In 2.0, people were going for i70 crafted when there was i90 available with myths and coil. Some didn't even upgrade until 2.2.
i180 crafted have a place.
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But there will always be people that want the crafting shortcut into raids and I180 melded is going to be the fastest way in there. It's still going to take time to get Alex normal drops and the I180 melded is easier to get than farming enough law/centurio to get upgraded gear.
Yep, the disparity between the stat change across ilvl vs the max stats reasonably available w/ 5 materia is noticeably larger now than in 2.X.
Also the value of secondary stats has gone down by ~66% across the board, which again severely reduces the value of the max available melds.
Granted this is for DoW/DoM classes, the stat increases were not nearly as high for DoH/DoL... Just reinforces the idea that the devs want High End Adventuring and High End Crafting/Gathering to be very separate things.
As a mastercrafter, i won`t bother anymore.
Honestly, this system was designed with NEETs in mind, only the richest players, which are the ones that happend to most free time, will keep playing, the rest, probably won`t make it, not if you wan`t to also do side activities like leveling combat classes, raid, pvp, etc. I say enough is enough. If the requisite to keep being a mastercrafter who only makes subpar gear, glamours and housing items that have no market edge is to persue a ridiculous weekly cap, i out, honestly.
Congratulations SE, you finally killed crafting.