Crafting Endgame Balance Idea

[chidarake]

cut

actually I havnt given up much really, I couldn't raid cus of afew reasons and so kinda fell into crafting as something easy for me to do beyond dungeon runs, and my fc at the time didn't have a static as we didn't have enough active players.(they've all left now)

now im in a casual static and so still have time to craft, but yeah even though I don't consider myself one of the top crafters on our server I am as well geared as them, and make all my own gear. I just think S.E should reward the people who have put so much time into helping all the other players from crafting so much stuff over the last year.

Giving them a title at the very least that shows their dedication to crafting is the least they can do. allowing them to craft current level untradeable gear effects no one but themselves as they will still have to earn the mats to craft there sets, yes we will get gear quicker than other methods but it still wouldn't be quick since se likes to have hard to aquire mats in high end synths.

[Truedragon]

ilevel is irrelevant. When you have to explain even to so called "dedicated" crafters that certain crafted gear are actually BiS, how can you expect the general ff14 player to buy our stuff. No wonder demand is so low.

[shintashi]

I think square has done a lot with crafters since 2014. I remember the days of Astral Gear and Vanya Silk and people from coil mocking crafters saying they would never be a viable part of the game because the game designers hated crafters.

I think for some people, crafting or gathering is their favorite part of the game. It is clear the time sink is huge. Final Fantasy historically has depended on Crafters for some of the better, and often best items and vehicles in the game, but they were largely NPCs, like Cid. I do agree something is slightly off between the RNG and the 4 star material prices. They really need to stop using Legacy/Mom's Basement Accounts as samples for what kind of money and resources/time people have to play their game.

If you only appeal to 8 otakus in a basement, you will lose everyone else.

[RichardButte]

My problem is not the difficulty of crafting (I got my LTW book in about 20 minutes with no new equipment or surpas). The issue is the scarcity of resources and the lack of reward in the end.

I've bumped into this very same issue.

As near as I can tell, it's basically NOT worth crafting 4-star items because, even if you DO manage to HQ the item, the rarity with which they sell means they're going to sit on your retainer for a substantial amount of time.

During the time it takes for one four star item to sell, I could've sold a dozen other items in that same slot. Combine that with the risk of outright LOSING money if you don't HQ it (such as on artisan offhands which don't sell for the sealant it takes to make them as NQ on my server) and it seems like it's just overall not worth pursuing.

[Sibyll]

snip

Are you not starting with HQ items for 4* armor? I mean if you are doing all NQ on a piece of gear, yea there is a chance you could get bad luck and fail a Reclaim, but with HQ 2/3 (or 3/5) for the 4* mats and HQ for all the 1/2/3* mats then you should have no trouble HQing those unless you get some awful luck, in which case just Reclaim.

Aside from that, yet they do sell slowly. I don't know how your server is in terms of end game, but there are only a handful of groups on my server that run FCoB so the demand for 4* gear has been met and anything else rots on the boards for weeks. Artisan/Forager gear however sells well.

[RichardButte]

*post*

I haven't delved into it because I just don't see it being worth the ROI plus risk factors.

It takes 6 sealants for each offhand. Those sell for ~200k on my server, so that's 1.2 mil alone right there and a HQ version sells for 2.5. A good profit margin, but that's a lof of farming and, even with Reclaim, I don't trust the "10%" risk factor because the RNG is so screwy in this game. A NQ offhand sells for ~500k, a massive loss...

Some may go for it, and more power to them, but every time I've said, "Yeah, I'm gonna buy a BS artisan offhand and make some of these!" I then look at the mats and risk vs. the money I make anyway and I'm like, "Nah...".

[Sibyll]

snip

The artisan off hands aren't even worth trying to sell on my server. Artisan Sandals cost half as many sealants and sell twice as fast for as much if not more. The only reason I even make these is for personal use.

The 4* battle gear on the other hand doesn't feel like it pays off. At this point anyone that wants the gear has it already and anyone that would have wanted it realizes that tome gear is easier to get.

[dspguy]

I originally had the mentality of the OP. However, I sank about 95% of all of my gil into making the artisan OH tools for myself, melding them, remelding my body pieces, working on the books, etc. Around the time of your post (Nov 11), was when I was pretty much broke. I wound up earning back all the gil I spent ten-fold.

Great risk. Great reward. Things don't sell that fast, but when they do, its an easy profit.

[Damanexor]

Items I would like to see to improve endgame crafting:

Craftable mythic (purple) items. Require these to use materials that are bound on pickup.
Master recipe books that drop from bosses.
More raid / trial specific crafting materials.