Petition for leves

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Well, personally, I have been advising everyone to stop doing stupid amount of Tradecraft Leves, as it's an infamous bank-breaker and a trap that most novice crafters fell for.
Why would you even consider doing more than 30 leves in a row when you can earn similar amounts of EXP from collectables, which could have provide you with free scrips for materia for endgame?
Turn-ins of Firmament collectables at Ishgard also give a lot more EXP than leves, and you can earn Skybuilders' Scrips along the way, which allows you to buy dyes and mounts for sales, which gives you back a lot of gil.

To me, making 99 Tradecraft Leves more easily done is just equal to making a bankruptcy trap more accessible to new crafters...

This also promotes people who sell leves packages, and promotes ignorant players to buy these packages to level up without even understanding how to craft things. At least for collectables, you gotta do the crafting yourself... even lazy crafters who copy macros for leveling still have to perform the macros themselves. But for leves, they don't even have to do the crafting by themselves.

I just don't think it's a healthy idea...

[J1992]

Ive been making commanding tea and turning them in HQ which gives me 10k per turn in immediately while my auction stuff are being sold in the meantime. Its not that im using for exp its purely to sell something in the meantime but the problem is just that I have to keep clicking and turning in for 99 times.

[Liam_Harper]

They could easily use the same system as they added for Collectibles. Maybe they even plan to and haven't got round to it yet.

This also promotes people who sell leves packages, and promotes ignorant players to buy these packages to level up without even understanding how to craft things. At least for collectables, you gotta do the crafting yourself... even lazy crafters who copy macros for leveling still have to perform the macros themselves. But for leves, they don't even have to do the crafting by themselves.

I just don't think it's a healthy idea...

That sounds more like a problem with leves. If something has to be tedious because it's healthier to discourage people from using it, there's probably a large flaw with the design of that feature. Do you feel leves need a rework overall?

[Jojoya]

Well, personally, I have been advising everyone to stop doing stupid amount of Tradecraft Leves, as it's an infamous bank-breaker and a trap that most novice crafters fell for.
Why would you even consider doing more than 30 leves in a row when you can earn similar amounts of EXP from collectables, which could have provide you with free scrips for materia for endgame?
Turn-ins of Firmament collectables at Ishgard also give a lot more EXP than leves, and you can earn Skybuilders' Scrips along the way, which allows you to buy dyes and mounts for sales, which gives you back a lot of gil.

To me, making 99 Tradecraft Leves more easily done is just equal to making a bankruptcy trap more accessible to new crafters...

This also promotes people who sell leves packages, and promotes ignorant players to buy these packages to level up without even understanding how to craft things. At least for collectables, you gotta do the crafting yourself... even lazy crafters who copy macros for leveling still have to perform the macros themselves. But for leves, they don't even have to do the crafting by themselves.

I just don't think it's a healthy idea...

Leves are a much better way to level than collectables and Restoration unless someone is struggling with inventory.

Unless you're buying a levekit, you generally will turn a profit on leves because desynthesis changes have kill marketboard prices on most leveling materials. You don't even come close to earning a similar amount of EXP from collectables or Restoration.

Let's look at samples for level 64 BSM for each with cost to make using prices from the Coeurl Marketboard (obviously can vary world to world).

Leve - Doman Iron Culinary Knife. Cost to make: just under 2400 gil. Difficulty: Durability 80, Progress 830, Quality 3150.
Reward for HQ: 981k EXP plus 5990 gil. (don't forget that the listed reward on a leve is for NQ - the HQ reward is double)

Collectable - Rarefied High Steel Claw Hammer. Cost to make: 4800 gil. Difficulty: Durability 80, Progress 780, Quality 3060
Reward for max tier rating: 471k EXP plus 54 White Crafter's Scrip

Restoration - Grade 4 Skybuilders' Hatchet. Cost to make: 7500 gil. Difficulty: Durability 60, Progress 580, Quality 6480 (note that's insanely high compared to the other two for an inexperienced crafter).
Reward for max tier rating: Skybuilder Scrip is 15 but I couldn't find an actual number for EXP that's current as of 6.1. The closest I could get was finding a guide updated for 6.1 that says it requires 40 Restoration crafts at max tier rating to level from 63 to 71. Compare that to using the level 64 leve, which would only require 18 HQ crafts of a much lower difficulty to level the same range if EXP wasn't slashed at 70 (though there are always level 70 leves with full XP value to start using at that point).

Leves remain a fantastic way to level in addition to class quests along with Crystalline Mean and Studium. They're gil neutral at worst and likely to turn a profit unless you're trying to hit the last 10 levels to cap at the start of an expansion when material prices are crazy. That's a huge bonus for a new player who's struggling with gil but doesn't have gathering leveled. While scrip is useful, it's still going to take twice as many crafts to get the same XP and that means double the gil cost to level. It's also going to be of less interest to a crafter without any real interest in end game crafting.

Levekits are not. I doubt it's a trap that many new players fall into because levekits can be too expensive compared to the gil they have available. Those using them are usually players who have already made their gil through other means and don't really care about crafting as opposed to wanting to be able to self-repair/meld. They're happy to pay for the convenience and know what they're doing.

Increasing the rate of speed that leves can be turned in is highly unlikely to change what players are using levekits.

As for players not understanding how to craft, those who are lazy are still going to turn to others to do most of the work whether it is preparing the levekit or designing the macro. Someone who's pressing a button to execute a macro created by someone else still isn't learning to craft.

I don't think you need to worry about whether it's a good idea, though. I can't see SE making the change. If they wanted to make things easier for players, I doubt they would have changed all the leves that allowed for 3 turn-ins on the same leve allowance.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Let's look at samples for level 64 BSM for each with cost to make using prices from the Coeurl Marketboard (obviously can vary world to world).

Leve - Doman Iron Culinary Knife. Cost to make: just under 2400 gil. Difficulty: Durability 80, Progress 830, Quality 3150.
Reward for HQ: 981k EXP plus 5990 gil. (don't forget that the listed reward on a leve is for NQ - the HQ reward is double)

Collectable - Rarefied High Steel Claw Hammer. Cost to make: 4800 gil. Difficulty: Durability 80, Progress 780, Quality 3060
Reward for max tier rating: 471k EXP plus 54 White Crafter's Scrip

I haven't looked at the price of individual mats closely. Technically, the cost of a culinary knife can be ZERO if nothing is purchased from the MB. However, my gut feeling is that many novice crafters may buy crafted intermediate mats, and possibly even HQ ones from the MB, in order to make HQ products. So in the end, the cost of a culinary knife might be a lot more than just 2400 gil. E.g. during peak time of leveling (at the beginning of an expansion), an HQ lumber (from CRP) for making a knife (made by BSM) could easily be 10K gil or more. This price is excluding other mats, such as ores for ingots. In the end, the cost of 1 knife could be ~15-20K. The knife itself could have probably been sold for ~35K on the MB. But if submitted for leves, you get back only around 6K gil. Such continuous deficit of gil is nothing to someone like me with a deep purse, but is unsustainable for a novice crafter.

For collectables, usually at the beginning of an expansion, the prices are high (EDIT: I meant prices of materia). So selling them (materia) could be very profitable... or the materia can be kept for overmelds at endgame after lv 90.

For Firmament, the dyes bought with Skybuilders' Scrips are actually still as pricey as they were a year ago. So very profitable.

Of course, current it is no longer the beginning of the Endwalker expansion, so my price estimates are way-off. An HQ lumber might cost ~2K instead of ~10K, and the prices for products (e.g. a culinary knife) are probably as low as 10K to 15K instead of 35K. But I think you get what I mean -- they buy mat/products, they dump into leves, and then deficit of gil instead of surplus. In the end, they have no gil and no materia for overmelds.

I think the Coffee Cookie incidence was a special case that made leves very profitable. But now that it's gone, I believe leves is still overall a gil-draining action. I do not doubt its power in speed-leveling though. It is definitely FASTTTT!!!~

They could easily use the same system as they added for Collectibles. Maybe they even plan to and haven't got round to it yet.



That sounds more like a problem with leves. If something has to be tedious because it's healthier to discourage people from using it, there's probably a large flaw with the design of that feature. Do you feel leves need a rework overall?

I have no idea how it can be reworked. I think it still has its place in the game, as a mean to turn gil into speed-leveling. I just don't recommend it to new crafters as the ONLY mean of leveling, since they definitely won't have enough gil for leves for 90 levels across all 8 classes using leves alone.

Not everyone is doing leves purely for experience. Some are doing for completion, achievements, etc. Those players would probably appreciate a quicker turn-in method. I don't see it happening though.

I guess if a veteran crafter is doing it for achievements, it's fine. But it just creates a dangerous trap for the new people, since they wouldn't know how gil-draining it can be for someone with a bank as small as 50-100K.

Ive been making commanding tea and turning them in HQ which gives me 10k per turn in immediately while my auction stuff are being sold in the meantime. Its not that im using for exp its purely to sell something in the meantime but the problem is just that I have to keep clicking and turning in for 99 times.

I understand. To people who "know what they're doing", it can be a QoL improvement.