How many of us can be bothered with the endgame crafting

[Ksenia]

Back then, the result of the grind was being able to craft or gather things that were high in demand and additionally low in supply. The various starred items of ARR were useful and desirable. The way forward also wasn't gated by an artificial lockout--you could grind as casually or as furiously as you wanted.

Now, we're unable to craft/progress at our own pace, materials are scarce, and the "rewards" at the end of the grind are by and large meaningless. That's why the HW system is a problem when compared to the ARR one which, although not perfect, still functioned in a meaningful, rewarding way.

I don't quite remember it that way. I remember crafted 50 being 30 to 50 iLevels below reward stuff and all the tomestones coming from the same places, making crafted gear outside crafting an objective you had to go out of your way to do and with lesser gear. I remember people bickering over an over melded wrist slot or an earring slot knowing main and off hand, all body were going to be NPC rewarded.

The 50 to 60 difference? I was expected to grind a DoW duty finder instance for Poetics and it took a week of power grinding to cap. Now I can do it in a few days gathering and crafting.

There are flaws to 60 but that is not one of them. As for scarcity, the scarcity is and was these mythical people with 500 mill gil. The ones that set the housing standard and the ones who could in theory buy their end game crafting. Maybe they are out there. I'm not one of them.