Dropped vs. Crafted a compromise?

[Dzian]

In regards to equipment in this game where people think dropped gear should be better than crafted gear because otherwise you can simply buy the best gear in the game and there's no reason to do content and then the other side of the coin that says crafted/melded gear should be better than dropped gear otherwise there's no market or demand for crafters if everything can simply be acquired from dungeons I was thinking about alternatives.

Two things came to mind. the first is kind of something that already exists in the game and could simply be upgraded. and that is broken stuff. For example you go out you kill that goblin guy near Gridania you get a blunt sword. you can then craft that into a proper sword. what if that kind of system were upgraded and extended to dungeons.

What if as a reward for clearing a dungeon you got a broken piece of armour and with that piece of armour you could buy an item or something and have a high level crafter restore it for you. Perhaps done in a similar fashion to single materia melding to allow for U/U gears to be restored by anyone. For example you could get your broken piece of Hero's Chainmail. from a dungeon and then buy a certain item. "chainmail repair kit" for want of a better name and then request it to be repaired by a crafter and once repaired you have a strong piece of gear that required both drops and crafters.

Seems like it would benefit everyone. people would have reason to do dungeons and crafters would have a business and perhaps create a sense of balance between the dropped gear vs. crafted/melded gear argument by creating gear that utilises both systems. I'd hate for everything to follow this system but as an option for some sets it'd be pretty good.

My other take on the idea stems from XI but is not to different from the first in a sense. it would be the abjuration system. Where a crafter would make a cursed item and in order to purify it or make it useable you would have to get an abjuration item from a boss or dungeon and then have an npc purify it for you to use. once again requiring both crafters and participation in content to complete.

I think something like this would be fairly cool for most people and t seems like a decent compromise between dungeon drops and crafted items. thoughts?

[rina_inverse]

thoughts?

Apple and Oranges

[Fadigre]

I was hoping we'd have some super-sweet and unique materia drop from dungeons at some point, too!

[Dannythm]

I think the better compromise is, if the boss is wearing the weapon/armor give it a chance for it to drop, if not, make it drop materials that can be crafted into high level items.

Or even better, make it so gatherers have o go to the instance to get the materials, then locate special forges or workbench so crafters can move their asses from the cities too and venture into the dungeons too.

I can think lot of gameplay mechanics where a crafter or a gatherer could help a group end a dungeon.

[fusional]

crafters already make tons of money. and it's really, really easy. in fact, crafting nets the highest potential gains of any method of making money in XIV right now, and it's been that way for a while. any crafter who tells you otherwise is either lying, is greedy as hell, or doesn't know what they're doing.

that said, i wouldn't mind more interplay between crafting and raiding similar to XI where you crafted cursed items then uncursed them through abjurations dropped from high level NMs, or even simply having more rare crafting materials drop from bosses and the like to turn into stuff that can be used or sold.

[Zenaku]

crafters already make tons of money. and it's really, really easy. in fact, crafting nets the highest potential gains of any method of making money in XIV right now, and it's been that way for a while. any crafter who tells you otherwise is either lying, is greedy as hell, or doesn't know what they're doing.

that said, i wouldn't mind more interplay between crafting and raiding similar to XI where you crafted cursed items then uncursed them through abjurations dropped from high level NMs, or even simply having more rare crafting materials drop from bosses and the like to turn into stuff that can be used or sold.

i agree i make 10+m every day if i'm not lazy but i hope when there a level cap you not allow to master more then 1 craft. Allowing everyone to level each craft beyond 50 would just make cost very low or very high due to greedy players like the issue we have now.

[Alhanelem]

materia is being nerfed, so it's not going to be as easy for crafted items to be boosted above dropped items. They've said this before, so we know that the scheme of dropped vs crafted is changing at least a little.

[Felis]

Isn't there already a balance between droped and crafted gear?
On some body parts crafted gear is good and on some another body parts dropped gear is good.

But what SE can bring is more special mats only obtainable in chests, like the garlean rubber.

[indira]

gear should break forever so the crafters can move stuff in the MW/AH. U/U gear should also break.

[fusional]

U/U gear should also break.

ahh yesss another brilliant suggestion for casuals that would completely drive away the hardcore playerbase who actually worked hard for their gear. good idea.