mourning the lost of cultural

[Kinil]

I just want to say that the decision to end cultural is a saddening state. The rampage that went on over raids crying over cultural was the biggest smokescreen i've ever witnessed. You can not compare end game raid armor to the lvl 75 cultural fully augged. End game armor will always blow it out of the water. Raiders crying over cultural "imbalance" forced the devs to relook at cultural and eventually choose to discontinue it. I as a tradeskill took pride in raising my tradeskills as I leveled so I could make my own full set of armor. I had a ton of pride to say I made a full set of the lvl 55 armor and augs.

Given the LL premier, new defiant armor flooded the market. Having flashy mods and focuses made it sparkle. I know that it was intended to be only for returning players during this time as an incentive to come back and/or bring them up to par.

How about this? If the cultural big bang had gone a different way and took a revamp to match the defiant armor? Mods and focuses could have revamped the cultural augs, more so at the lower levels.

I'm pretty sure this post will ruffle a lot of feathers, so have at it. I just don't think cultural should have been pushed off the table so non chalantly. Sony has never took to revamping, instead pushing new stuff out to overflow the old stuff.

[Catweazel]

Cultural isn't lost. Any guild raiding up through Demi, into TSS and TBS will be making Cultural armor until they finish those expansions. Regardless of when that happens (and it could be years) why do you think a new form of player made armor will not appear?

[Bara]

Yep, cultural is just a step in tradeskilling, not the ultimate goal.

[Dutchy]

I'm dissapointed by the loss of cultural armor in the future as well. As a tradeskill addict the cultural armor gave me something to do after maxxing out all of the skills. Every other char I took to 300smithing/tailoring added a few extra recipies for me to create.

I currently have 4 master tailors and 4 master smiths. I was working on 3 more races, but it feels like a waste of my time now to continue. Theres no demand for the lower level cultural anymore, and although elegant might be wanted untill the next expansion launches... I really don't feel like crafting it for the community that complained so much about it that they ended the entire future of cultural gear over it.

I just wish they would continue with some kind of cultural. I'd be happy with just a few lowbie/mid level cultural recipies being released in the future, with just a slot 7 or whatever they'd consider not too overpowered. Just a few extra recipies for those of us nutty enough to enjoy skilling up over and over again.

just my 2cp *back to baking, bristlebanes still make it worth it to max yet again hihi..... well, untill the AC on food starts working*

[Rawckett]

So seems like the whole revamping / renaming / redoing was a nice waste of time and resources.

[kekenewah]

Yeah you can't even give the lower level cultural stuff away. I just tribute it for the measly amount of tribute it is worth.

[Tobynn]

I scrapped 13 full sets of Elaborate for tribute, as I haven't sold a single piece even at near-giveaway prices, since Defiant armor appeared. Cultural armor now means Elegant. Period. Everything else is merely skillup fodder.

[Sibaelius]

I currently wear tier 4 armor and robe with essences (from crystallos) and the emblem to make my robe more fancy. But that is because I am not doing end game raiding. The minute my guild gets into solteris raiding and I can get my hands on some of those super focus effects (70% fire damage focus) I will pull my elegant robe with sublime aug back out, shake the dust off and wear it around town.

I think, and hope, that cultural will only get better as we move along.

[Zacatac]

I scrapped 13 full sets of Elaborate for tribute, as I haven't sold a single piece even at near-giveaway prices, since Defiant armor appeared. Cultural armor now means Elegant. Period. Everything else is merely skillup fodder.

I haven't sold much lately either. Making Elegant armor is the only tells I get now days.

Look at the drops from the Guk/BB revamps, and tell me why anyone would bother? Even with my skills, I can't beat the value of a 350hp/mana piece of armor with level 80 focus that sells for under 50k (or drops every 10 minutes in group). Not when porous loam still goes for 150k each. Only people who have access to bazu/lb or better will spend the money.

Cleric bought a 350hp/mana hat with faurene, level 80 focus, mod2s, and energian slot to add even more with powersource for 35k last night. Bought a similar wrist for 29k.

I'm hoping the elegant/sublime drops become more common in the next expansion. Especially when you will have tradeable gear nearing 390hp/mana.

[Shadrok]

At least it'll dissappear

The Guk/BB revamps are temporary, so Elegant will once again be valuable. But the rest as everyone has noted, is so much trash.