Master Fisher - Thoughts & Perfect Roe Droprate

Navithra · August 2021

I really need to put some thoughts out there after recently completing the Master Fisher achievement, but I’ve also included some data and screen shots in my feedback to demonstrate the drop rate of perfect roe.

I started pursuing Master Fisher on July 14th, 2021 and finished my last zone, Cyrodil, on August 7th, 2021. I had both Reel Technique and the Angler’s Instincts perks slotted from the Craft-Thief Champion Point skill tree while I played. The hardest fish to obtain happened to be the Thrassian Eel from Auridon, which took over 1,500 saltwater worm baits, some bargaining with the RNG gods, and several, several hours of time over the course of two weeks.

I finished with 41 perfect roe, and intermittently took images of all the fish I’d collected. Eventually I’d gotten sick of skinning them so I stopped until I finished the achievement, and this was the largest subset of data I have (screen included). Note that I have started with 22 perfect roe (from the other fish I’d skinned up to that point) and finished with 41 total after this batch of fish.

Out of 2,473 skinned fish I obtained 19 roe, which works out roughly to a droprate of :

.00768
or
1 roe every 130 Fish

On a final note, I want to say that I really, REALLY hope the team considers changing the system that ESO currently uses for fishing in the future. With the introduction of minigames by the Antiquity system, I really see no reason the fishing system doesn’t make a good future candidate for revamping.

My suggestion would be not to change how long it takes to clear a fishing hole, but instead to allow the player to interact which would then open a second UI window. Players who happen upon the same fishing hole could join in, up to four players. This minigame could really be anything, (perhaps the equivalent of hungry hippos with fishing rods?), but when the game ends the hole disappears and all the fish earned during that round are given to the player at the same time. (I.E. 4 Salmon, 1 Rare Fish, 1 Lead.) Fishing hole loot tables could then be rebalanced to accompany this changed system.

Why go through all the effort? Because this was the worst. The other day on the Quakecon stream it was even mentioned that this achievement was the second hardest to get in game. Even if it wasn’t just the achievement, 130 fish for just one roe is mind numbing to get. Really. I was bored to tears. At one point it became a running joke with my roommate. “You gunno go play The Elder Fishes?” Sunk cost fallacy was the only thing keeping me going.

Well, that and the boat. Yay the boat.

JoDiMageio · August 2021

Did you use the Artaeum Pickled fish? Also, fishing alone does in fact take more time than with another person.

Navithra · August 2021

JoDiMageio wrote: »

Did you use the Artaeum Pickled fish? Also, fishing alone does in fact take more time than with another person.

No, I did not and intentionally so. My goal originally was to get perfect roe for crafting writs I had, so I wanted as many normal fish as possible to try and obtain as many as possible - and I decided I might as well work on the achievement while I did.

This post was meant to document a portion of that math, but also intended to serve as a suggestion for a replacement to improve on a really boring system. I didn't really have an issue with how long it took to get Master Fisher, even without the bonus for rare fish.

Noggin_the_Nog · August 2021

1 roe every 130 Fish!

That seems a very poor drop rate.

I'm on my third Master Fisher run, But she is a tank and often gets called away for other duties so her fishing is spasmodic. On my first two runs I was getting a drop rate of 1 in 70 or 80, very rarely 1 in 100. Has the drop rate changed?

Happy fishing.

JoDiMageio · August 2021

Afaik, over time it has been documented as about 1:100, averaged over all fishing, but I have seen a droprate of about .85 quoted (1:120) recently.

Navithra · August 2021

I agree with JoDiMageio, because it seems closer to below 1 percent total. There were a few times over the entirety of that run that I would skin 200 to 300 fish and not get one perfect roe, but then get two of them almost one right after the other in the next 35 white fish. It's a little wonky to be sure. I'm really not sure if housing skewed the drop rates.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · August 2021

I have to Master Anglers and my Perfect Roe drop rate was never that bad. That's some bad RNG.

DinoZavr · August 2021

in my humble statistics drop rate of perfect roe is like 1:150
i don't like fishing but still do it for summerset bottles

pdblake · August 2021

Must have been my lucky day. I got 2 roe from 12 fish today. Bet it doesn't happen tomorrow 😅

Odovacar · August 2021

Interesting! If I skin a stack (ZOS please give us a ALL option) i usually get 2 per sometimes just one. The rate sucks but hey it's a grind eh.

MajorDavood · August 2021

(4 Master Anglers here but hung up my rod after the 4th - this was before CP2.0)

First, congrats! As for the achievement, it isn't difficult - just time consuming for people who aren't prepared. A good set of fishing maps can make all the difference. I once did two alliances in about 12hrs. Just brute-force. It can be done

Your drop rate isn't that far off the norms. I gave up measuring by number of fish filleted and started measuring by pickled fish bowls used. I'd average between 6-8 per bowl -- which works for me.

Finally, you have some interesting ideas about fishing upgrades. I hope ZOS is reading this thread.

Ippokrates · August 2021

I was only fishing a little bit, just to get recipy from Artaeum, but while I was filleting fishes to do something with them, I had perfect roe almost every 20 fishes -_-

itscompton · August 2021

I've never been able to bring myself to spend the time to get the fishing achievements as it's just mind numbingly boring.
Push button to cast, push button to reel in fish. There is nothing to it other than staring at your screen waiting for the fish to bite.
It seems even worse after I recently played through Far Cry 5. The fishing system in that game is actually fun. You cast out and troll your lure to hook a fish and then the fight to land it starts. The fish run all over and you have to dynamically angle your pole to keep the tension from breaking the line and reeling in at the right moment to pull it in closer. Small fish you can basically overpower and reel straight in while large challenging fish actually take a while to wear down so you can land them.
I'd love to see a more active fishing system/mini game like that imported into ESO.

corrosivechains · August 2021

DinoZavr wrote: »

in my humble statistics drop rate of perfect roe is like 1:150
i don't like fishing but still do it for summerset bottles

This is closer to my rate too, and I spend 1 day a week fishing a full stack of bait in each of the 4 fishing types.

MajorDavood · August 2021

itscompton wrote: »

It seems even worse after I recently played through Far Cry 5. The fishing system in that game is actually fun. You cast out and troll your lure to hook a fish and then the fight to land it starts. The fish run all over and you have to dynamically angle your pole to keep the tension from breaking the line and reeling in at the right moment to pull it in closer. Small fish you can basically overpower and reel straight in while large challenging fish actually take a while to wear down so you can land them.
I'd love to see a more active fishing system/mini game like that imported into ESO.

That sounds pretty neat. I'm gonna check it out. Thanks for the tip!

FluffWit · August 2021

I've done master Angler 3 times.

It was a lot tougher before they added that Arteum fishing food. Thimk my first run I caught something like 12000 fish, my 3rd more like 6000. I'd imagine I could knock it out in under 5000 now.

I've played games with fishing mini games, they really arent fun imo.

The two changes I'd like to see are...
-add a lot more furnishing unlocks tied to fishing achievements. There must be at least 30 small boats that could be housing unlocks.
-every dlc add another decorative fish for housing. All we've gotten since base game is one with Murkmire. It looks great- would love to see more.

^obviously that's coming from someone who's into housing.

Sylvermynx · August 2021

I have 4 master anglers at the moment. I didn't keep track of number of fish (all I know is it was WAY too many when it came time to fillet them *sigh*). I did all 4 one after the other from around August of 2019 until about May 2020. By the time the filleting was all done, I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 perfect roe one each account, both megaservers. I'm thinking that's not anywhere close to 1:100 fish.... On my main PC EU account I got 40 during this year's Anniversary event!

I'm getting ready to start on 4 more. I'll try to keep track better this time.

Aldoss · August 2021

As someone who fishes, buys fish, and spends a lot of in game time filleting fish, I agree that this aspect of the game is quite possibly the worst implementation of what fishing could be.

It's the most monotonous, time consuming, and unfulfilling content in the game. It started off being fun that it was a market that could help me make money consistently to afford my housing and build creation habits, but it's turned into a chore that I just can't seem to do anymore.

Honestly, I'm surprised that roe is selling for as cheap as it is. There are many things that I could do with the same amount of in game time that it takes to get 1 roe that would net 3-5x the 'inflated' price that it is on PC NA right now (~40k/ea).

I've made hundreds of thousands in the same time frame with carries that I'd consider easy, but much less monotonous. Carrying or selling arena weapons feels like I'm actually playing the game. Fishing feels like I'm wasting my life.

Here are my stats since I started using an add on that tracks it:

0.96% in almost 50k fish is pretty disheartening. Even 1.5-2% would be a HUGE and noticeable improvement.

kringled_1 · August 2021

Aldoss wrote: »

As someone who fishes, buys fish, and spends a lot of in game time filleting fish, I agree that this aspect of the game is quite possibly the worst implementation of what fishing could be.

It's the most monotonous, time consuming, and unfulfilling content in the game. It started off being fun that it was a market that could help me make money consistently to afford my housing and build creation habits, but it's turned into a chore that I just can't seem to do anymore.

Honestly, I'm surprised that roe is selling for as cheap as it is. There are many things that I could do with the same amount of in game time that it takes to get 1 roe that would net 3-5x the 'inflated' price that it is on PC NA right now (~40k/ea).

I've made hundreds of thousands in the same time frame with carries that I'd consider easy, but much less monotonous. Carrying or selling arena weapons feels like I'm actually playing the game. Fishing feels like I'm wasting my life.

Here are my stats since I started using an add on that tracks it:

0.96% in almost 50k fish is pretty disheartening. Even 1.5-2% would be a HUGE and noticeable improvement.

My sample size is much smaller but even more disheartening. 0.57%, 10 roe in 1750 fish. All of the fish came from getting the various fishing achievements, I don't think I'll bother fishing outside of that.

omegatay_ESO · August 2021

Skinning is totally range. The few times I have watched my skinning I have seen nothing in over two hundred fish, then have seen 3 perfect roe skinning 60 or so fish.
I fish while watching TV on a laptop, drop a line here and there while questing. Be surprised the amount of fish you will get. I love the way fishing is, it's very casual, brainless. Keep at it, you get rewarded.

OneWingedAnge7 · August 2021

When I got my Master Fisher achievement I didn't mind the chill factor of an hour a night for a few weeks. I did however mind filleting 8000 fish, one at a time.
I did almost lose the will to live when I spent 9 hours in Coldharbour one day looking for a blue fishy. Not a fun time.

But I would be down for some improvements on it as a whole in the event I ever decided to do it again on another character. Additionally, fillet in bulk.... Jeez!

Oh and an improved drop chance of Roe would be tops too!

Grandchamp1989 · August 2021

Navithra wrote: »

I really need to put some thoughts out there after recently completing the Master Fisher achievement, but I’ve also included some data and screen shots in my feedback to demonstrate the drop rate of perfect roe.

I started pursuing Master Fisher on July 14th, 2021 and finished my last zone, Cyrodil, on August 7th, 2021. I had both Reel Technique and the Angler’s Instincts perks slotted from the Craft-Thief Champion Point skill tree while I played. The hardest fish to obtain happened to be the Thrassian Eel from Auridon, which took over 1,500 saltwater worm baits, some bargaining with the RNG gods, and several, several hours of time over the course of two weeks.

I finished with 41 perfect roe, and intermittently took images of all the fish I’d collected. Eventually I’d gotten sick of skinning them so I stopped until I finished the achievement, and this was the largest subset of data I have (screen included). Note that I have started with 22 perfect roe (from the other fish I’d skinned up to that point) and finished with 41 total after this batch of fish.

Out of 2,473 skinned fish I obtained 19 roe, which works out roughly to a droprate of :

.00768
or
1 roe every 130 Fish

On a final note, I want to say that I really, REALLY hope the team considers changing the system that ESO currently uses for fishing in the future. With the introduction of minigames by the Antiquity system, I really see no reason the fishing system doesn’t make a good future candidate for revamping.

My suggestion would be not to change how long it takes to clear a fishing hole, but instead to allow the player to interact which would then open a second UI window. Players who happen upon the same fishing hole could join in, up to four players. This minigame could really be anything, (perhaps the equivalent of hungry hippos with fishing rods?), but when the game ends the hole disappears and all the fish earned during that round are given to the player at the same time. (I.E. 4 Salmon, 1 Rare Fish, 1 Lead.) Fishing hole loot tables could then be rebalanced to accompany this changed system.

Why go through all the effort? Because this was the worst. The other day on the Quakecon stream it was even mentioned that this achievement was the second hardest to get in game. Even if it wasn’t just the achievement, 130 fish for just one roe is mind numbing to get. Really. I was bored to tears. At one point it became a running joke with my roommate. “You gunno go play The Elder Fishes?” Sunk cost fallacy was the only thing keeping me going.

Well, that and the boat. Yay the boat.

Last I fished I had 200+ fish. I believe around 230 and got 1 perfect roe...

That is really demotivating to me atleast....

I'm all for an increase in perfect roe droprate. 1:25 would be awesome but realisticly 1:50

1:200+ as I got is just.. Nope.

SidraWillowsky · August 2021

I'm hitting about the same as you-- 1 roe per 120-130 fish. It's absurdly low.

FlamingMeat · August 2021

Noggin_the_Nog wrote: »

1 roe every 130 Fish!

That seems a very poor drop rate.

I'm on my third Master Fisher run, But she is a tank and often gets called away for other duties so her fishing is spasmodic. On my first two runs I was getting a drop rate of 1 in 70 or 80, very rarely 1 in 100. Has the drop rate changed?

Happy fishing.

Never have I ever been so irrationally upset. I got 30 TOTAL. I have a screenshot of 475 fish filleted and 0 roe dropping. I did use the passives and the food so I did catch less overall fish than the OP, but still, nowhere near 1 in 100 for me lol.

tsaescishoeshiner · August 2021

Thanks for your insights OP, interesting discussion here.

About a fishing revamp: almost any minigame will get boring if it has to be repeated for hours in order to farm effectively. For example, I don't mind scrying/digging, but they're not something I do more than just a few at a time. In less than an hour, it would get repetitive and remedial.

I would suggest a fishing daily writ. A reason to go relax at a fishing hole with a nice reward would be appealing to people who like writs, people who want achievement furnishings or gold, and people who already like fishing. Fishing surveys, anyone?

Alternatively, integrate fishing with other systems. Maybe add a lead for a sellable item/ingredient to all fishing holes, so that farming is broken up by different activities. Or fishing nodes could drop a little repeatable quest starter (return the Sea Snake Collar to the maormer, etc.) or special treasure map where the rewards are a special ingredient or a chance at rare recipes/furnishing plans.

Disclosure: I personally can't stand fishing because it's so mind-numbing, and I see it as the worst possible example of turning free time into work. But I know others find it a relaxing and chill way to make some gold and be at peace.

omegatay_ESO · August 2021

If the filleting fish is a issue for you? Do it when you have other things to do around the house, go to the store, etc.
There is a add-on that will auto fillet the fish in your inventory. As long as you filleting, you won't be disconnected.

Sylvermynx · August 2021

omegatay_ESO wrote: »

If the filleting fish is a issue for you? Do it when you have other things to do around the house, go to the store, etc.
There is a add-on that will auto fillet the fish in your inventory. As long as you filleting, you won't be disconnected.

Yes, I used the addon, but I didn't realize I could leave it working on its own! Thanks for the info @omegatay_ESO, that's really good to know!

Aznarb · August 2021

Fishing is so boring, I don't know how people can stand like this for month tbh..
Also yeah roe is rare, it's about the same pain as gold jewel.

I'm all for a fishing rework, I really want to do the success in all zone, but not until it changed, way to lame rn.

omegatay_ESO wrote: »

If the filleting fish is a issue for you? Do it when you have other things to do around the house, go to the store, etc.
There is a add-on that will auto fillet the fish in your inventory. As long as you filleting, you won't be disconnected.

C'mon their is no valide reason to not have an "fill all" option.

Smitch_59 · August 2021

My wife got Master Angler on her main; now she can hardly tolerate fishing. I doubt I will ever get the title. It's just too boring. And I wish the drop rate for perfect roe was better.

katanagirl1 · August 2021

I started working towards Master Angler just recently, now that there is both the fish food and the CP boost to help with that. I think the fishing is well done, I have played other games in the past where there was a fishing mini game and I really hated them.

I like the little furnishings you occasionally get as well.

I don’t really know about the perfect roe drop rate, I fillet everything after the fishing so I don’t fill up my inventory. I think I get 100 or more fish average each time, sometimes I get 1 perfect roe, sometimes I get 2-3, sometimes I get none.

FluffWit · August 2021

1% has always been the expected drop rate for Roe. Of course like anything that means you may do 600 and get nothing. Or do 10 and get 3.

I can't say I paid too much attention but I've probably filleted 30000 fish and 1% seems about right to me.