When everything is out of date

[Sollux]

Well if this is the case, It has an hardcore mode and a casual mode.

And I'm a casual gamer. I can't get the so called Hardcore Armor.

But I'm charged exactly the same as every single one of you, yet I'm not entitled to nothing because I'm a casual gamer. I play this game and I work as hard at is as anyone else. Why am I being peanalized for it?

You aren't being penalized. There is absolutely nothing keeping you from "Hardcore Armor" other than the time YOU are willing to commit. The content is there, you just don't have the drive to do what needs to be done to reach it. Unlike Combat Endgame, Crafting Endgame can be reached entirely on your own, without the need for assistance from any other players. I have never, not ONCE, had an Endgame Raid weapon when it was still relevant to the content. This isn't because I didn't have the ability to, or the time to commit to it, or the resources to afford food and pots, but because I've never had the drive to find a static or put in the work necessary to keep that static together and consistent. I’m a Casual when it comes to Combat, and I have no problem waiting for new gear or Relic weapon before I seriously try Alexander Savage.

To put it bluntly, how badly do you want it? Regardless of whether it feels like a chore, or takes a while, or you don't have any Gatherers leveled, you HAVE the ability to craft any 2-Star item you want for a fraction of the market cost, even if you only farm the Favor mats. Yes, this requires leveling Gathering which I can understand if you abhor it (I know I do), but this leads to the second question:

Are you willing to put in the work it takes to Craft it? It feels like a massive undertaking, but a single 2-Star item can be completed surprisingly quickly. Assuming you can Gather both MIN and BTN Favor items, a 2-Star MH requires 4 2-Star mats, which need 40 BTN and 40 MIN Favor items total. Assuming an average of 4 items per Favor, you can gather all 80 Favor items in about 2 hours. In 2 hours you can cover 90% of the cost to Craft the MH, the second best upgrade possible for your Crafting class.

Why is waiting a bad thing? As PROBOUND stated there is already an alternative available in the i180 Red Scrip turn-in MH that can be obtained with very little effort and time (If we only consider the time spent capping Red Scrips). Believe me when I say if you want to Craft 1-Star food (Or even 2-Stars) having an i170 MH is FAR from necessary. If you absolutely must have the i170 MH then 3.1 is coming out with a away to obtain Red Scrip materials through Combat rather than Gathering.

Tl;dr, There’s nothing wrong with waiting for it to get easier. If you want the best of the best ASAP you're going to have to put in the work. If you don't want to, that means YOU are the primary reason you can't reach Endgame.

[iambanana]

if you not completionist, and you just want to craft 1 star food HQ from all NQ stuff (maybe HQ with the cheap item like yak milk for creme brulee, or dzemael tomato for seafood stew) with macro, ONLY the i170 knife and i170 Acc+i150 gear full melded is enough.

i sell the i170 from 2 month ago until now, so far the sales is bad, is not worth it. who want to pay 20-30k for a food anyway.

[Teppie]

if you not completionist, and you just want to craft 1 star food HQ from all NQ stuff (maybe HQ with the cheap item like yak milk for creme brulee, or dzemael tomato for seafood stew) with macro, ONLY the i170 knife and i170 Acc+i150 gear full melded is enough.

i sell the i170 from 2 month ago until now, so far the sales is bad, is not worth it. who want to pay 20-30k for a food anyway.

I do, regularly. Seafood Stew sells anywhere from 60-90k on my server, and I go through that stuff so fast I can't be bothered to make it myself. I'd say in the past month alone I've easily blown several mil on it.

Probably single handedly funding some dudes house.

[Rufalus]

The cost of the current best tools comes down to scarcity of some of the materials involved. Certain gathering nodes can only be revealed temporarily by spending a currency we have a limited allowance of each week. It's kind of long and hard to make too, but it's that material scarcity which is making the end products in short supply and high cost.

But then if the mats were unlimited and people mass produced the fry pans and other tools, the value plummets, there wouldn't be much of a crafting endgame. So the options are just spending a lot of time getting these things now or wait for them to no longer be the best and the grind nerfed. There's always going to be a top tier of stuff that takes considerable effort. Being on the cutting edge of content, be it crafting or raiding, takes some serious dedication.

[Lastelli]

SE incoporated 2 progression paths for crafters in HW. The Hardcore Route (GalleyMaster) and the Casual route (GalleyKeep).

That was probably SE's idea, but I don't think it worked very well. Knowing good rotations and how crafting skills work is not a big deal...at all. The real problem with 170 gear is that it's just a huge time and gil sink and for now at least there's no reward to it. Master Books II were hardcore stuff. Much more difficult to craft those HQ items than these 2 star recipes...and still I unlocked all of them in around 2 weeks. Now I look at the list of materials I need in order to craft one single piece of gear and I just realize it's not even worth it. Being a casual or a hardcore crafter has nothing to do with it, it's more a matter of why you craft. If you craft for the sake of it, then ilvl170 gear may be a nice way to spend a lot of your time. If instead you craft to increase your wealth, 2 star recipes are just not worth it, since it's very likely that ilvl180 will be enough to be able to craft 3 and maybe even 4 star recipes.

[Lambdafish]

Just because its there, doesnt mean your entitled to it. Put in the work, and you'll reap the rewards.

I want to quote this forever and ever

[Caimie_Tsukino]

I checked Longsun Zhao's profile on lodestone. To be fair, guys, he does have almost all classes at lvl 60, with the exception of BSM.

However his overmelds neglect CP COMPLETELY. There's NOT A SINGLE CP added to ANY of his white gear/tools. This is in completely opposition to what I usually advice people to do. In my dictionary, CP > Craft > Control (despite the fact that Control materia is the most expensive, Craft second and CP third. So melding should start with control, craft, then max out CP in the end). I dunno how Longsun can craft 2 star items... Maybe he can, but with so few CP, it's going to be very dangerous...