This x10. To craft something only to then need a drop to actually make it into something kind of defeats the purpose of having it be crafted, doesn't it?
EQ1 has never been consistent in where they place the relative value of TS items compared to dropped and quested items. That is a major problem, in my opinion. It varies between expansions, item types, quests, and more. I played EQ2 for several years during a long break from EQ1. They had it set up from the beginning to place "mastercrafted" gear above items dropped in group content from mobs and soloable quests, but under the rare drops from named group mobs and, of course, raids. That seemed reasonable. Most importantly, they stuck with it. (It should also be noted that obtaining materials for tradeskills worked differently than in EQ1, as well. They weren't drops, but 'harvested' out of combat. It could be a little risky at times, but you could harvest in zones way above your adventure level, even.) Going forward, I think that they should decide where they want TS items to fit in the itemization scheme and stick with it. My opinion mostly matches the OP. Conflagrant gear was a decent model, among recent expansions, though not without issues. It was complete armor that was tradeable, it was on par with T1 dropped gear (slightly better, actually), it could be upgraded with a raid drop as a no-fail combine, and the materials were all tradeable. T2 group gear was significantly better, and the best raid gear was a little better than the raid upgraded TS items. Like another poster, I don't entirely get the point of the container + drop model they went with in TBL and Velious. I'm much happier with TS being something you don't need to farm named mobs or missions to complete, while having it be below the T2 dropped gear from the expansion as a trade-off.
I can understand how the ore method means less waste of drops and less dependence on the randomness of loot, but I have to say that I don't like that all crafted items need this dropped ore. That means that there is no crafted gear that you can simply make or buy from a player and then wear it.
I agree with you on this. It's a shame that tradeskillers just make containers and the blocker is still a dropped item.
Which is why I'd like to see a 3rd possible combine with a store bought "ore". So the crafter makes the mold and raiders can use the raid drop for bis raid gear, grouper could use the group ore for bis group gear, and the solo/alt could use a store bought ore to make a Tier 1ish quality item.
FV doesn't really apply in this discussion. From a context stand Pont. You aren't buying ore on most servers.
You caught me. Definitely a hidden agenda. Or... its what I mentioned in the first post. I used to look forward to seeing what dropped. I used to look at all of the gear at the start of the expansion and see where it drops, then plan my loot accordingly. I might be an outlier there, sure... but now I don't really care about the chest if I don't think I have a chance at getting an ore. I just move to the next event and maybe bid on something if no one else is (after scrambling to see how it compares to the ore piece that I will eventually get)
Nah, you’re not alone. Your mindset is the same as David Brevik, the creator of Diablo. He’s talked about he would look at the Dungeons and Dragons loot and fawn over the items, which spurred the creation of that franchise. (Side note, D1 was originally designed to be turn based and he rewrote the whole game in a weekend to be real time combat.) Personally, I loved looking at Casters Realm and looking at the item list and creating my game plan. There’s an element of fun that’s missing, when getting a block of velium versus a sweet looking item.
I agree with this as well. Camping the tradeskill items and having a high level tradeskiller (hard enough as it is) make the items was a great way to catch alts/boxes up.
I'd argue the current model isn't showing much of a love for tradeskills, just a need for every guild to have a guy that can make faded templates. And its funny, because the current model is a decent way to handle awful loot randomization (like the time I went 3 expansions seeing an average of 1 plate leg drop per expansion), it just probably goes waaay too far. I remember making a decent chunk of cultural armor, from introduction to August, and hundreds of millions of plat worth of conflag (which is still goes within minutes of listing). Thats now replaced in the gear structure by snowbound, and I havent really seen a desire for the crafted stuff, since people who tended to want crafted gear aren't the ones with a ton of ores, and the ones who DO want it can already craft it, or can get it from their guilds for cost. Crafting really neds to have a set of wearable gear, even if its below the named loot, in addition to making tiny boxes.
you still need a drop to make the ts so to make u need either pp to make or ts skills plus a drop, tougher than just a drop, so it being t3 makes sense chase items would be good no new rares makes cov a bit boring
I quite enjoy ores over camping 1 named that drops mnk/bst h2h 15 times that no one needs vs his ear that my normal group needs 3. And on top of that half the time what i need is camped. by some dude useing his "program" to run his afk group to burn named to get the rare drop. it leave me open to move around work hunter while getting ores for any slot if said named camped.
If that is the case there is really no need to work trade skills. Most people here complaining about the trades seem to be raiders. For a group of people who are all RAH RAH about doing craptastic collections and hunters and all the hoops you have to jump through, I would think TS would be nothing to you. Isnt Artisans prize a requirement for some of you to have? I figured since they made TS a lot easier all of you would have max in it by now.
I hate trade skills with a passion. Repetitive Stress Injury due to excessive mouse moving is a thing I have to work to avoid. With that said, the changes the EQ devs have put into place have made trade skills so much easier than the original EQ that I'm to the point where I mostly grumble about doing them at this point mainly because of the wickedly nice items like the artisans prize and TS earrings. Now that I've done the work it is very rewarding to be able to make / sell the gear to those who don't care to bother doing it for themselves. I *LIKE* that our raiding members can get a single ore and MAKE their best in slot weapons instead of watching the 16th rogue only dagger rot, ... The down side of the current system is that T1 gear has very little perceived value since everyone is hoping to get all their best in slot items like last year.
I am not quite sure of the reason, but demand for the current expansion crafted materials - Faded Restless - seems considerably less than for the Faded from the previous expansion and Conflagrant from an earlier expansion.
Back in the days with the Last Blood type augs, you would make cultural armor - usable group gear, and you could upgrade it to raid-level if you had the time and money to make these Ambleshift's containers which required a shitton of subcombines and farming nuts and bolts. It required a degree of masochism to get it, but the end result had slightly higher ac and slightly lower hp than the regular raid armor. This was a model that gave you alternatives, and that required a decent amount of dedication if you decided to go that route. There has been plenty of rewards for tradeskillers - going back to Coldain Prayer Shawl version 1, 2 and 3, Aid Grimel (Signet of Might/Signet of the Arcane), Crestra's Earring, Rallos Earring, Artisan's Prize and probably more I'm forgetting about. If Everquest was only about maxing the stats, I'd go back to playing statbuilder. Yes, it's frustrating to have class-specific items go to waste, but it's more dull to take the excitement out of raid drops. I know that each CoV raid will drop two ores, and I can see from our dkp system that this is where all the points are going - and the regular raid items are being sold for 1/10th of the ore prices.. The emotional reward of getting some achievement in a game is proportional to the agony of getting it. The current model is making the game less interesting.
Yea Im maxxed TSs, but I still dont see your logic. When TS were worse than drops people used them for alts. When TS are better than drops the dropped gear often goes to alts. If TS were equal to drops neither one would go to alts until the raid was geared up - which imo is how it should be.
