Quote Originally Posted by tocsin View Post
I'm not sure what your experience level in crafting is, but unless they have truly unlimited funding, an couple million gil will get you nowhere close to 4 star stats in crafting. hell, I've blown through 50 mil, and am still nowhere close.

Also, macro crafts will only get you so far. We do not yet have a macro for 4 star crafts. and 3 star is still very iffy.

Unspoiled node gathering, 99% isn't limited by stats. you can get the stats easy. remembering to be in the right place to gather at the right time, to get the items you need for progression at a low RNG chance, that's more than half of it, and all the gil in the world wont buy that.

Remember, the primary tokens for progression in both crafting and gathering are untradeable. you can buy the mats for them, but you still need skill to HQ them.

essentially, you can only get so far, even in crafting and gathering, with 5, 10, 15, 20 mil gil. and I seriously doubt that someone is spending four to five hundred dollars on this game, just to buy marriage bracelets, in hopes of finding 10-15 people who have 5 million to spend this way.
My experience is quite extensive, most of my crafting and gathering jobs are at what was best in slot pre-2.4, I have taken a break to focus on a few things other then crafting and gathering since 2.4 hit.

Melded crafting and gathering BiS cost about 12-15 mil fully melded on my server, a couple of EB band sales away (current pfs are posting around 10 mil for a plat bracelet)

With the exception of the new mastercraft books, the tokens all have macros to get 90-100% hq, no skill involved.

I will concede on your point as far as the new mastercraft books, but not about getting the stats to obtain them.

As far as gathering, the unspoiled nodes for "endgame" tokens and the 2.4 mats require nearly BiS.

Seeing as my points are FACTS, please provide evidence to disprove them as such.