Quote Originally Posted by Caimie_Tsukino View Post
@1: That's not reasonable. Crafted gear has ALWAYS been 20 ilevels below strongest tome gear available. Currently the Esoretics i200 vs the crafted i180 is not a problem. S-E made it very clear from day 1 of ARR that crafted gear will NEVER be strongest in the game. If you make crafted gear i200, and meldable, they will surpass Esoretics. In case you haven't noticed, the effect of pentamelding is similar to adding an extra 20 ilevels. So a fully, properly melded i180 will be very close to the powers of an i200. However, we do not have the proper materia to do so at the moment. So the problem lies in the materia and in the availability of i180. Not something that we can fix by making crafted gear i190.
@2: I believe 3* i180 accessories needing i170 crafting gear / specialization to make would be a fair thing to have in the next patch.
@3: Yes, they need "raid mats"... it can be like Myth mats or Soldery mats in the past, or it can be like Allagan leathers / Silks which are "drops" / "loots". Some kinda of raid mat will ensure money flow from crafters to raiders... and in return, raiders will have money to buy i180 accessories from crafters.
@4: Well, we all want it easier and faster, don't we? I won't complain if they make it cost only 25! I just don't see it happening too soon.
@5: No, just make skyspring water needed for some kind of recipe, like i180 accessories (but uses fewer other Favor mats please).
@6: Yes, SERIOUSLY! Everybody is agreeing with this right now.
@7: Yes, whoever decided that potions should come in only 1 was really really really "UNWISE" (I'm being as civilized as I can here, trying my best not to use any swear words).
@8: Well, but high level fish are rare, and if they're used for making food, then that food will be come very unavailable... It can be another problem.
I'm kind of iffy on proposition 7 right now, just because a lot of gatherers, myself included, have thrown lots of time and effort into their own scrips so they can get their left-side gear, and introducing them now, several weeks after DoLs have been grinding for their gear, would cause a lot of drama.

As a compromise position:
1) Add craftable DoL gear, but not until 3.2 or whenever the next tier of DoH/L is.
2) Start adding craftable DoL gear, but keep the mainhand gated behind scrips, kind of like how the DoL Supras and Lucises were gated behind independent gathering in 2.x.

However, your figure is absolutely beautiful and summarizes the current situation far better than a paragraph can. Wonderful job, Caimie.