What's with the zillion Outfitter complications?

[Ysharros]

My husband and I have both made outfitters and we're both around level 10 (he's 9, my lass is 11).

On an easy batch work order, I got an average of 4 complications per item a couple of days ago, and just now I watched him get 5 complications out of 6 actions (not counting the, er, counters), again on a low-easy batch work order.

Both chars have decent station skills.

It's getting pretty frustrating. One, two or three complications, fair enough. But to get a complication and then, on the first countering action, to get another, and so on for 3-4 complications seems really excessive. Oddly enough, it's like it was *before* Silius did those last minute beta changes.

Given the really poo outfitter WO rewards, this is currently my absolute least favourite profession. Now, on an easy WO you get nothing worth selling, no xp worth talking about, and you *still* have to deal with millions of complications. Ironically I do a lot better turning in 5 D-grade barely passable difficult items than I do trying to even bother with easies. Moderates are equally frustrating. What gives? Is it just us?

I'm venting, for the most part, since there's no way to actually bring these concerns to anyone who'll see them. /grumble

[Jelonna]

I have an outfitter also and I feel like I get more complications with him than with my artificer. Granted they are both only level 5 in their profs. but I will get complications one after another with the outfitter.

[Aen]

.......

[Ysharros]

I just did a bunch of moderate and difficult WOs with my blacksmith (now weaponsmith, me and everyone else ), and she got nowhere near as many. I also made a bunch of harvesting tools before that, which would probably have been "easy" level and again, while I got a few, it certainly wasn't near as many as the outfitters seem to be getting.

For me, certainly, the blacksmithing and artificing are a lot less frustrating right now. Complications are good - choking on them is not. ;-)

[cdxrd]

Same here. I did a batch of VERY EASY and EASY work orders last night, whether I countered the complications or not, by step 3, I was down to maybe 100-200 points left; at grade D. You counter a complication and boom, you have a new one to deal with. I just finally had to give up last night. Im not sure what changed, but wow.. You almost cant craft as an outfitter right now!

[Cobalt Katze]

See, thing is... When you fix the complications, it raises your stat that effectively takes care of the complications to begin with. So sometimes you want to get complications to raise that skill for when you're actually making real items rather than work orders!

[kreen]

Ysharros,

Its not just outfitter. Blacksmith is effected as well. Since the last patch that fixed mangled tool unable to clear I am seeing a lot more comps.

Same copper weapon recipes as pre patch and I have gone through 3 levels with skills raises as well and the comp freq is higher than before - you would think I should see less since i'm 3 levels higher and making the same stuff .

I am seeing new comps I didnt see previously, although I am level 11 now, so above the magic 10.

I still see a lot of mangled tool as well, pretty much on every craft, I can clear it now if I choose to do so, but I never have to because I know it is coming so I just do my quality improvements when it arrives and push through it.

WO's are a bit harder now, sometimes missing grade A on some easy's whereas before I never missed. Have to settle for B's and C's on moderates and ocassionally I miss one entirely when I get about 4 comps in a row on the final stage - saving action points back for that 6 sigma event is a no no, but it seems to happen about 1 in every 2-3 WO's, more frequently than 6 sigma

I have locked out my utility and tool skills at present to raise my station which was in 2nd place to see if I can get comp freq under control.

This is possibly all due to the fact that pre level 10 crafters are a bit over powered since they have level 10 attributes and now I have pushed through this I am suffering for lack of good gear (not enough gear drops from WO's really) and what now seems to be a lowish station skil than is needed.

My guess is that there are a lot of other crafter pushing through this boundary at the moment as well and so thats maybe why the noise level in shout chat of "these dang comps" has gone up

[kreen]

Originally Posted by Cobalt Katze

See, thing is... When you fix the complications, it raises your stat that effectively takes care of the complications to begin with. So sometimes you want to get complications to raise that skill for when you're actually making real items rather than work orders!

What skill is this? is there a hidden skill?

The problem solving attribute helps with comp solution I know and so do your listed utility and tool skills - you can see these listed as the usage skills to clear the comp in the comp dialogue box. However, I have never noticed one of these raise when I clear a comp.

They raise nicely when I use them normally though. of course clearing comps could be adding partially to these skill raises its just that I only see the integer roll overs and haven't noticed these during comp clearance

[Ysharros]

Originally Posted by kreen

However, I have never noticed one of these raise when I clear a comp.

I have - most often the tool skill, partly because that one is always lower for me (intentionally so, since it's the hardest to raise anyway), and partly because most of the comps I've seen seem to have tool counters. I think CK means the normal station / tool / utilities skills.

And yeah, I noticed the same when doing stuff in the last few days, kreen - but it's worse for outfitters and, as far as I've been able to see, their rewards remain really poor. It's really hard to say "No, this isn't subjective" because we don't know the systems behind it, but I've had a lot of... call it circumstantial evidence from myself, hubby, and a bunch of other players who feel that complications are more out of whack, as well as rewards being lower in quantity and quality for Outfitters.

It's easiest to see if you have more than one crafter, as I do (being both an altoholic and a self-admitted crafting ho ). This morning's little WO session got my blacksmith a +4 problem solving shirt - not bad at level 11. A whole afternoon of similar WOs, at the same level, got my Outfitter... bugger all.

[phatkat1972]

I have a lvl 16 weaponsmith, and my buddy has a lvl 22 armoror, And it apears that with the last patch they put in, once you hit the 3rd portion of crafting, you get raped with complications. where once i could hit B quality on a moderate, now i'm lucky if i get anywhere near C quality. It's ridiculous because of the amount of great clothing and tools I've acquired over the 16 lvl's. and my buddy is getting it even worse. Easy work orders are almost impossible for him to get C quality on. Where it should be getting easier with the amount of great clothing you earn from doing the work orders, it's getting worse. I think what ever they did was a mistake, and will be fixed, but come on, they should have had a hot fix for this since the patch early yesterday morning. I dont even think they patched today at all. It leaves those of us who like to craft basically stuck with doing very easy WO's and hoping to get hi c quality or low b quality, and no xp for doing them.

Another note. I am baffled with the thought process here as well. I can't for the life of me figure out why when you go to create meaningful things, such as weapons, armor, clothing, etc., that you have to be 10 lvl's above the recipe you are trying to make in order to get A quality. This thought process forces you to be in tier 3 (or lvl 20) to create a lvl 10 (A) quality recipe, That's not a good plan of action in my book. they need to rework the ease of crafting and the amount of xp you get when doing WO's. I don't want it so easy you can craft with your eyes closed. but having to work your way through a whole lvl doing (D) and (C) Quality easy work orders is extremly overwhelming. it takes hours to get through a lvl. I can understand graduated xp drop off with higher lvl, but making it almost impossible to make stuff worth while is out of control. the other thing about being 10 lvl's above the recipe that i've found is that you don't realize it till you get into the higher lvl's such as late teens and onto the 20's. My meaning is that at lvl 12, I could make any tier 1 copper weapon A quality quite readily, however now at lvl 16, i can't even make a tin ingot A quality, somewhere there's a problem.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I hope they fix it soon. Like I said, I dont want easy, but I want to be capable of learning to make an A quality item, at this point, you have no ability to do so. no matter the clothing or the skill.