Update to Make Crafting more Relevant. Open Discussion

[EternalMayhem.6918]

Right now it seems that Crafting in GW2 has almost no profit or very little purpose to it except another way to make Ascended+ without grinding out chests. Since gear no longer has an impact in PvP and Ascended+ are a requirement for T4 dungeons+, I raise the question as to what could make Crafting more Relevant in the game and have a positive effect on the TP. I wanted to open this discussion with hopes that we find an answer we as a Community can Vote on and pitch to the GW2 Dev Team. THANK YOU

 

****PLEASE KEEP POSTS SERIOUS AND CONSTRUCTIVE****

[DeanBB.4268]

How is crafting Ascended not relevant? I made a couple pieces just this morning. I'd say that's as relevant as it needs to be.

[EternalMayhem.6918]

The initial thought from me would be to make Ascended+ _CRAFTED_ Gear have higher stats than RNG'd/NPC Bought gear. The crafter's name can be applied to the item and tradable on TP with a unique tag of © next to the name showing its higher stats than (n) = normal gear. This would make current dungeons easier and set the basis for higher tier dungeons that the Dev team can release with future content. The TP would be effected positively as the prices for mats and components would rise in regards to the price of the ©Gear and benefit those who are not interested in crafting still. Thoughts?

[EternalMayhem.6918]

> @"DeanBB.4268" said:

> How is crafting Ascended not relevant? I made a couple pieces just this morning. I'd say that's as relevant as it needs to be.

 

Do you consider Crafting a profitable aspect of the game at this point or just a means to make Ascended+?

[Stand The Wall.6987]

i don't think messing with the current system is going to profit anyone. maybe for future content they can up the costs (require little used mats), add a few new pve only stats that are required (like agony resistance) or something like that.

[Astralporing.1957]

The only way to have crafting more relevant/more profitable (which, by the way, does not automatically imply a _positive_ impact on TP) is to make it harder, more complicated, and/or more annoying. It can only be profitable (to a degree you speak of - because it very much _can_ be profitable even now, you just have to know how to use it) if most people would rather buy stuff of tp than craft it, even in the face of significant price disparity.

[Rasimir.6239]

> @"EternalMayhem.6918" said:

> what could make Crafting more Relevant in the game and have a positive effect on the TP

Being relevant and having a positive effect on the tp are two very different kinds of beasts.

 

At the moment crafting is relevant to most people because it is the most convenient and non-random route to ascended equipment for many (possibly most) people. At the same time, it has a considerable impact on keeping lower tier materials profitable on the trading post.

 

Boosting crafting to be the single source of best-in-slot equipment is the polar oposite of a positive change: it now makes crafting mandatory (and forces those who don't like to craft to pay a premium for comparable equipment) and makes loot drops from all over the game even more worthless than they already are, since they can no longer compete with crafted equipment of the same tier and quality.

 

Personally I think ANet hit a pretty sweet spot with making crafting viable and useful for those who like to craft, while offering other ways of gathering comparable equipment for those who don't.

 

[Witch of Doom.5739]

I would like to see Jeweling and Cooking expanded to level 500 like the other crafting professions, and be able to make some ascended trinkets (yes, I know they are available via other ways) and some seriously beneficial food buffs. I really loved getting my Chef toon leveled in cooking and would like to keep going.

[Ashantara.8731]

Currently, for most part, only ascended gear and buff food is on people's list of frequently crafted gear. It wouldn't hurt to have crafting be more important in the game than the occasional side story/achievement related crafting tasks that most people always start crying over because they have not leveled any crafting discipline. ;)

[Obtena.7952]

Nah ... crafting doesn't need to be a way to generate income. I like the idea of having things that are crafting only that are endgame useful .. like some of the sigil and rune sets could have been that way.

 

I'm hoping they expand Cooking and jewelry at some point.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Obtena.7952" said:

> Nah ... crafting doesn't need to be a way to generate income.

 

Relevance isn't necessarily defined by income. "More relevant" can be anything, and it would be nice to see crafting more implemented into the general tasks.

[Obtena.7952]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > Nah ... crafting doesn't need to be a way to generate income.

>

> Relevance isn't necessarily defined by income. "More relevant" can be anything, and it would be nice to see crafting more implemented into the general tasks.

 

Well, then I would argue that Crafting the BiS gear makes crafting pretty relevant.

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> The only way to have crafting more relevant/more profitable (which, by the way, does not automatically imply a _positive_ impact on TP) is to make it harder, more complicated, and/or more annoying. It can only be profitable (to a degree you speak of - because it very much _can_ be profitable even now, you just have to know how to use it) if most people would rather buy stuff of tp than craft it, even in the face of significant price disparity.

 

Agreed.

 

GW2s crafting system is very straight-forward and user friendly compared to a lot of games. There's pretty much no downside to levelling useful crafts (unlike in games where you need to put skill points or equivalents into it which then can't be used for combat skills), levelling it up can be very quick and relatively inexpensive and making any item is just a matter of having the right level, materials and sometimes recipe - there's no chance for it to fail and no player skill involved in getting it right. So it's relatively rare to come across someone who hasn't levelled up at least the crafts they know they'll need, often people have all of them levelled up. If not it's almost always because they don't enjoy crafting and have chosen not to get involved.

 

As a result if Anet did add some sort of Ascended+ tier only available through crafting most people would just make their own equipment and it's the materials that would spike in price - as they already do whenever new recipes are added. And I don't imagine the minority of players who have chosen not to get involved in crafting would be happy about having to pay someone else to get the best equipment.

 

On top of that what the OP is proposing is basically a gear treadmill - add new tiers of equipment, then add new content which requires that gear...and presumably once that's become the new normal and everyone has this Ascended+ gear we start over with a new set and harder dungeons.

 

(I also feel like it's worth mentioning that unless you're talking about top tier Fractals dungeons are already easy and don't even need ascended gear. I've done all of them at least once, often with people who didn't have a clue what they were doing and we were able to muddle through it without too many problems. The standard for people who do (did?) them regularly was to complete the whole thing in under 10 minutes with no wipes and often without bosses having time to use all their attacks. They don't need to be made easier.)

[Neural.1824]

Crafting in GW2 was, apparently, never intended to be like crafting in other games. There are a number of things in GW2 that require crafting (Ascended gear, legendary components, etc.), which guarantees that a lot of players will train crafting skills. The structure and mechanics of crafting are also based on 4 components in, 1 guaranteed outcome. There is no crafting a masterwork item and having a chance at getting a rare level item out of it, and so on. As such, crafting is stagnate, and will remain so as any changes to improve things would require an overhaul large enough that they might as well just put it into a new game.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

The only way I can think of for crafting to become profitable would be if there was a scarcity of certain recipes, and the items crafted by them were marketable to others. Because right now everyone has access to all the recipes, so if they want something, they just farm the mats / buy the mats and craft it themselves.

 

For example, remember those player created weapons they released a while ago? Imagine if the recipes for those weapons weren't given to every player, but were RNG drops from a world boss. Then only a few players would have that recipe, and could craft those weapons and sell them on the TP. Other players who want those skins then have a choice: do they buy the weapon from the TP, or keep fighting that world boss in hopes of getting the recipe to drop for them?

 

Personally I would not want that for this game. Been there, done that; World of Warcraft has a very similar design. I like that if I want to craft something, there is very little RNG in the way, outside perhaps of snagging the recipe from a Supply Pact vendor.

 

 

[Ashen.2907]

> @"EternalMayhem.6918" said:

> > @"DeanBB.4268" said:

> > How is crafting Ascended not relevant? I made a couple pieces just this morning. I'd say that's as relevant as it needs to be.

>

> Do you consider Crafting a profitable aspect of the game at this point or just a means to make Ascended+?

 

Making top tier gear for yourself is a profitable aspect of the game.

[Lexi.1398]

> @"Turkeyspit.3965" said:

> The only way I can think of for crafting to become profitable would be if there was a scarcity of certain recipes, and the items crafted by them were marketable to others. Because right now everyone has access to all the recipes, so if they want something, they just farm the mats / buy the mats and craft it themselves.

>

> For example, remember those player created weapons they released a while ago? Imagine if the recipes for those weapons weren't given to every player, but were RNG drops from a world boss. Then only a few players would have that recipe, and could craft those weapons and sell them on the TP. Other players who want those skins then have a choice: do they buy the weapon from the TP, or keep fighting that world boss in hopes of getting the recipe to drop for them?

>

> Personally I would not want that for this game. Been there, done that; World of Warcraft has a very similar design. I like that if I want to craft something, there is very little RNG in the way, outside perhaps of snagging the recipe from a Supply Pact vendor.

>

>

 

Already exists: pact supply agent recipes. I had to spend double buying a sigil of malice today because I don't have it's recipe. xD Also the butternut squash something something- the power dps utility food, being quite expensive per use on the tp in part due to the scarcity of it's recipe (dunno where the non acct bound versions come from, but also a pact supply recipe). I believe people already complain about the utility food here, so yeah people would complain about more of this for sure. Me included :p

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"EternalMayhem.6918" said:

> The initial thought from me would be to make Ascended+ _CRAFTED_ Gear have higher stats than RNG'd/NPC Bought gear. The crafter's name can be applied to the item and tradable on TP with a unique tag of © next to the name showing its higher stats than (n) = normal gear. This would make current dungeons easier and set the basis for higher tier dungeons that the Dev team can release with future content. The TP would be effected positively as the prices for mats and components would rise in regards to the price of the ©Gear and benefit those who are not interested in crafting still. Thoughts?

 

Thoughts? Why would anyone think such an obviously bad design would be worth mentioning?

 

One of two things can happen.

 

1) If it is a one time thing then the exact same thing as what happened when they introduced ascended gear. People get all the new tiers and it becomes irrelevant again. This is arguably slight worse since you have also managed to invalidate all the things that drop ascended.

 

2) If it is not a one time thing meaning there will be additional tiers added again. Congratulations! You've just added a gear treadmill into the game. -_-

 

 

If this is supposed to be a thread about obvious bad ideas I can provide a few more ...

 

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > > Nah ... crafting doesn't need to be a way to generate income.

> >

> > Relevance isn't necessarily defined by income. "More relevant" can be anything, and it would be nice to see crafting more implemented into the general tasks.

>

> Well, then I would argue that Crafting the BiS gear makes crafting pretty relevant.

 

BiS = ?

 

Also, just one type of gear (whatever BiS is) isn't "relevant" enough as I doubt crafting one type of gear equals "frequent tasks."

[Pifil.5193]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > > @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > > > Nah ... crafting doesn't need to be a way to generate income.

> > >

> > > Relevance isn't necessarily defined by income. "More relevant" can be anything, and it would be nice to see crafting more implemented into the general tasks.

> >

> > Well, then I would argue that Crafting the BiS gear makes crafting pretty relevant.

>

> BiS = ?

>

> Also, just one type of gear (whatever BiS is) isn't "relevant" enough as I doubt crafting one type of gear equals "frequent tasks."

 

BiS is Best in Slot meaning the best you can get in the game, i.e. Ascended/Legendary and level 80 consumables.

 

I would say that crafting is pretty much as relevant as it can be. I have yet to read a compelling reason why more expensive materials sinks are fun.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Turkeyspit.3965" said:

> The only way I can think of for crafting to become profitable would be if there was a scarcity of certain recipes, and the items crafted by them were marketable to others. Because right now everyone has access to all the recipes, so if they want something, they just farm the mats / buy the mats and craft it themselves.

>

> For example, remember those player created weapons they released a while ago? Imagine if the recipes for those weapons weren't given to every player, but were RNG drops from a world boss. Then only a few players would have that recipe, and could craft those weapons and sell them on the TP. Other players who want those skins then have a choice: do they buy the weapon from the TP, or keep fighting that world boss in hopes of getting the recipe to drop for them?

>

 

You forgot option 3. Ignore they exist because it's no longer worth bothering with.

 

 

> @"Lexi.1398" said:

> > @"Turkeyspit.3965" said:

> > The only way I can think of for crafting to become profitable would be if there was a scarcity of certain recipes, and the items crafted by them were marketable to others. Because right now everyone has access to all the recipes, so if they want something, they just farm the mats / buy the mats and craft it themselves.

> >

> > For example, remember those player created weapons they released a while ago? Imagine if the recipes for those weapons weren't given to every player, but were RNG drops from a world boss. Then only a few players would have that recipe, and could craft those weapons and sell them on the TP. Other players who want those skins then have a choice: do they buy the weapon from the TP, or keep fighting that world boss in hopes of getting the recipe to drop for them?

> >

> > Personally I would not want that for this game. Been there, done that; World of Warcraft has a very similar design. I like that if I want to craft something, there is very little RNG in the way, outside perhaps of snagging the recipe from a Supply Pact vendor.

> >

> >

>

> Already exists: pact supply agent recipes. I had to spend double buying a sigil of malice today because I don't have it's recipe. xD

 

Those recipe were originally from LS1 so that is not quite the same.

 

 

> Also the butternut squash something something- the power dps utility food, being quite expensive per use on the tp in part due to the scarcity of it's recipe (dunno where the non acct bound versions come from, but also a pact supply recipe). I believe people already complain about the utility food here, so yeah people would complain about more of this for sure. Me included :p

 

It is expensive because the cost of the ingredients not the rarity of the recipe sheet.

 

The total cost of all materials is 1g 2s 40c.

 

If you simply sold the ingredients you get a profit of 87s 4c

 

If you crafted the ingredients into a Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup you can sell it for 1g 12s 86c with a profit of 95s93c

 

That is a difference of 8s89c which is only 7.88% of the price while the materials themselves account for 77.12% with the rest being from the listing fee and tax.

 

 

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

Crafting is definitely not irrelevant. A major pillar of GW2's economy is selling materials to get gold. This means crafting is relevant otherwise there would be no demand for them. Although I could do with more recipes of gear for fashion wars. PoF armor sets sent me back to the crafting station which I had no use for after ascended.

[Solvar.7953]

I think the ascended jeweling crafting ship has already sailed. Sure, they could add in the ability to craft ascended trinkets, but that would then kill the need to collect many of the LS currencies. I expect most players have probably accumulated enough jewelry crafting materials that they could whip out sets for all of their characters in short order.

In my case, with only 9 characters, almost all of them already have all the ascended trinkets they need, so ascended jewelry crafting would actually do very little, and same for probably lots of other players

[robertthebard.8150]

So I found myself with about 500 sticks of butter that I was getting tired of storing in my main WH, with my crafting WH stack max met, and decided I'd just eat the loss, pun intended, and sell it on the BLTC. To my surprise, it actually went for a pretty good price. I'd say, based on that, and how common a drop it is for me, anyway, that crafting is still plenty relevant.

[Swagger.1459]

> @"EternalMayhem.6918" said:

> Right now it seems that Crafting in GW2 has almost no profit or very little purpose to it except another way to make Ascended+ without grinding out chests. Since gear no longer has an impact in PvP and Ascended+ are a requirement for T4 dungeons+, I raise the question as to what could make Crafting more Relevant in the game and have a positive effect on the TP. I wanted to open this discussion with hopes that we find an answer we as a Community can Vote on and pitch to the GW2 Dev Team. THANK YOU

>

> ****PLEASE KEEP POSTS SERIOUS AND CONSTRUCTIVE****

 

Nothing wrong with crafting, it’s working just fine... The only issue here is the expectation of having crafting be way more profitable for you personally.

 

Players craft ascended and legendary gears for use in all areas of the game, except for spvp obviously. Being able to craft the highest gear tiers is pretty relevant.

 

Your “positive effect” boils down to you wanting to make more gold through crafting, so you’re creating an issue out of a nonissue.

 

If you want lots of gold really fast then buy gems and covert to gold. A moderate way to make gold would be to sell all mats you collect or salvage from gear. Look up guides on best methods of making gold....