I just...don't care anymore.

[Alahra]

They could introduce somewhat meaningful crafted DOW/DOM gear in the future.

They could, though I think it's unlikely. We've received no indication that they will, and the last we have from Yoshida on the matter states pretty clearly that crafted gear is never really going to be as powerful as it was in ARR.

[Valesti_Peleiades]

They could, though I think it's unlikely. We've received no indication that they will, and the last we have from Yoshida on the matter states pretty clearly that crafted gear is never really going to be as powerful as it was in ARR.

I also share your skepticism about any future change, but crafted gear doesn't need to be as powerful as it was in ARR; the fact that people used it to clear FCoB in the first week means that it really was overpowered. However, that doesn't mean that crafted gear has to be *worthless* like it is now (never mind that it comes at an enormous opportunity cost). I like to think that there's some sort of middle ground where crafted gear can be desirable for progression, but not overpowered. But I'm not a game developer, so I don't have any real ideas about how to make it happen.

[Alahra]

I like to think that there's some sort of middle ground where crafted gear can be desirable for progression, but not overpowered.

There are really a number of ways they could have done it, but the simplest would be really to just make the current recipes easier to make. If the current gear had required roughly the same amount of effort as it had to reach the crafted DoW/M gear in ARR, it wouldn't have really affected much. i180 is low enough that it wouldn't have been particularly valuable for Savage, what with higher stat caps being unreachable sans Tier V materia and the flattening of secondary stat influence. It would, however, have been a decent alternative to Alex Normal gear if fully melded and a fair substitute for Law gear for those that don't enjoy the hunt grind.

On the other hand, with the current scarcity of materials, the gear won't be available in ready quantities until sometime in 3.2 most likely, long after it would have had any relevance. At that point, the gear being i190 probably wouldn't have been much of an issue, though this hypothetical is harder to gauge. i190 gear would have likely shifted people's priorities in the early weeks, and crafters in dedicated raiding FCs might have been greatly incentivized to make them prior to making AF and the like.

[Alex_Lenderson]

They could, though I think it's unlikely. We've received no indication that they will, and the last we have from Yoshida on the matter states pretty clearly that crafted gear is never really going to be as powerful as it was in ARR.

Did Yoshida say why?

[Alahra]

Did Yoshida say why?

They didn't like how powerful the gear was during the final raid tier, especially. They felt it accelerated progression too much.

[Alex_Lenderson]

They didn't like how powerful the gear was during the final raid tier, especially. They felt it accelerated progression too much.

What I've always thought would be cool would be that one slot (difference for each class) would have a crafting BIS. Vast majority of the gear would still be tomes/raids but for that one slot... make a market.