Repairs/Melding: Stop Increasing Its Level

[Veritas-Ancora]

I've subscribed longer than most have.

I have subscribed, without pause, since ARR started. No breaks, no months off. I've kept my crafters up, I've melded materia, I've removed it, I've repaired my gear every expansion.

But approaching L80, enough is enough with upping this repair requirement every expansion.

You have to be L50 to repair L60 gear. You have to be L60 to repair L70 gear. Presumably, you have to be L70 to repair L80 gear. If this pattern continues, the effectiveness of repairs will not be worth it to newer players.

For someone privileged like me, I have been around long enough to get every crafter to cap for all the jobs I play. I imagine most of the White Knights on here will argue that I worked for it and so did they. That doesn't fix the increasing problem.

But it's a lot of time, investment, and energy for newcomers. For someone just starting the game, leveling L80 x 8 crafters = 640 levels. To repair. If it goes to L90 x 8 crafters, then we're talking 720 levels. Even if they don't want to craft anything and just save a few extra gil on repairs and melding. This is getting ridiculous.

Please consider offering a permanent cap to crafter levels needed to repair.

Example:
L80 battle = L70 repairs
L90 battle = L70 repairs
L99 battle = L70 repairs

This is not suggesting to stop increasing crafter cap, just repairs/melds. Force crafters that want to make gear to continue leveling their jobs and make the content challenging as planned in Ishgard, keep the crafting jobs increasing every expansion, but there's no reason we should continue upping the repair requirements. Let's consider value versus effort. The value will not be worth the effort for someone new, and we want more new players.

We really need to think about how challenging it is for new players, and how we can continue to replenish the active subscriptions.

[MistakeNot]

But it's a lot of time, investment, and energy for newcomers. For someone just starting the game, leveling L80 x 8 crafters = 640 levels. To repair. If it goes to L90 x 8 crafters, then we're talking 720 levels. Even if they don't want to craft anything and just save a few extra gil on repairs and melding. This is getting ridiculous.

How many people level crafters just to be able to repair stuff? Very, very few, I think.
If people don't want to spend time and effort leveling their crafters, then they can just spend gil to get their gear repaired. Problem solved.
As for melds, there are NPCs for that too. Or you can ask a friend with leveled crafters if want to overmeld.

In short, you are trying to solve a non-problem.

[Veritas-Ancora]

If people don't want to spend time and effort leveling their crafters, then they can just spend gil to get their gear repaired. Problem solved.

In short, you are trying to solve a non-problem.

This doesn't solve the problem of repairs. You're avoiding the issue of repairs.

Repairs cost too much at the NPCs. So value over time becomes a factor in choosing whether or not to self repair.

And self repair is MASSIVE for raids, dungeons, or Eureka. Repair costs are too high. It keeps the new players poor and the crafters rich. Trickle-down economics at play.

[Acantha]

I agree with this in principal, although I can't see it happening unfortunately. It is frustrating to have half a static that can repair themselves, but we have to stop prog to allow those who don't have the time to level all their crafters to leave and repair. But, it is a fairly small annoyance compared to other QOL changes we need. So it wouldn't be a high priority for me personally.
Will add my support though on the off chance the team look into this one day, and I can definitely see your point re: newer players. Hell, if my partner who's been playing for 4 years hasn't had time to cap his crafters, what hope do newer players who also work full time have? It does kind of unfairly weight things towards players with... more spare time to spend shall we say

[Kurando]

Repairs cost too much at the NPCs. So value over time becomes a factor in choosing whether or not to self repair.

And self repair is MASSIVE for raids, dungeons, or Eureka. Repair costs are too high. It keeps the new players poor and the crafters rich. Trickle-down economics at play.

Not really, I mean once you get so far in the game money just gets thrown at you through various means and there are very few cash sinks in the game to begin with, repairs have been the only consistent thing after all this time. Most raiders have no issue doing some runs and then backing out of the duty to repair, and Eureka has a mender, it's really not that big of deal. It's a no brainer that you repair your gear often, deciding whether you should or shouldn't because of the cost is not a valid reason. Some players already go in to duties with broken gear causing inconvenience to everyone else, having crafter repair access suddenly isn't going to fix that if players don't have to a desire to level crafters anyway.

Also curious how your subscription time has anything to do with the matter, it holds no sway or influence, you could have made the thread without that particular starting point in all fairness...

[programcanaan]

They could get rid of the 7 (soon to be 8) levels of Dark Matter (and only have one Dark Matter to rule them all) and let anyone of any level repair things to 100% and give a bonus for each level in the requisite craft.

[Niwashi]

leveling L80 x 8 crafters = 640 levels. To repair.

Your math's a little off. When talking specifically about repairs, there aren't 8 crafting classes. Culinarian doesn't make gear, so doesn't repair or meld it either. And players who find 7 crafting classes too many to level probably aren't the ones leveling all 16 combat jobs, so they may be able to limit it further by focusing on the ones that make most of their main job's gear. People who main any of the DoM jobs probably don't use Armorer very often, nor does a Warrior have much use for Carpenter, and so on. (Of course, to also be able to craft usefully at high levels, they'll want their other crafters up to 50 for cross-class skills, but that's neither relevant to repairs nor continuing to go up each expansion.)

And in any case, if someone was willing to keep their crafting classes within 10 levels of their main just to repair gear for the first 50 or 60 levels, why would that change while they're going the rest of the way to 70 or 80?

It is frustrating to have half a static that can repair themselves, but we have to stop prog to allow those who don't have the time to level all their crafters to leave and repair.

While I don't really see much need for the OP's suggestion, I would like it if we could repair each other's gear (kind of like how we can meld someone else's gear). Then so long as your static has at least one person with leveled crafters and everyone carries Dark Matter, you could take care of everyone's repairs in-dungeon.

They could get rid of the 7 (soon to be 8) levels of Dark Matter (and only have one Dark Matter to rule them all)

This would be nice, too.

[Kuroka]

ITs the typical FFXIV problem, we get grad 1-27 but they cant just give us one and increase the amount you need for higher ilvl gear. And yes it should be way lower, like half the cap level, so youd need lv 35 for 70, 40 for 80 etc... or just hard cap it at level 50 or 60. Its one of those things where the actually work is pretty few...

[Shadygrove]

Repairs cost too much at the NPCs.

They do not. I have an alt who cannot self repair and only fishes for gil. When last I checked she had 67m.

As to your raid mates who cannot self repair, visit the repair NPC before each raid, use durability droughts or squadron gear maintenance manuals.

What we REALLY need is "Request Repair." We had it in 1.x.

P. S. I beat you all hollow as to time in game. /grin

[Lissandra]

They could get rid of the 7 (soon to be 8) levels of Dark Matter (and only have one Dark Matter to rule them all) and let anyone of any level repair things to 100% and give a bonus for each level in the requisite craft.

I've been wanting something like this for a really long time now. Here's to hoping SE makes some kind of change come ShB.

EDIT: Or consolidate to two kinds or something if they are worried about losing another type of gil sink. For example, have repair levels 1-69 in one type of dark matter, and 70-80 in another with the latter being a lot more pricey.