The crafting grind

[Welsper59]

I guess i'll get started. I just had to whine about it.

I'd recommend at the very least just collecting the tokens. It's very likely that something will change if they decide to introduce 3-star, come 3.1. Now, maybe that might entail a lower cost in tokens for scrip gear or some form of a nerf to crafted. Maybe it will just mean that you'll have a better idea of prioritizing certain crafts at the time. Either way though, let's be honest here... practically none of us have any need for BiS or near it right now. If you have the patience, it's almost a guarantee that it'll be a win/win situation to just hold those red crafting scrips/tokens until the next craft-related update.

[Catwho]

That's why I just melded out a HQ white set and use it on all my crafters. I'm really unhappy with the fact that they went back to every class having its own set of gear. I get that they wanted each class to have its own unique look, and I can appreciate that, but putting together a bunch of different sets is a PITA. It wouldn't have been so bad if you didn't have to meld them.

With no melds on my tools and no food, I'm at 718 craftsmanship, 681 control, and 393 CP.

That was my plan. I'm really not interested in doing scrips or anything at this point. I just want to finish getting my crafters to 60, then go back to making obscene amounts of money off leveling gear.

[Ashkendor]

That was my plan. I'm really not interested in doing scrips or anything at this point. I just want to finish getting my crafters to 60, then go back to making obscene amounts of money off leveling gear.

Yep. I'm making stupid amounts of money just making and selling several different varieties of food. I have a friend that does a lot of the higher end crafting and I sell him a few of my red scrip tokens from time to time; other than that I just camp on them.

[Gilthas]

Crafting and Gathering was already stupid before Heavensward. Heavensward just made everything even more grindy:

- bloated recipees requiring a lot more materials.
- common recipees for leveling gear requiring mats from hidden and unspoiled nodes.
- even just doing GC daily deliveries now requires a lot more time because of the above. They double the amount of seals you get, but the effort to farm and synth the items has tripled or more.
- you spend most of your time chasing unspoiled nodes to get scrips, leaving you no free time to do anything else.
- monsters drop less materials and there's fewer of them to farm. This isn't that bad because of retainers, but on the other hand SE also screwed over daily GC deliveries.

I've barely logged in in the past month because gathering and crafting has become such a chore. The best thing about FFXIV that really set it apart from FFXI was the ease in making your own gear. That playstyle has been pretty much destroyed just to make greedy players happy and a MB with inflated prices.

And lets not even consider the poor planning that went into the recipees. One of the best things while leveling from 1 to 50 was being able to craft my own gear. In Heavensward, plenty of times you can't craft equipment for your level because the mats are locked behind higher level quests. It was just stupid.

Gathering and crafting should be a relaxing side-activity that you did to gear up your battle classes. Instead its become far more time-consuming than battle content. I play FFXIV to relax and have fun, but SE has turned it into a job. And I already have one of those to pay my bills.

[DreameR7g]

I don't know what people expected. MMORPGs, on its face, are grindy. That's the core of how they are designed to make money via monthly subscription. If anyone expected anything different, they did themselves a disservice.

They had to give crafting and gathering an endgame to work towards. Otherwise, those who only focus on crafting/gathering would have no long term goal and no longer will keep playing the game.

Typically, if you find a game stressful, you should quit. That is not what a video game is supposed to be. As for me, I find grinding relaxing. It lets me turn my brain off, do other things, have a long term goal to work towards. In the end, you WILL either end up grinding or quitting, because once you complete the newest content, you now have to repeat it for a while. That is the basis of MMOs.

[Arashmin]

The problem is how the grind is presented. Some grinds are great, some grinds aren't, and people using 'MMOs are grindy' as an argument really need to realize that.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

They had to give crafting and gathering an endgame to work towards.

Yea I was surprised but excited that crafting was actually fairly difficult. you need a lot just to start getting scrips for both gatherer and crafter. If they make it super easy to make all the lvl 170 gear it would get boring really fast, not to mention you could just buy entire sets off the marketboard cheap and wouldn't need to craft at all. Which would defeat the point.

[DreameR7g]

The problem is how the grind is presented. Some grinds are great, some grinds aren't, and people using 'MMOs are grindy' as an argument really need to realize that.

It depends on perspective there. I find all the grinds just fine, myself. As far as the weekly lockouts, that is purposeful. 3.0 is bare bones of Heavensward so they have them to extend current content and its lifespan. Once the content patches come out (3.1, 3.2, etc.), it'll be more flavorful.

[Train88]

Are they even looking at crafting for a future patch?

[Marxam]

this grind killed crafting for me. I normally try to keep up with crafting and gathering but the token grind for more tokens is just redundant and boring to me. They could have made turn-ins more lore and fun related like carpenters need to turn in "..." to help fix some pillars in the Foundation. This obviously would have no effect on the world but doing something for people other than Rowena makes me feel like I'm making a difference. Right now all I feel is that she is a slave driver and is the npc equivalent to players who manipulate the MB on servers for gil.