Please bring back the DoH/DoL vision of 1.0

[Allyra]

To start: I love crafting in MMOs. LOVE. IT. It always saddens me when I play one where the crafting is almost pointless or used for one good thing (ie. spam a craft to cap in WoW just for the bonuses).

I have to say FFXIV's crafting system has been my favorite in any MMO so far (Though honorable mention should go to EQ2's original system where crafting could actually kill you. lol)

When 1.0 came out I was really excited about the idea that they wanted DoH/DoL to be really classes. I was excited to hear they wanted ways to get them in dungeons and events sometimes. Rather than always being just in town. I feel that really was helping to push the concept of crafting in a very unique and excellent way.

To give those who didn't experience 1.0 an idea of what I am talking about, in 1.0 we had an event called Hamlet Defense. This was a town siege event that utilized all of the jobs (DoM/DoW AND DoH/DoL). There were npcs that fought with you, and gathers could gather mats to give to crafters. The crafters then made weapons (ex. arrows) to give to the npcs that would make them stronger in helping the fight.

Yes, during shouts for groups, crafters were in high demands to get into a party for this event. To me, that's awesome. It meant they weren't just important as a singular person sitting in town. They could actually assist in being part of a team to fight something.

But it seems the direction crafting is going is the same as every other mmo, being pushed further and further away from being important. Endgame gear doesn't need materia, we can no longer repair other people's gear, Halmet was removed and I haven't heard anything of them bringing it back, and iirc a recent live letter stated they weren't giving crafters any new gear above ilvl70 to make.

Do not get me wrong, I am really looking forward to getting to craft furniture. I know we aren't getting completely ignored. I just feel like crafting started off as such a strong point to 14 that is now being slowly pushed aside. And that makes me sad.

[Genesis88]

^this I love crafted/gathering in 1.0 it felt like a minigame in a game. I always like it you could log in, craft and relax. I feel only crafting furniture is just a slap in the face.

[Pinworms]

How you described hamlet sounds like how FATES should be for doh/dol - I hate how they let us "join" the fate but we don't get to help. I'd love to see the interaction your describing.

3- 8 man parties that require a doh/dol or something in a setting like BC or ct or end game in general would be a really cool concept.

[StrejdaTom]

Wow, this hamlet thing sounds so awesome!

[Uriahnool]

I sort of miss the whole idea of FFXIV 1.0 where your starting class could either be a DoW/DoM or you could experience the game solely as a DoL/DoH class starting out. I know there is still the option at level 15 to take up any class, but instead of the idea of crafting/gathering classes being main classes, they now feel more like side projects that don't have as much of an impact like they once did. I used to know people who were master crafters and had to work hard to get to 50 and they could do things that no fighting class or casual crafter could dream of. I know people who would never play FFXIV because they do not enjoy end-game fights and dungeons, but who would like nothing more than to spend time working on a craft and socialize with others and feel valued and necessary in the scheme of things.

[Malakhim]

Well here's to looking at patch 2.2 and .3 hoping that they add more intricate stuff for crafters and gatherers. I've been wanting them to have their own story or class quests involved in running a business, getting customers for their wares, etc., of course that's almost an entirely different game I guess.

In the mean time as others have said, we have group crafting coming up, as well as raising your own garden in the future. Here's to hoping for more, as I was also excited about FFXIV doing something different with crafting. It really needs more ways to differentiate itself from the competition I feel.

[Kittra]

I sort of miss the whole idea of FFXIV 1.0 where your starting class could either be a DoW/DoM or you could experience the game solely as a DoL/DoH class starting out. I know there is still the option at level 15 to take up any class, but instead of the idea of crafting/gathering classes being main classes, they now feel more like side projects that don't have as much of an impact like they once did.

I used to know people who were master crafters, had to work hard to get to 50 and they could do things that no fighting class or casual crafter could dream of. I know people who would never play FFXIV because they do not enjoy end-game fights and dungeons, but who would like nothing more than to spend time working on a craft and socialize with others and feel valued and necessary in the scheme of things.

Agreed, in 1.0-1.23 it was awesome that you had a choice of how you started out playing the game or what roll you would play.

Crafting in the previous version of the game was absolutely necessary to progression and, as such, had a huge impact on the game's economy and how the game was driven. I knew many people who did nothing but craft and took pleasure in the fact that they could be a central pillar for their linkshell or group while playing an important roll as a whole.

Very little was actually handed to you in 1.0-1.23, you either made it or spent a good time fighting for it, which lead to tighter bonds between people in the community because the more people you had a bond with the faster you could progress. This also led to your character having value in the game as well if you were a Discipline of War as the most highly valued craftable items dropped off of monsters or in dungeons that crafters themselves had no hope of obtaining without help.

Originally, Final Fantasy XIV's direction was pointed towards a future where crafters, gatherers, and battle classes would all participate in content designed around the idea of mutual cooperation. They achieved that partially with how the game's economy was driven and, unfortunately, tried to fulfill it in full with the addition of Hamlet Defense.

On paper, the concept was such that, it tickled the imagination of "what could be" for the future of MMOs. In the end though, we received a poorly thought out, poorly implemented time-sink which frustrated, rather than enhanced the game play experience. When I heard about hamlet, I was extremely excited that finally we would get what was promised when we'd first heard about Final Fantasy XIV's development. When implemented, we discovered that, while Discipline of the Hand/Land could participate, it was so boring, that towards the end of the first 15 minute run, crafters and gatherer would be bordering on insanity. Equally frustrating was the fact that Disciplines of War were completely and totally useless unless you were a tank or healer, DPS jobs need not apply to this line of work. The only sane way to do hamlet was to focus on beefing up the defending NPCs which led to extremely long, boring fights (sitting matches ), and placed huge requirements on crafters to hit that perfect score which would result in the items that you were hunting for dropping 100% of the time... maybe.

Hamlet was so hard for Discipline of War that SE put an achievement in the game (one I believe no one ever achieved) that you could only obtain by beating hamlet with 8 battle classes present and no crafters (literally impossible...).


I would be extremely happy if we could see the usefulness of Crafters/Gatherers return in future patches, but with the direction SE has laid out so far, it looks like they're on the way to obscurity if not already there.

[ruinedmirage]

Agree 100%. Crafting and melding seems like a way to just extort money from other players now, BTN and MIN have some of the best weapons in the game, but even when participating in FATEs the only reward is a virtuous fuzzy feeling in your heart, and Fishing might as well be renamed to "Master Baiter".

The game is still young, in its defense. I hope they expand on these classes and add more, such as aether farming or rancher.

[Matsume]

Let me just say that I love crafting and gathering in ARR, even more so than I did in FFXI. However, I never cared much for hamlet in 1.0.

Personally I would like to see a few things added to crafting and gathering content that I think could really make things fun for these classes.


For crafting, I would like to see rare materials and recipes drop from boss mobs or treasure map chests. For example, I believe ifrit's horn, garuda's feather, and titan's heart will be crafted into some sort of housing trophy. It would not hurt to see blue crafted allagan gear recipes to drop from coil as well as their necessary materials to make them.

For gatherers, I would very much like to see the implementation of high risk, high reward gathering. The best example I can think of would be old school ifrit's cauldron elemental ore gathering in FFXI. It took a long time to get to the resource nodes and you had to run around looking for one that was up while popping invis potions to try sneak around very high lvl mobs that would one shot you if they saw you.

That being said, I truly beleive the dev team has done a helluva job turning crafting and gathering in ARR into truly respectable classes when comparing them to 1.0 and XI.

[Ri_ri]

What makes me sad is so many good concepts from 1.0 and XI thrown away because Yoshida simply don't like them.