Since I've been mostly checking out all the new stuff that is actually fun, I haven't sat down and crafted any yet (Although I've been overcome with joy with most of the new items, a lot of them look really really awesome). I'm still a little skeptical of how difficult it will be to make the base materials for finished items. A lot of the recipes went from 1x raw -> 3/4/12x base. Has anyone gone out and procured materials and actually crafted through this new 1 to 1 system now, and if so, how good/bad is it now?

At first glance it looks as though this new system severely favors all the people who already have every craft rank 50 and punishes all the people trying to skill up. BUT I don't know all the facts yet.