I am probably alone in this but.....

[Alahra]

Next patch everyone and their mom is going to be a 4 star crafter and it's going to destroy the economy.

I'm pretty sure the economy will be fine. The Ironworks sets aren't particularly more difficult to make than the i60 Artisan's sets were, and they're also more difficult to meld (since you didn't need to fully pentameld some of the left side Artisan's to cap it, IIRC). The economy was plenty healthy after the introduction of Artisan's, and it should remain healthy going forward. What we're seeing here is simply a return to form: the 3.0/3.1 crafting progression dealt a pretty heavy blow to the crafting community on my server, at least, and it's actually vibrant again, which is important to having an economy that works not just for the folks with the time/gil to omnicraft the i170 sets, but for midcore and casual crafters, gatherers, and even battle classes.

[FoxyAreku]

I'm pretty sure the economy will be fine. The Ironworks sets aren't particularly more difficult to make than the i60 Artisan's sets were, and they're also more difficult to meld (since you didn't need to fully pentameld some of the left side Artisan's to cap it, IIRC). The economy was plenty healthy after the introduction of Artisan's, and it should remain healthy going forward. What we're seeing here is simply a return to form: the 3.0/3.1 crafting progression dealt a pretty heavy blow to the crafting community on my server, at least, and it's actually vibrant again, which is important to having an economy that works not just for the folks with the time/gil to omnicraft the i170 sets, but for midcore and casual crafters, gatherers, and even battle classes.

The artisan sets still took time though, probably in part to how the sealants were ONLY able to be gotten from Ixali (at least, as far as I was aware).

I remember it taking me weeks to get a full set of artisan due to that, and they were a lot more expensive than ironworks as well from what I recall.

I dunno, it just doesn't feel like an accomplishment to have an ironworks set like all previous sets did, it's just too easy.

[Nezerius]

It took 16 days of Ixali dailies to get enough for the artisan chest, gloves, pants and boots, spectacles being from turn ins. (This was before the last rank daily rewards were increased to 2 oaknots)
Takes roughly the same amount of days for the Ironworks hat, chest, gloves, pants and boots, depending on how far the crafter is with the moogle tribe (but significantly less if the crafter is rank 7)
The artisan's offhands were the ones that took ages, since it required 8 days worth of sealants per offhand.

Part of the reason why the artisan set was more expensive (as well as more of an accomplishment to make) was the fact that the recipes were behind an RNG wall (Master Book II HQ turn in items), so less crafters had those recipes.
On the other hand, the ironworks set recipes only require a bit of blue scrip farming.
I'd also say that the ironworks set feels less of an accomplishment because of the contrast between this set and the previous set, as the i170 sets took quite a bit of effort to craft.

All in all, having a crafted set like this makes it easier for new crafters to get up to speed for 3.4, and the 4-star recipes it brings. A good amount of specialists being able to craft the new DoW/M gear makes for a more healthy economy, due to it being difficult to monopolize the market on day 1, and making it more likely for raiders to buy the new gear since it'll be at a more reasonable price.

It's just such a ridiculous 180 from how it was , just gearing out your 3 specialist classes took time and effort. You had to spend time farming favors and red scrips and you felt so satisfied when you got that awesome looking gear for your favorite crafter job, and you felt special because so few other people had it, but this is just... "Oh yay an ironworks piece, that was easy."

Crafting was turning into a second job. I found farming favors to be extremely boring (but kept doing it due to having enough time on my hands). Did I feel satisfied when I completed the set? Sure, but not because I got to be some special snowflake with a dyeable version of a red scrip set that most other crafters were running around with (the i180 version).
The reason why few had those dyeable sets was because a lot of crafters quit crafting with the changes that were made in 3.0/3.1, and either lacked time or interest in the amount of effort it took, for rather little gain. Sure, 3.2 was quite the reward, but 3.0 made the future of crafting seem rather bleak.

[FoxyAreku]

Favors were pretty horrible when they were first introduced, but they were nerfed pretty quickly and I for one didn't think it took /that/ long to get materials.

3.0 did make it look bleak, but 3.2 was by far the best crafting patch we've EVER had, in my opinion anyway.

Also want to say, I never considered it a second job, just something to work towards like everything else. But I did notice a lot of people, some of my friends included, quitting crafting during this period. Never understood why, but I guess I just have a higher tolerance for this stuff. It didn't feel any worse than what DoW/DoM have to do on a daily basis to gear up to me.

All in all I just think they made this way too easy, you don't even have to do moogles at all if you have desynthesis leveled, which though everyone doesn't have, it makes the item be in more surplus and lower the value.