Argh!

[MN_14]

You follow one of a handful of set rotations, and pray that statistical probability doesn't stab you in the heart. I've done my own fair share of 2-star crafts, and while none of the finished products have come out NQ, the stress of knowing that sooner or later I will NQ something through no fault of my own has sucked all the fun out of "progression" crafting for me. NQ items are a failure state right now and they absolutely shouldn't be. The only failure state should be a botched synth.

I agree that NQs should be made a bit more useful (especially if you need all HQ to meet the requirements for the next set of items; if not, NQs might still be useable as they do have higher stat caps than i150s), but risk is what makes it a bit interesting. It also allows for differentiation between players since better skilled crafters will have higher HQ yields. Current end game crafts have been intentionally designed to be very easy to HQ, so I believe that crafting would have to be made MUCH harder if they were to remove most of the RNG elements, otherwise everyone would have 100% HQ yields as soon as they study a guide. Unless a form of real-time system is introduced, I don't think RNG can be completely removed either since it'll probably still be required to determine what obstacles a crafter would face (this would lead to discontent over RNG throwing situations with unequal difficulty, etc).

Also, remember that if you use a less rigid strategy, you do have the ability to increase your statistical probabilities of an HQ as the craft progresses. 2* crafts are unfortunately gated, but if your strategies are effective, NQs should be very rare.