Fishing in SoTo - What a disaster (my experience) [merged]

[Tjalzor.2135]

Long post incoming (sorry already for my bad English. Not my native language). Short story. Fishing left a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to the SoTo maps.

Long story:
Recently I have begun fishing in SoTo for the achievement Horn of Maguuma Fisher.
With only 2 maps, 7 fish per map, it should be a breeze (3rd map and 7 fishing are still incoming). It is not like fishing all over the whole map when it was first introduced. I do have the title Cod Swimming Amongst Mere Minnows, so I know my fishing. Have fished for every first 2 times to get it.

So I began working towards this achievement. And I have run into a problem. Fishing for the last few fishes is not a great experience. It is a disaster. Let me tell you why.

As a break down for Fishing power: My starting Fishing Power is 575 (25 rod + 100 bait + 100 lure + 150 food + 200 bonus mastery (100 Full tank + 100 mastery))

Skywatch Archipelago map
For the map Skywatch Archipelago there are a few different holes you need to fish at. 4 Fishes are rather easy to get. But then there are these:
Jokopu (daytime, any bait, Desert (600 recommend power) - This is located only in Skyward Marches area. And it only has One spot (not seen multiple yet in the same river). This spot is mostly patrolled by the event "[Group Event] Defeat the champion Forged cannonade". Since the water is not higher then your waist, it is almost impossible to set your boat down (there is one spot since it needs swimming depth water). So you can almost always forget the Fishing Party buff. Fishing here is not hard, but you will need to be careful of the champ and the meta. Or it will surely kill you. Since you only have one hole you can only fish 3 times every 5 min. Or jump maps in the hope you get a new one with a hole. Since your fishing power will be lower then the recommend power most of the times, you also have to deal with a harder fishing game (yellow game).
Empress Fish (daytime, Mackerel, Channel (650 recommend power) - This is located only in Jade Mech Habitation Zone 3 area. And it only has One spot. This spot also has multiple Krait creatures. So your are constantly under attack. Placing your boat is possible but keeping it is a different task. Since it only has one spot, you can only fish 3 times every 5 min. In order to get this fish, you have to camp the spot, fish every 5 min and fight for your life and your boat the rest of the time in the hopes you get the fish. Or jump maps in the hope you get a new spot faster. Since your fishing power will be lower then the recommend power most of the times, you also have to deal with a harder fishing game (yellow game).
Three-eyed Carp (nighttime, Glow Worm, Channel (650 recommend power) - See Empress Fish. Same story, same waters.

Amnytas map
For this map there are 2 types of holes. 6 fishes are easy to obtain. But getting the last is a nightmare.
Celestial Fish (nighttime, Fish Eggs, Spire (750 recommend power) - This is located at 3 spots. But all the spots are not within the Fishing Party timer range. So you will always loose this if you travel. So either you camp one spot and maintain your Fishing Party buff or travel allot and have more chances per 5 min. Since you start with only 575 Fishing power, most if not all of the times you have a harder fishing game (yellow game). Maintaining and camping a spot is not hard here. Since there are not a lot of hostile creatures. But this fish will take a lot of time and patience to get.

What would make it better?
1ste of all is to lower the recommend power per spot. This will give all players that have max Fishing Mastery the "easy" game mechanic for fishing (you deserve this, you gained the masteries). Fishing Party buff will then only increase the chance of getting the "better" fishes.
2nd. Increase the holes per place or increase the amount of fishing times per hole. Fishing only 3 times every 5 min, then afk or play the kill-or-be-killed game is a waste and a bad experience.
3rd. Increase the chance of actually getting the Horn of Maguuma fish over the other fishes. Getting fishes from other maps feels cheap and a waste of time.
4th. Have the spots in places you cannot be attacked at. Fishing supposed to be calming, give you a relaxed feeling. I am now always looking over my shoulder when the next enemy will attack me again, rob me of my boat, my life and my Fishing Party bonus. Fishing here gives stress....

My fear for the future
My fear is that there is a hidden achievement. That when the "Horn of Maguuma Fisher" achievement is completed (after 3rd map introduction), we need to do it AGAIN (just like with the earlier fishing achievements). Fishing, in this way, is no fun in this game if you are fishing for specific fish/achievements. Fishing was supposed to give the best feeling when it comes to gathering materials. I now rather run around a map, swinging trees. Then at least I know I get the wood I need and only have to run a bit. It gives me more pleasure.

Thanks for reading. Hope ArenaNet will, one day, make fishing fun again....

[mezuzel.4987]

Yeah, it's a very frustrating experience, I agree. I never found a spot where I could get on the skiff for the Jokopu, which means I couldn't use Zephyrite Jerky. So I resorted to fishing on foot - and immediately logging out to the character select screen afterwards, to maximize the time I had on Fishing Tips. Then log back in and repeat.

When the optimal way to play the game is to log out, there's something wrong.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Use https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_Booster_(masterwork)

They are only 1 Laurel from Laurel Merchant and increase your chances for more than 3 tries for fish.  Also use Zephyrite Jerky when you can use your Skiff. 

[Ashantara.8731]

All I can say is: if they continue with this nonsense in future content, I am simply going to ignore fishing. I seem to have a different understanding of "fun" than the dev(s) responsible for the Horn of Maguuma fishing design, with its sparse number of fishing holes and the distance between similar ones. It's just crazy, and it also doesn't help when the Amnytas map closes after the meta when you still have plenty of nighttime left.

Edited September 21, 2023 by Ashantara.8731

[SnackParty.3178]

I agree. In fact, the lack of fishing holes, made me drive my skiff, over some rocks, off the edge, and into the sky. Now, that's entertaining.

[Futa.4375]

Linking fishing and fishing power to the skiff was a mistake from the start, I don't think they will ever fix fishing sadly.
I gave up on it, I usually love fishing in every game but here... nope, worst implementation I've ever seen.
They didn't think it through but it seems to be their motto since EoD anyway.

[Wild.1705]

Not all maps make sense for fishing. A map that has wee li'l islands in the sky... not the best choice.

Also, I looked at the achievement, and the reward for finishing the Horn of Maguma Fisher and it gives 6 chunks of Ancient Ambergris. There is no reason to do it if there is no reward and it's not fun. Just don't do it.

 

Side note:  I tried to be cute and typed "d a", no space, in place of "the", but the forums censored it. Why is this happening?

Edited September 21, 2023 by Wild.1705

[Malitu.4579]

Honestly Tjalzor said it all.

I can't believe that people who know how fishing works in this game developped SotO's fishing and thought it'd be fine. It feels as if Anet remembered that fishing was a thing two weeks before release and tinkered something real quick...

So please, fix it now, just add more fishing holes or allow us to fish in every SotO's fishing hole as much as in Arborstone's fishing hole. Fishing power is also an issue but it's not even half as bad as having to fly around the map to hunt one fishing hole at a time, then look for a new map or log out to keep your buffs and come back 5 minutes later. If you could also make something to make night fishing in Amnytas (close the map at the end of the night ?) and fishing for desert fishes easier (longer cd on champion respawn ?), that'd help a lot.

[Caitmonster.9036]

I do agree that the difficulty of the SotO fishing maps is unnecessarily high considering most times you can't deploy your skiff and / or it makes little sense to do so. I was kinda surprised when I was casting on land and saw that red fishing hook even *with* mackerel, +100 lures, and food.

[Tidus.5831]

I think holes have 9min for respawning again so it is harder to fish in 1 spot.

[Omega.6801]

I just "found out" that Kriptis can spawn ON your skiff and that said Kriptis are invulnerable as long as you are also on that skiff. They can attack you and the skiff, but unless you move out of your skiff you can't attack them. Another thing ANet has simply forgotten about when adding fishing to SotO. It's frustrating and has nothing to do with "oh it's a new and engaging experience" it's just terrible design coming from not thinking things through. Next time, if you don't want to think things through, just don't add them.

[AnonBackStabber.8536]

I too have the maxed fishing title, and attempted to fish a few of the 'holes' on each new map (575/625 fishing first 10).  It was way too difficult just catching the fish, taking at times up to a minute (never failed tho).  And then I'm pulling out grey fish mostly, with some blues and very few greens/golds (and the gold ones apparently don't apply to the ambergris vendor).  And the fishing holes were few and far between.  Definitely not worth the time or effort, and haven't bothered since.

[Gop.8713]

I have to agree with the OP. I just spent about seventy-five casts trying and failing to land the any bait/any time Queen's Flipper from the lake node in Skywatch. I have no problem with failing on seventy-five casts, that's not really that many and rng is rng. The problem is that when there's only one hole and it's on a ten minute respawn, seventy-five casts takes over four hours ; p

EDIT: Feel obliged to come back and update, came back the next day and finally caught the Queen's Flipper, and then the other five Skywatch fish I was missing, in the next fifty-one total casts. Took me less time to catch everything on the second day than it took me to catch nothing on the first. RNG indeed ; p

Still not a fan of the 'one hole per type' design tho . . .

Edited October 1, 2023 by Gop.8713

[Sak Bak Nakan.4368]

I thought the RNG was perma-bugged because I made hundreds of attempts to catch Jokopu and Three-eyed carp without success.  After reading this thread (and others) I saw people HAVE caught them.  So I swapped my bait to mackerel to boost my fishing power a little bit and caught a Jokopu on the 2nd try.  I guess I'll try similar gimmicks for Three-eyed carp.  I've enjoyed almost everything about SoTo but the fishing.... the fishing has been a disaster.  They'll have to reward 600 ambergris to tempt me with an Avid achievement.

🤣

[draxynnic.3719]

SoTo fishing really feels like an afterthought that was added at the last minute because someone reminded the map designers that fishing was a thing. I've just been pretty much ignoring it myself.

Reducing the fishing power required to account for it being near-impossible to build up fishing party stacks would at least make it something you'd consider doing between events, though.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

On 9/21/2023 at 2:17 PM, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Use https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_Booster_(masterwork)

They are only 1 Laurel from Laurel Merchant and increase your chances for more than 3 tries for fish.  Also use Zephyrite Jerky when you can use your Skiff. 

I wanted to come in and highlight this post. Use Zephyrite Jerky to gain Fishing Party Stacks. The jerky gives 25 stacks, and consumer multiples gives more stacks.

Also, for fish listed as 'Any Bait' typically using NO bait is better than using a bait at all in my experience. I've given that advice out in map chat to those complaining about such fish, and after a few no bait catches the people get their target fish after having spent hours trying to get them with bait.

[Evil Darkness.3061]

I despise it and it’s a chore. We got opposite of what I expected, and I'm not too fond of it. What I expected: cast lure, after X amount of time you get a fish, in the meantime you get to chat with people/friends/enjoy the view/chill. What we got: cast lure, pray the map doesn't close, pray your skiff doesn't get destroyed, fight with the bar depending on the map (Draconis Mons and Orr say hello), fishing in low-level areas can actually be harder than endgame maps due to the amount of critters in the water, pay attention to time zones and dusk/dawn cycles, zero chill. I was obsessed with the idea of fishing/the turtle mount Hints: check my last post! (well we all know how kitten that turned out to be!)  when I bought the game. Since then, I have barely touched it. I associate fishing with relaxation, and GW2's version is the opposite of that to me. I hate Black Desert with a passion, but the one thing they got right was fishing! 100% AFK and chat with friends!

 

What they can do to improve fishing.

***********************************************************

 

1: Make it passive/AFK so you chat with friends while you do it! And people can all gather up and chat while they fish.

2: Sit on the turtle while you fish! Not just the boat.

3: Remove the stupid minigame where you have to fight with the kitten bar on the kitten screen that goes back and forth.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Evil Darkness.3061

[Cernoch.8524]

Not a huge fan of the fishing in general but I still think GW made it pretty good. It was a point wasnt it? To dont make it total AFK farm....would not make any sense to do it.  So thats point 1 and 3 explained. Turtle can not float so make sense you can not fish from it, why would you? What is the difference if you sit on the boat or on the turtle besides visual difference? Literally zero impact on gameplay so it is not needed change. 

It can get boring fast, no doubt about that. And dusk/dawn thing is pretty annoying.

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

Have you ever fished in real life, or even watched a fishing documentary? Yes, fishing is relaxing, as long as you don't have a fish on your hook. As soon as you do, that's when the work starts. Bringing in a fish takes effort because, guess what? They're trying to get away from you. And the bigger the fish, the bigger the effort. That so-called mini-game is a pretty accurate representation of what fishing is really like. Fishing is not a passive activity.

Fishing in low level maps more difficult because of mobs? Those mobs hit like wet paper. You can empty a fishing hole and be attacked the entire time, without ever risking losing your skiff and fishing stacks. Only when more than 2 are attacking my skiff, or when it's a veteran or higher ranking mob (very rare in low level maps), I get out and finish them off. And if it takes too long to kill them (which has rarely happened to me) I just get back into my skiff for a split second and jump back in the water to continue the fight. If you feel mobs are going to attack you while fishing, kill them first. The chances that they are going to respawn before you are done with that fishing hole are slim. If you don't kill them and then complain your skiff gets destroyed, it's on you. Positioning can also help you. Drop anchor just outside their range. You don't have to be on top of a fishing hole.

There are a few things I do agree with. I wish we could fish from the backs of your skimmers (screw the siege turtle). That way we can switch to other bodies of water in the same map without losing fishing stacks, because skimmers can go on land. Or let the stacks persist for a longer time, like 5 minutes, for instance, so we can switch bodies of water. The day/night cycle is a minor inconvenience, but the dusk/dawn type fish are messed up. 5 minutes every 2 hours to get particular fish? Hell no. Bad idea. Sure, there are fish in real life that only come out during dusk or dawn, but in real life that lasts longer than a mere 5 minutes. Losing fishing stacks when the map closes sucks as well and there's nothing we can do about it except use food to get it back to 99. Stacks should only disappear if you switch to another map, not when you're forced out of one instance of a map into another instance of the same map with no control over it.

Be careful what you expect. ANet is not known for doing things like other MMO's do them. That is one argument for expecting it to work differently in GW2. In most cases expectations lead to disappointment anyway. It's better to wait and see.

[Omega.6801]

You missed the "I hate fishing, it should be removed before wasting any more resources on it"-option.

[Parasite.5389]

3 topics all about how much you hate X... who hurt you?

[Taclism.2406]

56 minutes ago, Evil Darkness.3061 said:

What I expected: cast lure, after X amount of time you get a fish, in the meantime you get to chat with people/friends/enjoy the view/chill

56 minutes ago, Evil Darkness.3061 said:

I was obsessed with the idea of fishing

So you were obsessed with the idea of booting a game to not play it? (in a game that already has some trouble dealing with afk farmers).
Man I wonder why devs didnt made fishing this way 

[Ashantara.8731]

Okay, I picked the second option because I find it boring -- but what the OP suggests sounds even worse, making it not even boring but completely unfun. 😂

[Schimmi.6872]

1 hour ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Okay, I picked the second option because I find it boring -- but what the OP suggests sounds even worse, making it not even boring but completely unfun. 😂

It would also make it completely unprofitable for real players, as it would make it too easy for bots to flood the market very fast

[knives.6345]

Play the game while inside the game.

Why make fishing available while AFK.

I want the Turtle idea though.