An Analysis Of The Crafting Endgame

[CatfishCassie]

I think you missed my suggestion from the earlier post, which was to allow crafted gear to be upgraded like the Alex drops. The idea being that the crafted gear would not, itself, be the equivalent of the Alex drops, but could be upgraded to be the equivalent of those drops. The items that would upgrade it would be the same items they currently use to upgrade their Alex gear... which means they'd still have to raid to get the high level gear, but would now have the option of it being the dropped gear or the crafted gear. This keeps people from being able to skip raid progression with crafting, but keeps crafting relevant for raiders, which is currently the part that's missing.

The problem with MMOs in general is that if crafting stops being relevant to the endgame, it stops being relevant to the game at all. Even though Alex Savage raiders are a small minority of the players in the game, endgame considerations still drive a large portion of the game economy. Crafters put in as much if not more work than raiders, and deserve to see that work rewarded just as raiders do. The compromise shouldn't be to favor one group over the other... the compromise should be to find an itemization system that fills the needs of both.