"This
is the first of (hopefully) a series of guest posts! Introducing Ark
with a topic that I have no clue about... crafting! -Ascy"
Preface:
I did not craft very much in FFXI, nor have I played FFXIV 1.0. Please
don't ask me how this compares to other MMO crafting, as I really don't
know. This is also just my thoughts and inferred information on crafting
in 2.0 and as such, shouldn't be taken as 100% accurate. All images
shown are copyright of Square Enix Co, Ltd even if they aren't
watermarked as such, as I have edited some images for simplicity.
Wheee! Let's Get Started!
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| The Bismarck! Limsa Lominsa's finest restaurant and home of the Culinarian Guild! |
What is Crafting?
The
desire to immerse ourselves in the world of Hydaelyn can be engaged in a
number of ways: we alter the appearance of our character into something
meaningful that we connect with, we learn of the world's lore and take
part in their unfolding stories, and we fight with foes in grandiose
battles. Another way we interact with Hydaelyn is crafting: Not only
could I wear a brilliant set of armor, but I could have made it too!
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| The lovely Ascy showing us some fancy needlework. |
In terms of gameplay, it
attempts to give us options other than fighting, and provides a relaxing
alternative where we can gather resources and convert them into items
we can use. Whether we use those items for ourselves, give to our
friends or sell to other players in our community, the items we make
will always bear our name!
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| The next prodigy of apparel perhaps? Victoriascy's Secrets? |
Which Discipline of Hand is Right For Me?
The current list of crafters is as follows:
Carpenter – Bows, Staffs
+The Black Shroud, New Gridania, Corgg
Blacksmith – Weapons, Crafting Tools
-Tools La Noscea, Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks, Randwulf
Armorer – Heavy Armor
+La Noscea, Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks, G'wahnako
Goldsmith – Accessories
-Thanalan, Ul'dah – Steps of Thal, Jemime
Leatherworker – Light Armor
+The Black Shroud, Old Gridania. Randall
Weaver – Caster Clothing
-Thanalan, Ul'dah – Steps of Thal, Maronne
Alchemist – Potions
+Thanalan, Ul'dah – Steps of Thal, Deitrich
Culinarian – Food...
-La Noscea, Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks, Charlys
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| It's really jumping here in Ul'dah! Always welcome at the Weaver Guild! |
Which Discipline of Land is Right For Me?
The current list of gatherers is as follows:
Miner – Ore
+Thanalan, Ul'dah – Steps of Thal, Linette
Botanist – Wood, Cotton, Spices
-The Black Shroud, Old Gridania, Leonceault
Fisher – Fish?
+La Noscea, Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks, unnamed
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| Pick up armor and blacksmithing at the same time here in Limsa's Upper Decks! |
These
are just the primary functions I have noticed from the disciplines and
they probably not some other things they can craft that I'm unaware of
at the moment. Disciplines are really easy to find as none are hidden;
just pull up the map and you'll see where all the guilds are in town,
but I decided to include links to them just in case.
When Can I start?!
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| Can't wait to start mining! There's gold in dem der hills! |
Although you can access
crafting once you reach level 10 with your starting class and complete
its respective quest, currently the ferry has been unavailable as of
Phase 3 in the beta. Whether you will be able to freely move to the
other starter cities at a very low level is yet to be seen. There is a
land path between Gridania and Ul'dah, but Limsa Lominsa requires the
ferry or an airship pass to access; the latter of which becomes
available after completing the level ~15 main storyline quest. Remember
that you can pick up all the disciplines and aren't limited to picking
one!
Understanding the UI
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| Here we see the crystal tab of the inventory box. |
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| What a High Quality craft looks like when in your items. |
As with the other battle
classes, crafting is also locked to something you wield, so remember to
keep a spot in your gear list if you plan to switch to your craft often!
Your important (default) keys are as follows:
"C" – Character sheet and Gear Set List
"N" – Brings up your profession log
"I" – Brings up inventory and displays your crystal count
What Does Clothing Even Do?
.jpg) |
| Initially clothing isn't necessary... and nobody mourned over that. |
Though crafting and gathering
clothes can be shared, most of them are more suited to one or the other,
so it is a good idea to have separate sets for each role. The bonuses
provided by gear is:
Control – Lowers the chance of failing an action
Craftsmanship – Raises the value of successful actions
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| Typically, your main hand item seems to give larger bonuses to your profession. |
Gathering – Lows the chance of failing a gather
Perception – Raises the chance of procuring high quality materials
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| Sporting some Miner apparel. Your character sheet also displays total bonuses. |
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| Showing some of the early hybrid bonus gear. Fair enough for early levels. |
These are the initial bonuses
given by equipment, but perhaps later down the road there will be even
more specialized bonuses given to respective disciplines? I'm fairly
certain these are what the values do, but I'm sure with time we'll fully
explore their properties!
Creating Our First Item!
The game does a fair enough job of easing the
player into crafting and the first quest is usually a matter of
equipping your newly given tool, buying the materials from a vendor
inside the guild, and making an item. While it tells you to access the
crafting menu through the personal logs section, I found it easier to
learn the hotkey for it and use it often because if you intend to craft,
you're going to be seeing that menu -- all the time.
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| One of the very first Carpenter quests. Measure twice, cut once! |
There's Only One Button?
If there was a word to
describe crafting in this game it would be 'accessible'. All the
disciplines start off with an extraordinarily simple quest and
explicit dialogue on how to finish it, and you only start with a
single action: make. Still, let's tackle this as though everything
was skipped and we've become lost.
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| Learn to love it. Going to see this menu in your dreams (Hotkey: N) |
Bring up our profession log
(Hotkey: N) will show our current class' list of items that can be
made; clicking on each item reveals the difficulty, durability,
crystals required and components required. What is important to note
on the first craft is the components required: these will be
purchased at the respective guild's supplier NPC – who tends to
stand inside the guild, often next to the receptionist.
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| The very first action that all crafts share. |
Once the materials are
acquired, it is time to make the item! Bring up the log, select the
item, and choose 'synthesis' in the bottom corner. This brings up the
actual creation process: in this case it will be an item with 40
durability, which means that there will be four chances to complete
the item – each action will take 10 durability off the item and
when it reaches zero durability the item fails. For the first craft,
our basic synthesis has an incredibly high success rate, so failure
is unlikely.
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| Here we see 10 points on a 9 point item; instant success on our first item! |
Now that the item is
complete we can turn it in to our guildmaster and finish the quest!
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| While finishing a crafting log isn't necessary, it does give that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. |
Attacking Nature!!
If crafting is accessible,
then gathering is even more so! I found that it took longer to level
but it was likely designed to be more recreational – even though we
know we're just going to blitz the profession and try leveling it as
quickly as possible. I found that gathering became interesting only
in the later levels when there were more aggressive monsters in the
field that would prevent you from trying to harvest, but that is for
a different post. For now, let's start from the very beginning in a
distant land called Eorzea.
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| While Ascy loves nature, today nature fears Ascy! Make like a tree and scram! |
Our first quest is to
deliver a small quantity of items and like the crafting professions,
the dialogue will explain where they can be gathered from – as a
side note, I believe the gathering log in the menus will also tell
you where you have previously gathered, or where you can find, an
item once harvested. So let's head on out to our first area!
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| The gold icons show gathering points on the mini-map, but not on the regular map. |
You will notice that, once
again, there is only one action we can perform: an ability that shows
us harvest locations. The mini-map shows these gathering locations
and usually if you harvest a group of 2~3, you'll find that they will
have refreshed around the time you get the last one; so if you so
desired, you could perform this loop to level – however boring that
might be. If you are in the right area, you should find the item you
need once you have interacted with the harvest point and all you have
to do is click the item you want harvested.
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| Chaining might not seem like very much EXP, but it adds up over time. |
Later
on we acquire
abilities that raise our gathering rate, making it easier to chain
our gather and get more EXP, which is useful if you plan on grinding.
They work exceptionally well on unknown gather points -- these appear
starting at level 10 harvests, but once you successfully harvest them,
they become like any other item in your list and have a higher chance of
being gathered.
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| Quite frustrating the first time when you miss an unknown gather 8 times in a row. |
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| Our buff is applied and one gather has become 100% ! |
Closing Thoughts
What I really wanted to see was how
fishing would work! Such a disappointing thing to start in Limsa with
no Arcanist or Fishing ready! I really wanted to know how it was
going to fit in on crafting; whether it would provide fish for
culinarian, crystals for any craft in general, maybe find some rusted
boots to synthesize into new items – who knows?!
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| Won't you tell me your name at least, Miss Mi'qote? |
I will say that the initial start of
crafting is fairly boring because of how simplistic it is – which,
don't get me wrong, is probably a good thing for many people who are
afraid to jump into crafting, and it is probably the desire of the
Square team to make it so friendly in the beginning. Later on,
however, I noticed that there were a lot more options and it became
more fun and interesting; especially gathering since level 15 and
below rarely ran into aggressive monsters.
It should be a lot of fun picking which
professions to use my leves on, what crafts to start first, and which
I should finish later, but for now I'm pleasantly surprised with
XIV's crafting – since XI seemed like a nightmare in my memories.
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| Let's get fired up for crafting!! YARgghghghGHGHGH! |
I hope you all check out the crafting!
Thanks for reading!
