A suggestion for Specializations

[tgoodner]

Despite all the agonizing going around with the new crafting scene, I am happy that SE has given me long term goals to work towards when it comes to crafting. Although I desperately want to get all the new AF gears (Glamour is the true end game), I have will have progress each week and will be proud to say that I'm one of the Gatherer's/Crafters that stuck with the red scrip progression from the very beginning.

However, there is one thing that irks me with the release of patch 3.05. First, there is absolutely no Specialization specific recipes (i.e. anyone can craft anything; the only benefit from specializations is that you get some shiny new skills). While I'm happy to try out the new skills, and have found them quite helpful from time to time, i find it frustrating that I can have a specialization in the craft, yet any non-specialist can also make anything I can make. It just doesn't seem so... special.

While I'm 100% certain that SE will release specialized crafts down the road, I don't see why some of the current crafting mats could already be a Specialist only craft. Astral Oil, Astral Silk, Adamantite Ingots, etc. These 2 star high level crafts seem like the caliber of crafts that need to be made only by people that are committed solely to that craft; however, since they have already released this content as it is, I feel it would be a huge misstep if the did revoke the omni-crafting ability of the crafts. The made their decision and I believe they should stick to it. I'm just suggesting that it could've been done slightly differently in a way that would make specialists happy, and also begin a division in the market.

Also, SE released the ability to get specialties 4 weeks prior to 3.05 dropping (the patch that contained the new Crafting End-game recipes). While I don't see this as a huge issue, the gateway to choosing a new specialty is 480 red scrips (just over a weeks worth of red scrips). The reason I bring this up is that there are several people that chose a culinarian specialty, and quite frankly is does hardly any good. They received zero new recipes in the 3.05 patch and the ability to omni-craft all their recipes practically invalidates the choice of having a culinarian specialty. Had I chosen this as one of my own specialties, I would be livid.

A little side note rant. Goddamnit Square, if I'm gonna have to spend 200 of these red scrips to make an i180 armor (which is ALREADY outdated due to Eso gear/Alex normal), give me a new goddamn glamour! WTF?

However, I did choose an Alchemy specialty, which to be honest, isn't much better. What do us mad scientists get?

Dissolvents. Awesome.
(Nothing like spending a weeks worth of mats on gear that was outdated out of the gate!).

Nothing like brewing up a nice mixture of Orange GLO just to clean off the minute amounts detrimental aether on the armor/weapons that the other DoH classes get to make. Am I jealous? Yes. I'm a SMN main and I was excited to be able to make a new weapon/potions that will really aid my progression during endgame. However, not unlike the Culinarian consumables, the Potions require Aerial Reducted sands and Mats that are hidden at ephemeral nodes just to make AND you only get one potion per craft (I know the direction they went with the new crafting system but this amount of mats for one potion that is good for 15s? come on).

/end rant

My solution?

Allow the people that have chosen Culinarian and Alchemist specialties the ability to craft at a 1:3 ratio for any consumable item (Food/Medicine).

While I don't think that this is a perfect balancing of the specializations, I do believe it's a start in making the specializations worthwhile. To be honest, I'm making more money off of x-potions on my server due to the following reasons: 1:3 ratio of mats to potions, Dragonskin maps have a high drop rate of potions which means that crafters are constantly being undercut by people that didn't have to acquire mats, and the mats themselves for Draconian Potions are more time then it's worth for a 15s buff.

Again, there are a lot of things I like about the new crafting system. It's not for everyone, and you have to commit a lot of thought, time and energy to make a progression into being a well-geared crafter. The concerns that I do have is that there are people out there that picked out their specialties banking that the upcoming content would have something for them, and that wasn't the case for some people.

Am I gonna stop playing because of it? Hell no. Don't be silly. I just believe that this is an area of the game that could have been executed better.

TL : DR

Red scrips are good. It forces the market to move and prevents the poop-sockers from monopolizing in the first few weeks.
CUL/ALC specialists should get a 1:3 ratio for crafting any consumable item, since they received no recipes in 3.05 outside of grade 2 dissolvents.