What the hell is wrong with crafting?

[Hachiko]

There is seriously no rhyme or reason to anything that happens. Everything is clearly random, and it seems like there is no longer any "easy" way to level. No one knows what stats help what crafts, and now it isn't even clear what the difference between main hand and offhand are, other than slightly different stats.

Why do I have to create things up to 6 levels above myself just to get even remotely good experience? Even then I have to create 50 of them for a single level. 50! for one level! 5-7 levels above.

And inexplicably, as I get CLOSER to the level of the synth it begins to FAIL more and destabilize. What the hell? This is infuriating. Botching syntheses that sometimes I finish with 70 dura? Botching because I get 8 3/14 fails in a row, for no reason, even after using both makers muse and preserve?

Getting a destabilize on the first synth? Realy? Going chaotic on the next one despite it being white?

What the hell is wrong with crafting? It's seriously infuriating and now with grind synthing virtually taken out, it's ridiculous.

[Derkatron]

I haven't played in awhile before 1.19, but it feels the same to me, I recall doing +6 synths to get ~500 sp a craft, and being very frustrated early on by the occasional unavoidable failure when the synth totally goes awry from the start, even on even level synths. I agree with your assessment of the frustrating randomness and excessive volume of crafts necessary over level 30, but I don't agree that it's new...

[Hachiko]

I haven't played in awhile before 1.19, but it feels the same to me, I recall doing +6 synths to get ~500 sp a craft, and being very frustrated early on by the occasional unavoidable failure when the synth totally goes awry from the start, even on even level synths. I agree with your assessment of the frustrating randomness and excessive volume of crafts necessary over level 30, but I don't agree that it's new...

The difference is that before there were a lot of "easy" recipes to level on, that produced a ton of mats which could generally be used to make a lot of synths.

The new thing is that now, take carpentry for example, you get 1 lumber per log instead of 4. And there's no longer halfmasks to make to level giving you 4 synths per log. Now you get 1 lumber per log, and there are fewer things to make that simply take 1 log, making it much more tedious to gather all the various mats you need to spam the 50 weapons / armor peices you need to level.

[Estellios]

You need to plan it out more. Look at the wards and see what gear is low on stock that you can get the materials for cheaply and easily. Most items only need 1 lumber so if you get good XP from lumber you can level up on that till the XP starts to slow down then make gear that uses that lumber. Instead of making useless parts that no one buys you can produce gear and make a good amount of money if you sell them at reasonable prices.

Don't try to rush it and pace yourself, split between guildleves and making items that are needed (don't flood the wards with particular recipes too so you can continue to make money off it). Even if you do want to spam craft recipes use very few materials and stuff is way cheaper from NPCs now.

If you need recipes www.mooglebox.com is what I use.

[Derkatron]

Estellios's adivce is sound, but yes, that element is quite different, and can be jarring if you don't prefer the new model. However, I understood the OP as referring to two aspects specifically: the crafting minigame itself and its randomness, and the volume of optimal-exp crafts you need to level once you pass the halfway point. These two aspects don't seem much different to me; am I misremembering?

[Estellios]

Oh yeah, it still takes quite a bit of time to level up especially past 35 or so, but switching up what you make can keep the XP rate up and earn you some gil was my point, i guess =P

[tymora]

The best way to rank up now is probably through repeating local town leves. Camp leves needs a lot more running so can be pretty slow.

[Hachiko]

The best way to rank up now is probably through repeating local town leves. Camp leves needs a lot more running so can be pretty slow.

That would be great if there were multiple town leves at a given level. I know at 25 there are zero for CRP. There's one that is available that says lvl 30, but it is virtually impossible to complete at lvl 25.

Leaves you with a 5 minute walk to complete the other 25 levels. One of them only granting something like 2k exp the other giving 3.5... counting all the synths.

[Reliquia]

That would be great if there were multiple town leves at a given level. I know at 25 there are zero for CRP. There's one that is available that says lvl 30, but it is virtually impossible to complete at lvl 25.

Leaves you with a 5 minute walk to complete the other 25 levels. One of them only granting something like 2k exp the other giving 3.5... counting all the synths.

Yeah, more leves should be acessible at certain levels. Suddenly you will find yourself grinding on leves with horrible xp because there are too many gaps between some level ranges.

[zzapp]

In regard to the OP random success/failure rates - you are so right on. I've been bitching about this since I started crafting. I've managed to level a fair amount of crafts, but not without many fits of bewilderment and outright anger. You see, I'm of the silly belief that the higher level you get in a craft, the easier a particular recipe should become, and HQ succes should be improved. The extent of RNG in the current coding is unacceptable. Crafting is such a big part of this game. To have stuff just random success/failure or NQ vs HQ with little or no regard to competency (level) vs. recipe difficulty is nothing but a major cop out in the coding. I'm so tired of endlessly farming materials, day after day, only to have materials HQ attempts fail time after time after time, even with 350+ quality and the recipe 30 levels below me, and the next one HQ with 30 quality. This just isn't right.

I've also am convinced there is a periodic 'rage' coding that kicks in time to time for 6-7 unexplicable fails, then the next 10-12 synths I finish with 70+ durability. This is plain, unjustified bullsh*t. If I wanted a game that was an absolute crap shoot, I'd go to Vegas. I expect better than this in this game.

While I do understand the need for some variability/randomness in the result, this isn't fun, nor is it acceptable. The pain associated with leveling a craft to ultimate level, buying/making the best gear, getting the best abilities like Hand of the Gods and Perfection should be rewarded, not ignored.

Kudos to the OP for bringing this up. I've posted on this very subject many many times, and not a single response from the development team addressing this ><

BTW I just got done synthing up some mythril nuggets, that @ R50 I get 26 xp for. Without getting cute, i.e. not just spamming Careful Synth, I failed this with Hand of the Gods and Perfection. Go figure ><