I've hit level 50 in all crafts, and I've come to the realisation that it's pretty pointless.

Here's why:

1) In the time it takes to level all crafts and gatherings to 50, you can level all combat classes to 50
2) Almost all HQ 1-star gear is matched or beaten by drops in WP or AK
3) HQ 1-star gear is outclassed by Darklight gear, except in rare cases with penta-meld
4) HQ 2-star gear is equalled by Darklight gear. Penta-melded HQ 2-star will generally beat Darklight, however see point 5)
5) It requires 23 runs of WP/AK to earn enough Phil tomes to buy the materials to make a single piece of 2-star gear (HQ or otherwise). In that time, you will have earned 690-820 Myth times, which is enough to buy Artifact 2 gear, which outclasses penta-melded HQ 2-star gear in almost all scenarios barring a few examples


Ok, but crafting earns us gil you may. Gil to buy what exactly? All the gear you need you can obtain through dungeons/tomes.

About the only thing that is of any benefit with crafting is food.

I guess where I'm going with this is the following.

Make 1-star NQ gear ilvl 55 (rather than current ilvl 50), and 1-star HQ gear ilvl 60, 2-star NQ gear at least ilvl80, and HQ 2-star gear ilvl 90, and THEN we'd at least have the scenario where it's actually worthwhile to craft anything other than food, and also allow people some form of customisation, rather than all wearing the same Allegan/AF2 gear at end-game.