Super-mega-grind

[Tiraelina]

Lineage 2's was definitely far, far, far,grindier.

You think having to press "Standard Synthesis" for a minute or so is bad?

Imagine having to press your mouse button potentially hundreds - yes hundreds - of times to create a single item, between making sub-sub components, crafting those into sub-components, crafting those into components and then crafting those into the actual item.

And if you happened to fail the craft, you could lose potentially weeks worth of material gathering, component crafting, etc.

Oh, and unless you found a Dwarf (the only race who could really craft anything beyond basic items) with your recipe set up to craft in its shop (Dwarf players could set up their characters as crafting shops), you had to level a Dwarf yourself, get him to the level where he could learn to craft the item(s) you wanted, and then do it. The upside to that, though, is that crafters could make a lot of money in that game by just parking their character in the right spot, and letting people to come to them to craft stuff while they were afk, etc.

XIV's is a walk in the park by comparison.

Personally, I don't even think XIV's is that bad.. boring and could use a bit more variety in the situations you have to respond to and how you have to respond... but not horrible. I personally enjoy actually being involved in the process moreso than clicking one button and poof... you have your items.

Dwarves didn't level up by crafting, they levelled up by killing. The hardest/grindiest part of crafting in L2 was collecting the recipes which your book was also limited and the materials (both of which were gathered by Scavengers and/or killing thousands of mobs), not the crafting itself. Warsmiths were also highly valued to have in sieges and could very easily hold their own in PvP.

If you want to make cross game comparisons do it properly. Levelling crafting in this game is pure grind with nothing to make it more interesting.

[Preypacer]

Dwarves didn't level up by crafting, they levelled up by killing. The hardest/grindiest part of crafting in L2 was collecting the recipes which your book was also limited and the materials (both of which were gathered by Scavengers and/or killing thousands of mobs), not the crafting itself. Warsmiths were also highly valued to have in sieges and could very easily hold their own in PvP.

If you want to make cross game comparisons do it properly. Levelling crafting in this game is pure grind with nothing to make it more interesting.

Right... you had to level them up. I didn't specify how, but that was the idea

Regardless, for a lot of people (that I knew anyway) who just wanted to be able to craft on their dwarf and do their hunting/killing on their other characters, it was a chore. In much the same way that people consider having to level certain classes they're not particularly interested in just to unlock skills considered "necessary" for their main class in this game to be a chore.

All of what you mention are, indeed, part of the process as well.

However, regarding the process of crafting itself, you did still have to sit there and click the mouse button countless numbers of times to craft things in many cases.

I remember being on Ventrilo while in one of my Clans and every time the clan leader would open his mic to talk about something, all you heard in the background was "click click click click click click click click click...".

Hell, just crafting shots could be time-consuming, esp. if you didn't have a SE handy to recharge the Dwarf's MP to do more crafting. You had to stand there and let it build back up... then craft more. Then let it build back up... Then craft more... Hoping someone else didn't come over and start using the same Dwarf lol... I remember scouring the crafting area in Giran to find a dwarf wearing good MP regen gear.

I don't think you'd actually argue that FFXIV's crafting is grindier or more tedious than that of L2, especially now with the simplification of recipes...?

To be clear I'm no saying "crafting is fine as it is". I definitely feel it could use more work, to make it more interesting and interactive. I just hope they don't go so far as taking the "okay, get all your materials ready, queue them up, press "Craft All", then go away and make a sandwich and when you come back, all your crafts are finished!"