So much for the original statement "Crafters will be able to make the best items in the game" or however it was worded. Yet again crafters get the shaft on this and are losing out to dropped gear.
@ZOS_GinaBruno, @ZOS_JessicaFolsom what's the point in ESO crafting and researching traits if people can only get the best gear from drops? So a crafter can improve those, so what. It's easy for someone to go from 1-50 in crafting. Then all they need is 3-4 skill points for the decreased improvement costs and they can upgrade their own gear. This is a complete waste of time to research traits that won't be needed because dropped items are better.
Why should anyone new to the game actually research items based on this? There's no reason to at all....
Oh, because crafting (or having someone else craft) your BiS gear the first 5 minutes you reach level cap is fun... not.
As long as the effort of crafting is close to zero, it should always be weaker than dropped sets (not currently the case).
Why would I run trials or dungeons, if I can just craft better gear with 10x less effort involved?
I don't want to wear Hunding's Rage, I want to wear Vicious Ophidian which took me hundreds of hours to acquire a full set, going through the most difficult content this game has to offer.
Gear strength must always match the effort & skill required to acquire it. MMO basics.
Itemization has been a problem in this game ever since launch, and I for one am glad to hear they're finally working to make it better.
I mean they aren't removing the bonus from crafting. They are bringing up the stats of dropped gear so all gear in game regardless of how it's obtained will have equal stats at the same level.
Sadly its another case of devs listening to those who dont like crafting and want raid (dropped) armor to be the best. sadly that makes it so people such as my self who can not pvp/raid unable to compete.
SuraklinPrime wrote: »Don't get me wrong I am really impressed that you people knocking crafting are so skilled compared to us humbler players but we all pay and play the same game and the attitude gets a little grating after a while, especially since the current crop of devs seem to agree with you. i just hope once you've driven us all away it will still be fun for you.
Hiero_Glyph wrote: »Let's be honest though, if ZoS wants to make crafted gear the same as dropped sets in terms of stats then they need to reduce the research time barrier. PC players are obviously blind to the time investment at this point since they have all of the research completed (or know someone that does) but console players have just started and still have a very long way to go and now their effforts are being ignored by ZoS.
Let's not forget that the 3 new crafted IC sets will likely require 8 or even 9 traits (hopefully we find out today on the PTS). That's a huge amount of research for sets that are no different than dropped ones of the same rank. Anyway, I'm not against making items statistically the same but crafting research needs to be reworked if this is the case.
Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »
How is it a balance problem? If you can do it, everyone else can do it.
I don't think the problem is the fact that they are bringing drops to the same power as crafted. I totally support that... There should be overall equality between the methods of obtaining the sets.
I like the idea of using a blend of dropped & crafted & can see value & viability in both.
For me the problem is that the balance of the crafted sets (& the quantity) is all out of whack....
- 3/4 trait sets that are the most powerful? - No... the 8/9 trait sets should be noticeably stronger. They should incentivize the effort to get 8/9 traits researched & the gold / time required for nirn research.
- 23 new sets in imperial city , yet only 3 crafted sets!? - No.... again, parity (Or at the very least a vague attempt at it.... just 3 new crafted sets is totally weak sauce).
One thing that could help with this a lot is jewellery crafting. This would go a LONG way towards giving crafting a boost, and introduce a new dimension of flexibility into builds.
starkerealm wrote: »So, you're left with, there's a legitimate option, and then trash options. It doesn't matter if we're both taking the "best" option, if the other route wasn't an inferior choice all along.
Oh, because crafting (or having someone else craft) your BiS gear the first 5 minutes you reach level cap is fun... not.
As long as the effort of crafting is close to zero, it should always be weaker than dropped sets (not currently the case).
Why would I run trials or dungeons, if I can just craft better gear with 10x less effort involved?
I don't want to wear Hunding's Rage, I want to wear Vicious Ophidian which took me hundreds of hours to acquire a full set, going through the most difficult content this game has to offer.
Gear strength must always match the effort & skill required to acquire it. MMO basics.
Itemization has been a problem in this game ever since launch, and I for one am glad to hear they're finally working to make it better.
Attorneyatlawl wrote: »
Amen.
So how would you solve this balance issue, that you are sure exists, without devaluing crafting in terms of both self-crafting and crafting for order?
Because the gating of materials behind group/PvP content (grinding for gold to buy mats just to make a tiny profit or even a loss is just as much of a trash option) and the reducing the relative efficacy of crafted gear is not a solution that is likely to produce two legitimate options either.
starkerealm wrote: »Honestly, if it was up to me, I'd probably be designing a very different itemization system.
starkerealm wrote: »What ZoS is doing IS a legitimate approach though. Bumping the cap, and then restricting access to the new tier of crafting materials in a way they haven't before, so that collecting crafting bits involves more work.
starkerealm wrote: »Originally, that was (I think) the intent with requiring so many mats with the gold upgrades. But, over time we just collected and horded those to the point that it trivialized their system.
Which suggests that the current solution is also limited. It'll work until people horde enough of the Tier 10 mats, and then we'll be right back where we are today.
starkerealm wrote: »That said, snapping the blind +2 level modifier off of crafted gear is kind of necessary. And yes, the thread title lies. It's a +2 level adjustment or a +1 VR adjustment. Not just a +1 level modifier. I get why it was there originally, but with the current itemization it invalidated dropped items in a way it really shouldn't have.
Attorneyatlawl wrote: »Yep, everyone and their vanity pet is a master crafter or can be trivially if they want. You can buy the finished goods for the cost of materials in 99.9999999999999 percent of circumstances at any hour day or night due to how common and easy it is. There is no difficulty in it. The cost is marginal, running around 25 to 30 thousand gold for enchanting at most, around 12k on each alchemist alt I have done on my mule, and less for the rest (provisioning clocks in at about 5k gold) . The only minute thing is the time gate on traits but as covered above that's easily worked around for the pieces you don't yet have maxed if you even bother to try to max them as there's no real benefit in doing so.
The easiest gear in the game that is also even bind on equip and available for chump change shouldn't be the most powerful and certainly not affected by just being brought to par by a while two spell or weapon power to match drops on the bonuses. Crafted gear is far too powerful and always has been, but this change openly and loudly announced at a major venue, doesn't change anything on that front.
I don't think the term means what he thinks or is being used for dramatic effect to support the opinion. A stealth nerf is not announced, often not easily noticed and has an actual impact on the power of a skill or Item to significant effect that someone came across it in gameplay because it wasn't announced wasn't in the patch notes, and was never discussed beforehand. This... doesn't match any of those criteria.
Attorneyatlawl wrote: »Amen.
-MaximusDargus wrote: »
The fact that PC players got trough researching without problems just means there is no need to mess with research timers. If PC players did that then why do you think console players are worse than them and they cant achieve same thing?
Making "nerfing" crafted gear (making it less significant than all other gear) will now set back all crafters and potentially take away interest in buying gear from crafters.
Letting people achieve all traits easier will even more hurt true dedicated crafters who invested time into getting all traits and will lead to flooding market with fill trait crafters thus making crafted gear even more worthless.
MaximusDargus wrote: »
The fact that PC players got trough researching without problems just means there is no need to mess with research timers. If PC players did that then why do you think console players are worse than them and they cant achieve same thing?
Making "nerfing" crafted gear (making it less significant than all other gear) will now set back all crafters and potentially take away interest in buying gear from crafters.
Letting people achieve all traits easier will even more hurt true dedicated crafters who invested time into getting all traits and will lead to flooding market with fill trait crafters thus making crafted gear even more worthless.
Yup, easy is easy. BUT if ZOS will make a 10th trait, the researches time will be months.
So you have dropped loot that is readily available and crafted gears that could be months away.
What should be more powerfull?
All well and good, but how about sharing that system with us so we can see how you would solve this. Perhaps you will give ZOS a few ideas about how to approach this.
Except that it doesn't require more work. The players who already indulge in group/PvP will continue to do so, perhaps with a few more people encouraged to join their ranks because of their desire to stay up-to-date as crafters. What it does do is make being a solo crafter almost untenable. That, for me, is not a legitimate approach.
This I agree with. The hireling system was created in such a way as to make getting top tier upgrade materials trivially easy. The changes to that system to one that facours more of an active involvement, through refining, are in improvement to that. (and what howls we got from the people who had specifically created 8 slots full of hireling alts to take advantage of the previous system). I also see this as a temporary fix.
True, drops should not be invalid, but neither should crafting and I can't see the popularity of the crafting economy improving after these changes, can you?
MaximusDargus wrote: »
No it wont be months for 10th trait. 4th passive caps research time at 30 days. no matter if its 10th 15th or ove 9000th