Fishing

A couple of months ago, I looked at my crafting levels to see the following:

Smithing - Journeyman - (55)
Clothcraft - Journeyman - (60)
Alchemy - Journeyman - (60)
Woodworking - Journeyman - (60)
Goldsmithing - Journeyman - (52)
Leathercrafting - Journeyman - (60)
Bonecraft - Veteran - (100)
Cooking - Journeyman - (60)
Fishing - Novice - (27)

A lot of people would look at that list and be more than happy with it. The typical pattern a crafter will follow be to burn their way to 100 for their main, then burn up a couple sub crafts specifically related to the item they want to produce and make money off of. Those items are typically of the cursed or JSE variety.

I wasn't particularly happy with that list. Some of the same ideals I used in running my own small business applied to my approach with crafting. Meaning that if I saw a glaring weakness in my ability to make money, I would try to fix it. Another part being if I had to rely completely on other crafters for the stuff that I could make money on, then I was limiting myself to their own schedule and in some cases, their own idiocy.

In keeping with this logic, that "Fishing - Novice (27)" just glared out at me. I saw a number of money-making opportunities in relation to Bonecrafting that, if I had Fishing at 100, would likely see heaps of gil pouring in. In researching this, I found that Fishing pretty much impacted every single craft to some degree.

This was mostly related to the volume selling items though. For Bonecrafting, reraise hairpins require pearls and black pearls, both of which come from Shall Shells or Istiridyes. For Alchemy, Black Ink comes from an assortment of fish, most notably Nebimonites. Alchemy has a ton of other fish-related synths as well. Cooking likely relies on fishing the heaviest. Woodworking, while it doesn't rely directly on fishing, the aforementioned Black Ink from Alchemy is a direct part of a Woodworker's Shihei manufacturing process. Smithing and Goldsmithing aren't exactly in the same boat as the rest, but a number of lower-demand synths require items like mercury.

Having made up my mind to start leveling fishing and continuing the research mentioned above, I ran across this nifty little item:

At the time I had made the decision and upon discovering the information about this ring, I had just missed the Fish Ranking entry period altogether.

Fish Ranking is a bit of an odd event that SE implemented. It spends two weeks accepting entries and then two weeks dishing out rewards. This means there are 12 total chances each year to get one of these rings. In order to get one of these rings, you have to make the top 20 entries based on whatever it is they're looking for.

When it came time for the next round, they were wanting the lightest Tricorns. I found a guy to buy 3 from that was reasonable (unlike some of the other price gougers). The notion here was I was trying to get a ring for Kaelis, Kaylea and myself. I had a feeling the ones I bought weren't going to win, but there wasn't much else I could do about it given the facts that I was about to be gone for 10 of the 14 days entries were being accepted, that I didn't have the frog fishing key item or the skill to catch those and the fact that there are really some colossal douchebags out there who like to sell their previously ranked/marked entries on the AH to some unwitting soul.

Nothing like cockblocking someone from making an entry and making money of the people you cockblocked eh?

Anyway, yeah first round we lost, not by much though. Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades however. When it came time for the next entry period, this is what they were wanting:

Unlike the Tricorn, the Cave Cherax had a lot more information about it. While Wiki isn't always right, they're usually not too far off in most repects. The way to win this round was to turn in the longest lobster. There were no boats involved, no aggroing monsters or anything. I knew what the max reported size was and knew that if I got relatively close to it, that I'd likely get one of these rings. This proved to be far more helpful than the Tricorn stuff.

Unfortunately, time hadn't allowed me to get my fishing skill high enough to yoink these in at all. My fishing skill, simply off Istiridyes in Nashmau was sitting at 46. Based on the dozen or so that I had bite my line, I could get their stamina down to 0 with some difficulty, but no matter what, the line would break. I knew I needed to get someone with a bit higher skill to pull these out.

Enter...

King Cranky.



Suraph's fishing skill was 68ish. I asked him to come out and try fishing these up to see if I needed anyone higher. I also asked figuring if he was able to fish them up, he'd be able to skill up on them a bit and potentially,get himself a Pelican Ring and make a little money as well. Giving into his demands, I played the...



I filled him in on what were targeting and away he fished. Over the course of the next week, he burned through ~14 stacks of meatballs in the name of a pelican ring. He was even nice enough to give me the longest one he had fished up at the time. Hindsight being what it is, we both should have waited until we were sure we weren't fishing anymore before turning them in though. I turned in one that was 219Im about a week before the ranking results were announced. Suraph fished up another one that was 223 and gave it to me. Had I kept the 219Im one out, that would have been 2 pelican rings he would have fished up. So yeah, /facepalm.

At any rate, I placed 10th in this particular entry. Suraph's 216Im placed 23rd. Had it been 217, he would have a ring. Not that he's particularly after one since he plays off and on, but still would have been nice. None of the others he fished up would have won though.

Needless to say, away I go to Fishing: 100. I'm hoping with some free time dedicated to it, I can be there within the next month, but really just depends on what happens on a day to day basis.

I do need to say though that compared to my initial go round with Fishing (before they made it a lot more interactive...), I find it a lot more enjoyable and relaxing than I did back then. Once I finish up the Boneworker's Signboard I'm currently working on (120k/200k atm), I'll start the process of getting an Ebisu Fishing Rod so I can return Omoikitte's Lu Shangs back to her. (Not that she needs it...apparently when people she's befriended quit the game, they give her a Lu Shangs. She's got 4 of them laying around...).

Many thanks to King Cranky for spending his time fishing to help me get this ring though. He picked up 3 levels of fishing and made about ~75k NPCing the fish, so it wasn't a complete waste of time for him thankfully. Hopefully in a couple weeks, I'll be around 75 or so (50 currently) and can help Kaelis, Eri, Kaylea and Sur all pick up a ring as well since Fishing is a decent way to make some money if you hate AH competition.