Miner/Botanist Levequest Design

[Anderian]

Anyone else feel like virtually no thought went into creating the levequests for Miner and Botanist? I undestand that they are gathering classes, and as such is hard to create any meaningful content for them, but they could've at least tried. I'm gonna list a few of my issues with them here, as there is no real Gameplay Feedback forum.

1. Leves completely ignore the other main stat of the classes
I have no idea why, but Perception isn't used in any capacity in any of the leves. Not only is this silly from a gameplay perspective, but it also makes exp gain from leves very poor compared to crafting classes.

2. Leves are only good for experience
Disciple of Land leves would've been a perfect place to introduce rare materials in to crafting systems. With the limited nature of leves, it would've been a more effective way to regulate rare materials entering the market compared to Unspoiled nodes.

3. The RNG nature of the leves
Best exp from Land leves is currently from the evaluation leves. And, as it just so happens, they are also the most fickle leves with their RNG. Obviously everyone wants the 25% exp bonus from them, but most of us probably aren't going to wait for the VERY slow GP regen in order to get 100% chance from the nodes (by using the 50% increasing in gathering chance), and Cordials can only be acquired from leves, making them too valuable to spend on every leve you do. And even if you do, they still have a 5 minute cooldown.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think. Just a side note, I was a 1.0 player, so I do know how the gathering classes were. But I don't really see bringing back the mini-game type of gathering as a solution.

[Memimi]

The biggest issue for me is that the exp is so dramatically different than the crafting leves. I feel like one or the other wasn't really thought through. I also agree about the lack of non-exp reward. The gil reward is next to nothing and you only get cordials on, what, the first completion?

[xnonamex]

Normally i can do all the leaves without any (or little) skills/self buffs used. The only leve where i spend my cordials and GP is to get +25% bonus... Can't complain about exp from them though. do couple of full 4-leve circles and.. ding!
However would have been nice that on the standard mining leves (like mine 40 items) there would be an option to get HQ items and get exp bonus from that. would make more sense. now i don't feel the need to use skills... just go around fast enough to get the speed bonus and whack away.

[Lyein]

While #3 on your list is its own little thing, I completely agree on 1 and 2. Totally ignoring perception also makes them exploitable, just gear up for max gathering to abuse the system.

I'm 100% behind putting material rewards or just some kinds of rewards on the gathering leves. Gathering classes can't provide some items which need to be present in much higher quantities (looking at you Mob-Drop Only's) and allowing us _some_ way to provide that service for other players/classes would certainly add value to our roles.

As it stands I haven't really bothered with more than ten gathering leves because they're just inefficient. Grinding DoW's is far more frustrating and less rewarding than grinding gathering so I'm more likely to use them there (or you can dungeon... or FATE... or Guildhest... or quest). And DoH leves can throw almost an entire level at you (for the cost of some materials). Gathering leves just lack incentive.

[whycantiusebetaforumname]

Bot and min are the hardest classes in the game to level lol.

[Anderian]

While #3 on your list is its own little thing

I don't think so. I wouldn't have listed it if I didn't think it merited some consideration. Have you ever missed a hit three times in a row with 95% chance? I have. And no, this isn't about statistical probability, I have no problems understanding that. My problem is, that if you happen to get fantastically unlucky on the very last hits in evaluation leve, there's nothing you can do to recover. You lose the exp bonus. To me that just seems like very dubious game design, because none of the other (DOH or DOW/M) leves penalize you randomly. You have no control over it, and that's my problem with it.

Bot and min are the hardest classes in the game to level lol.

Well, I guess the hard part is over for me then.