Ishgard Restoration: High Difficult Recipe Rewards

[Solarra]

I have been levelling an alt recently and while Ishgard has made levelling unbelievably fast compared to how it used to be, I can't say it's been fun. I got through most of it by reading a book (whole novel read, yay!) or doing something else on the PC while hitting my one button macro on the PS4. Then one day last week I found myself asking,
'Why am I doing this?'
And I didn't have an answer beyond still having a little glam to get for my guy and levelling him up so I'd be ready if there was something fun to do later. That 'if' bothers me. I'm not someone who takes breaks normally and crafting and gathering have been the content I do when I'm out of story, beast tribes etc. for me, crafting just isn't as much fun as it used to be. The fast levelling meant I out-levelled both the Moogles and the Namazu way before I got to max rep. It's only a little thing but even that is giving me less incentive to play.

I admit, I don't have a lot of patience with content I find boring. If I need a book or a second monitor to relieve the tedium then I start questioning why I'm bothering to play at all and that's the point I'm at with crafting right now. If the leaderboard just needs quantity, then that's just going to be more macros and another book to read, assuming I can be bothered. To be honest, I doubt I'd stick the grind.

I appreciate the recent changes have got people crafting who never enjoyed it in the past, but I do wonder how many of them are going to stick with it long-term. It's much easier now but essentially, it's pretty much the same. Was the difficulty of endgame crafting really what was putting people off? For me it was a big incentive to keep going.
Crafting is niche in most games, and FFXIV used to offer a more in-depth experience than any other. I understand the desire to broaden its appeal, but I feel they've gone so far with the simplification that they're in danger of alienating those of us who enjoyed crafting as it was.

Here's hoping for some decent rewards and some interesting challenges from 5.2


One Reward I'd like to see: Recipes for shiny off-hand gathering tools to match the 'I found that' achievements

[Kytrin]

I wouldn't mind future Ishgard phases offering up gear with all 5 materia slots open. And not just the chest pieces, but entire sets. I would work my tail to the bone to get my hands on gear that doesn't have an overmeld failure rate!