Quote Originally Posted by Buckles View Post
Now the obvious answer is have shards be replaced by crystals in level 20+ recipes. After all, in level 20+ mines you start mining them, but they are useless in all but a handful of level 50 crafts for 1-star items. Clusters should be for 41-50 gear, instead of an even smaller amount of 1 and 2-star recipes. However, for unknown reasons, SE have it that the easiest item in the world to obtain is used in vast quantities by every crafter in the game.

So yes, in my opinion and for the reasons stated above, shards need reworking/replacing sooner with crystals/clusters to curb this marketable area for the RMTs.
The real issue is supply vs demand. With current rush to lvl50 madness ongoing, there are no shard farmers. There is limit supply but much higher demand. It is not smart for S/E to adjust something so quick without let game settle it first. Three months sound to be a reasonable and logical time period.