Crafting Needs a Place in Endgame Raiding

[Teykos]

THIS would result in "enchanted gear or bust" WoW-style. Because that's exactly what you described.

I'd rather have crafted bind-on-pickup gear equivalent to tome gear (and BiS or almost with full forbidden meld) with mats dropping in the top content (T6-9 drops), and being untradable. Horizontal progression. Coil drops should be on par or slightly better than those, so no one "has to level a crafter", but it does give an option for those who are.

That only really works if a consignment system like how you can Request Meld from a crafter exists. Otherwise the raider has to double as the crafter as well.

[Sunarie]

That only really works if a consignment system like how you can Request Meld from a crafter exists. Otherwise the raider has to double as the crafter as well.

I think a consignment type system for mats specific to a raid in order to craft a piece of gear would actually be fairly neat (and has the potential to make crafting useful)... I do understand they would probably have to make a new system for that though. The rest of this post isn't really directed at you specifically.. just quoted cause I thought that was a cool idea

I really don't get the RMT argument. Even post 2.2.. aren't philo tomes becoming myth tomes, plus the cap being removed? Crafters can make ilvl 90 gear, sure.. but when it costs an arm and a leg to fully enchant those so that they're (very minorly) better than myth, it's just not worth it compared to the time it takes to get the tome equiv... or the cost really. With how easy roulette made it to get tomes (and I am assuming the story roulette will now give myth instead of philo), and dungeons giving the highest tome currency (which means you don't really have to wait long to upgrade to new tome gear), I don't see how anyone thinks crafted items are gonna make a difference. Even with the 2-star pieces incredibly cheap now it's not uncommon for only one piece to sell every few days on my server. That's not me selling them, that's just looking at the history tab for -any- that have sold.

Oh, and people buy runs through stuff all the time. I still see people buying their way (with gil) to their relic, or to their EX mode clears to get that weapon.. And I've seen people carried through Coil for money. Maybe a person running Coil 10x doesn't get their items dropping (though really for them to get zero items 10x through they have to be severely unlucky).. but those 10 Coil runs surely got them a healthy chunk of myth to upgrade their gear (and lets not forget that a lot of myth pieces -are- currently BiS), and will get them a healthy chunk of the new tomes. RMTers are going to find a way to buy their way to the top regardless. Designing literally everything around trying to stop RMT is just bad, and it's a bad excuse to throw crafting into oblivion.

I have also not seen a single crafter say "I want to craft all BiS stuff!".. I have seen some of us go "I wouldn't mind being able to craft a single item that was BiS" usually along with "it can be bind on pickup" so that it can't actually be sold. I, personally, think tome gear shouldn't be BiS, and that crafting gear should be equal to it... the useful tomes, not the tomes that you get a crap ton of, have no cap, and are quickly outpaced.