I just...don't care anymore.

[Alahra]

Awhile back, I elected to gear my crafters solely on the i180/Scrip gear for the time being, since the usefulness of 2-star crafting is pretty debatable. I'm keeping costs low by avoiding melding.

A few weeks ago, I finished my ALC left side (it's always been my "main" DoH, so I did it first). In retrospect, I'm not really sure why I did. All it's enabled me to do is get my scrips done more easily.

Next week, I'm set to get my mainhand for my next DoH class (most likely LTW), and I realized today that I have enough extra tokens to pick up one side piece without slowing down my progression on main hand or body.

But I've realized I just don't care anymore. Without exciting things to craft, my motivation is entirely gone. The dyable i170 sets are nice, but they're a huge resource sink (tons of materia to get the class to 2-star level without the i180 gear and then even more materia to make them match the i180 gear).

I really hope we hear something from SE regarding the future of crafting. I want to be excited to hit each new tier like I always was in ARR. Hitting 2-stars back in 2.0 felt like an accomplishment that meant something, and ditto for every stage after that--and more importantly, I was *excited* to do so.

That excitement is all gone now, replaced with, at best, the knowledge that I "need" to cap scrips every week just so that I'm not "behind" if crafting ever becomes something I want to pursue seriously again.

[Katlyna]

I'm still doing scripts every week but I haven't made many pieces. I actually over 40 red crafting AND gathering scripts saved up. Instead of making the pieces (which is pretty dull) I've started Savage raiding. So I concur!

[Caimie_Tsukino]

I've been spending more time on excel sheet theorycrafting than actually doing 2 star crafting. That's how the situation is to me right now. Sorry, but Favors is not what I signed up for. I can bare with it for a few pieces of i170, but not enough motivation get more than 10 pieces like this. I straight up traded an i180 mainhand for my CRP. Not because I dont want to craft it or lack the skill to do so, but simply because I don't wanna waste 4 hours on Favors. Repetitively hitting those nodes for hours in a rush hurts my wrist when I was doing it for my ARM chest, BSM chest and a few accessories. And it was soooo boring!

I now spend more time on leveling DoW/DoM instead.

I think someone once commented on my Heavensward crafting guide being very informative but somehow managed to be depressing... Well, I can't help it! Back then, each time I get a class to level 50, it was sooo exciting with a new cross class skill to add into my rotations. And getting the blue class quest tools was such a "trophy". Now for each level 60 you can a bunch of Tier IV materia. Can't say they're useless... but frequently, they just blow up on overmelds anyway... Don't really have a "trophy" feeling.

[doctapeppa]

I've made 9 i170 pieces so far. The actual act of crafting them has been very satisfying, but I get less and less motivated every time I need to go out and grind more favors. I'm part of a large FC that had a major focus on crafting in ARR, but now all but 2 of the other main crafters quit... and the 2 that still log on regularly don't even really craft any more.

5 days left until my sub runs out...

[Caimie_Tsukino]

It feels kinda sad when someone asks me if I got a Class Quest tool for my lvl 60 class quest.
"Hey Caimie, did you get anything cool for reaching level 60?"
"Er... Yea... See that red dot I have on my crafting ring? That's my "trophy" after completing 3 lvl 60 class quests!"
"Hmm.... interesting... What does it do?"
"It makes you look like some rich people! XD"

In my old crafting guide, I have 1 chapter dedicated to congratulating people with All-50, and telling them that the "real fun has just begun"!
In my new Heavensward crafting guide, I don't have such a phrase in there... I just can't lie about it. I don't see how "red scrips" and "favors" being the real fun...

Back in Patch 2.2, we had CUL where we can cheaply practice and experiment on 3 star crafting. In Patch 2.4, we could still somewhat experiment 4 star crafting with Ebony Lumber. Right now? Wanna do 2 star crafting? Go do hours of Favors (RNG game), buy some Leafborne Aethersands (or do Aetherial Reduction yourself, which is ALSO an RNG game), grab some 1 star gathering items (which required freaking 4950 Blue Gathering Scrips EACH to unlock), then you can do it! LOL!

S-E better get this fixed in 3.1 soon. If they're delaying the fixing of this till next year, I dunno how many crafters would quit. Why don't they start off by creating NEW Favor crafting raw mats that require only 1 ooid and 1 bladeleaf for 1 piece of Enriched Chicken Broth, so we can at least do some easy 2 star CUL? It's not going to be game-breaking, is it? Don't be so lazy and inhuman please, S-E. Create some 2 star CUL items for us that is EASIER to acquire than i170 gear, so that we can actually CRAFT.

[iambanana]

i craft around 10 2 star equip for my ALC and CUL, because thats 2 job is only job that can make me a stable ammount of gil everyday, and more stats means shorter and safer macro, other than that 2 job is meh, the item barely sells, no point to have huge investment in 2 star but cant make any gil from that investment, that just stupid.

[Sollux]

Disclaimer: I tend to go a LITTLE overboard when it comes to crafting.

I despise Gathering. I really, really do. I was livid when Red Scrips were first released because I felt forced to level my gatherers and gear them out so I wouldn't have to spend millions to craft a single mat. Even after I geared them out, I still had to spend a few hours to cap Red Scrips and then spend 8-10 hours a week gathering enough items to make 2, maybe 3 items. Before the change to Favors I completed 5 OHs, all of the Accessories and all 8 Chestpieces. BELIEVE me when I say Favors are not NEARLY as bad as they once were, and compared to the time investment required before the change it is MUCH easier to farm the mats for an item. Gathering the Favor mats for a single Chestpiece used to take me 6-8 hours. After the change to Red Scrips I spent 7 hours that Saturday gathering the mats I needed for 4 MHs.

I completely agree that there is practically zero motivation to craft 2-Stars right now for anyone who isn't min/maxing or a lover of all things glamour (Lets be honest, Crafting AF2 blows Combat AF2 out of the water right now) and I am absolutely not a fan of Favors, but the grind has been SIGNIFICANTLY reduced from what it was at the beginning.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

I completely agree that there is practically zero motivation to craft 2-Stars right now for anyone who isn't min/maxing or a lover of all things glamour (Lets be honest, Crafting AF2 blows Combat AF2 out of the water right now) and I am absolutely not a fan of Favors, but the grind has been SIGNIFICANTLY reduced from what it was at the beginning.

And so they "significantly" reduced it from 12 hours of work per chest piece to 4 hours... Meh, sorry, still too much, imo. If it's 4 hours of crafting, I'm fine with that. If it's 4 hours of unspoiled gathering or ephemeral gathering + aetherial reduction, I can probably still put up with that. But, hey, not 4 hour favors. Nope!

[Porkchop]

This is a social game.
Make allies. Form long term working relationships with gatherers (extra mats for gear, bulk purchases etc). Look for crafters to mentor or the ones that arent interested in doing high end crafting for extra tokens.
Yes you need some sort of capital at first till you get the ball rolling but you guys here are high end crafters, you know how to make moolah.

The only gathering i did for the past month is to cap red scrip, i just couldn't stand favors lol.
But still i manage to make 20-30 pieces a week (some for myself, some for others), and make some profit to boot.
I realize most people want to be able to self-sustain but one look at the system is enough to figure out that you simply aren't supposed to do this alone.

[Geesus]

And I love you guys! As a full time gatherer, you make me money. So thank you. All of you who hate gathering and try to make gil crafting, are my heros.

If there is one thing I have seen at least on Hyperion in regards to this, crafting in 1.0 and 2.0 used to be the money maker. Gathering did as well but crafting was where it was at for gil. Now, in 3.0, it's gathering. And Porkchops idea to make arrangements with gathers for gear or bulk purchases is dead on. I'd rather sell to someone who will guarantee me X amount of gil than fight RMTs with the undercutting. But at the same time if I don't have any crafters lined up, I can spend an entire weekend "grinding" mats and have no F's to give about doing so. It's easy freaking money.

Like those of you saying you're not crafting for X reason and doing more raids, I'm the opposite. I'm so tired of the same GD grind with raiding, I'm gathering and accumulating a mass of wealth doing so. IF housing ever becomes a thing again, open plots to buy a house(s), I'll be ready this time.