Cast Light is an ability available to Final Fantasy XIV’s Fisher job which lights the tip of your fishing rod. It’s available from level 1, and was added in Patch 2.2.
I’ve mentioned before in some of these articles that fishing is kinda the odd one out when it comes to gathering jobs. It doesn’t have an intense, wider-world number of applications. Obviously Culinarians can make good use of fish as ingredients from time to time. They can even desynthesize fish for other items if they want.
But unless you get very lucky with Market Board pricing, you won’t be making a solid living from fishing.
This is purely an activity to do for personal satisfaction. And if you make any gil from it, it’s a nice bonus.
Even so, Fishing has received a fair bit of attention from the developers over at Square.
It has the same fleshed out questline as all the other crafting/gathering jobs. You can even pick up a Skysteel Fishing Rod for endgame fishing (because yes, of course there’s a fishing endgame).
You can even take a big boat out to the open water for some Ocean Fishing with a group of other players.
There’s a lot you can do with the job.
Fishers also have a bunch of skills available to them, and amongst these is Cast Light. This was added fairly early on with Patch 2.2, and you’ll have access to it straight away.
What Does Cast Light Do?
Cast Light illuminates the tip of your fishing rod. That is literally all it does.
No, this doesn’t attract more fish under certain conditions because they’re attracted to light.
It doesn’t negate time of day requirements like Fish Eyes, or confer any kind of practical in-game benefit.
It just adds a light to the tip of your fishing rod. I’m not messing with you. That’s the extent of this skill.
Is it cosmetic? Most likely.
Does it have any other conceivable use? Maybe.
When Would I Use Cast Light?
You’re going to have to sink down to my level with this one, so hopefully you don’t have too far to go.
See, fishing’s great. It’s really relaxing.
It’s a great way to spend time in Eorzea when you’re tired of all the power of friendship/world-ending drama.
But leveling it up can be very slow at times, and attention will naturally drift.
So say for example you’re fishing on autopilot. Maybe you’ve got a TV show or YouTube video playing on a second monitor. Maybe you’re listening to a podcast.
Basically, you’re not paying full attention to the XIV screen display.
Cast Light makes it a little bit easier to see your fishing rod move out of the corner of your eye.
So if you’re not really paying attention, it might help you catch something you’ve got on the hook.
Beyond that, Cast Light doesn’t really have any use.
You’re never going to be fishing somewhere so dark you need a torch. And it isn’t bright enough to serve that purpose anyway.
But if you’re multitasking, it just might save the day.
Would I say that Cast Light is a pointless skill? No, not really.
Just because it doesn’t have any practical gameplay uses doesn’t mean it’s pointless. Sometimes it’s fun to have cosmetic skills for the sake of it.
That’s one of the things that makes XIV the game it is:
The little details that make your character feel like more than a number endlessly grinding out more numbers.
