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In 4.0, it has been announced that they are overhauling the talent and cross-class skill system. While we don't know the specifics as of yet, a lot of people tend to think this means the death of cross-class skills.
With how much the Disciples of the Hand Classes rely on cross-class skills to function, how do you think this will play out? What would you like to see happen?
Maybe make specialist actions actually useful?
What I heard (did not see anything from SE or Yoshi themselves) was that they are revamping the combat system, removing less-/un-used skills, and changing some cross class skills into role-specific skills.
Last I checked, while they are not combat roles, all of the DoH share a role : crafter. Just as all of the DoL share a role : gatherer. If they nix cross class stuff and just make the formerly cross class skills role-specific skills, that may help those crafting classes that simply don't have enough room for everything in their cross class skill section. I'm thinking of BSM here, but there are others that are forced to make choices.
I suspect we'll see all crafting/gathering crossclass skills fall into one global group of pickable skill with few other crafting changes.
They were talking about less action bar in general for combat. I hope that works in to crafting as well. The current 4 star are in the 40 step, rotation range. Even 58 stuff is in the 20 step range. I used to be able to clear a 99 stack of parts over a food buff. Now I can do 33 if I am fast about it.
There are going to need to do major changes to the crafting system, as two factors can not continue to trend as they are. The first as Ksenia points out is the ever increasing number of steps required in a craft. We are going to have to see new skills in 4.0 that replace old ones that actively decrease the number of steps needed to craft something. The second is crafting materia and melding requirements. Since the start of 3.0 we have seen large increases in the melding requirements with each set of gear to hit the new mins. They have basically made the materia, and therefore the amount of gil ones has, as the barrier to entry to the top level of crafting, still is not a smart nor encourage barrier. They have created system after system in 3.0 to feed more materia into the market, this will have to change at some point.
My #1 Hope is an improved Flawless Synthesis that does more than 40 Progress, maybe 200 with the effect of consuming 5 stacks of Maker's Mark. Because if Rath's Rotation still works into 4.x, then rotations will get reeeeeealy long with all those stacks.
Here's my Mock-up of the suggested Ability:
Flawless Synthesis II
Increases Progress by 200.
Can only be executed while Maker's Mark is active. Consumes 5 stacks of Maker's Mark when used. Cannot be used if Maker's Mark is less than 5 stacks.
Success Rate: 80%
While Flawless Synthesis II has the advantage of helping you burn your stacks faster, the 80% chance will require the use of Steady Hand to ensure success. Even then Flawless Synthesis I could be better since more stacks = more times you can use Comfort Zone.
Besides that, I too hope that Specialist Skills get overhauled and become less RNG-reliant or are changed slightly. My suggestion that Heart of the X can be used without a delineation, but only once per craft.
Also Steady Hand III pls, I want to get off Hasty Touch's Wild Ride.
Putting the cross-classes into a general pool you can select from is a great idea, and will FINALLY help realize SE's goal of making Omni-crafting less of a requirement for successful crafters - something I believe that the Specialist actions were supposed to help with, but failed at so very, very hard.
Speaking of Specialist actions, these need to be overhauled or removed completely. While there are a couple of potentially promising actions, their drawbacks are too severe, and it's rare that you'll see a crafter using any of them in more than an experimental fashion. The RNG associated with these actions are simply too severe. A good crafter always seeks to minimize the impact of RNG, and the specialist actions introduce a veritable carousel of variables to keep track of.
And speaking of RNG, I doubt it will ever go away completely - and that's for the best. Recovering a synth and completing it successfully when it goes south is pretty much the hallmark of a great crafter - it's the ONLY thing that sets a true crafter apart from a script kiddie who mechanically follows the formulas they find on the internet. We're spoiled so badly in this game; it's the only one I know of where a player has CONTROL over whether their recipe produces a HQ result. A system where a crafter could follow the same steps over and over and produce a HQ every time would simply be absurd.
Oh, yeah, and Flawless Touch. While I appreciate that Maker's Mark finally made it useful, seriously, they way it did so is aggravating. Maker's Mark is very powerful, but SO irritating when you want to mass-produce items.