(The process of) Leveling Crafting is Exceedingly Boring.

I Didn't know people still press more than one button to be come a level 90 crafter anymore.... huh, learn something new everyday.

Calthine wrote:

Well i know it may not be a boatload, but i made about 3k plat last year crafting in my spare time on an alt (and spare time was slim at best). Maybe you just don't know the market very well.

Meube@Splitpaw wrote:

Its so easy and dull, put the first time bonus back in? Wow that makes sense.. NOT.
Sorry while some are alt-a-holics, I am a craft-a-holic. I have crafted in this game since beta (bring back forge deaths!) and while it has been simplified, it has also been improved! The questlines are a wonderful diversion from sitting at a crafting device and if anything, more would be welcomed!
I think the OP is forgetting, that just like the adventuring class, the more characters you have that reach max level, the bigger the veteran bonus. I haven't paid much attention to the experience bar but there may be a way to disable it so its actually more work to level.

I have a high tolerance for grinding. I blame EQ1 for that. Being on my 6th lev 90 adventurer, I can spend hours upon hours running in a wide circle in a dungeon slaughtering the same mobs and slowly watching my AA bar fill up. Some people can't do that, and that's fine.
But nowadays I won't roll up a new crafter unless I have 24 Potions of Progress stored up from my apprentices. Staring at the tradeskill window listening to its lulling melody of 4-5-6 reaction buffs is borderlne torture. At least with the Potions, it's over quickly and I can go back to grinding AAs.
The difference is this. Grinding on mobs, while still "button mashing", at least provides some visual distractions. I'm required to move my toon around. I can push more than 3 buttons. There's a very slim chance that I'll overpull and end up dying. It provides sufficient variety that I don't want to sleep.
There is no such variety for crafting. The "vast quantity of interesting and engaging quests" for tradeskillers is cool once. Maybe twice. After that it's the same treadmill of quests with no further variety (I compare them to Kunark for adventuring.. I do everything I can to get through the 70s without thinking about Kunark). Grind writs or run the same quest treadmill? Not much of a choice. Also considering some of the quests require levelling harvesting, the rush order writs are so much faster.
So, while I respect other's opinions that the current "system" is fine as is or how much they love the linear non-forking questlines available to attempt to break up the 1-90 climb for a new crafter, I have to agree with the overall premise of this post.
Crafting is boring.
Full disclaimer: I've crafted since beta. With exception of greedy alchemists, I liked the original community-based WORT subcombine system. I've levelled 9 crafters to 90 before Domino pulled out pristine bonus. I've levelled 5 more since Apprentices went in to increase my odds at getting a CR. I'll continue to add a new 90 to my stable whenever my Progress pot count reaches 24. But it's still dreadfully boring.

i generally agree about crafting being too boring, i wish it was made into its own legitimate game, like adventuring has solo, group, raid. crafting really only has solo. one thing that has kept crafting simple is the community. they like to watch chat, they like soft penalties for screwing up, they like to only give activities partial concentration. if there was a way to keep general crafting simple so the socialites could still function, but still make it entertaining for those who focus...the designer should get a nobel prize. the more someone focuses the more challenging it has to be to justify their effort. ramping up penalties would be a gigantic shift for those who type in /crafting and miss counters. maybe they could keep penalties the same but just boost rewards if you craft at a high level...

Littlelove@Crushbone wrote:

Yes, me too. It's my main income, not that I use much money in game anyway.

I like crafting as it is. I can craft for hours long and don't find it boring. I do find the quest boring as there's only one set of quest and once you've done them on a couple of alts, it becomes boring (so it's not the quests but replayability of them).
If I get bored, I'll read a forum or chat at the same time.

Whilhelmina@Storms wrote:

People probably have different ideas about what equals "boatloads" of plat. I can make more doing adventuring stuff than crafting things to sell. I can run through a few dailies and get well over 3 plat adventuring. I can sell harvested mats and drops from mobs and make a lot more plat. I have friends who craft to make money and its consistent money. Craft a few thousand throwing weapons and make a plat. Me, I'd rather do something else.
Partly its due to the fact that crafting causes pain in my right hand. Repetitive motion type pain. Speaking of which, does anyone have any suggestions on how to avoid that? I do use the buttons and keep the mouse clicking to a minimum, but wow when I craft quantities of an item or do rush orders to level, the painnnnn.

Littlelove@Crushbone wrote:

Before LU13, crafters were the wealthiest characters, far above any who didn't craft. The first mounts (when they were considered expensive) were all bought by crafters. Money had more value then, so it's not the actual # of plat comparison, but the wealth in relation to others that's more relevant.
3k Plat in a year... Adventuring you could easily make 2-3x that without really trying. You could also spend it, too, without really trying

I just click 3 (I think that's the one that boosts durability by 8-9) and pop any required reactants until my items are done. This is the first crafter I've leveled, I'm only level 18 or so and I'm incredibly tired of it already :/

I also played crafters in SWG... since 2003 in fact. How was crafting? Tediously easy. It only took you 4 hours to level a crafter if you were brand new. I tested it repeatedly and my best time 1-90 was 1 hour, 6 minutes. Leveling in that game was jokingly easy.
But guess what? EQ is not SWG. SWG isnt even SWG now. Yes, SWG had a wonderful crafting system, but it fit with the theme. This is EQ. Wood is wood, and wood makes a table. Not too much difference between a table and a table. Stats were fun in SWG. But even there every good crafter worth their salt had maxed stat resources.
Three things that do bother me about crafting here that I wouldnt mind seeing changed:
1. The reaction system. Yes, its boring. Yes, its spamming buttons. And to what real point? As has been brought up, the system it was designed for was changed years ago. Its mostly a time sink imo. A way to keep players watching their screen when the outcome is the same. If you know even the basics of crafting you should never fail a combine these days. So why have it? A compromise could be use this system only with Mastercrafted items?
2. This one is my biggest complaint about EQ crafting. Crafting single items at a time. Like other games, I would like to see a slider put in to increase quantity. Wanna craft 10 tables? Fine, spend 10x the resources and go for your combine. If you happen to fail, your loss for gambling. While this might not be a big issue for say, tables, its a little more frustrating for provisions. SWG had factories. LOTRO had it where the guilds sold recipes where you could craft 10 of an item at a time. WoW... most of us know, you could craft however many you could craft. This game still limits you in bulk crafting.
3. This one is more of an idea that I would be fine not getting. One of the best features in SWG were factories. You threw resources into an "oven", clicked how many you wanted to make, and hit start. It would take MUUUUUCH longer than hand crafting, I think 3x or 5x, forget since its been about 6 months now, but the tradeoff was taking longer to make items while you went and did other things, not having to sit there and craft 100 muffins. It would be interesting to see something like that here, maybe for "Master" level. I dont think a level 90 Provisioner needs to sit there and watch his reactants for corn muffins. He would have "assistants" to make those muffins.
In all, I agree and disagree with everyone here. I find PARTS of crafting tedious, but its really not so bad. I would rather craft here than in WoW or TOR. But I agree crafting in SWG was the absolute best. Its interesting and the quests help. Things could be made easier or more flexible, especially the parts still used from a dead system. But Ive seen worse also.