Why is Crafting still in the game?

[Gilthas]

I think crafting and then wearing your own low level gear is really rewarding to do. It's only really the endgame crafted gear that is made obsolete by superior raid gear.

This is what I love about crafting, and in truth, there are several level ranges where crafted gear is better than dungeon gear. The only real issue is at endgame where the best equipment comes from dungeons only.

The complaint about Darklight though. Crafted gear can be better than those.

[DarkStar]

WARNING!

The following post contains talk about World of Warcraft! FF fans with weak hearts should avoid the following post!

Right, with that warning out of the way, I figured I'd share a memory of mine from back when I played World of Warcraft. I had already leveled a few characters up to 80 (this was during Wrath of the Lich King), and as a result already had access to the major "Gear-Crafting" professions. Figuring my next character would focus on one of the crafting professions dedicated to something other than gear, I went ahead and had my character pick up Engineering.

For those not in the know, Engineering was a very odd profession. Almost nothing it offered was usable by non-engineers, and mainly consisted in the early stages of various types of explosives, a few common-quality guns, and some scopes for improving said guns. However, the further you got into the profession, the more interesting things started showing up. Things such as an accessory that would either shrink the target or shrink you; A helmet that could be used once every 10 minutes or so to hypnotize the target; mechanical baby dragons that would fight alongside you for a few minutes. There were also a few pieces of actual crafted gear (Again, Engineer only), that were actually on par with early-endgame gear, and as they were all somewhat steampunkish-looking goggles, had a unique appearance that no other piece of gear offered.

Once my Engineer hit the level cap, though, the REALLY fun stuff came into play. You see, by the time of WotLK, I guess Blizzard realized that any profession that wasn't Enchanting, Jewelcrafting (or whatever it was called) and Alchemy was essentially worthless, due to most raid-level gear being vastly superior to crafted gear. However, rather than make crafted gear that was equal or superior to the stuff you could find in the cutting-edge raids, they gave pretty much every profession self-only 'enchantments'. In FFXIV terms, this was like giving every DoH class special materia only they could meld, they could only put one such materia on each piece of equipment, but said materia could be applied to ANY piece of gear that occupied the proper slot, even the equivalent of Allaghan gear. On a related note, they also made it so that the gathering professions had their own bonuses, like bonus Crit Rate from Skinning and a self-heal from Herbalism.

Now, I'm not saying SE should do something exactly like that in FFXIV. Something like that would be horribly unbalanced with the current approach to crafting classes. Rather instead, what I think they should do is make it so that, while you can still unlock and level every single crafting and gathering class in the game, they should make it so you can only 'dedicate' yourself to a couple of them, and your dedication allows you access to these types of bonuses.

Say for example you dedicate yourself to Goldsmithing. Once you hit a high enough level, you gain the ability to turn, let's say, two random Materia into a piece of Materia with "+5% Healing Potency" on it. You can then meld this materia onto your Garuda EX healing ring. However, you still can't meld regular materia onto this ring, and if you want to meld another Goldsmithing exclusive Materia, like say "Freecure Frequency Up", you have to destroy the old exclusive materia first.

Anyway, tl;dr WoW actually had an interesting idea for how to make crafting professions relevant in the endgame, and I really hope that once SE can devote time to non-critical stuff, like making Crafting useful even for the very late endgame tier content, I hope they try something similar.

[Gilthas]

Now, I'm not saying SE should do something exactly like that in FFXIV. Something like that would be horribly unbalanced with the current approach to crafting classes. Rather instead, what I think they should do is make it so that, while you can still unlock and level every single crafting and gathering class in the game, they should make it so you can only 'dedicate' yourself to a couple of them, and your dedication allows you access to these types of bonuses.

The ability to meld any equipment in the game should be added to FFXIV. But the restrictions you propose would just kill one of the best things about FFXIV: the ability to level everything. Forcing you to "dedicate" yourself to one or a few crafting classes would suck for people that enjoy playing with them all.

[DarkStar]

The ability to meld any equipment in the game should be added to FFXIV. But the restrictions you propose would just kill one of the best things about FFXIV: the ability to level everything. Forcing you to "dedicate" yourself to one or a few crafting classes would suck for people that enjoy playing with them all.

That's not really what I meant by 'dedicating' to a particular crafting class, and I appologize if that's what you thought I meant.

What I meant was that you could still actively level and use every single crafting profession, but you could only access and benefit from the special materia from one or two DoH classes at a time. Admittedly, depending on how SE would do this idea, it might not even be necessary to go for the 'dedication' idea, because the idea already limits itself somewhat. Mainly, I was just thinking limiting it that way would mean players would have to pay a nominal fee (possibly in gil, if SE ever improves gil drop rates) for the dedication, you could cancel at any time, and its entire purpose is to make players think carefully about how they want to build their class.

Edit: In hindsight, it really isn't necessary to go with the "Dedication" idea. All that's necessary is that these special Materia be very high-level recipes (1 or 2 stars) requiring high-level materia as the ingredients. Thus, the economy is stimulated on multiple levels, and by making these special materia untradeable but capable of being melded to other people's gear, players who dislike crafting aren't forced to take it up just to keep their gear as powerful as possible. They could always just buy the necessary materia on the MB, trade it to their crafter friend, and then Meld Request to get the desired materia.

[Tupsi]

You do know that come 2.2 they are putting in ilvl 90 crafted items

And dungeon drops are still best in slot.

Glamour will be profitable for all of 20 minutes.

...Hmm nothing changed.

[LlenCoram]

EDIT: I should also add, that earning gil is really not one of my goals. I craft because I enjoy it, and because originally, with 1.0 and 1.23, it was a great way for me to be able to contribute to my ls since I'm not one of the better players with regard to dungeons and raids.

I know this pain so well. There's a reason everyone calls me fishercat. I fished because I enjoyed it (in 1.xx), and because my massive hoard of fish were all mostly useful. If it wasn't for some potion or food, it was for crystals or shards, and that's not to mention the shards, dark matter, and catalysts I could pull up as well. I didn't endgame or raid or whatever, so I helped my shell with fish.

Gathering and crafting both got ruined, in my mind. It's a real shame.

[Hayward]

Being able to create your own gear and accessories is definitely a plus. Melding them to make them more effective is even more satisfying. Besides, a penta-melded LV. 70 weapon still fetches a good deal of coin.

[Athol]

I don't get all the qq about crafting in this game. It's the best crafting in any mmo I've played. I craft because it's like a mini game to me and it's fun to collect and make hq mats and then make hq items to sell or use. There are plenty of things in this game to qq about but crafting isn't one of them in my opinion.

[whoopeeragon]

And dungeon drops are still best in slot.

Glamour will be profitable for all of 20 minutes.

...Hmm nothing changed.

Hmm.

NOTE: If you're coming in this thread with the sole intent of being the first person to post a snarky reply, (as this seems to be a pattern lately) I feel sorry for you. Go hug a Lalafell and smile instead.

Have a lalafell hug.

[Inosaska]

I mold stuff in real life as it is and sure as hell don't want to continue crafting in a video game that's for sure.