Crafting in this game is infuriating

[TurtlesAWD]

Zero explanation given for specialist actions, overpriced materials, obfuscated paths for equipment upgrades, even the currency used is named after an obvious and blatant abuse of worker's rights (scrip), I should have known this was for suckers and not bothered.

Where is the fun in gambling that the money or time you invest in a craft will actually finish? Where is the fun in throwing materials at a badly explained system? Where is the fun?

[DJMau]

Luckily SHB is making the UI much more user friendly.

And no one ever said that getting into the crafter game was exactly cheap. Spend money to make money after all. That or you can gather what you need yourself.

[Avyiur]

obfuscated paths for equipment upgrades

You craft the gear, you wear the gear. How is that obfuscated?


Also crafting is not cheap if you do not go out and get your own materials. Plus if you need assistance with crafting rotations, people are more than happy to help.


You ask where is the fun, I say ask the people in the game who literally main crafters, not battle jobs lol. They would not devote themselves to crafting all day if they did not think it was fun/enjoyable (the making money part helps a lot too).

[TurtlesAWD]

Oh yeah, right, the gear I can craft. The gear that's definitely right there in my crafting list, items that definitely don't require buying any kind of unlock item to even see, an item that if it did exist would definitely tell me which items it is that I'm unlocking the creation of, and definitely wouldn't require using the worst currency to buy. Good thing an item like that doesn't exist or anything and I can just see the progression of gear, right there in the crafted item list.

And of course if an item like that DID exist, it's a good thing the game would tell me about it and not expect me to google things and use exterior resources I couldn't possibly know about in the first place without being a mind reader. Or putting up with people like you condescending at me for having the audacity to start a crafter at any time later than the game's release.

[HyoMinPark]

Zero explanation given for specialist actions

From what I understand, most end-game crafting right now doesn’t touch the specialist actions, so I don’t think it’s a huge loss if you don’t use them/don’t know how to properly use them. Most crafting skills necessary to craft are cross-class skills from the other crafters—but, from what I heard, this will be streamlined into “role skills” in a week.

overpriced materials

It may be prudent for you to level up your gatherers alongside your crafters if you find yourself hard pressed for gil to buy mats with. Some of the mob drop items you may need to farm, but you can level battle class retainers and send them out every hour for 10 each if they are sufficiently geared. I tend to do that when I’m not actively crafting just to stock up on the things used a lot.

On the subject of retainers, if you level up gatherer retainers, they can also bring you back mats that you have gathered previously. I like to use them for things like logs and ores.

obfuscated paths for equipment upgrades

I think the ARR gear could be streamlined a little bit—I think upgrades every 5 levels are enough. It’s been a while since I’ve leveled a crafter from scratch (without Levekits), though, so perhaps I’m misremembering how annoying it could be to keep them geared.

even the currency used is named after an obvious and blatant abuse of worker's rights (scrip)

I’ll be honest—I have no idea what you mean by this. When I looked up “scrip”, I mostly found references to company-issued certificates or currency used as substitute for legal tender to spend at company-owned stores. Which would fit into what Red and Yellow Scrips are (you earn them via turning in collectibles to Rowena’s House of Splendors, and then can spend the currency on items offered by the people you turn them in to).

I should have known this was for suckers and not bothered.

Where is the fun in gambling that the money or time you invest in a craft will actually finish? Where is the fun in throwing materials at a badly explained system? Where is the fun?

Crafting is something where you have to invest a lot of time and money in it for it to pay off. This includes the gearing and leveling process, the gathering of mats, and the watching of markets to know when and where you can attempt to make a sale and turn a profit. That aspect of it may not be for everyone, though—I don’t have time during the school semesters to stay up-to-date on my listings, but my crafters are extremely handy for making my own gear and/or repairing it (the repair function alone makes it worth to level them, imo). Also nice for making food and pots during raid tiers so I’m not spending money on the MB for them.

[Caitlinzulu]

Well gear doesnt really have to be streamlined since you can usually just skip tiers when leveling, this certainly works below 50 but also above.
As to expensive material cost, well if you want to make any profit you really do need to gather your own materials, there is no escaping that

-scrip being a symbol of oppression
well Hyomin here the OP is right, being forced to buy at the company shop where you work because you are paid in scrips often at inflated prices sort of binds you to that company because if you wanted to leave you will most likely have no savings at all.
This often was combined to workers living in a company provided house so leaving the company also meant no home

[HyoMinPark]

Well gear doesnt really have to be streamlined since you can usually just skip tiers when leveling, this certainly works below 50 but also above.

I was more so just referring to how much gear there is from ARR in terms of crafting/gathering (and all jobs really). It might be what’s confusing for the OP, so some of the more “unnecessary gear” could stand to be addressed. But I doubt this is a priority.

-scrip being a symbol of oppression
well Hyomin here the OP is right, being forced to buy at the company shop where you work because you are paid in scrips often at inflated prices sort of binds you to that company because if you wanted to leave you will most likely have no savings at all.
This often was combined to workers living in a company provided house so leaving the company also meant no home

I mean, I guess. But I hardly think that’s what the developers were intending when they named them Crafter’s and Gatherer’s scrips...so it seems a bit of a reach to really bring that up in a complaint about the crafting system.

[JowyAtreides]

Zero explanation given for specialist actions, overpriced materials, obfuscated paths for equipment upgrades, even the currency used is named after an obvious and blatant abuse of worker's rights (scrip), I should have known this was for suckers and not bothered.

Where is the fun in gambling that the money or time you invest in a craft will actually finish? Where is the fun in throwing materials at a badly explained system? Where is the fun?

Zero explanation given for specialist actions - Doesn't the game explain in the tooltips? Also you can get some cheap ore from an npc and test them out. As others have said, pretty much no endgame rotation uses them, only cross class skills. The only benefit right now to specialism is being able to craft a small handful of items earlier than non-specialists because the recipe is simply locked behind the requirement.

overpriced materials - Materials are free if you choose to farm or gather them. Also let's face it, what do we need gil for in this game?

obfuscated paths for equipment upgrades - Yes, they could streamline the levels that gear is needed at for levels <50, but to do that, they would need to also streamline the recipes. I kind of like the steady progression of improvement rather than the single bursts every 5 levels. Also if you don't glamour, you get to see some weird combinations!

even the currency used is named after an obvious and blatant abuse of worker's rights (scrip) - Never came to my mind and I can see why some might be a bit uneasy, but be happy in the knowledge you actually have zero requirement to use scrips to get to endgame. You can do it all by being self sufficient.

Where is the fun? - For me, crafting is fun. It's a time consuming minigame in the game where I am still actively playing the game as opposed to other games that merely say, get the materials, get instant craft.

It all boils down to the fact that not everything has to be fun for everyone. I don't find the stress of savage raids fun, but I'm not going to dump all over it because I don't like it.

[GenBroadaxe]

The worst speed bump for the crafting/gathering I hit in the game was that initial 50-52 point for the gatherers. I didn't really have to spend any actual gil on crafting gear since you can get good stuff with Grand Company seals (I wore that stuff for so long), Beast Tribe currency, scrips, and through the job quests. Certain things I think could be initially explained better, but taking some time to sit down and read through all the tool tips should solve that and I don't think I've ever used specialist actions on my level 70s (although to be fair, I've been leveling crafters more so I can make housing stuff and non HQ glamour).

It definitely isn't for everyone, especially if you want to gather everything yourself as well, but generally there's always a way to keep costs down if you know all the resources open to you.

[TurtlesAWD]

It all boils down to the fact that not everything has to be fun for everyone. I don't find the stress of savage raids fun, but I'm not going to dump all over it because I don't like it.

Do savage raids try to trick you into wasting your resources you could be using on better content?

Do other players try to trick you with this "spend money to make money" pyramid-scheme nonsense to deceive you into buying their overpriced garbage on the market boards?

I'll be honest, the reason I got into crafting was self sufficiency under the premise that if I can make my own stuff I never have to interact with e-capitalism, which is easily the most obnoxious part of almost every MMO.

Probably better to just not buy, make, or use items at all.