What happened to "Crafted Armor" being the best ZOS?

DUTCH_REAPER

cant even remember the last time I crafted gear except to level an alt and I remember them saying waaaay back in the day crafted would always be better than what drops and what comes from the store. Yet I don't see it unless I'm missing something? Are new craft stations inbound or something? Is stitching inbound? Cuz the style of all these drops sets except a few is not pleaseing. Or is that the rub to get costumes? Just curious thanks.

STEVIL

Crafting for equip needs its version of the 1T upgrade that drop sets got, to be sure.

My suggestions are in my sig.

I am with you, except for a few cases, right now equip crafting has easy and disposable as its main draws.

For me easy and disposable are benefits worthy of maybe 1-2 skill points not the dozens spent to get to max equip.

AtraisMachina

TBS

Banana

Getting the shaft is a ZOS tradition. Maybe next year and no furniture crafting doesnt count.

Fudly_budly

I hardly ever see anyone asking in chat for crafted gear. Plenty of people selling their sexy dropped items for mega gold though. It hit me last night while I was camping Stormhaven dolmen/delve for Night Terror gear... I'm a level 50 maxxed out skill points weapon/armor crafter and I can't even make myself competitive gear. I must prostrate myself before the almighty RNGoddess..."All hail the pow'r of RNG!"

Pallio

Some day we may need 9 trait crafters to re-trait vmsa weapons etc. That is about the only thing that they would be good for, unless some amazing crafting sets come out some day.

Suter1972

armour / weapons are sooooo last year....

we're all gonna be furniture crafters in 2017... got my chisels sharpened already.

Stopnaggin

AtraisMachina wrote: »

TBS

Yes we all know TBS, Julianos, Night Mothers and a few, very few, others. Thanks for the useless input though, it's greatly appreciated.

30 new drop sets in 1T, we really have vet few options for the amount of time and resources spent. Oh boy now I can become the Ashleys of Tamriel. No, not exactly what I was hoping for. Crafting needs an overhaul if it is to become viable again.

Merlin13KAGL

A skill to be able to retrait / restyle dropped sets might cure both issues?

Some of us would love viable crafted sets again, because the grind gets, well, grindy...

agn231

Please update crafted sets already! We've invested a lot of skillpoints, research time, and resources to become crafters. I'd love to see some creative updates to the lesser utilized sets please!!!!!!

& jewelry crafting!!!!!!!!!!!

Delimber

Jewellery crafting for 9 trait crafters only, IMO. But I'm not bitter.

I'd be happy with finding a crafting station at the end of the group dungeons that would let me make the gear dropped in said dungeon.

Ourorboros

That 'crafted at least equal dropped' sales pitch was one of the key reasons I bought the game. I quit playing Diablo III because I was sick of the BS needed to get good gear. I'm disappointed with zos regarding the state of crafting in the game. ESO is now like another version of Diablo III, with crafted gear almost irrelevant, and RNG grind is the main game focus. ANd I don't really expect to see this change, since zos seems to put most of their effort into the crown store. I've never put more time or money into another game. However, things like this crafting situation are wearing my patient thin with this game.

DocFrost72

Remember that to get golden armor (in most cases), you save 32 golden materials as a crafter. People freak about tempering alloys being expensive buying 8 per item? Multiply that cost by 5...

Still, more could be done to help crafters out. I'd go so far as to say have dungeon bosses either drop loot, or have a chance for them to drop a specific trait stone that let's you craft the sets found there. That way, you can also customize the armor. Trait and style.

Suter1972

I thought the ideas above about having a set craft station at the end of a dungeon was a great idea at first.

Then I thought about the salt that would get thrown around. The crafter would be wanting to get to the end asap to get on with the crafting.

If a craft player then gets paired with a group that isn't up to their standards and just wants to play the dungeon they aren't going to be happy.

but I like the idea of having a station linked with the area where the loot drops and I agree it should be restricted behind some kind of quest or number of traits researched etc

Mathius_Mordred

Just come across this and it makes a lot of sense from what I've seen in the two weeks I've been back. I'm maxed out on Blacksmithing, provisioning, enchanting etc, and the gear I make does not stack up to the gear my son found in a dungeon when we 1v1 pvp, he buries me every time. He's never bothered learning to craft, just blindly follows the dungeon grind and ends up with amazing gear with some sick 5 piece bonuses, a frigging bear that wipes 8K off my health every few seconds for one. When I started in Beta we were promised that crafted gear would be the pinnacle of this game's equipment, it seems this promise has been forgotten!

SilentQ

I don't know why it should be the best of the best =\

Seems to me like minimal effort should not be rewarded with the best gear.

Yes, I know there is a lot of research involved, but that requires going to a guild store to find the trait and researching it which requires waiting.

Then you go and buy some already refined mats and press a button to make an item. Hardly seems fair for those who spend many hours farming a dungeon for gear with a preferred trait.

No one would bother doing anything more than once. People would literally get CP160, then get cheap mats and tip a crafter to instantly become the best geared.

Getting gear from trials? Nope. Just craft the best. Run the trial once and then whine there is not enough content.

That is how I see it. Gear farming in most MMOs IS part of progression.

Oompuh

I always disagreed with that. Crafted sets are SO easy to get and should be sets you can wear while getting the best dropped sets, not the other way around

STEVIL

SilentQ wrote: »

I don't know why it should be the best of the best =\

Seems to me like minimal effort should not be rewarded with the best gear.

Yes, I know there is a lot of research involved, but that requires going to a guild store to find the trait and researching it which requires waiting.

Then you go and buy some already refined mats and press a button to make an item. Hardly seems fair for those who spend many hours farming a dungeon for gear with a preferred trait.

No one would bother doing anything more than once. People would literally get CP160, then get cheap mats and tip a crafter to instantly become the best geared.

Getting gear from trials? Nope. Just craft the best. Run the trial once and then whine there is not enough content.

That is how I see it. Gear farming in most MMOs IS part of progression.

RE the bold - 20ish skill points spent per craft.

How many weapon skill lines or class skill lines would you view as acceptable to say "these are the skill lines you develop while advancing but they shoudl not be used in endgame once you have gotten to max."?

If crafting were a small side bar of skills - or not based on skill points at all then the "use it for a while then it becomes obsolete" makes sense.

i dont expect every skill in every line to be useful in every build but i do expect the reason for being for a skill line to remain a function useful.

Notice how the consumables remain best of the best for the same skill points, less time and effort, but somehow the game survives?

NOTE: i am NOT advocating for best of the best. i am advocating for unique components that crafting can bring that drops cannot do. Drops have 2pc monsters, 1-2pc weapons and 3pc wpn/jewel sets along with jewels altogether as solely the property of drop sets. crafted sets just share the 5pc set body/wpn with drops but without jewels. They have nothing unique (except for cosmetic style choice and that is being pushed to be given to drop sets too.)

20sp for "until you get better" seems a bit out of sync with what other skill lines in the game and even in crafting provide for less investment.

disintegr8

SilentQ wrote: »

I don't know why it should be the best of the best =\

Seems to me like minimal effort should not be rewarded with the best gear.

Yes, I know there is a lot of research involved, but that requires going to a guild store to find the trait and researching it which requires waiting.

Then you go and buy some already refined mats and press a button to make an item. Hardly seems fair for those who spend many hours farming a dungeon for gear with a preferred trait.

No one would bother doing anything more than once. People would literally get CP160, then get cheap mats and tip a crafter to instantly become the best geared.

Getting gear from trials? Nope. Just craft the best. Run the trial once and then whine there is not enough content.

That is how I see it. Gear farming in most MMOs IS part of progression.

There is no such thing as "Minimal effort" in becoming a master crafter. Learning all 9 traits, either farming for materials or earning enough gold to buy our materials takes time and effort.

I spent more than a year researching traits, farming for motifs, earning enough skill points so that I could actually have enough to be able to use my crafting skills and still be viable for normal game content. When I started all of this, nirnhoned was the best trait and the target to aim for, now nobody wants it.

Suddenly we had vet levels removed - no more need for CP10 to 140 gear, mats or skills, and with 1T we got a large volume of dropped sets comes in that eliminated the need for any crafted gear (unless people wanted gear for their own research).

I have never set foot in vMSA, so will never have a BiS weapon and I can live with that. We do not want its crafting 'equivalent', just some use and benefit for the time and effort that has gone into our crafting lines. Those crafters that are into housing are getting some reward now, but not everyone is into housing and Master Writs.

Just waiting for more threads to be started where people want research time reduced because they have spent all of their game time getting BiS gear but can't get any Master Writs completed because they only know a couple of traits and have no motif knowledge. Or they spend all their time in PVP, have no gold, so it is wrong that MW's require all of these 'expensive' materials that some of us gather on a regular basis.

Asawasa

the main issue is if crafting becomes viable the raiders will feel threatened that their way isn't the only way to being the best. they will cry non stop until the devs cave in to their demands. this happens in every game essentially unless the devs specifically design the game to make crafting king (i.e. EVE)

what is needed is to find the happy balance between the two. say let the crafters be for making secondary/support gear like jewelry, gear addons like extra protection for armor or something that enhances weapons like slottable items/gems. something that can get you geared up enough to get into any raid, pvp, or whatever group to get the high end gear that will require crafting skills to optimize dropped/found gear with some form of upgrades.

Magdalina

Tbh I don't think crafted gear should be the best because as been mentioned, it doesn't really require much effort to actually make it, just time to research/get skillpoints and stuff for it. If best gear really was crafted and only crafted that'd be pretty sad - on one hand yeah no grinding, on another no meaningful rewards ever, anywhere, at all. No reason to run a dungeon or trial more than once(well, also achievements), no reward to look forward to in its end, no excitedly rushing to open that chest...that would be pretty dull don't you think?

However crafting definitely needs some love. To me the biggest gripe is the amazing variability of motifs(which zos keep intorducing more and moar of)...that we totally cannot use because then we'd basically be sacrificing stats for looks. I for one would be happy if we could just change dropped sets' styles. Make it something only available to 9 trait crafters perhaps and make it require some hard to get magic stone or something(please let's not make it be a random drop in a random box that you might randomly get when running a random dungeon though; less rng layers, for the love of the Eight), but make it possible.

Personally I feel the sweet spot that'd make most everyone happy would be the BiS combo(s) being a mix of crafted and dropped sets. Some kind of build synergies enabled by perhaps new crafting sets that'd go with dropped ones so well they'd make it worth it. That way everyone gets something AND we can get the looks too.

timidobserver

They probably realized the folly in making the easiest gear in the game to obtain also the best gear in the game.

KerinKor

DUTCH_REAPER wrote: »

cant even remember the last time I crafted gear except to level an alt and I remember them saying waaaay back in the day crafted would always be better than what drops and what comes from the store

That was before Trials came into existence and 'raiders' complained that their phat lewt wasn't BiS.

KeiruNicrom

Crafted needs a buff. The actual gear sets themselves need some fixes/adjustments/buffs. Plus jewelery crafting would be nice. If i could run 2 crafted 5 pieces with both active i would be happy. Crafted doesnt need to be as good or better than dropped for end game/pvp, just decent enough that more than 3 crafted sets are even viable for end game/pvp

DHale

I was there when that was discussed they never said the best they said competitive. It still is.

Malborn66

I find it ironic, that after slightly more than 1 year into the Game I am still working on my 9 Traits.
Just because you can build stuff once this is completed means it is Easy?

I have been forced down the Farming 1T Drops path because the gear is patently better than the crafted sets and includes Jewelry.

I neglected the consumables on my Master Crafter and am rapidly developing them because of the requirements for these in Furniture building. (Not that this is a big focus for my time.)

I agree that something need to be done to balance out Crafted sets as most of them are not competitive any more.
Jewelry Crafting for these would help salvage the situation because lack of this shifts the balance even further towards dropped Sets.

8 Characters, All Alliances, Lvl 50 275 CP
PC-EU

Rohamad_Ali

Long overdue for new crafted sets with comparable strength to new overland sets .

STEVIL

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Long overdue for new crafted sets with comparable strength to new overland sets .

Long overdue for more than that for crafting. three to six new sets wont get it done.

EDIT

Though in fact one set might do the trick or a good part of the way.

Set of Versatility 9 traits
2pc Bonus TBD
3pc Bonus TBD
4pc Nonus TBD
5PC Bonus TBD + TBD

TBD = one of the standard 2-3-4 pc bonuses such as max stam max mag, crit chance spell damage 4% healing etc etc etc Up for debate if things like slayer are included.
TBD + TBD = two of the 2-3-4pc bonuses, may be the same or different.

Now, obviously the 5pc bonus is a little meh and this set is boring in play with no flashy bang bang but for giving a strong customization flavor to crafteds... this set offers some potential

STEVIL

Malborn66 wrote: »

I find it ironic, that after slightly more than 1 year into the Game I am still working on my 9 Traits.
Just because you can build stuff once this is completed means it is Easy?

I have been forced down the Farming 1T Drops path because the gear is patently better than the crafted sets and includes Jewelry.

I neglected the consumables on my Master Crafter and am rapidly developing them because of the requirements for these in Furniture building. (Not that this is a big focus for my time.)

I agree that something need to be done to balance out Crafted sets as most of them are not competitive any more.
Jewelry Crafting for these would help salvage the situation because lack of this shifts the balance even further towards dropped Sets.

8 Characters, All Alliances, Lvl 50 275 CP
PC-EU

RE the bold
Dont forget the "and dumped 20sp or so into each equip craft" = easy too.

AtraisMachina

ZOS made a statement and then they didnt follow through with??? Holy ***

Elsonso

Simply put, we should be able to craft every set in the game.