Fishing is weird

[Raffrey.5271]

I only did what was needed to proceed the story and it's just some hours ago I really dumped some time fishing. 

imo it is weird. 

Most foods and feasts made of fish fillets increase your fishing power, and you only need it to be better at fishing. I think it's safe to say that the ultimate reward for fishing is ambergris, which you can either use to craft gen 3 legendaries or just sell. Aside from trading in a daily rare fish for an ambergris I don't think it's worth the effort.  

And this is also very anti-solo. No matter how many fish I caught I don't receive the fishing party buff so I guess you will have to do it with some friends to have a better chance catching rare fishes? It's virtually impossible for me to complete my fishing collection achievements by myself as there's no way I can reach the fishing power requirement for some fishes. Not to mention the ping, which only makes it worse. 

I wanted to earn some ambergris and slowly progress my gen 3 legendary and some achievement points along the way, but I felt like I'm already done with it.

[Chaba.5410]

Fishing Party buff comes from the last Skiff mastery.  You not only have to be fishing from a skiff and have the mastery, you also can only gain it from fishing in designated holes.  It doesn't build stacks when you fish in open water.  I've been fishing almost entirely solo and am 28/30 on the collections so far.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Chaba.5410

[warherox.7943]

You can get the fishing party buff solo as long as you have the mastery and are fishing at fishing holes. Fishing in open water doesn't give you stacks. It does take a long time to get to the cap, though, which is rough for solo players. 

[Raffrey.5271]

2 minutes ago, Chaba.5410 said:

Fishing Party buff comes from the last Skiff mastery.  You not only have to be fishing from a skiff and have the mastery, you also can only gain it from fishing in designated holes.  It doesn't build stacks when you fish in open water.  I've been fishing almost entirely solo and am 28/30 on the collections so far.

So.. I have to stay on my skiff all the time? I find it a bit difficult to control so I use my skimmer to get around, then dismount and get on my skiff when I find a fishing spot. But even if then I still don't receive the buff when I'm fishing on my skiff. I've had all mastery trained and maxed, except raid. And I think I know what a fishing hole is (glowy shiny circles in the middle of the water isn't it?). I've only seen it started to stack in Echovald. 

 

10 minutes ago, warherox.7943 said:

You can get the fishing party buff solo as long as you have the mastery and are fishing at fishing holes. Fishing in open water doesn't give you stacks. It does take a long time to get to the cap, though, which is rough for solo players. 

"Rough" is such an understatement. It can be so grindy it's cruel.

[Raffrey.5271]

Assuming that so long I have the mastery trained and fishing on my skiff at designated spots/holes successfully caught some fish I should see the buff start stacking, I guess it's somehow bugged in my case. Tried it in Gendarran and Sandswept Isle, I still don't receive the buff.

[AgentMoore.9453]

Fishing has good foundations, but it's in need of repairs for sure.

At the moment it:
- Needs better UI (bait/lure display, health of boat while anchored, Angler Sense skill should be in the same place on the skill bar whether fishing or boating)
- Needs better functionality (Skiff HP buff needs to apply while anchored but currently only applies while driving, Fishing Party buff takes too long to gain and is way too easy to lose - full complaint here)
- Should employ an accountwide tackle box system for baits and lures to easy inventory pressure and make the activity more alt-friendly
- Dusk/Dawn should be re-examined (perhaps a higher rate of spawns for certain fish, but they should also have a low chance of being caught during the day or night since dusk/dawn is only 5 minutes long)

I'm sure I'm missing a few things on my list, but basically fishing should feel a lot less tedious than it currently does, and that's going to keep a lot of people from dabbling in it and hold back people who might otherwise have enjoyed it.

[Minjin.8259]

My hatred of fishing is immeasurable.  It's a pain fest for anyone with carpal tunnel, trigger finger, arthritis, or tendon issues...which I have two of those things.  It takes me anywhere from 2-8 minutes to catch a fish assuming it doesn't get away.  I have the masteries maxed, I have the food the bait, everything and the pain in my hands is so bad when I try to do this.  I really want my ascended weapons from EoD but I am never going to get them as it stands now.  I can kill 100 mobs in the time it takes me to catch two fish.

[Little Leota.5849]

I'm trying to complete the achievement "Seitung Province Fisher".  I've caught all the fish but one - Dragonet.  Offshore, any time of day, any bait.  I make sure I have food up (150 fishing power), I've completed three of the Fishing Mastery tracks, so I'm at +60 to base power.  I can catch other exotic fish from the offshore locations repeatedly, but not the last one I need.  I refuse to spend hours just to catch one fish.  I don't need the AP that much.

I've read other comments people have posted about this very thing, and it's not always this particular fish.

I hope ArenaNet will take a look at the entire fishing mastery and experience so that players won't get so exasperated that they give up on fishing completely.

[Minjin.8259]

7 hours ago, Little Leota.5849 said:

I'm trying to complete the achievement "Seitung Province Fisher".  I've caught all the fish but one - Dragonet.  Offshore, any time of day, any bait.  I make sure I have food up (150 fishing power), I've completed three of the Fishing Mastery tracks, so I'm at +60 to base power.  I can catch other exotic fish from the offshore locations repeatedly, but not the last one I need.  I refuse to spend hours just to catch one fish.  I don't need the AP that much.

I've read other comments people have posted about this very thing, and it's not always this particular fish.

I hope ArenaNet will take a look at the entire fishing mastery and experience so that players won't get so exasperated that they give up on fishing completely.

I swear I read somewhere that they said fishing was going to be a relaxing thing.  It seems that it's anything but for so many people for so many reasons.  I truly believe they made it way too unnecessarily complicated.  When you need bait, lures, food, the right time of day, the masteries up, fishing in the right spot,  disappearing fishing holes, buffs, etc....that is TOO complicated for a relaxing side thing to do.  I have always enjoyed fishing on every other game I have played.  It's usually genuinely relaxing.  But this...no.  This is too much, and sure I can avoid it.  But there are things like collections and achievements and even a heart and storyline involved in it.  I see people every day on every EoD map complaining about it in map chat.  Why did they do this?  WHY?  It was just so needless to make it this way.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Minjin.8259

[AgentMoore.9453]

1 hour ago, Minjin.8259 said:

It was just so needless to make it this way.

I think that's the main thing, really. Some of us have been requesting fishing for a long time as a way to unwind (and it's finally here!), and what was delivered was an almost-relaxing version of what we were asking for. It's so close to being a system that's genuinely good, but it has design hiccups that instead make it a tedious exercise in inventory management, panel-switching, buff upkeep, and being trolled by what should be trivial PvE elements.

- The minigame aspect isn't terrible, but it could be better (alternative controls, visual cues when you're reeling in trash and unique reeling behavior for specific fish so you don't waste time on catches you don't need, another look at how fishing power affects catches as the RNG seems oddly weighted against exotic tier fish as your FP increases, etc.)
- The lure and bait system is okay existing, but the UI for them is awful and they should really be accessible by all characters on an account.
- Fishing power is an engaging concept, but it's a virtually invisible stat despite how important it is to the entire activity - it really needs to be displayed prominently and updated live as you gain/lose stacks of it.
- The time of day system is okay, but is critically flawed at dusk/dawn and requires constantly bringing up the hero panel and maneuvering between the fishing and achievements tab (this gets worse if you're doing an avid achievement, as right-clicking a fish in your inventory often tries to bring up the primary/already completed regional collection instead)
- The aggro from mobs thing is positively awful, and coupled with the way the Fishing Party buff works, I'm finding it best to skip certain fishing holes entirely instead of dealing with the low-level trash mobs guarding them.

And my personal favorite (and by this I mean wow, I hate that)

- When given the choice between hopping off my boat and helping someone who's losing a battle with a nearby enemy/event or stay on my boat and keep my 99 stacks of Fishing Party buff, the incentive is to let that person die/fail and keep on boating. Feels bad, man.

I hope they're not done working on this and this fishing keeps getting TLC, because as it stands, it feels like fishing in GW2 and playing GW2 in its entirety are mutually exclusive things.

[Izzy.2951]

Why is it weird? you throw a lure to the water or a fishing node, and then the fish try to scape and you need to catch it, the higher value the fish is the harder. Its very coherent from my point of view.