the power level grind vs crafting vs balance

I love this game as many do. I am a artisan at heart. However in this testing phase the process of the daily grind and drop comparisons as seen by many. leaves little for the crafter to build on. This is not a negative troll moment, but the need to feel the words that Steven echoed that "crafters are the shit in Ashes". if you log in and just LFG and grind mobs for hours on end. Which is what i see in global chat endlessly.In doing so we know level 10 is bypassed in hours What is the point of purchasing recipes and crafting anything for level 1 - 10. . Yet the crafter has to process these in order to gain level. the cost and time of processing the end result is not even minimally profitable in being able to sell it to a vendor. For Most items we Harvest, process and then craft. in doing so we pay for repairs, pay for processing fee and fuel "fuel is roughly 5 copper per with plants" " lumber can be less but you also tend to have to go over the amount needed" and then you may or may not have to buy a added ingredient from the vendor " like essence or honey comb" to complete the final processed piece. more money and more time and in the end you have a item you worked diligently on just for no one to buy it because we are 12 hours into the fresh start and most players are already level 11. When your zerg group out runs your crafting artisans, you effectively remove crafting as a viable role to play.
Is there a balance offset available to make crafting viable in the early level of play? Balance would be that level gain would run parallel to crafting. So how would this be accomplished easily. 1. level cap at 10 for x amount of time to allow crafting to be relevant. 2. don't let your mob drops over run your crafters crafting- this would be the most effective "sure you can be level 15 or 25 but you will still need a crafter to get your gear". 3. remove level 1- 10 crafting and have crafting start where gear is needed - this would require a whole rework. 4. Have a deductive xp for repetitive mob grinding to slow the process - sure this is a bad option for the grinders out there and would require much rework i am sure on the xp system- i am just throwing out thoughts here. I am not shy to the fact I am not a grinder- i feel mmorpg games have grown over the years with a depth and scope that should be truly admired. My personal belief as I feel many mmos have always been a race to the end game. Great but once you reach level 50 have great gear and done much the same thing every day for the last however long. what ? add another dungeon or world boss. why does it take 7 to 9 years to create a game that tends to last only 7 to 9 years. The mmos let players sprint past the totality of the game- just to get to the end and have little left to do. My point is if the adventure, crafting and Pvp where in total balance, the mob drops where Exceedingly rare. The game would have a slow and natural progression. there would be no race to the end, because you can't get there without the crafter and the crafter can't get there without the adventure to the wild to find the resources. So you have majority of players running around at lower levels for longer periods of time. well, I guess that just means they will have to play the game longer to reach the end. And then you might just have a game that outlasts it's build time. What are your ideas for balance? Thanks

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Comments

Gizban

Sir, please add paragraph breaks.

I read your post and agree there is an issue with the practically of lvl 1-10 crafted gear, especially when the same gear can mostly be bought from a vendor.

I think early recipes need to be simplified to match early adventure leveling.

Shadow Phoenix

Phase 1 xp is currently boosted. Leveling should be slower in the future and in Live, so that'll allow low lvl crafting to be more useful.

Shabooey

Shadow Phoenix wrote: »

Phase 1 xp is currently boosted. Leveling should be slower in the future and in Live, so that'll allow low lvl crafting to be more useful.

Is it?

Earthgiver

Shadow Phoenix wrote: »

Phase 1 xp is currently boosted. Leveling should be slower in the future and in Live, so that'll allow low lvl crafting to be more useful.

I think, that is maybe part of the issue, we don't know what the plan is. let's just hope it is something other than what we are seeing in game atm. thanks

wakkytabbaky

i would honestly like to see levelling process be much slower but not until there is better ways for xp other than mob grinding and balance for xp like a good amount of quests / tuned commissions.

id rather high xp commissions and a longer refresh timer on them say 6-12 hours making them actually worthwhile. im hoping for some tuning to make the vendor gear be worse than say a rare crafted piece of gear from the tier below that way you could upgrade your stuff from a vendor but it would only be a stop gap measure till you get crafted gear or some drops

Daave

Shadow Phoenix wrote: »

Phase 1 xp is currently boosted. Leveling should be slower in the future and in Live, so that'll allow low lvl crafting to be more useful.

Wait really? Where did they say this?

Spif

The difference in leveling speed of an optimal group in the optimal grind spot is a lot different a decent group at a secondary grind spot. And even that is a bit different than someone soloing in a decent spot. The leveling speed of a casual player derping around also needs to be taken into consideration

I solo'd a ranger, cleric, mage and bard all at a decent camp from L8-10. The time for each level was about 1.5-2 hours because kill time sucked with L1 gear. Plug here for crafted gear to start at L5. Even after getting to 10 and some nice gear upgrades, getting to 11 was over an hour in the same spot (large goblin camp L9-10)

Later I did some group leveling in RoS/HH in the teens. Not faster (never was able to get the optimal camp or group, but several were good) for leveling, but the drops were or course much better and it was less boring.

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