With the prices of philo tome mats being so cheap now, there is no reason why a new 50 job shouldn't start out in a full set of crafted ilvl70 gear. Are people really that poor or just don't want to spend their tomes that they probably already have on themselves? Is it really worth selling tome mats anymore? They go for dirt cheap on my server, if you want to make money, you do something else on Leviathan. :x

I know darklight would require less effort and you'd just replace the gear anyway. But really, it's going to take weeks to replace all of it. Might as well have something that is just as good as darklight, or better if you actually materia it. At the very least, someone just starting the game should get crafted ilvl70 jewelery instead of darklight so they can put vitality materia in it, so they can increase their health. This is particularly good for healers who have lower health. I rarely see this though. :/

But definitely, crafters aren't used for much, except maybe to make raid food. It's kind of sad. It's these kinds of things that I mentioned, that aren't taken advantage of that makes me wonder why people level crafting at all.