Crafting Needs a Place in Endgame Raiding

[Susanoh]

No one is saying free. I'm saying crafters expecting hundreds of thousands of dollars for crafted gear is obscene. There are plenty of price points for these items that do not involve anyone getting the shaft.

As for the tome farmers, no, it's not. The market for those was absolutely out of control at some points, so of course prices were going to sky rocket, but, again, that happened because to many crafters were paying those prices to begin with. Instead of not paying hyper-inflated prices and farming mats until those rates came back under control, far to many just paid it and adjusted their prices accordingly (and then got butt-hurt when no one wanted to pay those rates).

What many fail to realize is that just because something COSTS 400K to make doesn't mean the end result is WORTH 400K. If you were that upset by the tome gouging, you could have farmed your own, listed for 100K next to those people, and actually made *more* money per item than they were.

I'm not upset by tome gouging. Supply and demand work themselves out to be a specific price and that's the price that will be paid. If people don't pay it, the price eventually lowers, which is what happened.

I don't have a problem with any of the prices of any market items, because the market will work itself out regardless of what happens. People compete with each other, and the price raises or lowers. I just feel as though I should point out that this same logic applies to everyone, not just one specific group. Crafters aren't any more greedy/lazy than the tome farmers or the players wanting to get their hands on crafted gear. The market prices aren't determined just by crafters, but by everyone involved (material farmers, crafters, and those buying crafted items).

[Akiva_Ninazu]

The market prices aren't determined just by crafters, but by everyone involved (material farmers, crafters, and those buying crafted items).

That's only true to a point. In any supply/production chain, the last stop before the end-user has the greatest impact on price and, in many cases, the greatest amount of discretion if they are willing to take the steps necessary to ensure relative competitive freedom.

[Susanoh]

That's only true to a point. In any supply/production chain, the last stop before the end-user has the greatest impact on price and, in many cases, the greatest amount of discretion if they are willing to take the steps necessary to ensure relative competitive freedom.

Anyone who takes the steps necessary can have an impact on the market in this game. Every group is just players putting various amounts of time into their activity of choice. In the same way that crafters could stop buying tome materials to force prices down, people could simply choose not to buy crafted gear to drive the prices down.

I've spent plenty of time on crafting in this game, but also farming dungeons and tomes, and it's absolutely no surprise to me why things worked out the way they did initially. Crafted gear was obscenely expensive to produce compared to darklight, and required the same resource as darklight. Requiring over 2,000 philosophy items for a single piece of crafted gear when darklight was raining from the sky with next to no effort involved is what caused the situation to become what it was. This isn't a case of "these guys are lazy" or "those guys should have sold cheaper materials," people did what they did because the game was designed in such a way that it was bound to happen from the beginning.