My original plan was to write a first impressions of patch 5.1, even if late, since I just got back to Final Fantasy XIV after about a month away from it.
But I barely touched the story much less anything else that came with the patch. With the Ishgard Restoration going on I will probably be spending my FFXIV time participating on it and who knows when I will be able to go back to anything else in the game.
So I decided it might be wiser instead to just write about it while the iron is still hot, so to speak. Specially since this experience is also providing me with some insight on the crafting and gathering changes that came with patch 5.1
Patch 5.1 Crafting and Gathering changes
Of all of the features of Patch 5.1 the crafting and gathering changes were the ones I was looking forward the most. What can I say? I like crafting! That and I was in the mid-55 levels of those classes struggling to make a good crafting rotation to complete my quests. Not even reading a guide or using sites to figure out a rotation helped much.
With the removal of a lot of the skills and change of pretty much every other one I am finding it a lot easier to figure out rotations for myself.
Another thing I didn’t realize when reading the patch notes is that there are no more cross class skills. Now all crafting classes get the same skills. This is a good change for those who want to specialize in just one or a few crafting classes as they won’t feel gimped anymore because they don’t have the skill from another class.
They will still have to deal with the problem of having to buy parts from other people that they can’t craft themselves but I personally don’t see a problem with that.
Of the additions being able to see the crafting tree of an item in the recipe book was one of the best. When I read the patch notes I just thought it would be a nice thing to have but now that I have tested I love it. It not only allow us to see all the materials we need to craft each individual part but it also tells how many of those materials we already have.
We can also even right click on a particular material and open the gathering log to see where to get more of it! This whole thing is just such a handy feature and it makes it a lot easier to plan crafting sessions without having to rely on external third party tools.
The changes to desynthesis should be nice too. But to be honest I never really looked much into it before because the system felt a little too annoying to bother and I didn’t see the usefulness of it. So, I guess now it is a good time to do it?
If you are just returning to the game after Patch 5.1 and completely confused about the crafting changes, Aywren did a pretty good post with some tips and links to some handy resources.
Gatherers didn’t go through with as much of an overhaul. But the changes they got are still awesome!
The most obvious change was the replacement of the Stealth skill for the Sneak one. Unlike Stealth, Sneak doesn’t lower our movement speed and can even be used while mounted!
If that wasn’t good enough it is also automatically enabled if we switch to a gathering class while out in the world. If we switch inside towns though we need to activate it manually.
Also, if you saw some orbs and a circle of light around your character when switching to a gathering class and was completely confused about what it was (like I did) that is just the indication that Stealth is active.
The “Enable Quick Gathering” option now. It is such a nice Quality of Life change that I can’t imagine gathering without it anymore. No more clicking several times to gather! Now just one click per node and we are done!
I like all the other gathering changes too but I haven’t really been able to test it yet.
Lastly there is the increased XP for both crafting and gatherers. I somehow missed in the patch notes and only found out by hearing people praising it on Twitter. The increased XP is absolutely insane. I was able to get one whole level of Carpenter just by doing my Moogle’s daily quest. And with the Ishgard Restoration going on I am leveling my crafting classes faster than I could have imagined!
Seriously, the XP is so good that I am afraid they will eventually nerf it!
The Ishgard Restoration
This is an event I was looking forward too! I don’t really care that much about Ishgard but an event that is all about crafting? Sign me up!
One of the things I found puzzling at first was the level 60 adventurer requirement to unlock it. But now that I’ve done it that requirement makes a lot of sense. Level 60 adventurer is the level we supposedly end the story in Heavensward. And it is only after those events that they will openly embrace the help of outsiders (and adventurers in particular).
So with the war against the dragons over it makes sense that only now they will start rebuilding, trying to get as many help as they can to do it.
As for the requirement of level 20 for gathering and crafting to participate it seems some people got disappointed because they expected it to be a end-game kind of event. Personally, I never had that impression and I am of the opinion that events should be open to as many people as possible.
Endgame content for me should be something more permanent. Apparently they are working on something like that already but whether it will be something permanent or not wasn’t entirely clear. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
One thing that did disappoint me though is that we can’t contribute directly as gatherers right now. Because of the wording on the patch notes I thought it was something possible and went out gathering, hoping to level up my gathering classes first. Then I found out I couldn’t deliver what I got and to make it worse the items I got were for recipes I couldn’t even craft yet.
At least I can sell it on the Marketboard but for now I am holding them in case I can get my Culinarian high enough to craft the recipe that uses it.
Apparently gatherers will be able to contribute directly too but it will be in a later phase of the event.
Another thing that confused me was the FATE. On the first day I got luck to be around when it started and was able to do it. After that I thought it was on an invisible, random, timer as FATEs usually are and every time I had to go out to gather more materials I got worried that I might be missing it.
Turns out there is an actual timer we can check on top of the notice board for the Ishgard Restoration. That is very helpful and I am glad the developers did that.
If you haven’t done the FATE yet, be ready to move fast when it starts because players will move like locusts to complete it and it can be hard to click on the stuff we need to participate.
The XP for this event has been pretty insane. On the first day I was able to get one class from 58 to 62 just by participating on it and and I wasn’t even doing it very optimally due to some dumb mistakes on my part. Yesterday, I was able to get one class from 56 and another from 55 to 62, this time paying more attention to what I crafted and using XP scrolls and food. In both times I have been using my accumulated rested XP too.
As for the rewards they are all pretty cool but I haven’t gotten any yet. I am saving my scrips for the big items. I just hope that they add some other way to get them after the event is over so I can get them with my alts that can’t participate on it yet. There probably will and it will probably be the Mog Station as is usual for event rewards.
If you haven’t started on the Ishgard Restoration yet, Pizza Maid linked on her Discord channel this handy guide she found.
Aywren also did a pretty nifty explanation of the whole thing. 🙂
Conclusion
All in all I am very happy with the changes to crafting and gathering. If you tried it before and didn’t like it, give it a try again, maybe this time it will click for you. 🙂
And for anyone who still have crafting classes to level, the Isghard Restoration is an excellent way to do it. Really, I don’t think you can ask for better XP for it too. Even if you do have it all maxed out already there are some pretty nifty rewards to be earned.