Please don't gate 3.2 crafted gear behind specialists.

[Empty-handed]

the original idea of specialist: SE felt that people dont approach crafting cause you pretty much must level everything to max level to get into end game crafting. so they introduced a new system that will allow those players to be focused into 1 job. and dont need to level everything or gear up everything to do end game crafting.

current stat:
- you need to level everything to 60.
- specialist skills are useless and give no advantage. old skills are far simpler and more viable.
- recipes gated behind specialist. not only you cant craft, you also depend on other specialists -.-

[Jpec07]

The best thing that could happen, really, would be for Specialists to gain access to the other 21 Cross Class skills (15, 37, 50) from the other 7 classes. When 4.0 comes along, and the Specialist levels above 60, then the HW cross class skills should be included as well. Eliminate the Specialist-only restriction on recipes as completely unnecessary. Then the "only" reason to level up other crafting classes is access to their recipes, not their skills.

/signed

I was originally leveling BSM/ARM, because as a PLD, I figured they would be of the most personal benefit to me. But I saw the specialist system, and it felt contrived, hard to use, and inadequate. And especially when I compared the difficulty of properly working the "whistling" mechanic to the ease of getting the other DoH jobs to 50 (and the effectiveness of each), I just never used it. I keep the Soulstone equipped because why not, but I don't use the new mechanics. They just aren't as effective or compelling as their cross-class counterparts.

Your suggestion would fix all of that, Roth. Give Specialists the ability to access all of the skills (even if by different names), and make recipes the incentive to level other classes (would still be good incentive because of how much the different classes' recipes interact).

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Lets say you craft casually and you chose cooking for example (CUL) as your prefered crafting class and lvld it to 60. Before 3.15 your only money makers were meals from 50-60 and 7 Master Recipe meals. You had to compete with hundreds of other crafters (undercutting religeously) in order to make any profit at all. In most cases casual crafters suffer here. They dont have the time/drive to craft all day while standing next to a Market Board in order to undercut your competitors every 2min. When you log off, your items on the MB are left in the dust.

3.15 Specialist recipes are introduced (Steamed Staff & KingCake). Most serious crafters who only leveld 1 character arent going to waste a crafter soulstone on CUL. So now, Instead of having hundreds of crafters to compete with on the Market, you have a smaller minority of CULs which will inturn, provide you more opportunites to make gil.

By forcing the more hardcore crafters to pick and choose their specialists, they are effectively creating opportunities for the more casual crafters to move up. It's pretty easy to see that this does help the avg crafter make gil when you look at everything at face value (without rage/saltyness).

While this may eliminate a bulk of the competition, it does little to actually change the paradigm. Hardcore crafters will still undercut at frequent paces, but will simply resort to alts if specialist recipes become a thing. All it takes is a few players to have both the time and dedication to outproduce casual crafters and everything is back to how it was. You are also sorely mistaken if you believe only lvl50+ items net a profit. Sure, you may have to craft more goods, but you can make a sizable amount just going through your craft log and finding what sells at any given time. As for people not having enough time to level craft classes. It is absurdly easy if you exploit leves.

[Mindy_Macready]

^

Not only that, but his argument falls apart when Square starts introducing Specialist mats that are required for other Specialists' crafts, like we're currently seeing with relics. The specialist mats will always include the crafter's fee of some type, and that fee can be controlled [read: kept insane] if only a few crafters specialize in that field and collude with each other.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

^

Not only that, but his argument falls apart when Square starts introducing Specialist mats that are required for other Specialists' crafts, like we're currently seeing with relics. The specialist mats will always include the crafter's fee of some type, and that fee can be controlled [read: kept insane] if only a few crafters specialize in that field and collude with each other.

Exactly. Furthermore, the recent changes that came in Heavensward only served to cripple old 50 crafts, which funneled all those players into searching for new markets to exploit. Before the Arachne Gaskin of Striking set (or its equivalent) went for 300-400k each. Now it's barely 5,000. If those markets remained competitive, people would have more options. Narrowing the crafting only serves to hinder crafting in general as the truly dedicated will aways find loopholes. If they truly wanted to expand the system, then making items drop only in dungeons would be better. Sure, it's still a horrible grind, but at least it promotes options. This just does, well, nothing.

[Aikota]

Do we know yet what new crafting gear will be released in 3.2, if any? I can't see them releasing anything better than then 170hq stuff just quite yet

[StouterTaru]

Do we know yet what new crafting gear will be released in 3.2, if any? I can't see them releasing anything better than then 170hq stuff just quite yet

We haven't had any new crafter gear released since mid July, so I would expect something.

[Mature]

I wouldn't mind stuff to be "gated" behind specialist. I think it makes the server and the interaction with user more sociable. I enjoyed the fact I had to ask people with other specialist to help me make the relic stuff, people that I never talk to and now we are friends and help each other.

I honestly don't mind it at all .

[Mindy_Macready]

To each their own. I just don't see the merit in the system in place as anything other than saving face for a poorly designed feature.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

To each their own. I just don't see the merit in the system in place as anything other than saving face for a poorly designed feature.

Must be a cultural thing, for I don't see any merit in "saving face for a poorly designed feature" myself. If it's good, keep it and continue. If it's bad, get rid of it and move on.