Why is everything so cheap all of a sudden?

[Liam_Harper]

It is a wonderful thing: the ability to craft one's own max-iLevel gear without having to pay millions of gil for the latest-and-greatest each patch.

But gear was never hard to get. Normal 8 mans and the current 24 man raid usually drop gear that's more than enough for everything in the game below Savage, not to mention Tomes. You never had to pay millions to gear, it was just a luxury. Max level raid gear handed over on a plate just isn't necessary.

It damages more than the economy when endgame items are too accessible. There's a reason most MMO's don't just hand everything over once you hit 80 and raids have loot lockouts. It means less reason to run Normal raids, dungeons and Alliances. Crafting no longer keeps players occupied. Things like Materia are worthless as rewards. I doubt it was intended for everything to be this cheap at all.

[Wilford111]

There's still stuff out there that costs millions of gil, you just gotta work for it to get it. Makes sense to me.

[Necrotic_One]

What if I Told you there's an invasion of bots, gatherers, crafters and market board idles?

Also I've been reporting some of the obvious ones, have yet to see any action taken against them, honestly it's frustrating.

[Jojoya]

What if I Told you there's an invasion of bots, gatherers, crafters and market board idles?

Also I've been reporting some of the obvious ones, have yet to see any action taken against them, honestly it's frustrating.

It's not really an invasion at this point. Gathering bots pre-date when I started playing in HW. Crafting bots (and the market bots they use) have been present most of the expansion.

Also, some who are assumed to be bots are actually legitimate players. Most of the activity that people call "proof" can be done by a single person that is knowledgeable and organized. Some of the suspected bots have disappeared so SE is taking action at times. It could be the others are legitimate players or SE is still studying them before taking action.

It doesn't do much good to blanket ban bots that can be back in business on new accounts 48 hours later if they're not also implementing measures that obstruct the bot behavior. But they also have to be careful that such obstructions don't also hinder legitimate players.

[Necrotic_One]

It's not really an invasion at this point. Gathering bots pre-date when I started playing in HW. Crafting bots (and the market bots they use) have been present most of the expansion.

Also, some who are assumed to be bots are actually legitimate players. Most of the activity that people call "proof" can be done by a single person that is knowledgeable and organized. Some of the suspected bots have disappeared so SE is taking action at times. It could be the others are legitimate players or SE is still studying them before taking action.

It doesn't do much good to blanket ban bots that can be back in business on new accounts 48 hours later if they're not also implementing measures that obstruct the bot behavior. But they also have to be careful that such obstructions don't also hinder legitimate players.

I've been having a bit of a crusade on my server against market bots and can 100% identify 3 crafters that are associated with bots as well as wat would be around 20 retainers that bot for them.
I've literally been baiting them for the last few days buying their botted goods for cheap. I have reported both one gathering bot (that has been online for at the very least 10 days 24/7) as well as one of said crafters that has bots on the entire DC but have yet to see any form of repercussions for them. At this point I'm both wondering if its worth to report them as such an report does take quite a bit of time.