Crafted Gear as Catch Up Gear

[Alahra]

In the lead up to HW, Yoshi-P stated they had never intended for crafted DoW/DoM gear to be so powerful for progression--rather, they intended for it to be gear to help people catch up. The more I think about it, the more I can't fathom why they didn't release the gear in 3.1 instead, but make it higher item level (at present item levels, probably i190), so it would actually be worthwhile in the long run.

Instead of the current set up, we could have had a set of i160 or i170 gear that was 1-star stuff (which would be comparable to upgraded i180 Doman gear) in 3.0, and then when 3.1 hit, crafted i190 gear could have been made available as a catch-up mechanism. Delaying the gear in this way would have gotten around the developers problems with crafted gear hastening progression while still keeping it relevant and useful gear for alt-jobs and catching up an undergeared class. They already had begun to do this with crafted weapons and accessories, and I'm having a hard time figuring out why they couldn't have just extended that to the entirety of the crafted battle gear.

It wouldn't have been perfect, by any means, but it seems like it would be much more palatable than the current system.

[RiceisNice]

Current 2 star recipe is ilvl 180. The problem is, making those 2 star battle gear requires materials which required capped currency, the red scrips (which are more-or-less the esotarics of crafting/gathering). Top off with the fact that ilvl180 is obtainable through law tomestones, which are uncapped tomes.

Without touching in anything beyond this, it's aleady less efficcent to craft battle gear for "catch up" because it's using up currency that is limited per week, while law tomestones are not weekly capped and offer the same ilvl.

[Alahra]

Current 2 star recipe is ilvl 180. The problem is, making those 2 star battle gear requires materials which required capped currency, the red scrips (which are more-or-less the esotarics of crafting/gathering). Top off with the fact that ilvl180 is obtainable through law tomestones, which are uncapped tomes.

Without touching in anything beyond this, it's aleady less efficcent to craft battle gear for "catch up" because it's using up currency that is limited per week, while law tomestones are not weekly capped and offer the same ilvl.

Yes, I understand that. Basically what I'm wondering is why they didn't keep the system structured more or less as it was prior to HW, but move the highest tier of crafted gear to the odd-numbered patch, which has always been the "catch-up" patch, where they make things easier to access, add the easy 24-man raid, and so on. The system as now is completely pointless because of the difficulty of crafting the gear, which itself has no purpose because of its position on the item level ladder.

If they were concerned about the impact on progression, they could have just pushed the gear itself back (and kept its item level where it would have been otherwise--approximately i190) to 3.1 and it would have had no serious impact on progression.

[chidarake]

the problem is as with current tank crafted acc is that once you meld materia the set can become very powerful although quite costly.

SE doesn't want anyone getting to powerful to quickly. even though really only a handful f people can afford to make and meld these sets. even one patch later the sets are still OP compared to the counterparts

[Mature]

In my very own humble opinion I truly believe that there should be a an ilvl190 battle gear so at the very least , by then crafting will have some important role in the game. Right now I feel I'm crafting for crafters and for glamours.

I think culinarian and alchemist are the true crafting end game right now.

I'm hoping for a good batch of high level recipes by 3.1

[Aeyis]

the problem is as with current tank crafted acc is that once you meld materia the set can become very powerful although quite costly.

SE doesn't want anyone getting to powerful to quickly. even though really only a handful f people can afford to make and meld these sets. even one patch later the sets are still OP compared to the counterparts

Thats a standard reply. Now try to think on the subject yourself. The current items arent anywhere near OP this patch, nevermind next patch.

[Aniforani]

There are plenty of ways to allow crafters to make near raid level gear without breaking the game. I think the issue is allowing the items to be sold and the quantity that could be produced.
Why not introduce a couple non repeatable quest lines that culminates in a single piece of raid quality gear? It can be tied to an npc that acts similar to a retainer venture, but on a longer timer. Send him out to get some materials that you then bring to another master craft npc who instructs you to craft a part of whatever piece of gear you're aiming for. Fail the craft and you have to restart the quest, succeed and you get instruction on what material you need next. Make the timers/difficulty balance the reward.
It would allow us to make a couple BiS items for ourselves or to sell, but it would not be enough to flood the market.

[Aniforani]

I'd like to see crafted items that have charges on them. Use a charge and the gear receives a boost in item level or gain a unique trait, but only on a short timer and with a long recast. Some charges could even duplicate a job ability, perhaps allowing you to use an ability you couldn't cross-class.

[Alahra]

In my very own humble opinion I truly believe that there should be a an ilvl190 battle gear so at the very least , by then crafting will have some important role in the game. Right now I feel I'm crafting for crafters and for glamours.

I think there should be, too, as the current i180 gear can't ever really serve a purpose. However, since the developers didn't want people using crafted gear to accelerate progression, they didn't give it to us this time. I'm wondering why they couldn't have, instead of this restrictive, punishing grind, gave us a simpler grind in 3.1 (more like the old Artisan/Supra/Lucis grinds) that had i190 gear. That lets the crafted gear work as catch up gear while negating its impact on progression.

Of course, that doesn't solve the problem of 3.0, where we have almost nothing worth crafting. I'm honestly surprised there's no i170 crafted gear (or even i160, which would have fit into the scheme of things like the old i55 Militia stuff).

As for the end-game crafters, CUL is in the best place. ALC's role is questionable since potions drop from treasure maps. I'm not sure what it's like on other servers, but on mine, they've never really been too profitable to make. If the recipes still produced 3 potions like they did in ARR, they would be fine, but for some reason they changed that.

[RiceisNice]

..

ALC is definitely not worth it, at least not for the 3.0 potions. The materials can be incredibly hard to come by (they're empyerial hidden items), require aethersand and you only get 1:1 craft, versus the usual 1:3. Same for the master book culinary recipes too, though there are some really nice options at lvl 60 food.