Dear Square Enix - I want to Craft

[Shakesula]

Understand what SE did? I've mentioned it several times but fundamentally they took ALL that collected time gearing, regearing, turning in for master books AND RESET IT so they didn't have to develop any recipes (which is why you have 20 people selling the same gear now, since there is virtually no way to profit on this stuff anymore.) They took *all* gather/craft progression and RESET

Of course they reset it. New expansion= more levels and gear to grind out. You didn't expect your ARR gear and stats to be OP in a new expansion did you? How boring would that be? You have a head start on noobs and people that didn't level/gear crafting or gathering but you need to essentially start from scratch. Just like battle gear. Yeah it's good for a bit but sooner or later you have to say bye bye to that dreadwyrm gear you fought so hard to get and replace it with a green lol

[Katlyna]

The reset was fine... its the broken economy and lack of any functional use of the current crafting and gathering gear. Its just terrible. Things could be corrected economically with another crafting patch which provides interesting adventuring, glamour and other items which are fun, have worth and require the current red scrip gear. But leaving us in this state for three months or more is insulting.

[Lobotomite]

After blowing up both of my 2 attempts at 2* DoL offhands because of horrible Hasty runs + Reclaim failures, I can confidently say that I'm done with this Kafka sideshow until such time as when it's fixed.

I was 6/8 Lucis and wearing full self-crafted Artisan pre-3.0. May not have been one of the handful of elites on my server, but I was in the upper tier. I don't care about making gil, I just care about self-sufficiency, helping friends with requests, and being able to experiment with challenging crafting propositions.

The system was billed on making crafting more casual, but it's done the opposite--it's widened the gap between casuals and hardcores. Casual omnicrafters like myself are getting discouraged, while the Scrips are doing little to nothing to hamper the hardcore omnis who have the gil to buy out DoL mules for Favor mats. Casual omnis act as brake pedals on the prices of things because we're doing it more for the love of the craft than looking seriously at margins. How are nearly empty markets without competition healthy for the game's economy?

[Katlyna]

The system was billed on making crafting more casual, but it's done the opposite--it's widened the gap between casuals and hardcores. Casual omnicrafters like myself are getting discouraged, while the Scrips are doing little to nothing to hamper the hardcore omnis who have the gil to buy out DoL mules for Favor mats. Casual omnis act as brake pedals on the prices of things because we're doing it more for the love of the craft than looking seriously at margins. How are nearly empty markets without competition healthy for the game's economy?

I concur with you 100%. It just sucks. All I can tell my casual linkshell members is to level their DoH to 60, and either sell favors, or use them. They have to gather them all to have any chance to function.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Dear Katlyna & fellow crafters, do some of you still remember the glorious days when we grind (crafting grind) Builder title and then crafted HQ 2 star 40 durab items with only the original lvl 50 class quest mainhands?
How about the Patch 2.2 grind (crafting grind) we did to obtain Artisan mainhands? Then we took on the crafting of 3 star i90 battle gear with only a single Artisan mainhand, one i90 set after another, and raiders come to seek us for those i90 one after another?
After that, we took on those 3.5 star HQ turn-in items for Master Recipe II with a single Supra Tool that was only 10 Craftsmanship & 5 Control higher than the Artisan mainhand while we were still using i55 Militia offhands. Do you remember that grind (crafting grind)?
(this post too long, have to break into 2)

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Then we crafted our own 3 star Artisan offhands, and took on freaking 4 star challenges while we were still wearing our old school i55 AF gear... haha! And then once again, raiders come seek us one after another for 4 star i110 gear for their powers and glamor.

Damn, those were glorious days that we can only look back right now...

Right now, we grind hard (mostly gathering grind) each week for some i170 / i180, and not sure exactly why we're doing it... feeling so lonely making Deep-fried Okeanis Collectables (without the glorious HQ hand-gesture) with 2 macro buttons, then dumping into NPCs... nobody come contact us for anything except Thavnarian Bustier or Hive Barding! LOL! So many skilled hands now idle at Idleshire... wasted talents.

[Katlyna]

I hated the Lucis grind, but zomg getting to make gear for adventures and raiders and having a line of people every day I logged in was awesome. Our FC market board was super busy with people having fun, making things, trading stuff etc. And the economy was just hopping. Tons of other people asking questions, making gear, making money. I really miss when crafting was like that!

PS Camie: After posting you can edit your post to any length!

[Lobotomite]

IMO, the Lucis grind was the best part of 2.x crafting progression. It was almost a pure timesink and (unlike Supra) could be done cheaply by casuals. The quality requirement was high enough to be reasonably challenging, and it forced you to learn how to properly juggle Manipulation and track your remaining CP on the fly so that you had enough left over to ensure that you could both hit Byregot and finish the craft. Bad run of Hasties got you down? You could just finish the craft and turn in the SQ for your token mats back minus the crystals and common mat.

And once you were done, there was a clear stat boost over Supra which simplified 4* crafting, and you got a giant tool that you could dye any color you wanted. What wasn't to love?

[Alahra]

I liked the Lucis stage as well, to be honest. Supra wasn't enough of an upgrade at the time to feel worth the effort, and while Lucis didn't really benefit you in a direct way, it had nice perks (easier 4-stars and the unique appearance/dyes).

[Katlyna]

The only reason I didn't like the Lucis much was because was because I did all 8... but I concur the design wasn't bad since cost was low and casuals could attempt them. When I say I hated the Lucis grind I literally mean I hated making all 8 that was just silly of me.