Please reevaluate the balance between crafted and U/U items.

[Molly_Millions]

In my, admittedly biased, opinion: crafted gear should always be better than dropped gear otherwise there is no point in having crafting at all.

+1 to this. I'm not even a crafter.

[Murugan]

My issue isn't so much that gear is crafted, it is that it takes cobalt ignots, and karakul fleece as the highest tier "materials". What a joke.

Is it more than 100k to make any of the high level crafted pieces in the game?

NM's should drop special mats to make the best gear, period. Crafters are useful, and so is battle content. The pinnacle of itemization for a disciple of war or magic should not be aoe'ing a bunch of sheep in Coerthas for hours on end to get enough fleece so you can win the RNG battle against materia slotting.

[kro]

Cobalt Haubergeon (Red)
Def 162
Str +6
Att +6
Acc +6

Solid Scale Mail (Unique/Untradable)
Def 163
HP +32
Att +7
Acc +7
Magic Evasion +2
Parry +3

In this case, NQ crafted gear with 0 materia is better than an r50 darkhold item. Never mind the fact that dozens upon dozens of crafters can make this thing for dirt cheap including myself.

150k for best-in-slot gear with the potential to be even better with materia OR organizing a somewhat prepared group to raid darkhold for a chest with low drop rate

Golly gee, I wonder which I should pick...

[Jinko]

What ever happends I jsut hope to god that they dont go the WoW way(every few months gear is garbage and new gear comes into play) and More take on the FFXI gear value, where a piece of gear can last sometimes yrs if its that DAMN good.

This is unlikely to happen, the reason why gear lasted so long in 11 was the cap stayed at 75 for like 5-6 years, personally I prefer the way WoW requires you to keep changing your gear, gives me something to continuously work towards.

Lets not forget that everything in 14 is easy to farm also so its not really comparable to 11 where it took months and years to get the gear you wanted.

NM's should drop special mats to make the best gear, period.

Totally agree with this, having the old world NM's drop materials was a really good step in the right direction IMO, obviously this doesn't solve the issue that rare items still can't be melded but Yoshi really should consider making all monster drop rare crafting items more than rare gear.

Vindictus has a nice system where all bosses and monsters in instances drop crafting items, obviously its a little different in that NPC's craft in that game but it could be done in a similar way obviously with PC's crafting instead.

[Cycloptichorn]

Cobalt Haubergeon (Red)
Def 162
Str +6
Att +6
Acc +6

Solid Scale Mail (Unique/Untradable)
Def 163
HP +32
Att +7
Acc +7
Magic Evasion +2
Parry +3

In this case, NQ crafted gear with 0 materia is better than an r50 darkhold item. Never mind the fact that dozens upon dozens of crafters can make this thing for dirt cheap including myself.

150k for best-in-slot gear with the potential to be even better with materia OR organizing a somewhat prepared group to raid darkhold for a chest with low drop rate

Golly gee, I wonder which I should pick...

Uh, before materia, the Solid Scale Mail is clearly superior.

[Molly_Millions]

Cobalt Haubergeon (Red)
Def 162
Str +6
Att +6
Acc +6

Solid Scale Mail (Unique/Untradable)
Def 163
HP +32
Att +7
Acc +7
Magic Evasion +2
Parry +3

In this case, NQ crafted gear with 0 materia is better than an r50 darkhold item.

Since when is 6 > 7? The scale mail also has additional stats, or did you just ignore those to try to prove your (invalid) conclusion.

[Naylia]

The comparison above is targeted at DDs. For that purpose, the Cobalt Hauby is superior. If you were thinking about tanking or some other purpose, you'd compare the Solid Scale Mail to different crafted gear, which would be superior for that purpose.

I'd much rather that crafted gear be multi-purpose, flexible class gear - while the dungeon/boss/stronghold drops at least have a shot at being best-in-slot for some purpose. The only thing that Solid Scale Mail is best-in-slot for is for GLA/MRD/LNCs that only want one piece of gear and play all three classes. But if you play all three of those classes optimally, you would be better off with three different pieces of crafted gear.

And with a single materia guaranteed slotting without risk, you really are comparing to a Cobalt Hauby (Red) + 1 Materia IV as the crafted item. The comparison above leaves out a mat to complete the final synth.

[Molly_Millions]

The comparison above is targeted at DDs. For that purpose, the Cobalt Hauby is superior. If you were thinking about tanking or some other purpose, you'd compare the Solid Scale Mail to different crafted gear, which would be superior for that purpose.

you're only taking into account dps, what about damage taken? That's still important to DD, especially when you want to do anything on your own or without a proper tank.

[Naylia]

you're only taking into account dps, what about damage taken? That's still important to DD, especially when you want to do anything on your own or without a proper tank.

Agreed...the Solid Scale Mail would be a better solo/small party gear. Hmmm....now to convince 3 someones to help me go collect one

[Cycloptichorn]

you're only taking into account dps, what about damage taken? That's still important to DD, especially when you want to do anything on your own or without a proper tank.

Even with a tank. When things get hairy, you can't rely on the tank to have every single mob going after him. I've seen PT's fall apart many a time when one too many mobs gets linked, or two mobs pop when you're already fighting 4-5. A DD who can't soak up a couple of big hits for 30 seconds is a liability.