since you can only research 3 items at a time it will make a huge difference for those who want to research the 9th.
for clothing you have 14 items to research, which means you have to complete the research 5 times in order to get all. 21 days * 5 = 105 days saved, which is quite a lot.

but I do agree that a 4th research would be very nice to have.

The ninth trait also disadvantages those who've actually invested in the research to obtain 8 traits, since those with 8 traits will have to wait even longer.

A fourth research would make a huge difference in terms of getting a set done (light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, metal weapons) since otherwise you'd be into your 3rd month for the 7th item. It'd also reduce the time to do all 14 items in clothing or blacksmithing from 5 months to 4 months.

The 8 trait sets are at best equal if not worse than some the 6 and lower trait sets so i am fine with only being able to research 3 traits at a time. Also someone else said its a good time sink.

Are this 4th point in reserach reduce time it takes to research first 8 traits ?

I don't think its an issue, knowing about supply of research materials and how "valuable" the trait is I don't think its even worth bothering. Crafters who allready reasearched all 8 traits probably got rid of the carpentry/metallurgy/stiching line allready. I see a different problem here, research times alltogether are huge time sinks and most people have no patience to do all of the researches its a fight between boring and too boring.

I oppose this change and if it does in fact go live, it will be a slap in the face to the people who have proven they are devoted and willing to work for what they have, especially with the timing it could occur. This timeframe would implement the change to occur within 2 weeks of completing all 8 trait in each of the 7 pieces in the different types. I will have completed researching all 7 in Medium Armor, Blacksmith Weaponry, and 6 in Woodworking before 1.4 goes live. If any of the devs read this, I implore you to not side with the many on this issue because you will lose more devoted players than you could possibly gain. Thank you.

Have they added any nine trait sets as yet out of curiosity ?

Aeratus wrote: »

The ninth trait also disadvantages those who've actually invested in the research to obtain 8 traits, since those with 8 traits will have to wait even longer.

Lol if you think about it, it should've been the other way around. You know, the first trait takes the longest and as you become a master crafter it gets faster and faster how you research. Just occured to me O_O

They are certain armor / weapon bonus sets out there that one need to know a certain number of traits to use them. The set bonus are very good and can be made to fit to the build that the player is doing. I have to disagree with the idea of crafting is useless.

Aenra wrote: »

Blue V+++++ pieces go for 500-700gold to give one example. I can sell one, one stack of iron (and that's T1) for more. See my point? Why would one care about research timers? One's not even going to get there. At all.

So what you're saying is, either prices for crafted items are ridiculous or the amount of materials needed are disproportional to the price you can ask for them, so crafting is useless if you want to sell your items?

Yes, I.. kinda agree. The requirement of eight (8!) tempers to get an item to legendary is especially ridiculous. So either materials should be cheaper or the crafted sets should be unique, not to be found any other way and they should be much better than the sets you can find. In fact, I'd like to be able to learn to craft a set that is dropped or found. Also, we should have jewelry crafting, so you can create jewelry to go with a set. Even then, it would depend on the amount of competition, how many crafters would be available in relation to demand for crafted items.

But even though I have so far rarely crafted items for someone else, I will keep my crafting character around and will keep researching. Why? Because I hate being unable to find a suitable set (item), I want to be able to craft a new set when my characters level. I don't like them running around in an assortment of sets and styles, I want them to perform as well as possible by giving them a brand-new set at least every now and then. Finding the right item to complete a set is pretty much impossible. I might have to visit dozens of NPC guild merchants in order to find that one item that will complete a set at the right level and quality. I bought a VR1 Deadly Strike Greatsword (green) ages ago and haven't been able to find matching VR1 (green) jewelry to complete that set. People have them in VR12, but I've been unable to find them otherwise. I'm starting to consider just deconstructing the darned thing.

So, yeah, I'd rather they fix this and make crafting more worthwhile even if I continue to only craft for my own characters. If I could sell the occasional piece and actually make a profit, rather than just breaking even, then that'd be great too.

So, as for the OP, as I've said before:

-Add another research slot, not a reduction in research time
-If possible, add another skill point to further research research time, not just to max the research time for the final trait.

In addition, as (partially) stated elsewhere:

-Add new motifs/styles (they've been announced)
-Allow us to craft jewelry (has been announced that this will happen at some point)
-Allow us to add another skill point that further reduces the requirement for improvement materials, at least for the legendary quality as the requirement is just too darned high
-Allow us to learn dropped/looted styles so we can craft them for people who need them at a different level
-Allow us to specialize to set various crafters apart/create new options (for instance: master armourer OR master swordmaker (for both types of swords) OR daggers for blacksmithing, bowyer OR fletcher OR master shield maker OR wizard accessories (and maybe add in pikemaking if we're ever getting mounted warfare) for woodworking, specialization in either light or medium armour for clothing, specialization in either armour, weapon or jewelry glyphs for enchanter.
-Make crafted sets special so people will actually want them over dropped/looted sets, perhaps give even more benefit to the one who crafted them
-Create quests which give you experience in crafting (I think those may already be on the PTS, or at least are being worked on), but it should not just be: collect x materials, make x swords or daggers, etc. It should also result in something tangible, like a special skill line or something, for instance a specialization.
-Maybe add one more weapon, like a longsword that is in between sword and greatsword. I think the regular sword is too short, the greatsword too massive and unwieldy, some of them look ridiculous, especially on smaller characters. So a sword that is longer and faster and more damage than the regular sword, but not as long and thinner than the greatsword. Two swords or two daggers using dual wielding should imho result in slightly lower DPS than greatsword, but Greatsword should have a higher crit rating and massive damage with each blow to compensate for how slow it is. Longsword should be somewhere in between, but be better at piercing armour and protective spells.

I agree with the idea that there needs to be time sinks in the game, and in fact count on it that the subscription scheme will never allow something to be "done". I never did put more than 3 skill points into Clothing Stitching (research perk), and will complete the original 8 traits in about a month. I could be enticed to spend some of the unspent skill points that I have for something humorous or rewarding such as the ability to remove the silly animal fangs (future lights, feathers etc.) from veteran armor skins, control over glossiness, camuflage, or whatever. But not to "save" xx days by which time something new will appear in a patch to keep us logging on.

Yea it should do more then what it does not to sink 4 skill points into it.