So what did you guys think about the Live Letter info?

[Nandrolone]

- Info on sky steel tools were interesting. Apparently you can design them? And they are upgradeable each patch? And according to Yoshida, at some point, they’ll be stronger than even fully melded primary tools. So these are basically like relic weapons, I guess.

- No gameplay on expert recipes, have to wait for 5.21 for that unfortunately.

- He showed some apron type of glam? I assume that’s from expert recipes? Maybe I’m wrong. Does anyone know if that apron is separate?

- Top ranking players in the ranking system will be given “special titles” lol

- some crafting action adjustments. some will be removed, but not many. probably nothing significant

- He didn’t say much about expert recipes, all he said is that it’ll require careful thought during each step. And that they’ll provide practice tests so you can test your skills on the recipes instead of wasting materials on them.

[Espritduo]

5.21 now for the ranking system expert recipes? So I basically took three weeks off from work for nothing then, got it. This is the third time they've talked about ranked crafting and the third time they've screwed my plans up by not actually releasing it when they implied they were releasing it. SE needs to get on the ball and say what they're releasing and when so people with LIVES can actually plan accordingly. As it stands now this basically kills any chance I would have had to rank at all since I will not be able to take even more weeks off in time for 5.21 and only no-lifing the ranked crafting is going to get you anywhere.

[Nandrolone]

5.21 now for the ranking system expert recipes? So I basically took three weeks off from work for nothing then, got it. This is the third time they've talked about ranked crafting and the third time they've screwed my plans up by not actually releasing it when they implied they were releasing it. SE needs to get on the ball and say what they're releasing and when so people with LIVES can actually plan accordingly. As it stands now this basically kills any chance I would have had to rank at all since I will not be able to take even more weeks off in time for 5.21 and only no-lifing the ranked crafting is going to get you anywhere.

Yeah, I understand what you’re going through. It really sucks they don’t just outright give release dates. Sucks even more that we have to wait 3 weeks after 5.2 (5.21) to play with the new Ishgard update. (Expert recipes, ranking, etc) Sorry you have to deal with that. I do hope you get time in eventually to play it.

[Liam_Harper]

-The Craft Relics are interesting, but might need more info before we can judge. For example how long a grind will it be and will we need to do that grind 8 times to omnicraft (or even 16 if we get off-hands)? Of course if they're too easy to obtain, it makes regular tools irrelevant.

-The Ranking depends on a lot of things. For example, if it's quantity based, using gathered materials and similar to collectibles, it's just a question of buying enough mats and spamming recipes with at least the bare minimum collectibility, so time/wallet = win. If it's limited turn ins and very decision/skill based it could be quite fun. We'll see.

-Curious what abilities will be removed. The toolkit is tiny, so even losing 2-3 could have impact. Hoping they tune a few too, they acknowledged previously that some abilities were too strong and they planned changes.

-The spiritbond change is nice. Good way to acquire DoL materia and a small reward you the more you craft/gather.

-Even if I personally prefer teamcraft, an ingame practice simulator is a welcome addition.

[MitsukiKimura]

No word on AST so we'll see on patch day I guess hopefully

[Kabooa]

Not enough info. It's basically just confirming what we've known already, so I don't really sit on one side of the fence for it.

[Ryaz]

Not really sure what they'd remove. They stripped it down pretty well less patch.

[NanaWiloh]

-The Craft Relics are interesting, but might need more info before we can judge. For example how long a grind will it be and will we need to do that grind 8 times to omnicraft (or even 16 if we get off-hands)? Of course if they're too easy to obtain, it makes regular tools irrelevant.

-The Ranking depends on a lot of things. For example, if it's quantity based, using gathered materials and similar to collectibles, it's just a question of buying enough mats and spamming recipes with at least the bare minimum collectibility, so time/wallet = win. If it's limited turn ins and very decision/skill based it could be quite fun. We'll see.

-Curious what abilities will be removed. The toolkit is tiny, so even losing 2-3 could have impact. Hoping they tune a few too, they acknowledged previously that some abilities were too strong and they planned changes.

-The spiritbond change is nice. Good way to acquire DoL materia and a small reward you the more you craft/gather.

-Even if I personally prefer teamcraft, an ingame practice simulator is a welcome addition.

If the crafting relics are anything like battle relics the first part will likely be pretty easy but as time goes on things will get increasingly harder. The practice recipes I think are a nice thing even though they are for practicing expert recipes, also begs the question if SE felt practice ones are needed. Then just how hard did they make expert recipes to make them feel hardcore crafters need practice ones?

[Kabooa]

If the crafting relics are anything like battle relics the first part will likely be pretty easy but as time goes on things will get increasingly harder. The practice recipes I think are a nice thing even though they are for practicing expert recipes, also begs the question if SE felt practice ones are needed. Then just how hard did they make expert recipes to make them feel hardcore crafters need practice ones?

Given what they said, one of the posters in another thread might have been on the nose with more varied and more fluctuating crafting states. "Practice" recipes implies that you might actually be limited on Expert recipe materials, perhaps on a daily limit.

So one might be able to get an average craft of an Expert recipe fairly easily by just doing what we usually do, but to max out or get as high as possible would require a little look and good decision making - Instead of just ramming as many Delicates into Ingeniuty as we can.

But that's all speculation and generally speaking speculation rarely hits the mark.

[Kytrin]

My takeaways:

- The crafting/gathering relics are fascinating, and I'm really excited to learn how that works. Though it looks like I'll be sticking them on a retainer somewhere until the next upgrade once I get them since fully melded crafted tools will still be better, and there's no way that mess will fit into my armory chest.

- I am very curious about the expert recipes, and looking forward to the challenge of learning them. By the same token though, I'm equally apprehensive about them taking more skills out. They shaved our skill pool down to practically nothing as is. I really hope it's less paring down even more and more replacing with new things.

- I'm not overly concerned about ranking. I'm a small time crafter on my server compared to the likes of Mighty Mog and the other big crafters, so while I will certainly strive for ranking I'm not going to lose any sleep if I'm beat out by the bigger crafters. As long as I can get my hands on the various rewards I want, I'm a happy woman.

- I'm a little irritated that they spent so much time talking about the things we covered in the first live letter that they didn't get to expert recipe gameplay, or talk about any housing changes (existing housing, not future Ishgard stuff) or if any of the new design contest furnishings will make it in. Decorating is a particular passion of mine, and the lack of communication is driving me up the wall.

- I thought the glamours they showed were very cute. If we ever get the chance to glam our housing vendors I will absolutely be putting that Eorzea Cafe outfit on one or two of them lol!