The Devs have no idea what they are doing with FFXIV’s crafting and economics..

[Liam_Harper]

You could see at expansion launch they had no idea what to do with us. All the skills we got fell into 2 categories. Miles overpowered and completely useless. It's like Yoshida had previously left crafting up to his crafter development team, but midway through Stormblood decided to butt in and force random ideas through. Or just fired the old team and got a new one. Either way things suddenly changed around when they nerfed the Ala Mhigan set and plummeted from there.

I onced asked what REWARDS hardcore crafters want. All I get is answers that contridict what they have said before and excuses cause the community really does not know. I am almost at the point of linking peoples silly posts where they go back on crap they have said just to watch them fumble for an explanation or dodge the topic entirely. Good example saying you dont care about gil in one thread then complaining about the value and the effect eaiser crafting as on value in another thread. If you dont care about gil then why the hell would you care about the value of the item!!!

Of course they do.

The reason being, that if you simply want to be really good at something, better than the average player, really have to work and grind to achieve something ...you're branded as an elitist show off. That's the sort of community this game has encouraged, in raids and other content too, wanting to accomplish something is generally shamed. Everyone should have access to everything.

Really, most of us just daydream of being the best master crafter, putting in lots of effort and stepping above the crowd. Feeling that sense of satisfaction after something difficult or grindy. But that's a bad thing. Only filthy show-offs want to be good at things. Everyone should have access to everything for no effort.

So they dance around the point and try to word it in a nicer way.

[Elamys]

The reason being, that if you simply want to be really good at something, better than the average player, really have to work and grind to achieve something ...you're branded as an elitist show off.

I see people complain about this a lot but outside of a few bottom feeders in the general forums, I have never seen this attitude, especially not in game. Most people I have encountered are excited, or at the least, completely ambivalent about the addition of more challenging content and its rewards. In the communities I am involved in, most people respect the work that higher level players are putting in, recognize that it comes with rewards they may not be able to achieve without effort, and don't call them elitist.

Unless that person is actually acting like an elitist, which is where I think this complaint stems from: someone at a higher level of play acts like a jerk but thinks they're justified, so when they get called out for it, they say the community just wants everyone to have access to everything.

Like Vidu said, I don't need a challenge every time I craft. So, since they are adding expert recipes, it makes sense that the every day recipes are now a little simpler. The crafting changes have enabled way more people to craft and gather, when it seemed too daunting to get into for many people, and I applaud that, because I love crafting! I want other people to talk about it with!

But a lot of other veteran crafters hate this and it's mostly because they now have significantly more competition in the markets, and I suspect that's where a lot of these complaints ultimately stem from.

[Nandrolone]

But a lot of other veteran crafters hate this and it's mostly because they now have significantly more competition in the markets, and I suspect that's where a lot of these complaints ultimately stem from.

I’m personally getting kind of fed up with this same response. For starters, I like competition, it makes the marketboard more interesting and fun, and I know plenty of other vet crafters that enjoy competition. Here’s the problem though. We enjoy competition that knows what they are doing and knows how to play the market well, people that work hard at cranking out gear, not spamming a googled rotation macro with gear that cost less than 100k Gil. That’s like competing against a player that you hope eventually gets more skilled, but doesn’t.

That is why making too many things accessible, easy, and borderline mindless is an issue for us. (At least for me, anyway) I like competition, and I like a good fight. I can’t get that with hoards of new players spamming macros, using the same techniques, same strategies...day in and day out. It’s boring. FFXIV’s crafting endgame is boring.

[Kabooa]

Setting your own terms of your competition only highlights how little you actually want it.

[Nandrolone]

Setting your own terms of your competition only highlights how little you actually want it.

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

[Kabooa]

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Truss it up however you like.

Less competition is less competition.

[NanaWiloh]

I’m personally getting kind of fed up with this same response. For starters, I like competition, it makes the marketboard more interesting and fun, and I know plenty of other vet crafters that enjoy competition. Here’s the problem though. We enjoy competition that knows what they are doing and knows how to play the market well, people that work hard at cranking out gear, not spamming a googled rotation macro with gear that cost less than 100k Gil. That’s like competing against a player that you hope eventually gets more skilled, but doesn’t.

That is why making too many things accessible, easy, and borderline mindless is an issue for us. (At least for me, anyway) I like competition, and I like a good fight. I can’t get that with hoards of new players spamming macros, using the same techniques, same strategies...day in and day out. It’s boring. FFXIV’s crafting endgame is boring.

If it helps when I play the mb I dont sell crafted high end gear, I prefer to make use of crafted high end gear rather then sell it. But as they say to each their own you know.

[Liam_Harper]

But a lot of other veteran crafters hate this and it's mostly because they now have significantly more competition in the markets, and I suspect that's where a lot of these complaints ultimately stem from.

You lost me there.

This same response comes up over and over and over. We do not have more competition on the markets. A veteran crafter knows how to make profit, they have years of experience researching markets. I made many hundreds of millions abusing Reuse, for example, when casual crafters were spamming Facet and Dwarven gear for peanuts. I made no secret of the method either. We'll play the markets just fine.

Like I've said many times here, it's hurting the casual crafter most. Your profits are pathetic now and you can never raise them higher by just crafting. Casual crafters just had to have a slice of that pie that we used to work for, but you can't divide one pie among the entire playerbase. You'll never taste those big 1-2 million+ profits now. Ever. The veterans will, just in other ways besides crafting. We're being pushed away from something we liked so that casual players can make less gil than in the past.

There's also the ingame implications of making gear second only to Savage raid, rain from the sky. Why farm tomes, why run dungeons, why run Eden, why run Nier, why beat EX? Even if you don't craft, just do a few hours maps and bam, full raid gear. Even lv71-79 DoH/DoL gear, it's virtually worthless and might as well be deleted from the recipe list.

[Kabooa]

You'll never taste those big 1-2 million+ profits now.

Hooboy. So much to unpack here.

First: You totally still get those big profits, your window is just smaller.

Second: Crafted gear is only better if you pentameld. This adds an additional cost that some would rather not deal with. +10 Ilvls is a significant boost in main stats and a fully pentamelded crafted set is about equal, and in some cases better or worse based on the substats in question. For weapons, damage is king. i485 beats out i480 without contest. 100 extra sub stats doesn't even come close.

And 'leveling gear' for crafters and gatherers were pointless as early as Heavensward because of Leves. You might make a stop at x5-x7 if you needed to, but if you were rocking the previous expansions top-end, you ignored everything else.

[Nandrolone]

Hooboy. So much to unpack here.

First: You totally still get those big profits, your window is just smaller.

Second: Crafted gear is only better if you pentameld. This adds an additional cost that some would rather not deal with. +10 Ilvls is a significant boost in main stats and a fully pentamelded crafted set is about equal, and in some cases better or worse based on the substats in question. For weapons, damage is king. i485 beats out i480 without contest. 100 extra sub stats doesn't even come close.

And 'leveling gear' for crafters and gatherers were pointless as early as Heavensward because of Leves. You might make a stop at x5-x7 if you needed to, but if you were rocking the previous expansions top-end, you ignored everything else.

1: Cant vet crafters get a single thing they actually want out of the game? And no, expert recipes aren’t it. It’s just a meaningless mini game with no rewards we care for. (read my post on caimies thread)

2: Cant we get at least one thing we want without players like you constantly trying to argue and shoot them down back to where they were? not everything needs to be shared, some things should require hard work and effort.