Food - Worthwhile or Underpowered?

Food effects and boosts were very important in FFXI and FFXIV 1.0 since they helped push your character over the edge just a little bit. Every food item was dedicated, in some part, to at least one main stat with other secondary stats for a little bit extra bonus. And of course, food offered a 3% EXP bonus, which was nice.

However, it seems Food is becoming less and less of an importance. People don't care what they eat because the stat increases are negligible compared to how they used to be. Most people buy stacks of the cheapest food item just for the 3% exp bonus.

Sure, Food seems great for Crafting too, but for battle... the bonuses don't feel as prominent as they used to be. Food was often the means to reach the hard stat cap of your job when gear and materia fell a little short.

I propose the dev team to possibly re-evaluate food and their effects on players of various levels. If you feel it's working as intended, then perhaps giving us a bit of a retrospective as to why Food is worthwhile as opposed to not having any. If you feel that food truly does seem underpowered, please consider reworking the food bonuses to make them a bit more relevant and enticing.

Food is fantastic, problem is the shard cost, 30 minute duration, material cost, and fading on death. 1 game day limited time materials and clusters for a piece of food that lasts 30 mins and fades on death? What were they thinking?

Food stats are equal to basically equipping another HQ accessory, they're really good.

I like to refer you to this thread:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ading-on-death.