Give Artificing/Alchemy some love.
So, since the birth of Spires of Agartha, in late 2017. It has been nearly 4 whole years since the crafting system was added into the game. With the original trees being Runewriting, Blacksmithing and Alchemy. Since then, Runewriting was merged with Blacksmithing into Artificing, as both professions did little enough on their own, and Alchemy has remained a constant staple and the most lucrative way to make coin, thanks to consumable resources.
Our Crafting professions need to receive a bit more love, whether it's through new recipes that actually provide interesting effects, new materials potentially to accommodate for that, or whatever it may be.
I know certain aspects are being considered to be revamped, such as with Masterwork being phased out for a rework, but right now being a crafter means very little when almost everyone can be one alongside a standard build, and all it boils down to is farming lootboxes/events for dev items/arcanium to make Application Uniques.
So, I've got a few suggestions to potentially make these crafting roles more interesting/purposeful.
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Tier 0 Enchantments
Adding in a final tier of App-only enchantments could be useful to diversify proper artificers, and these enchantments could even have minor RPP costs (1-5 RPP per enchantment recipe, depending on what the playerbase agrees upon).
A simple example of something like this would be, 'Johnny Flametongue has the Inferno Enchantment. It's a Tier 0 Fire-attuned enchantment that takes up the primary slot for Glyphs. It has a cost of 1 Arcanium and 10 Fireshards, and bestows +25 Pow and +2firepow to the weapon. In exchange, it can only be cast once every year (5 OOC Days Cooldown), it must be applied for (Like Sylavanum), and costs ??? RPP to learn.'
This would provide a nice incentive for long-time artificers to go further beyond in their craft in a manner that is immediately useful instead of just building uniques from dev materials. The Enchantments could even be irregular enchantments, such as 'Liferend- +10 Pow, +10% Lifesteal', 'Galeburst- +20 Pow, +10 Agi/Crit +2windpow' , 'Aegis- 5 Vit, 5% DR' 'Truestrike- +50% Crit Rate -20 Pow'
Could even do say, Attunements for elements as a type of Tier 0 Rune. It'd be easy, take up the slot of existing 'Exalted Elemental runes' and give a flat 5 pow/def instead of 3, but have the same restrictions as those prior.
Artificing Consumables
Give Artificing some means of Consumables at higher tiers. Temporary Enchantments or Runes that can assist a player, much like how Alchemy has elixirs. Could be temporary Augment runes to a player's weapon that falls off after 1 year, much like how repairing does, but actually costs some materials and provides a more noticeable effect to the weapons. Allow them to be sold in stores.
Could even have an upgraded version of Repair that brings a Pristine item to 'Enhanced', adding +5 instead of +2, but needs to be apped for. Just things to think about.
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There are loads of other ideas that could be thrown out on this, and obviously balance should be taken into consideration for anything that is added, but at this time, the concerns I'm trying to address are very simple.
"Do you feel like being an Artificer or Alchemist is impactful in a noticeable and discernable way for your RP, beyond flavor?"
"If you've decided to -focus- more on crafting in your character, do you feel more empowered in your field than a combat-focused player who spent the necessary RPP in Crafting as an Extra RPP dump?"
"As just an Artificer, do you feel you can run a profitable stall and sell things that will earn you a profit? If so, is it more profitable than selling the raw materials in the stall? How about when compared to an Alchemist's stall?"
Edit: I will throw more ideas into this thread when I have time. I'd just like more development be done towards crafting. It feels like a hurried addon in its current state.
Our Crafting professions need to receive a bit more love, whether it's through new recipes that actually provide interesting effects, new materials potentially to accommodate for that, or whatever it may be.
I know certain aspects are being considered to be revamped, such as with Masterwork being phased out for a rework, but right now being a crafter means very little when almost everyone can be one alongside a standard build, and all it boils down to is farming lootboxes/events for dev items/arcanium to make Application Uniques.
So, I've got a few suggestions to potentially make these crafting roles more interesting/purposeful.
---------------------
Tier 0 Enchantments
Adding in a final tier of App-only enchantments could be useful to diversify proper artificers, and these enchantments could even have minor RPP costs (1-5 RPP per enchantment recipe, depending on what the playerbase agrees upon).
A simple example of something like this would be, 'Johnny Flametongue has the Inferno Enchantment. It's a Tier 0 Fire-attuned enchantment that takes up the primary slot for Glyphs. It has a cost of 1 Arcanium and 10 Fireshards, and bestows +25 Pow and +2firepow to the weapon. In exchange, it can only be cast once every year (5 OOC Days Cooldown), it must be applied for (Like Sylavanum), and costs ??? RPP to learn.'
This would provide a nice incentive for long-time artificers to go further beyond in their craft in a manner that is immediately useful instead of just building uniques from dev materials. The Enchantments could even be irregular enchantments, such as 'Liferend- +10 Pow, +10% Lifesteal', 'Galeburst- +20 Pow, +10 Agi/Crit +2windpow' , 'Aegis- 5 Vit, 5% DR' 'Truestrike- +50% Crit Rate -20 Pow'
Could even do say, Attunements for elements as a type of Tier 0 Rune. It'd be easy, take up the slot of existing 'Exalted Elemental runes' and give a flat 5 pow/def instead of 3, but have the same restrictions as those prior.
Artificing Consumables
Give Artificing some means of Consumables at higher tiers. Temporary Enchantments or Runes that can assist a player, much like how Alchemy has elixirs. Could be temporary Augment runes to a player's weapon that falls off after 1 year, much like how repairing does, but actually costs some materials and provides a more noticeable effect to the weapons. Allow them to be sold in stores.
Could even have an upgraded version of Repair that brings a Pristine item to 'Enhanced', adding +5 instead of +2, but needs to be apped for. Just things to think about.
---------
There are loads of other ideas that could be thrown out on this, and obviously balance should be taken into consideration for anything that is added, but at this time, the concerns I'm trying to address are very simple.
"Do you feel like being an Artificer or Alchemist is impactful in a noticeable and discernable way for your RP, beyond flavor?"
"If you've decided to -focus- more on crafting in your character, do you feel more empowered in your field than a combat-focused player who spent the necessary RPP in Crafting as an Extra RPP dump?"
"As just an Artificer, do you feel you can run a profitable stall and sell things that will earn you a profit? If so, is it more profitable than selling the raw materials in the stall? How about when compared to an Alchemist's stall?"
Edit: I will throw more ideas into this thread when I have time. I'd just like more development be done towards crafting. It feels like a hurried addon in its current state.