Are you happy with the current state of crafting?

[Kurando]

Now I don't craft much so I'm no expert, but seeing as Kalise just mentioned it, I've always wondered is there any real point in having all of the crafting classes at all at this stage? Essentially what I hear is most of the crafting actions generally follow the same flow and players even use macros to make this easier, so it feels like with each expac there is less of a real distinction between them.

Would it been better if there was just one single crafting job that merges the classes? Though you would still need to compete quests to learn recipes for each class category (i.e. you level/follow ALC quests to unlock those recipes, same for CRP, GSM etc). So technically nothing would be removed but for the sake of simplicity, it's be like one job covers all crafting classes, but obviously still having to level up the individual classes to access their stuff while also the specialist stuff can be switched however often it is at the moment.

[Orbus]

High tier crafting difficulty has always gone over my head.
I maxed all my crafters, but in the end I mostly use it as an alternate way to get things cheaper at the cost of my time, such as post 50 leveling gear or cosmetic and housing items.
It was nice being able to make that eastern bench with what I had on hand instead of doling out the frankly ridiculous price on the market board for it.

You don't have to trick your crafting gear out really hard to make many of the money making items and I can't complain about that.
I definitely think they're going to lose peoples interest in crafting in the next expac though if they think they can get away with making people rely on even longer maker's mark rotations.
Took one look at those when they were being used early in SB and said "nope", and I can imagine the reaction of others when it gets to being 80+ steps.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

I'm still annoyed collectables can't stack (I understand why though). but combined with mats space, things get filled quick. Streamlined skills isn't really the issue for me, it's still inventory space. No matter how easy the skills, gathering and components still covers more than 70% total time for crafting since those 2 types of space aren't separated. Collectables desperately need a separate management bag/list, just put the type of item on the bag and the list qualities somewhere else.

[DrWho2010]

the thing with collectibles you aren't really supposed to hold on to them. turn them right away for custom deliveries or if you miss the window for the house of splendors, who knows when it'll be back.... plan better? I dunno

[Zolvolt]

I wish that the speciality actions were a little bit more straight forward. Most of them are a "uhhh is this really reliable enough to use regularly?" I'd also like it if we could move away from those flawless synthesis rotations. Its just too long ; ;

[DrWho2010]

if you have enough stats you don't need to use flawless synthesis tho....

[GoofballRat]

I'm a new player to this game, a WoW veteran, and for now I like how the crafting is. There's challenge and meaningful decision-making which compels you to carefully calculate your actions for better results. But that's only my experience up to level 20-30 DoH.

On the one hand you'd want to be properly rewarded for your efforts, on the other hand no challenge and no meaningful decisions means no fun. You gotta strike a balance there so people don't become disgruntled for either reason.

All I can say is that the leveling curve for DoH seems appropriate for now, maybe that's because I'm on a server that has exp bonus.

[BoazJochin]

I wish that they would have more specialty recipes. This would make having a specialist worthwhile. I am lvl 70 crafter and I do craft a lot for gill. I just don't see a point in how I can make every end game gear. I think it should be kept to the specialists to encourage people to go one way or the other.

[chidarake]

i think being able to macro or remove rng is ok in the game however it should only be possible with max stats.

I also think the only way to get max stats is to be able to craft your own gear, basically make the current top tier gear market prohibited until the next tier of gear comes out. this way if you want to be running with best stats you got to know how to craft.
to tie into this that also means the newer recipes have to be low % chance to hq without the new gear but obviously the new gear crafts would be a little easier to make than other crafts in the tier to make them more likely to be hq but not guaranteed.

i would also like to see new crafts require hq mats if you want to reliably craft hq items, it would mean that the materials market would have to be changed alittle so instead of needing 4 skins to make a leather it would be less but the craft would just be harder, that way prices wouldnt spike to high that a lot of people would get locked out of the market completely.

the problem with that though is that the player base has so many skills to work with that once one person figures out a good rotation or two they will get shared and thus removing the difficulty for the people who either waited or couldnt do it themselves. and everyone would just start to accept the rng in the craft and goods prices might go up because of it and it might make it so only a few dedicated crafters might feel the push for the best gear is even worth it. although they could supply things cheaper than their ungeared counterparts. but then that would be bad for the market or discourage people from taking part.

basically any increase in difficulty is going to exclude a vast amount of players from wanting to to take part so i dont see SE changing things int hat way.

the best solution is to make exclusive endgame crafts locked none tradable none sellable but of course super hard to make and only for personal glam purposes. they would require a vast amount of materials require good knowledge of the crafting system incorporating some rng as well as no rng. quest driven utilizing the guilds maybe even having to acquire specific recipes from various npcs from around the world, hidden mats in venders and nodes or even just in dungeons that if you have the right crafts available they become findable. using scrips to further these crafts aswell as the npcs we now have to craft for weekly a much needed part in the process. make the whole thing doable right away so if you want to grind it out you can.. no weekly lockouts or such nonsense just good old exploring and sharing info. at the ned you get an amazing glam set for each crafting job that you can wear all expansion long if you wanted to show your dedication to your profession.

sorry wall of text but meh its just an idea, partly of which has been passed around by others on this very forum before.

wouldnt hold your breath for anything like this though.

[Kalise]

I wish that they would have more specialty recipes. This would make having a specialist worthwhile. I am lvl 70 crafter and I do craft a lot for gill. I just don't see a point in how I can make every end game gear. I think it should be kept to the specialists to encourage people to go one way or the other.

The issue with this is that it's just too easy to change specialities. Putting more emphasis on them doesn't really do much except make it clunkier to craft everything because you'd have to keep swapping specialities by purchasing Souls of the Crafter with Red Scrips.

Honestly, the Specialist system is such a missed opportunity... They could have made it interesting.

Like, if not only were specialist skills themselves not trash, but also unique to each discipline. With a unique role skill usable on all disciplines with each speciality and a unique role skill usable only on specialist disciplines. That would help make crafting a little more diverse, instead of "Everyone just uses the same macro'd combo irregardless of their class" because there would be different available skills depending on which 3 areas you chose to specialize in.

Then they could have put more recipes behind the specialist wall, things that would embody the epitome of the particular craft and would entice trading with other specialists to obtain.

With then making changing a speciality much more costly, to the point where it was not very practical to swap at all, merely just possible to do so.

Further to this, they could have also then made unique Specialist dailies/weeklies (Depending on what they felt was best) to allow people to use their chosen fields and get nice rewards of some description (I don't know what... Gil? Tokens to spend on class specific Glamours (Which could also be used for things like Materia, crafting materials, the new more costly Soul of the Crafter's could be purchased with a large number of token for example)? Catalysts that provide a substantial boost to Quality of any recipe?)