I just...don't care anymore.

[JillyBean]

I'm still capping every week, but I only do so because I know that if the situation changes at some point down the line, I'll be kicking myself for not having kept up with the tokens, as I'll be "behind," and with the gear now being tied to lockouts, if you miss a week, you can't ever really make that week up. I'm not excited to do so, though--in fact, I generally do so begrudgingly. I don't think I'll be buying any more gear outside of main-hands, though, until something changes. I'll just stock the tokens.

Well, for crafter reds it takes 15 mins

Gathering, here and there and suddenly you're capped. I don't think it takes much effort. I still hope it means something someday lol. Worse case scenario I can just buy gear with it.

[Alahra]

Well, for crafter reds it takes 15 mins

It's 15 minutes if you buy all the mats, yes, but also a significant gil investment that way.

[Lastelli]

It's 15 minutes if you buy all the mats, yes, but also a significant gil investment that way.

15 minutes + 500k gil based on my experience...it usually takes me around 40 minutes and 100k gil since I buy raw materials and then quick synth the intermediate mats.

[Alahra]

15 minutes + 500k gil based on my experience...it usually takes me around 40 minutes and 100k gil since I buy raw materials and then quick synth the intermediate mats.

It generally ends up being around 800k to 1 million for me. Prices will vary by server, of course. I make enough to cover it every week, but I dislike essentially "sinking" the gil, since it's not as though getting the pieces will really increase the markets I can tap into.

[dspguy]

I'm with the OP. I was "excited" back during... what was it? 2.4? When they released the new omni-crafter set (minus body) and there was i110 gear that people actually wanted to buy. It was a race to outfit crafters and get master books such that you could get that stuff up on the MB. You had DoW/M zerging T4 for Allagan drops, selling them and then turning around and spending that gil on the final product. Yeah, good times.

They need to really fix something. It used to be that my FC would get excited as I get master books and new gear since I could start helping people out. They wanted to know what the new gear was, or the new barding, housing items, etc. This new system is mostly "self-progression" and it doesn't feel gratifying at all.

[Alahra]

I'm with the OP. I was "excited" back during... what was it? 2.4? When they released the new omni-crafter set (minus body) and there was i110 gear that people actually wanted to buy. It was a race to outfit crafters and get master books such that you could get that stuff up on the MB. You had DoW/M zerging T4 for Allagan drops, selling them and then turning around and spending that gil on the final product. Yeah, good times.

2.4 was definitely a great time for crafters. I made more DoW/M gear for people during 2.4-2.5 than I ever had before (and despite what SE thinks, that was *mostly* because the 110 gear was far better itemized in several areas than other options). But even going back to 2.2 or 2.0, the 3-star and 2-star gear was still very much wanted and accessible.

I had a number of BRD friends running around in Kirimu coats with my name on them, and I really miss that feeling. The 2.4 sets were also some of the best looking gear we've gotten so far (they still sell at pretty good margins too, on my server at least). Some of the new i180 gear is nice, but several of them are just retreads, which isn't exactly very exciting.

[dspguy]

I think all the 2-star body pieces are identical to 1-star body pieces. I don't quite get it.

[Alahra]

I think all the 2-star body pieces are identical to 1-star body pieces. I don't quite get it.

They are, yes. Some of them are actually new models (tank, DRG, healer, and caster all have new sets unique to HW). NIN, MNK, and BRD/MCH all got recolors of level 50 armor, though. NIN and MNK couldn't wear Kirimu before so that's sort of nice for them (though honestly that set isn't exactly very fitting for either class thematically). The BRD/MCH set is a recolor of a set they could already wear at 50 though (i100, Bogatyr's), which is really unfortunate.

[Valesti_Peleiades]

They could, though I think it's unlikely. We've received no indication that they will, and the last we have from Yoshida on the matter states pretty clearly that crafted gear is never really going to be as powerful as it was in ARR.

I also share your skepticism about any future change, but crafted gear doesn't need to be as powerful as it was in ARR; the fact that people used it to clear FCoB in the first week means that it really was overpowered. However, that doesn't mean that crafted gear has to be *worthless* like it is now (never mind that it comes at an enormous opportunity cost). I like to think that there's some sort of middle ground where crafted gear can be desirable for progression, but not overpowered. But I'm not a game developer, so I don't have any real ideas about how to make it happen.

[Valesti_Peleiades]

I totally feel the despair regarding the state of the crafting endgame right now. I was absolutely gung-ho about everything crafting related in 2.x (especially 2.4, the "Golden Age" of crafting), and 3.0 has all but killed my desire to progress as a crafter. Ultimately, it seems to boil down to 2 fundamental problems: 1) there's nothing to do and 2) there's no reason to do what little there is. By 1), I'm referring to the fact that calling it a "crafting endgame" is incredibly misleading, bc let's face it, 90%+ of our time is spent on mind-numbing gathering grinds, and at the end of it, you spend maybe 30 minutes/week crafting the 2-star stuff, which is the only part of it we actually care about doing.

I have a lot of other thoughts and feels about the hot messopotamia that is crafting right now, but the thought of writing it all down is even more depressing. Sigh.