Fishing the last zone fish

AnduinTryggva · October 2022

I thought it would be nice to unlock the master fisher achievement for High Isle, changed my CPs so as to have the two fishing-related CPs activated in my CP bar, crafted the fishing booster food and went for fishing the four fishing water types. It took me approximately 45min to fish 11 of the 12 rare fish with multiple drops from them. Per water type I had to farm mostly two, rarely three spots to complete it. Now since three hours I try to fish the last fish (blue river fish). Seriously? Is there a timer running in the background that prevents dropping the last fish if not enough time has been spent in fishing inside the zone? Is the drop probability of the last fish reduced by one or two orders of magnitude or why is there such a huge discrepancy here?

TaSheen · October 2022

I don't have any answers for you, but can say from my own experience on 6 master anglers, almost every zone's "last fish"
took generally as much time as all the rest of the rare fish in the same zone put together.

For instance, on the last one I finished up just before U34 or whichever AWA was, she spent about an hour in Stormhaven doing the first 11 rares - and it took another hour plus just to catch the 12th one (a green lake fish IIRC).

Cazador · October 2022

It can certainly feel like there's a timer. I probably spent like 6 hours at a lake in cyrodill to get my last fish.

CoronHR · October 2022

TaSheen said it right. the last fish takes about as long as all the others combined

Dr_Con · October 2022

Bad luck

I started doing some fishing across different zones to see if it was time efficient to get perfect roe for provisioning purposes (spoiler alert: you're better off making money in other ways, and spending the money on that roe). It seemed to me like if i was to get a green quality fish, it would roll randomly which drop I would get. I doubt they'd do something nefarious like prevent you from getting a certain fish, but that's just my opinion.

ZOS_Hadeostry · October 2022

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic.

Thank you for your understanding

zaria · October 2022

CoronHR wrote: »

TaSheen said it right. the last fish takes about as long as all the others combined

Almost, its random an you have an chance getting the same fish again.
First fish is obvious unique, second has an 25% chance being an duplicate 3rd 50% chance but the 4rt has an 75% chance being an duplicate.

Coldharbor is hard as its just foul water so you need 12 unique fish there the last is less than 10% being the missing.

One tips is to focus on the water with few fishing spots so you don't have to wait around for respawn.

whitecrow · October 2022

I finished High Isle very quickly all in one day. I don't believe there is any kind of timer.

JohnSmith · February 2023

Sorry for the necro...

Just spent almost 5 hours trying to get the last blue in a base game zone. Fishing-related CPs activated, and the Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl in my tummy. More than once I was joined by others too.

The blue didn't drop once! Everything else did, at least 5 times or more, but not a single blue.

5 hours wasted. Every time I think, "hey, let's go fishing," I absolutely detest it. Don't know if the brief for fishing was, "let's torture our players to the point where they hate part of our gameplay," but if it was, job well done!

Stinkyremy · February 2023

I have recently been doing all the fishing achievements, I have master angle now and am doing DLC now.
I can pretty much "confirm" that always the last fish takes longer to get than any of the other.

Some (maybe) obvious tips is that of course the blue fish is the rarest of the fish per hole, and salt in most cases is the more common holes, so what i suggest is when you go into a zone, do the type of water with the least amount of holes first, leave salt to last, but if you can, try and farm 1 or 2 salt holes in between all the other fish as if you get the blue salt, you should always leave a green salt for last fish, as logically it would be the fish with most holes and more frequent opportunity to RNG pop for you.

This of course depends on zone. Cyrodiil has only like 3-4 salt holes so you want to do them first.
Worse 2 areas are coldharbour and imp city, only foul spots and of course imp city is dangerous. As well as it is near impossible to see the holes from a distance in coldharbour.
Being all foul holes, the last fish in these zones take a long time.

Stinkyremy · February 2023

JohnSmith wrote: »

Sorry for the necro...

Just spent almost 5 hours trying to get the last blue in a base game zone. Fishing-related CPs activated, and the Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl in my tummy. More than once I was joined by others too.

The blue didn't drop once! Everything else did, at least 5 times or more, but not a single blue.

5 hours wasted. Every time I think, "hey, let's go fishing," I absolutely detest it. Don't know if the brief for fishing was, "let's torture our players to the point where they hate part of our gameplay," but if it was, job well done!

Always try to find a fishing partner in zone chat or ghuild if you can.

Fishing is a time sink and basically only for completionists. Still it can actually be quite lucrative in the long run if you get enough roe.
Dont forget to craft the fish into fish meals and sell them to the trader as well.

Draconista · April 2023

It used to be much harder to get the "rare" fish because they were actually rare. I spent a year fishing to get the Master Angler on the base game and I played most of each day! I was really looking forward to earning that achievement on my other characters but now if you get an achievement, of any kind I think, you have it on all. I really hate that.

When the game first launched you didn't even get a fish in your bag. It was just a quick flash showing a fish. I didn't fish again until they changed it. I enjoyed doing the achievements and being able to collect herbs along the way. Now they have nerfed most of the fishing areas and even removed the majority of herbs, etc. Everything is done for the new players and to keep the fishermen and women out of certain areas forcing most of us into just a few zones. Other than 2-3 years when I played no games due to medical, I have subscribed since launch. Fishing is my favorite thing and one of the reasons I chose to play this game in the first place. I am not happy with the new changes at all.

Nestor · April 2023

RNG is is a Fickle mistress. She will tease you into believing that your task is nearly done. The closer you get to the finish line, the farther away it is moved.