I have been a very dedicated crafter. I have sunk hundreds of hours into leveling up all my classes and making money to afford to gear up my crafting. At this point, I am 3-star on three classes and 2-star on the others. However, I am not planning on doing 4-star in the near future. My problem is not the difficulty of crafting (I got my LTW book in about 20 minutes with no new equipment or surpas). The issue is the scarcity of resources and the lack of reward in the end.

At this point, with the patch being a couple weeks old, Ehcatl Sealants run 450k and mastercraft demimaterias run 1 million on my server. After spending a fortune on all the crafting equipment, I then have to spend a fortune on materials. I haven't checked these as recently, but Allagan silks were running 300k last time I looked, and it takes several of those plus other materials to make each piece of i110. At the end of the day, we are talking tens of millions of gil to get to 4-star. I understand prices will go down over time, but only by so much before new ways to get materials are introduced in the future.

I don't have that kind of gil. I could eventually make enough money, but it seems a waste to use it on i110. You see, in the time I spent developing my crafting and making i90, everyone else geared up to i110 by doing hunts and other content. By the time I can get to i110 on crafting, everyone else will be i120-130 from Poetics. Why should I work so hard and spend so much gil just to get to the level everyone was at pre-patch and be behind where they are now?


I have an idea for how crafting can be more viable for endgame content. I understand SE does not want people to be able to buy their way to the top. I appreciate that, but I also understand there is a difference between buying your way to the top and crafting your way to the top.

My idea is to create "custom" or "tailored" versions of the new equipment at a higher ilvl (like i120) and make them untradeable. It would work very similarly to the augmented cashmere coats. You make the regular one first, then do an additional craft with that as the base to make the new item. It could be a more difficult craft than the regular i110 4-star.

By making the higher version untradeable, it has to be earned, not bought. Getting it is still no easy feat. Very few crafters have the kind of Gil it takes to gear up quickly. For most, it would still be faster to gear up with Poetics. This doesn't make it easier, just more worthwhile.