QoL suggestion on how to improve Specialist

[LukeStuz]

Specialist as we all know is useless, even with the new recipes and the skills.

Skills are in serious need of readjustment but something occured to me about how to make specialist useful

why not give specialist a trait that gives a % boost in materia melding? That would encourage specialist and people asking for specialist for materia boosting and plus it would make us feel happier when we are doing forbidden melds for the last 2 slots and hate the amount of materia we are wasting considering how expensive they can be....

It was just a thought...

[Snugglebutt]

It would help incentivize people more so to become specialists but it won't help in picking a specialization though.

It will provide another incentive to have 'a' specialist class but not help distinguish between which to have in which itself would be a problem. The biggest problem in my opinion is not from convincing new players to become specialists which many would and will be currently happy to do already, but instead convincing previously omni-crafters to join in and make the jump which is a harder choice for them since they already invested a lot of time leveling them all. If they have all classes capped as non-specialist the incentive needed would need to be a way to incentivize choosing one over another not incentivize the feature itself which is more appropriate for new players who have not become omni-crafters in the past.

Ideally I think should just use special recipes as that 'selection process' incentive as opposed to materia buffs which wouldn't help with the selection process if all specialists had same buff. I think SE should continue adding over time more specialist recipes unique to each class but I must also re-iterate that SE should avoid sticking component recipes in specializations and stick to specialization of final products as those special recipes since component are better served as a multi-class option in order to not create bigger issues, there must also be a continuation of some non-specialist final product more general recipes alongside the new component recipes for non-specialists while they also add unique final product recipes for specialists only too.

That way people will for many feel like their ability to make money will not be completely invalidated by not choosing a specialist and can also still create a lot of end products from such components while also having a decent size incentive to make use of specialization in order to go above and beyond omni-crafting...omni-crafting as I have said before in my opinion should be the jack of all trades but master of none. The current amount of unique specialist recipes need to be expanded upon as time goes on to expand the incentive to be one, but at same time SE have to not completely destroy the potential income generated from the component side of crafting which is better suited to omni-crafting in my opinion. There is a balance to be made between the two but I think SE are heading in the right direction personally.

In my ideal future of crafting...

Non-specialist recipes = All components + Generic end product recipes.

Specialist recipes = Unique end product recipes + (ideally) No components.

I am in favor of introducing better melding success options though but in my opinion it is better served through new food buffs, specialist recipes is where I see the biggest benefit and incentive to increasing participation in specializations in future as more recipes get added over time people will need a way to help choose which type of specialist to become. Enhancing specializations is the future of crafting and I see it as a good thing despite having an omni-crafting character myself which is transitioning to become also a specialist. The ideology of specializations is a good one in which pushes people to cooperate and work together to achieve goals and I support that ideology even if there are initial growing pains of a new system which needs to be adapted towards.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

In my opinion, the way to improve, or better yet *fix*, the Specialist system is simple.

Provide all 21 Cross Class abilities from levels 15, 37, and 50, as level 56 abilities for that Specialist. If you are a Specialist GSM, you already have the GSM 15, 37, and 50 skills. So you do not recieve those a second time. Instead, you get the three Cross Class Skills from the other 7 crafting classes.

That would achieve the intended purpose of letting someone who specializes only in one class, without leveling the rest, still function well in that one class. Produce no additional Specialist-Only recipes; if the purpose was to reduce the need for Omnicrafting, then make it actually reduce the need to level other crafting classes for their skills.

[MN_14]

That would achieve the intended purpose of letting someone who specializes only in one class, without leveling the rest, still function well in that one class. Produce no additional Specialist-Only recipes; if the purpose was to reduce the need for Omnicrafting, then make it actually reduce the need to level other crafting classes for their skills.

That would definitely take care of the issue of having to level all classes to get their respective cross class abilities, allowing single class crafters to craft as effectively as an omni-crafter on even the latest recipes. In fact, that's the solution that I would have liked to have seen. However, this unfortunately only addresses one of the complaints going around.

Whether true or not (perhaps this is server dependent), there is also a perception that crafters have to level all classes in order to compete with omni-crafters in the market (cheaper intermediate products, larger variety of items to craft for diversification purposes, etc). That's why specialist recipes have been introduced. They're designed to address this second complaint by reducing the amount of competition on certain items.

Some omni-crafters also feel that they should get some kind of an advantage for choosing a specialization too. There are lots of requests going around so it's pretty difficult to come up with a solution that would please everyone.

[Rath]

Specialist was sposed to "allow" the crafting of high level recipes without the need to level all of the other classes. They should not give you all of the abilities of all of the other classes, but they should make their respective crafts recipes easier.

Examples of potential tweaks that do not just give you everything for nothing:

1.) Reduce the level penalty for specialists crafting something above their current level. This could be a trait gained at a specific level and stack with ingen if you happen to be bsm.
2.) Reduce the materials required when crafting materials. Not finished goods as you would already have made the materials easier.
3.) Reduced red crafter token costs when buying gear for your specialty.
4.) Specialist leve that reward HQ mats or red scrips.
5.) Traits that increase your stats by +5 every 5 levels (+10 craft/control/cp at 60)
6.) Alternate recipes to craft something that have less quality requirements to make HQ. Not just an exclusive recipe to force people to buy from a specialist.
7.) HQ items crafted by a specialist have a chance to gain an additional materia slot. This chance should be static and be very low.
8.) Remove signatures from non-specialist gear.
9.) Allow specialists to meld tome gear of their specialty
10.) Increase the amount of food crafted by a cul specialist.
11.) have a chance to craft an additional material (ingot/lumber/cloth etc.) as a specialist.
12.) Specialist recipes to craft U/U gear or specialist gear (must be a specialist to equip).

They would need to balance things though, otherwise everyone would still just be an omnicrafter+specialist if possible. So they would probably limit the cc skills slots the way they did with jobs for dow/m.

[Kabooa]

Personally, I think if they just removed the CP cost from Whistle while allowing it to only be used once (So you can't spam it for step advancement) would go a long way to making specialist worth it. The sheer amount of initial CP investment due to Whistle more often than not removes any chance of it being worthwhile.

There's also no reason for Heart of the X to cost both CP and an item; Make it one or the other, or make one cancel the need for the other.

If we want something more tangible, increasing component yield (but not the end product) per craft is also a possibility. Gaining more quality per HQ component, improving all the actions used by their specialist craft, improving the success rate.

There's a lot of options, but I think removing that huge CP gate would be more than enough.

[Callback]

Remove specialist recipe restrictions. These are needlessly punishing and a slap to the face of anyone who put in the time to level all crafters. Perhaps put in specialist versions of these recipes with lower material cost or lower quality cap than the "normal" version, but let everyone have a way to make the items. Make it a reward, not a punishment.

Buff specialist skills. It's meant to allow people to compete without needing cross-class skills. This would be fine if the skills were better, but they are kept weak because of how they stack with the current cross-class set. In exchange for the buff, make specialists work like jobs and restrict the number of CCS available.

And uncap desynth. Seriously. Rework "for beginners" into a desynth xp boost or something but remove the "total" cap.

[Mindy_Macready]

Remove specialist recipes, and give specialists extra stats on craft/control/cp. Remove the need for delineations to use Heart of the X, instead make it a buff turned on at all times for specialists.

In fact, I think the best way to give specialists stat buffs is to buff their specific craft/control/cp to match the max-melded stats their class-specific gear could offer, without any melds. This would give specialists an early edge in crafting the latest items once they've geared up in the class-specific gear, and the catch-up patches can later provide artisan-style gear that all crafters can wear to match those stats when max-melded.

[MN_14]

Remove the need for delineations to use Heart of the X, instead make it a buff turned on at all times for specialists.

The good proc rate would be far too high if the Heart of the Crafter buff was kept on at all times. Right now, the ability already works well provided that you have average RNG, so I think it would be better if they removed the need for delineations but kept the 45 CP cost. What they could do next is guarantee 2 good procs over a few alternating turns and then give you a random chance of a 3rd proc. That would allow you to always recoup most of the cost of the ability and lower your whistle stack by at least 2.

[Mindy_Macready]

I think the simplest solution would be to lower the buff of Heart of the X (maybe 1/4 to 1/3 its current buff), and make it more like a trait for specialists that is on full-time while the soul is equipped