EndGame Crafting

[Deliciou5]

Iv'e been wondering this for a while...outside leveling a craft that makes consumables like Culi or Alchemist...why level crafts that clearly specialize in making gear(blacksmith,armorsmith,goldsmith) when majority of the gear is not Best In slot for most classes? Yeah there are a few exception for certain classes like penta melded platinum accessories...but WHY ISN'T THAT THE STANDARD FOR ALL PIECES?

I know SE doesn't want players to just be handed BiS gear for every slot easily...especially when the tomes system and end game raids have limits to prevent players from gaining too much too quickly giving them less incentive to run these dungeons(tomes) and raids(1 piece a week from alex prob.) therefore directly affect the amount of players who log in every week directly lowering the quality of experience for everyone else.

However, it feels like such a blow that you spend sometimes 100's of millions of gil ,countless hours gathering, obtaining high level recipes, and gearing your crafting classes to just not craft anything that's close to BiS for the majority of players. (minus certain exceptions)

So my question is...How would you feel if SE added recipes of full sets of gear that is comparable to tomes gear to craft...BUT you would need to do a weekly quest, or get certain catalysts from endgame raids that can only be looted so many times a week(maybe in place of actual gear, because that catalyst means you would be getting a piece crafted equaling to one anyways?) Would a system like this be acceptable to most crafters? Would it annoy you that you could not craft your full set right away? Do you think that the MB would be flooded with BiS gear too soon...or maybe barely at all due to the rarity of said catalysts?

Please share your thoughts.

[Someguy]

I think they either need to raise the stats to make the gear better,or they need to leave em as is and lower the recipe costs. The time/effort and/or gil required to make some of the 110 gear now is totally not worth it for gear that's gonna be just glamour. There should be no reason that a set of 'glamour gear' costs as much as a small house.

[MN_14]

Well, as for the under-powered gear, I've found a use for them since I don't raid or run dungeons a whole lot (just enough to get an i130 weapon and a couple of other i130 pieces). The crafted gear has allowed me to jump from <i50 to i110 immediately upon reaching level 50, meeting all ilvl requirements associated with the main story quests.

I suppose its purpose would be to simply bypass the normal gear progression, which can be helpful if you're leveling a lot of battle classes.

[Deliciou5]

Well, as for the under-powered gear, I've found a use for them since I don't raid or run dungeons a whole lot (just enough to get an i130 weapon and a couple of other i130 pieces). The crafted gear has allowed me to jump from <i50 to i110 immediately upon reaching level 50, meeting all ilvl requirements associated with the main story quests.

I suppose its purpose would be to simply bypass the normal gear progression, which can be helpful if you're leveling a lot of battle classes.

The thing is...while i think its useful to have filler gear for your alternate classes...it just ends up making those certain crafting jobs nowhere near as desirable as they should be thus making the intrinsic value of what they make very nil.Most people rather farm tomes to level alternate classes since you will have more than enough for your class if not whole soldier/poetics set already bought about time you get a new class for 60 anyways. In the case that you are a fresh 60 who never got much tomes, i can see it being useful...but can a fresh 60 really afford a fully pentamelded set of gear anyways?

If you specialize in that particular crafting class...they should be able to make top shelf gear, but have limitations on it...but still have your filler gear you mentioned as lesser recipes.Maybe the new tomes of law can also help you get crafting materials for law equivelant crafting gear like soldiery did and that it doesn't require specialization or special catalysts.It will give a chance to have filler gear for multiple classes while stilling having BiS war/magic pieces available for disiciples of hand who specialize?In the end you could have a system where you get 1 more BiS pieces a week adding another source for players to exploit..but without taking away the value of tomes and end game raiding since catalysts will slow the process of obtaining that gear considerably but at the same time..speed it up slightly if you goal is to get more BiS for your gear. If Alexander is very hard, i dont see most people obtaining much gear from it anyways until they learn/get good at the fights, like how alot people don't have dreadwyrm gear because they can't beat T9. Crafting would help people feel less frustrated with weekly limits...and crafters and gathers would actually be much more rewarding for putting a lot of work into since everyone would want their services...AND alot people would want to equip multiple jobs/classes with BiS not just 1 or 2.

[Waeksyn]

I'd love to have crafted gear that is as good (or better when melded) as tome / raid gear. Remember that a lot of the 4 star crafts already need mats that are only available from places like Coil. Wootz armor, for instance, needs ALlagan Wootz nuggets. Artisan's stuff requires Ehcatl sealant (quested with daily limits) and Mastercraft Demimateria (Desynth). I expect more of the same. I hope that they never have recipes that require mats that are exclusive.

While gear isn't BIS, I've been very happy equipping my PLD on the right side with full meld Plat (which some argue IS bis) while glamoring the left side with Wootz (which I think is the best looking PLD gear in the game). I also equipped an alt BRD with full Kirimu / Plat for use when I hit 50.

What surprised me, though, is how much value I've gotten from ALC and CUL 4 star. Tinker's Calm (increases desynth chance by 10%) has been fantastic, as has a lot of the 4 star food.

[Quesse]

Maybe I'm just too old school but gear progression is a complete mess and utterly boring. Do people really like playing a game where there is one set of armor per tier and everyone wears the SAME exact thing with only one set of BiS at the end?

I'd much prefer a game where gear is different based on play styles and crafted gear is the same if not better than other gear and there are sets of gear that focus on different stats which affect different abilities performance which affects playstyle.

There are so many possibilities for branching out with equipment, it really frustrates me that SE keeps everything so limited and boring.

[DawgPilez]

Currently, crafting is good for being able to meld things and for making glamour prisms and (if you didn't do anything else), be able to make "to-the-endgame" gear for yourself or others. There is money to be made for fresh 50's for them to get geared up for the long haul through SM and onwards for you have to hope for a drop or rely on poetics (mind you, until you unlock the upper tier dungeons, poetic farming isn't too quick, though so much faster than pre. 3.0) For myself, I was able to buy (and still wear) an ilvl 110 bracelet that made meeting the minimum ilvl for even new dungeon a breeze and I could focus on tomes for the other slots).

That said, the current system isn't bad. It's still the only way to gear up... DoH/DoL roles (thus making it a contained system in itself). I was thinking of how else crafting could affect dropped gear, but I think the meld system is the best way really. This other game I played let you dismantle all gear for a "chance" to get a recipe that would progress the gear to a higher tier. I wouldn't mind that here, but considering how hard it is to get a drop, this would only be useful for gear obtained relatively easily. However... SE could induce more grind by including such a system so that you would have have to dismantle BiS gear or so forth to produce a "Superb" quality recipe (1 time use) to make the same gear but.. idk shiny with better stats.

Something to think about.

[giantslayer]

I floated an idea in a thread a while back that they could allow us to do a craft to augment a piece of gear to a competitive ilvl, but have the augmented piece become untradeable. That way, you could craft your way into viable endgame gear, but can't buy your way into it.

[cearka]

the problem is the obsession with being BiS. you don't need BiS to clear any content in the game. Crafted, properly melded gear is usually just under the BiS and is more then enough to clear most content, and for many players like myself, just clearing the content is enough. I don't have the desire to grind end game raids over and over again for drops. I just want to clear it once for completion/story sake. And for that, well crafted gear is perfect.

[scarebearz]

Current "end game" crafting is a joke and pretty much pointless.

I've got 5 of the Master III books now and the only useful crafts are Glamour and Barding... mostly it's White lvl60 junk.

Cul/Alch may be better, I don't know, but armour and weapon crafts are a waste of time and gil.