Propositions to address crafting/economic woes circa 3.0.

[RiceisNice]

Also need to keep in mind how much of a different there isfrom when it was ilvl20 before and ilvl20 now








From Ilvl90 to I110, it was a difference of 10 primary stats, Ilvl 180 to 210 is 23. That's not counting secondary stats or the fact you can't max out secondary stats thorugh materias

[Sibyll]

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The materia system has so many things wrong with it that it's hard to know where to start. The tedious acquisition process and the absurd dependence on pure slot machine RNG for melding are the only reason these things sell. I'm not an idiot, I understand it's a gil sink, but the reason why many people don't bother with crafted gear is because you are forced to buy an expensive piece of gear and then need to dump in millions more depending on the stats you want to meld. All this for a subpar piece of gear that is easily out matched by Alex NM gear or that is marginally better than a set of Law gear that could be farmed up in a weekend.

If they came up with a more interesting way to handle melding the cost might be warranted. If every 1% of spirit bonding equated to 1% increased meld rate over all slots I think that would alleviate some of the cost and encourage a wider scope of people to consider this gear.

Frankly I'd rather see crafted gear use esos and raid drops to upgrade their item level and just dump the materia system. The materia system really doesn't add anything interesting to the gear and the fact that we still have elemental resistance materia says a lot about how much contempt they have for the player base with regards to this system. And honestly, I think most raiders would welcome a third set of gear to mix and match stats with.

[Ohiuu]

@Sibyll

Slightly off topic but yes, I can appreciate that the materia system has flaws which have become particularly poignant in 3.0 but materia farming was one of the primary ways adventurers made gil in older content. So, basically, without another viable alternative it seems like it would remain a necessary evil. However, dealing with diminishing returns on the meld success and the greatly reduced efficacy of melding in the first place would be a big help to everyone. The real crux is that we don't have gear worth melding for battle classes; thus incredibly deflated battle materia and another big loss of potential income for the non-crafter/gatherer. Also, yeah wtf is up with the elemental resistance junk still (or ever for that matter) existing? Do away with those and farming it would be much less painful.

[Sibyll]

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The thing is with Airships bringing dozens of tier IV materia and most of the affordable gear dropping II, III and IVs in the same table SBing to sell materia isn't even really a viable option. The single i160 chest is hardly viable with it dropping III, IV, and V and I won't even consider i180 as an option. What really killed it though was not including Law tome crafting mats. Not sure where they expect people to get money to afford 50 million gil i180 glamour pieces... oh I mean "catch-up" gear.

[Kiara]

@Kiara in regards to end-game crafted sets... Requiring raid drops like the abjuration system of FFXI would remove the fear of people pushing too far too fast and would allow for that precious horizontal progression we would all love.

It could even be a rare drop that was still farmable after the loot lockout had been triggered allowing raiders to continue to challenge content outside of the once a week restriction which would keep servers more active and people more interested. Even for those who could only clear a1s, it would provide for a higher level of desire to push into advanced content which seems strangely uncommon as it stands. In addition to all of that it would also encourage more people to participate in the DoH classes in the first place (and they could even add in rare DoL components to this superior gear to bolster that crowd as well), unlocking a whole ton of content that not many people take advantage of these days. THAT is the kind of gear whole FCs would come together and push hard for...

For the love of god add some horizontal progression and give people a reason to push forward (everyone loves choices).

Hi ohiuu,

Great post! Totally agree.

@ Dev Team: I hope someone from the Community Team passes on feedback like the above and what many are saying to the Developers.

There ways to *balance* out the system, so that you can still involve Adventurers and Crafters together and it require the End Game Raid (so it's not bypassed).

That's also an interesting idea to allow adventurers to still go back to a Raid even after they acquire their Weekly Drop, if they wanted to try and get the Rare Crafting Material / Item for boosting their Crafted Sets.

That would give new life to End Game Raids beyond the "once a week" mentality. And perhaps they could tie in older raids or Primal EX's having a rare drop or Materia even, that would drive this synergy.

[Ohiuu]

@Sibyll: A fair point. Airship venture deflation and excessive RNG involved in conversion is pretty much the nail in the coffin of materia farming for gil.

@Kiara: Thank you for your support. I would love to have the dev team readdress the issue of end game (i210 circa 3.0) crafted equipment. I didn't mention it in my original post due to their steadfast "ain't gonna happen" attitude of the past but its a new expansion and there is so much potential here that it pains me to see if wasted. Bigger and better gear is what pushes people to challenge content, farm, grind, etc. You simply have to have a reward at the end of the rainbow to justify the arduous journey to get there. The relic system encouraged people to push through hours and hours of grind to come out with something special (although it didn't involve the end-game content) and adding this sort of equipment in would create tons of interest and motivation. Now, of course, all the caveats to prevent exploitation and maintain balance with those who didn't acquire this gear would have to be in place. We're not naively begging to be invincible with minimal effort. In business terms: your players stay motivated and keep paying their monthlies! It could be a system where every sort of player could take part...the raider, the crafter, the casual adventurer, the gatherer, etc. Why not? Seems like its worth setting aside the old excuses and taking a fresh approach.

[TechnoTechie]

apparently in two months, you won't even want the crafted gear even if it was i210. they're adding aetherial i210 from the airship islands with random stats, so you can farm for your ideal stats instead of worrying about materia melds ...

[dspguy]

As a tank, I use 3 crafted max 31str/29vit accessories. Since even though they are 60 iLvl below raid gear, having the ability to put 60 "main attributes" on an item in comparison to the 47 on str ring is still worth it. I need a little VIT boost in progression and I get to pick/choose which of the crafted accessories I want to use for minor boosts, like accuracy.

Honestly, I'd rather see 2-star i180 accessories in 3.1. I think we are due for that already.

[Sibyll]

As a tank, I use 3 crafted max 31str/29vit accessories. Since even though they are 60 iLvl below raid gear, having the ability to put 60 "main attributes" on an item in comparison to the 47 on str ring is still worth it. I need a little VIT boost in progression and I get to pick/choose which of the crafted accessories I want to use for minor boosts, like accuracy.

Honestly, I'd rather see 2-star i180 accessories in 3.1. I think we are due for that already.

It still baffles me that it's possible to cap a 2nd primary stat on accessories. It's like they are too stupid to realize this is the reason why crafted gear allows groups to progress through raid content faster than intended. This shit isn't rocket science.

[Yaichiro]

The problem with crafting is that it is becoming marginalised by developers for some unknown reason. Apparently they want crafted gears to be weaker than gears dropped by raids and those making crafted end game gears can't be looked at unless you're a collector or interested for glamour. 2.0 and the following 3 patches had somehow relevant end game crafting since they were 2nd best gears and were essential in the to raiders attempting world first. However, Heavnsward made crafts really less important as the highest ilvl can be made is 180 while the highest obtainable gears are 210 which is a huge gap.

If they really want to keep raid gears to be the best then they can make adjustment to the loot system that can make crafting relevant too. Raids could drop exclusive crafting materials that can be used to craft gears which are the strongest to be obtain given that they are over melded and HQ. In this way crafting is not necessary to pass content (you need to pass the content in the first place to obtain said materials) but also relevant to players who don't craft either by gaining the best gear or selling the materials.