whats the point of crafting...

[Jynx]

The anoying part about the tombs for Ilvl 70 gear is that the darklight equivalent is cheaper and easier to obtain. While one can actually "Sell" the gear they craft the profit margin is next to none due to lack of utillity the gear presents without heavy melding. People would rather just slap their darklight on and not worry about melding, especially for a few items that require 2-3 crafted tomb items.

It's insane who would spend 3000+ tombs on a single item when they could gear their entire character for almost as much.

[TwingTwang]

Keeping crafted gear weaker then end game dungeon gear is definitely the better idea. AKA: Work hard to....wear hard? O_o

Lowering tombs costs wont solve anything either. I understand crafted gear costs are ridic but the community is what controls those prices. The devs shouldn't have to adjust their specs because Joe, Moe, and Lo want 56240567204576 Gil for their crafted chest piece. Maybe if they had the player names on the Market Boards rather then the Retainers you could try PM'ing or emailing the player and do offers if you saw what you wanted.

[Lucke]

What about instead of buying Darklight outright, you have to buy pieces and parts for Phil/Myth tomes. Then you have to take it to a crafter who uses these pieces and parts to make the armor? If you really want people to level crafting, make it so only the player can make it.

[Kincard]

This doesn't seem that difficult of an issue to fix.

Just make iLVL 90 Dungeon gear the "Jobs" of armor while making the Crafted gear the "Classes" of armor.

This is also a good idea. Honestly there's no shortage of good ideas for them to fix this in a way so that crafting feels like it actually has an endgame or some kind of interaction with the top tier of battle play (And no shortage of bad ideas either I guess), the only real reason they wouldn't take any one of them is laziness.

[Mihael_Longclaw]

I'd actually level crafting classes if you could make top-end gear only usable by the crafter. I was doing ARM, but it just felt so useless that I stopped, but if I could make myself some special gear/vanity gear, that's comparable to dungeon gear that would be best.
Give people something to work towards that isn't "grind for drops, grind for tomes".

[Vanidin]

Until there is a realistic level of demand for crafted goods (let's be honest.. primarily consumables) crafting in this game is little more than a time consuming hobby.
So long as consumables aren't worth bothering for and crafted gear continues to be a waste of time... the lack of demand will just get worse.

Thanks for confirming that crafting is pointless by design Yoshi P.

[Xenobius]

Crafted gear that is worth the effort should be:

Maximum available item level (90 for now);
Made from bind-on-pickup materials obtainable from Coil;
Bound to character upon creation/untradeable;
Customizeable, with both materia and dyes;
Unconditionally better than Allagan if HQ and slotted with proper materia;

...Or you can just forget about crafting and just sell tomes to naive people who think it's somehow "useful" and spend your money on consumables/repairs only.

[Feilina]

I wouldn't say laziness. It is more a kind of being too protective to their product and some kind of stinginess.
Yoshida made the decision to not give the crafters the standing they had in 1.x. Was it a good one? In my honest oppinion it was the worst he could have done.
They reworked the crafting extraordinary good. The using of skills, just like a fight, was an excellent idea. But at this point the evolution stopped, suddenly. In fact we lost the ability to produce comparative items, be it because of high costs, missing damage or the focusing of one crafting class (only goldsmith can offer nearly comparable items, if melded properly). They drew a system with a potential no other modern game has atm, but let it stuck "one foot/meter" before the goal. The last step has to be done, and it has to be a good compromiss, nothing other seems to be expectable, as Yoshida "hinted".
Let us see what he offers us with the PVP things he mentioned and 2.1 in a whole.
"Only" housing crafting will not please me, and i ecpect others too.

Sure RMT has to be considered and is absolutly valid but we can't, we mustn't stand back 'cause of those suckers trying to diminish our game experiance! SE has to risk a bit and we, the community, has to report em every single time we see some.

[Applekrumble]

I'm not keen on just 'settling' for housing crafting - as experienced in another game where furniture were prevalent (LOTRO), it's pretty much a waste of time decorating your home when you usually won't be receiving visitors. Sure, for the first two months you'd probably have a bunch of people coming and going but eventually everyone's just gonna be busy doing the same thing; dungeon runs, coiling and farming for other junk - and hardly stopping by at their own house/friend's.

"Looking ahead to Patch 2.2, crafters will be able to alter gear designs using a “template” system (official name TBD), giving them yet another role in creating desirable gear. " - This would be much more appropriate given that players are more likely to flaunt about in their appearances VS having static junk back home.

On that note; is that "template" system to override the "Vanity Slot"s that were being discussed in the forum and confirmed by a mod?

[Barthezz]

Why not alternate ilvls between crafted and dropped gear? As an example, iLVL60 crafted, iLVL 70 dropped/tome purchase, iLVL 80 crafted, ilvl90 dropped/tome purchase etc this might give a good enough gap, forcing people to purchase some gear to attempt the next level dungeon?, and perhaps after a big patch or 2 have said missing slots filled (by offerring craftable alternatives to iLVL gear that is droppable, and droppable gear for previously non droppable iLVL), and always having the highest/best gear be droppable/tome purchase, but at the same time requiring at least a few iLVL gears from the lower tear (craftable) to increase the proficiency of the player while working on getting the best gear from the hardest dungeon, while also not making it a must have requirement to attempt the highest dungeon as to not force people to feel pressured to purchase the best gear.