I’ve recently had to do a lot of fishing for legendary scales to get some max gem reagent% rolls. In my obsession with making things more efficient at the expense of losing time for actually catching fish, I’ve done some investigating into the calculations for catching legendary fish.
This document explains mostly everything about fishing. I implore you to look it over.
For any AO fishing enthusiasts, and any player in general, I hope the information that I’ve gathered for this one prospect helps you pick which rod they should bring.
Immediate things to note:
Please do not ask questions before reading the Important Notes section, which explains some weird things that I’ve encountered.
Fishing should definitely be done in t1 insanity dark sea.
What if I’m only looking for exotic+ (t4 and t5) fish?
I need it for recov 4/5 meals what is then the best fishing rod? (This is assuming I’m not fishing in dark sea because im going for casual play, not out of my way to get food buff)
But I don’t want to use fish that’s golden (because I’ll lose out on legendary fish scales, or I’m stupid and it’s not how the formula works, in which case ignore this last line)
Tiers 4 and 5 fish means that there will be just a few more possible combinations of rarities and modifiers. Ignoring Gold rarity fish just absolutely destroys your fish yield, so I’ll ignore that line.
To reiterate these, the rarities are:
+1) Common
+2) Uncommon
+3) Rare
And modifiers:
+1) Giant
+2) Massive
+2) Golden
We’ll ignore the ‘Massive’ modifier since you won’t be fishing in the dark sea.
Now, the possible combinations include:
Uncommon + Golden
Rare + Giant
Rare + Golden
My previous calculations essentially calculate for Rare + Massive (Giant in this case, since they have the same rarity), and Rare + Golden.
Since Uncommon + Golden is the addition here, I will actually calculate for that combination separately (taking into account that the fish rarity rolls for rare first, then uncommon), and add it onto the previous calculations.
Uncommon + Golden (for 120 minutes):
BE: 0.274576271
BG: 0.292881355
Rare + Giant & Rare + Golden:
BE: 1.397842835
BG: 1.491032357
Sum:
BE: 1.672419106
BG: 1.783913713
Please take into account that I am using values found in-game rather than on the wiki. Please look into the Important Notes - Differing Values section of my document to read a little more into this.
To conclude, the Bronze Graced is better. However, I would still recommend Bronze Ensnaring for most players, since the number of fish caught in general is greater.
I saw you talked about Graced vs. Toughened in your post. I know I talked about Bronze Ensnaring vs Graced, but that’s only because Bronze Toughened just kind of blows at anything (pretty horrible fish yield compared to the other two). I did calculate for that though, and I can confirm with data that it isn’t even close to the Ensnaring or Graced.
Also, to appease your worry of losing legendary fish, the only combination here that would yield tier 5 (legendary) fish would be Rare + Golden.
I’m pretty sure you will want to jump off a cliff before actually getting a legendary fish without being in the Dark Sea t1 insanity.
Anyways-
Let’s say I only care about giant rare/uncommon fish caught, because I want to let the golden ones rot for legendary scales
Which fishing rod is the best then?
With the only combinations being giant rare/uncommon fish, we are excluding golden variants. I believe to the best of my knowledge, and with all the available information on the wiki, that the chance of catching a golden fish will always be a constant 1/30 chance. Since this is constant, the best rod remains the Bronze Graced.
The difference between Graced and Ensnaring is pretty minimal in this case, with only an estimated 6-7% difference in the fish yield. It’s pretty much up to personal preference.