Why break the circle?

[m3eansean]

Wait for the new Relic Quest. Then we'll see where the market shifts. Relic was why materia were so highly priced. Now that Grade IV is easier to get and the relic quest is merely for glamour, a major part of the market has collapsed.

As for crafted gear itself, it's never been a huge part of pve needs as far as I know, although there was some BiS options for Bard that involved crafting in 2.5. But its unusual for a pve class to /need/ crafted gear, unless for glamour.

Crafted gear in 2.0 when pentamelded, was yards ahead of darklight gear at the time. Groups cleared BCoB right when it was released and the devs actually commented that they didnt anticipate this kind of melding and equipping, as it gave a bigger advantage than they planned for in BCoB. The crafted gear from 2.3-2.5 was competitive in certain pieces when pentamelded and almost every Job could get a BiS crafted piece, some were chest, some were rings, etc etc.

It was a bit more than just Bard pieces from 2.5. In this expansion, they absolutely decimated the edge crafted gear gave and have heavily gated crafting behind weekly scrip caps. It seems pretty clear SE wanted to knock crafting down a few pegs, because they were concerned the better FC's and groups of players with high amounts of gil and crafted jobs leveled, would establish a clear advantage over other players if the normal pattern continued.

Though, it does leave a sour taste in the mouth.