Quote Originally Posted by MN_14 View Post
In order for a specialist to be able to compete better against an omni-crafter, they've also decided to introduce systems to slow omni-crafters down.
Specialists are kind of DOA. The skills you get for being a specialist aren't even worth using as they currently are, with maybe the exception of Nymeia's Wheel. It's not impossible to hit 60 with a single crafter, but it's not very efficient and certainly not as easy as it would be with the support of other crafts.

They've really made the level 51+ crafts interdependent on other crafts. You can purchase the crafted goods, but it'll hurt your purse-strings significantly.

As for the gear thing, I'm kind of on the fence. On the one side I love having unique looking crafters. On the other hand, it's really going to sting to meld every single crafter with it's own full set of materia.