Why is crafting/gathering so difficult/grindy?

[Frizze]

With top-of-the-line gear from ARR it won't be difficult at all getting started with HW crafting/gathering.
Most people today won't have that though. They will have reached level 50, done the level 50 class quest and got the rewards from that and otherwise have levelling gear.
At that point there is a HUGE gap up to what is needed for the level 51+ stuff.
And that is where many people find it difficult - they don't want to do the ARR endgame grinding for gear just to be able to continue levelling.

Theres a crafting mechanic behind this that isnt well explained in game, but that the community has worked out. Simply put, your level(in addition to your stats) is compared to the level of the craft when determining progress and quality increases. At lower levels, the effect is small. Once you get to 50 and beyond the difference becomes much more significant. This is where ingenuity 2 earns its keep(and ingenuity to a lesser extent), as treating the recipe as a lower level for the next few steps means your skills(especially progress related) work at a much more efficient pace. So using your skills can help.

Of course, theres an easy solution to this as well. You dont have endgame gear? Dont worry about it. At level 50, make level 50 recipes(only going to 51s if youre prepared for it to be harder). Once you get level 51, upgrade to the level 51 crafting set. Now you have the stats to keep going and you didnt grind for any extra gear.