My two cents about the current professions

Godbrithil

An Ambitious Vision for Professions
Ashes of Creation aspires to revolutionize the MMORPG landscape with its intricate and immersive profession system. The vision of fostering a long-term commitment where players invest time and effort to master their chosen crafts is both admirable and eagerly anticipated. However, in its current Alpha state, the profession system does not yet fulfill this ambitious goal.

The Issue of Accelerated Progression
One of the most pressing concerns is the accelerated pace at which professions level up. The progression feels disproportionately swift, undermining the intended long-term engagement. Professions that should require dedication and significant investment of time are being maxed out far too quickly. This rapid advancement not only diminishes the sense of accomplishment but also risks saturating the market with high-level crafters, thereby reducing the uniqueness and value of reaching Grandmaster status.

Lack of Economic Incentives for Certain Professions
Furthermore, certain professions, such as Taming, presently lack compelling economic incentives. In a dynamic game economy, every profession should offer tangible benefits and opportunities for players to contribute meaningfully. The absence of rewards or demand for specific professions discourages players from pursuing them, leading to an imbalance in the game's ecosystem.

The Problem with Ease of Mastery
The ease of leveling and the ability for players to master multiple professions within a short timeframe pose additional challenges. Without a more arduous progression system, the game risks creating a scenario where, after merely 3–4 weeks, a multitude of players have achieved high levels across various professions. This scenario not only devalues individual effort but also diminishes the need for player interdependence, which is crucial for a thriving community.

Suggestions for Improvement

1. A Slower, More Meaningful Progression System
   To enhance the profession system, it is imperative to implement a more gradual and demanding leveling process. By extending the time and effort required to advance, players would be encouraged to specialize and invest genuinely in their chosen paths. This change would foster a sense of pride and accomplishment, as reaching higher tiers would signify true mastery and dedication.
   
   
2. Economic Incentives Across All Professions
   Introducing substantial economic incentives for all professions, especially for those currently lacking, would invigorate the in-game market. Players should feel that their hard work leads to meaningful rewards, whether through crafting sought-after items, offering unique services, or contributing to the community in valuable ways.
   
   
3. Reevaluating the Grandmaster Cap
   Currently, players in Ashes of Creation can achieve Grandmaster status in two professions, but this flexibility risks undermining the economic value and individuality of artisans. Limiting Grandmaster status to a single profession would enhance specialization, foster interdependence, and maintain the exclusivity of mastery. This change would promote a dynamic economy, as players rely on each other for diverse needs, while preserving the prestige and demand for top-tier expertise. Additionally, it would add strategic depth, as players must carefully choose their craft, ensuring the progression system remains meaningful and sustainable over time.
   
   Ultimately, limiting Grandmaster status to one profession would protect the integrity of the crafting system, elevate the status of true artisans, and reinforce the game’s emphasis on meaningful choices and long-term investment.
   

Conclusion
While recognizing that Ashes of Creation is still in its Alpha phase and subject to ongoing development, addressing these concerns is vital for realizing the game's full potential. By making the profession system more challenging and rewarding, the game would ensure that players must work diligently to make a name for themselves.

This approach would not only enhance individual player experiences but also strengthen the overall community by promoting specialization, interdependence, and a vibrant economy.

Tearl Stoneheart

My TL;DR response:
This post is very well thought out and has some good points. But when I think about the progression of crafting professions compared to character-level progressions, I think they should be equal (or close). If character-level progression out-paces crafting, that leaves little incentive for crafters.

An example:
I (not hard-core nor casual player, but somewhere in between) am character level 11. My gathering professions are currently lumberjacking and mining. Both are nearly journeyman. My crafting professions are armor and weapons, with armor being level 5 and weapons being level 3. Metalworking in level 7. On our server, there is a serious lack of metals, which makes it difficult to get enough metals to advance armor and weapons to apprentice, let alone metalworking to apprentice.

I have outgrown T1 needs, as have most people on the server. But I don't see T2 armor smithing coming any time soon. By the time I get there, I will have already outgrown T2 needs. This doesn't even take into consideration the requirement for FIVE apprentice crafting stations in order to make T2 apprentice armor.

This makes crafting armor and weapons feel irrelevant.

I love the grind and interdependency, but it is very unbalanced right now.

Yoanna

I second Tearl's thoughts.

Crafting progression needs to be somewhat relevant for gear progression in game. At the moment, professions level A LOT slower than gear does while everybody is grinding and farming. We dont see any items getting lost, since corruption is so punishing nobody is getting corrupted thus the (non existant) "market" is getting flooded with loot drops that are way better than anything we can craft at the moment.

I dont see the progression to be a problem later on considering that we have access to all ressources we need at this moment. I figure this will get changed later on, making it much harder to aquire everything you need and thus making it even harder to level your professions.

LordPax

Mind you, the current iteration of Artisan skills is far from complete. Beyond that, the exponential ramp up in experience is felt *heavily* once you approach journeyman or higher. Also, the 'time gating' will come in the form of resource scarcity. You think Copper was hard to find? Wait till you're looking for Master, or even, GM materials... and you need 100s of these crafts for a single level.

Im telling you right now, as someone whose no-lifed artisan skills this Alpha, having 15+ in 8 skills, 20+ in 3, this sh** gets hard! I cannot imagine the grind from 35-40.

Upon full release, the nodes will *eventually* be established in a more steady way. 2 months into full release, and any new players joining will have realms with full apprentice/journeyman buildings right off the bat.

Dont let 4 weeks of 3 day testing under Apha 2, Phase 1 systems, deter you from the bigger picture.

Puxs

Hello everyone, I see it similarly to the previous speakers.

Currently, the progress of the characters is not balanced in comparison to the craft, you find important resources in the world very rarely - example copper - here the reason will be that some motivated collectors are on the way, and in addition, the respawn times of mines are very long.
So you can't just see it as a way to “quickly” get professions like mining or lumberjack to skill 10+ by mining an infinite number of stones or trees. That's not enough to build armor!

The crafting professions are the bottleneck here and also have to craft a lot of low items to reach the corresponding profession level, and that costs material, time and money.
There is currently a “gap” here that is wider than it should actually be.
Characters are currently leveling up through grinding much faster than the crafting professions can keep up with the skill.
As a result, many crafters have lost their motivation, as it makes no sense to continue investing their time there in order to supply their people with items (including me).
Of course, the workbenches in the nodes are also missing here, which also slow down the whole system extremely or have brought progress to a complete standstill.
There are currently no craftsmen on our server who can produce items for the required level of the characters (lvl 10+ 20+)

My hope is that some fine-tuning will be done for the next phase so that the many crafting professions can be better tested in order to provide better feedback.
Adjusting the cost of materials for the corresponding buildings in the nodes would be a first step, among others, so that the corresponding workbenches for Skill10+ are also available to the professions in a timely manner.
For higher skills, it may then become slower again as the characters also increase in level more slowly.
At the moment I find it very difficult to estimate how well and quickly you could supply guild members with items in the ongoing character development process, let alone how high an overproduction could come about during crafting, which you could then put on the market for sale.

Finally, the rarity levels that you find as a collector, these could be a little rarer from Heroic+, uncommon and rare I find acceptable.
The higher materials should be something special and not be standard in 2 months.


I apologize in advance for various grammatical errors, but I have had this translated into English.
I'm definitely looking forward to the upcoming phases.

greetings Puxs

Aquinas

The Issue of Accelerated Progression
I agree the professions are too quick right now, but that is of little concern in alpha 2 phase 1. This could change and mostly likely will. However the current progression is good, it gives the players a sense of what is necessary, how much time it will take, and still able to achieve a level of progression that we can test various systems.

That is the goal right now, to test the systems and I think the current progress is perfect for limited testing time on weekends. I also would like to see the progression slowed down a bit, perhaps exponentially scaling at higher levels.

Lack of Economic Incentives for Certain Professions
Simply put, the free market (player stores and AHs) will address this.

The Problem with Ease of Mastery
It is just a guess of mine, but I do not think that there will be that many grand masters. I think they will actually be quite rare. Correct me if I am wrong but only freeholds will be able to craft Grand Master buildings and Master tables will be limited to tier 5 nodes. Tier 4 nodes will be able to only achieve journeyman tables. Therefore it will be quite rare to even see a master level table let alone a grand master table.

In regards to grandmaster tables, it will be limited to the amount of freeholds that are sold by each node. From various Q and A's I have the opinion that there will not be many freeholds sold by the mayor or freeholds even available to be purchased. Further reducing the amount of grand masters available, not everyone who even attains a freehold will get grandmastery. Reducing the amount of grand masters even further, there will be many grand masters that are interested in the same artisan.

Therefore I think it is safe to assume finding a grand master for a specific niche artisan will be far and few inbetween with great distances in between.