustrating. But because they are all moved into the same achievment you don't get your reward when you don't catch all of them - which makes fishing for the normal big fish feel pointless and of course - unrewarding - when you don't plan to waste your time in the legendary ones.

Back in ARR you didn't have to catch the 6 legendary fish to get the last big fish achievment. And the legendary fish had their own achievment and title. Can we go back there please?

And please give the legendary fish a blue background on the icon when we are at it - they are clearly a different tier of fish and should be marked as such.

[VictorSpoils]

Two questions: 1) Is it still easier than Ruby and 2) will it be easier to catch in 1-2 expansions like every other big fish? If yes to either, I will reserve my fears.

[Toukichiful]

The problem is Phallaina, I know multiple people including myself going to the Sidereal Whale window 3 hours before to try multiple attempts to even get the Intuition. Or people are trying to catch Phallaina the night before to log in in the morning just for a chance at Sidereal Whale. Phallaina is the real problem with going for Sidereal Whale. I assume people hope they would stop making Big legendary fish that would require as fishers call it "jailing" where you have to sit in the zone multiple hours before hand to even get a Intuition.

[fulminating]

Who looked at steth or lancet and thought "I can make this worse"?
6 hours in the worst zone in the game not able to do anything useful, just for 3 chances that were all 30s unbegotten because horizon won't get on the damn hook.
If there was a decent bait for horizon it wouldn't be as terrible. If Phalliana wasn't such a pain it'd be better, if whale actually bit with a reasonable frequency it'd not be as terrible.

[thedude28]

Two questions: 1) Is it still easier than Ruby and 2) will it be easier to catch in 1-2 expansions like every other big fish? If yes to either, I will reserve my fears.

I would argue that Ruby pre-SHB is easier than this because you have less layers of incessantly awful RNG to go through. You simply have to catch Ku-er and pray your mooch goes through.

With regards to Sidereal Whale, it encompasses every awful RNG layer known to fishing thus far. It can't get any worse than this as any change to any aspect would be a considerable difference. And the game actively mocks your bad RNG with the intuition text itself.

I'm going to my 10th Phallaina window in a row and having over 50+ mooch attempts. The only mercy is that if I can catch just one Phallaina, I can be ready for tomorrow's Whale window. But if I fail to catch either Phallaina or the Whale tomorrow, it disappears for two weeks.

The devs who thought this was fun would rather turn fishing into a club of masochistic unhealthy discussions at this rate. And we'll still come back for more, right? Because fishing is fun, right guys? Just ignore the amount of havoc I caused in my own house because of bad fish RNG. Video games don't cause violence, but they are a leading cause of increased unbridled aggression.

[Hasrat]

I mean... pretty much every other EW fish was pretty bog standard unremarkable. Had to balance that somewhere.

[thedude28]

I mean... pretty much every other EW fish was pretty bog standard unremarkable. Had to balance that somewhere.

"Hmmm... Yes... Fish RNG needs to remain balanced with one end being remarkably unremarkable and the other end being absolutely dreadful"

What an absolutely dogwater justification for something that is legitimately awful in every aspect. It's almost if you're implying that fishing criticism should NEVER matter!!!

I'm on my 13th dry Phallaina window, surely close to reaching 100+ mooch attempts. And then people like you are going to walk up and RNG better than me like it's nothing. It's just bad luck, right? It's my fault that I'm not spending more than one day on a SINGLE FISH just to prep for ANOTHER SINGLE FISH, right?!

I don't want to hear it. People like you piss me off.

[Hasrat]

...I spent the better part of 8 months chasing one single fish.

But do carry on about how you're not able to catch the thing so you can go back to not catching anything.

It's fishing. Not only that, it's Legendary fishing. The last fish we get until next expansion. Like so many other pieces of content, they gotta stretch out engagement somehow.

[thedude28]

"YOU WILL SUFFER!!! YOU WILL ENJOY THE SUFFERING!!! IT'S ALL PART OF THE DUE PROCESS!!!"

My god, listen to yourself. Oh sure! Let's just turn this into a pissing contest on who has the worst RNG!! It totally vindicates the hardcore feeling of waking up at 4am in the morning and being a total LOSER when the fish doesn't bite at all.

Nobody cares about the pissing contest. It's an awful one because it's a journey that's built off of RNG alone. But you can't stop because you can't let the fish win.

It saddens me that you think that this journey is in any way shape or form enjoyable and acceptable. The fact that you need fishing RNG of all things in this game to feel something is still valid, but just as depressing.

The only feeling you'll get regardless of how much time you spend on a fish is relief. Relief from the problematic behaviours that stem from stupid hardcore conditions and the desire to meet them.

Stop trying to justify torture. You and I both know it isn't fun in any capacity unless you get it within the first couple of tries. Beyond that is suffering. So do you enjoy suffering then? Did you enjoy spending 8 months on that fish?