John the Fisherman
Those of you who have seen me around the last couple of weeks knows that I've been doing something rather strange. I've been fishing. Alot. More or less constantly. It all pretty much started with me trying out manta fishing in Kuftal with some friends. While I found the mantas annoying (0/4 at that), I did kind of enjoy the fishing part. Given that my fishing skill was already 28 (I got it there sometime in early 2005), I thought it would be an easy match to get it to 30 to do the Inside the Belly quest, which gives you a slight chance at Mercurial Kris, which in turn would be nice for my DRK.
As it turned out, I did skill up to 30. And beyond. In fact as my HNM days ended after the HNMLS failed its probation (and not the other way around) I pretty much lost interest in most aspects of FFXI. For someone who leveled most of his three latest jobs entirely though campaign, that felt old. Meriting without friends is sofail, and besides my nyzul set I really don't have many people to do random stuff with. I still have salvage though, but that is pretty much it.
Essentially I am now playing for the sake of fishing, I find it quite relaxing and fun and the fact that you make a little money doing it is a nice bonus. I couldn't care less anymore if I got a M.kris for DRK's sake, but I suppose it would be a funny toy item or a nice money bonus if I decided to sell.
Currently I'm buying and fishing moat carps to finish the Lu Shang quest, as of right now I am @ 2033/10000 and I expect to pass 2100 today. I try to fish about 60-100 carps myself every day and buy whatever comes on sandy AH (150-200 per day), which explains how I got this much this fast. Unfortunately I can't afford this pace all the way to 10000 without running out of gil first, so I'm trying to get some extra gil by fishing better money-fish while skilling.
I have caught some Bhefhel Marlins, the fish necessary to get a chance at pirate's chart, which in turn gives you a shot at M.kris. While I did get lucky and got chart on my very first marlin, the other 24 marlins has given me jack shit. The Pirate's chart quest is dead easy with 2 SMNs (thanks Deli for the help), but unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) I didn't get drop.
It feels pretty useless really to have first a 5% chance at getting Pirate's chart, and then 2-5% chance of getting m.kris.
Either way, the other day Kirei let me borrow her Lu Shang (which I had no idea she had, thanks again Kirei.) My plan was simply to use Lu Shang to help me get my own Lu Shang quicker. As it turns out, I guess so far I am a little disappointed with it, but given that I have only had 2 days to try it out so far, I've either had unrealistic expectations or some unluckly streaks. Let me explain: For those of you unfamiliar with fishing, there are two kinds of fishing rods: Wooden rods and Synthetic rods. Wooden rods drains the stamina of fish faster, but they are more wobbly and breaks more easily than synthetic rods. Synthetic rods drains stamina slower than wooden rods, but they are also less wobbly and fish also recover stamina slower if you mess up than they do with a wooden rod. Without Lu Shang I've used 3 different rods depending on what I'm after. For Moat Carp I've used a wooden rod called Hume Fishing Rod, because for easy fish you just wanna burn their stamina quick. For skilling medium sized fish I've used a synthetic Halcyon Rod, which is able to target most fish and only occasionally do my skill fish break the line. For big hard fish I've used synthetic Composite Rod.
Either way, my prior understand was that Lu Shang was a combination of a wooden and synthetic rod, combining the both of best worlds. This however appears to not be the case. Instead Lu Shang is an almost unbreakable wooden rod. And as such, I noticed it was actually less good than Halcyon Rod for fishing the stuff I skill up on. Sure, it burned their stamina faster but the fish were significantly more wobbly, meaning they constantly regained stamina because I couldn't keep up with the twisting and turning. With Lu Shang I ended up losing several fish due to running out of time (and struggling hard with most of them), while with Halcyon the only time I ever lose a catch is because of a line break. The conclusion I reached was that Lu Shang does not reach its full potential until:
1. You target fish closer to your own skill level, making fish natually less wobbly and fast stamina drain becomes prio 1.
2. You target fish well beyond level 60 which frequently break other rods than Lu Shang.
Curiously enough, there appears to be exceptions. Two kinds of fish I'm skilling on, namely Noble Lady and Bluetail (lvl66 and 55 respectively) are noticably easier to catch with Halcyon than with Lu shang. Similarly I find Bhefhel Marlin (lvl61) to be harder to catch with Lu Shang than with Composite. By contrast Lu Shang provides a significant advantage when I occasionally get a bite on a Silver Shark (lvl76). Those fish I cannot actually catch yet but while they are near impossible to wrestle below 90% with Halcyon Rod, Lu Shang allows me to reach 40%ish consistently before running out of time. This merely reinforces my view that Lu Shang really proves its worth at later levels.
I'm not saying I'm giving up on Lu Shang already though, of course I can't not exclude the possibility that I'll have better results with Lu Shang if I improve my own fishing skills (tapping rather than holding directional buttons), and there are rumors Lu Shang improves bite rate and skill up rate (though I'm sceptical). Basically I just need more testing.
Either way, fishing has given me something new about FFXI to play for, and it is entirely possible I just needed a break for all the "normal" game stuff and will rebound back eventually. If I could make myself some cash in the meantime that would be just great.
Until next time, happy fishin'!
// Gathzel
As it turned out, I did skill up to 30. And beyond. In fact as my HNM days ended after the HNMLS failed its probation (and not the other way around) I pretty much lost interest in most aspects of FFXI. For someone who leveled most of his three latest jobs entirely though campaign, that felt old. Meriting without friends is sofail, and besides my nyzul set I really don't have many people to do random stuff with. I still have salvage though, but that is pretty much it.
Essentially I am now playing for the sake of fishing, I find it quite relaxing and fun and the fact that you make a little money doing it is a nice bonus. I couldn't care less anymore if I got a M.kris for DRK's sake, but I suppose it would be a funny toy item or a nice money bonus if I decided to sell.
Currently I'm buying and fishing moat carps to finish the Lu Shang quest, as of right now I am @ 2033/10000 and I expect to pass 2100 today. I try to fish about 60-100 carps myself every day and buy whatever comes on sandy AH (150-200 per day), which explains how I got this much this fast. Unfortunately I can't afford this pace all the way to 10000 without running out of gil first, so I'm trying to get some extra gil by fishing better money-fish while skilling.
I have caught some Bhefhel Marlins, the fish necessary to get a chance at pirate's chart, which in turn gives you a shot at M.kris. While I did get lucky and got chart on my very first marlin, the other 24 marlins has given me jack shit. The Pirate's chart quest is dead easy with 2 SMNs (thanks Deli for the help), but unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) I didn't get drop.
It feels pretty useless really to have first a 5% chance at getting Pirate's chart, and then 2-5% chance of getting m.kris.
Either way, the other day Kirei let me borrow her Lu Shang (which I had no idea she had, thanks again Kirei.) My plan was simply to use Lu Shang to help me get my own Lu Shang quicker. As it turns out, I guess so far I am a little disappointed with it, but given that I have only had 2 days to try it out so far, I've either had unrealistic expectations or some unluckly streaks. Let me explain: For those of you unfamiliar with fishing, there are two kinds of fishing rods: Wooden rods and Synthetic rods. Wooden rods drains the stamina of fish faster, but they are more wobbly and breaks more easily than synthetic rods. Synthetic rods drains stamina slower than wooden rods, but they are also less wobbly and fish also recover stamina slower if you mess up than they do with a wooden rod. Without Lu Shang I've used 3 different rods depending on what I'm after. For Moat Carp I've used a wooden rod called Hume Fishing Rod, because for easy fish you just wanna burn their stamina quick. For skilling medium sized fish I've used a synthetic Halcyon Rod, which is able to target most fish and only occasionally do my skill fish break the line. For big hard fish I've used synthetic Composite Rod.
Either way, my prior understand was that Lu Shang was a combination of a wooden and synthetic rod, combining the both of best worlds. This however appears to not be the case. Instead Lu Shang is an almost unbreakable wooden rod. And as such, I noticed it was actually less good than Halcyon Rod for fishing the stuff I skill up on. Sure, it burned their stamina faster but the fish were significantly more wobbly, meaning they constantly regained stamina because I couldn't keep up with the twisting and turning. With Lu Shang I ended up losing several fish due to running out of time (and struggling hard with most of them), while with Halcyon the only time I ever lose a catch is because of a line break. The conclusion I reached was that Lu Shang does not reach its full potential until:
1. You target fish closer to your own skill level, making fish natually less wobbly and fast stamina drain becomes prio 1.
2. You target fish well beyond level 60 which frequently break other rods than Lu Shang.
Curiously enough, there appears to be exceptions. Two kinds of fish I'm skilling on, namely Noble Lady and Bluetail (lvl66 and 55 respectively) are noticably easier to catch with Halcyon than with Lu shang. Similarly I find Bhefhel Marlin (lvl61) to be harder to catch with Lu Shang than with Composite. By contrast Lu Shang provides a significant advantage when I occasionally get a bite on a Silver Shark (lvl76). Those fish I cannot actually catch yet but while they are near impossible to wrestle below 90% with Halcyon Rod, Lu Shang allows me to reach 40%ish consistently before running out of time. This merely reinforces my view that Lu Shang really proves its worth at later levels.
I'm not saying I'm giving up on Lu Shang already though, of course I can't not exclude the possibility that I'll have better results with Lu Shang if I improve my own fishing skills (tapping rather than holding directional buttons), and there are rumors Lu Shang improves bite rate and skill up rate (though I'm sceptical). Basically I just need more testing.
Either way, fishing has given me something new about FFXI to play for, and it is entirely possible I just needed a break for all the "normal" game stuff and will rebound back eventually. If I could make myself some cash in the meantime that would be just great.
Until next time, happy fishin'!
// Gathzel