Quote Originally Posted by Zantetsuken View Post
It looks as both crafting and gathering are both easier/more reliable now.

DoL having the option to target what they want is a big change. This benefits those who are gathering for crafting (get exactly what you need), it benefits those who are gathering for the purpose of selling in the markets (they can target the most profitable item) -- AND it benefits those who purchase the goods (if something becomes popular, then it will be directly harvested more and the price will drop - stronger supply and demand forces)
There seems to be a whole lot of people who benefit from 'looting' these trees that SE has laid to waste for our convenience. Are there any drawbacks to such a "system"?

DoL having the option to target what they want is not a big change. You had the option to do so in 1.0. The big change is making it as easy and simple as possible, just click what you want and you're done. What does this mean? It means that more people will gather effectively, lessening any profit from it. Even people who have almost no interest in it can jump in and go at maximum efficiency as there is no system in place. This is bad for people looking to profit from gathering, not good.

If you're gathering to craft, are you crafting to gain EXP or gil? If it's gil, the fact that a higher % of people are gathering more effectively is going to hurt your gains. If it's EXP.. Leves had often become a faster way to do it, and we know quests will be a significant way to level in ARR.

So what are we in favor of exactly? Perhaps speeding up a fragment of DoH EXP, something that is already designed to be very fast.. At the expense of a more complex and robust gathering system and overall economy? I say more complex - that doesn't mean complex, just moreso than the most simple way imaginable to keep gathering in the game at all.

And nevermind the obvious that this kind of loot-gathering requires less sophisticated botting - that'd just be piling on.