Why is Crafting still in the game?

[Nekodar]

I craft pretty much all of the gear I use for levelling the 5 classes I don't have at 50 yet.
Every 2-5 levels, a new gearset, with weapons/shields as I level up.
Let everything spiritbond and convert to materia...

[Ddmk]

I don't think crafted gear should surpass gear you get via tomes dungeon loot of the same lv. I think it should be a decent/viable enough for those who can't wait for drops/lockouts.

Ok I agree but something needs to change as it stands, you pay more tomes to craft on par items I propose either:-

Make the crafts require less mats and keep gear the same
OR
keep the cost the same and make the gear stronger

I'm not asking for bis, but if I'm spending my tomes on materials for a risky craft I want it to be worthwhile

[Nekodar]

Ok I agree but something needs to change as it stands, you pay more tomes to craft on par items I propose either:-

Make the crafts require less mats and keep gear the same
OR
keep the cost the same and make the gear stronger

I'm not asking for bis, but if I'm spending my tomes on materials for a risky craft I want it to be worthwhile

There are people out there that can 100% HQ the 2 Star recipes without having to rely on luck... Risky only if you're not one of those.
And those crafted i70 items are better than darklight, at least when HQ, and definitely when they've been melded, so it does make sense for them to cost more.

[Ddmk]

Ok lets take this example. you can buy darklight hands waist and feet for the cost of crafting 1 of these items.
Yes you can pentameld the crafted items if you have a few million Gil to waste to do it.
I agree crafted can be better but the cost of mats and materia is too high for such a small gain.
Thus the improvement should start with base stats and be improved even more with materia IMHO

Crafting gear will always be 20ish levels lower than best gear,but due to the cost I still think it should be better .

[KraggyKor]

Then, I realized that crafted gear for War/Magic classes required the same tomestones that were used to buy darklight. In some cases, the crafted gear needed more of them. That made crafting gear for War/Magic classes completely obsolete. Who in their right mind would collect an equivalent or higher number of tomestones and spend it on crafted gear instead of Darklight? .

For those of us that won't tolerate the horrible Tome grind to get DL are quite happy to buy iLevel 70 bling (and other gear perhaps) the moment we 'ding' 50. Saves a lot of tedious re-running WP/AK/DRs/whatever grinding Tomes for DL bling.

[Tetsaru]

I craft pretty much all of the gear I use for levelling the 5 classes I don't have at 50 yet.
Every 2-5 levels, a new gearset, with weapons/shields as I level up.
Let everything spiritbond and convert to materia...

I used to do the same thing... until I got everything to 50.

It's kinda messed up, now that I think about it: you level up and spiritbind old gear to convert into materia to use on newer gear, but once you hit 50 and start getting endgame dungeon gear, it all becomes useless, unless you sell it, use it for crafting/gathering classes, or are working on a relic (which, I have all of those now too).

[Sove92]

Even now, tanks get more from the Gryphonskin jewellery + Rose Gold Earscrews than from the i90 raid accessories. That 400 extra HP compared to 49 extra STR (which boosts you to next Parry reduction tier too, and extra damage generates more hate) is meaningless in a good party, nothing in the game needs you to have that 400 extra. It's safer, sure, but the overall returns are still better from the crafts.

[Tetsaru]

Even now, tanks get more from the Gryphonskin jewellery + Rose Gold Earscrews than from the i90 raid accessories. That 400 extra HP compared to 49 extra STR (which boosts you to next Parry reduction tier too, and extra damage generates more hate) is meaningless in a good party, nothing in the game needs you to have that 400 extra. It's safer, sure, but the overall returns are still better from the crafts.

I actually main PLD and use these, mainly because PLD/WAR can actually benefit from having STR, VIT, and DEX. Other jobs... not so much. It's kinda odd because you don't see any other high ilvl accessories with both STR and DEX on them. I suspect SE will do something along the Fending/Slaying/Aiming/Healing/Casting route with whatever new crafted gear they introduce.

That said, while these accessories have served me well and I wish there were more options like them, I spent way too much gil (probably in the millions range) making them. And if SE is intent on the "keep dungeon ilvl's higher than crafted ilvl's" mindset, I doubt I'll do it over again. I'd like to have enough gil ready for when personal housing comes out, lol...

[FJerome]

A lot of the content in this game, like housing and half the end-game dungeons, seems to assume the average player is in a reasonably small, reasonably rich and extremely tight-knit FC. iL70 crafted gear has one huge advantage over drops - you can transfer it easily between players - so if you have the resources the moment a friend hits 50, ding, HQ i70 penta-melded everything. No fuss, no muss, no tedious queuing for CT.

[Ooshima]

Personally, I felt that PvP gears could be a turn around for crafters but it doesn't seem to be the case.

If SE had made all PvP gears, (i55, i70 and i90) obtainable through crafting, then I think it would have made the crafting scene more lively again.

i55 gears could be made through current mats, then players wear them and get into PvP, earn wolfmarks where these wolfmarks can buy new crafting mats specifically used to craft i70 and i90 gears.