Quote Originally Posted by Roth_Trailfinder View Post
Its a deliberate decision based upon a flawed premise. Yes, it is functioning as they intended - though if they are going to kill crafting through irrelevancy, why bother adding new nodes, new recipes, new crafted gear?

Its an inherent design flaw when one aspect of your creation is in direct contradiction to another aspect, or direction. Here, you have on the one hand the fact that crafting is in the game, and there are several systems to support this (Gathering is a big one, but also the Marketboard). On the other hand is the general irrelevancy of star level crafting currently in game.
I don't see how separating raid gear and crafted gear is a flawed premise. If you can craft the best gear in the game, there's less incentive to raid. Yes they still have the challenge behind them, but it makes it very possible for someone that just has a lot of gil to be better geared than the game's top-notch raiders. Something about that just doesn't sit well with me at all. If you want the best gear that the game has to offer, go raid.