I had this dream..

[nickyblaze]

Lol dude, did you seriously just ask the one person who has all BiS on all crafters how painful it is to meld? Have a look at Ailandi's gear sometime.

Lol dude, "request meld" ie has nothing to do with his or her own gear. I can be level 60 with a level 1 weapon to meld, has nothing to do with own gear.

[Sollux]

Well now I'm being forced to raid because crafting dead. Raid gear is BIS, than eso gear than technically crafters gear, but since it's not practical, law gear is next and crafter gear is garbage, gg.

You're not being forced to Raid, but you FEEL like you are, and that's EXACTLY how other players would feel if they needed each discipline leveled to a certain extent to reach optimal Endgame. Your case is the exact opposite in that you're frustrated that you can't use the other classes you've leveled to help reach BIS on your Combat class and while I can see where you're coming from in that regard, the majority of the playerbase would rather be able to reach their Endgame without the need to level other classes.

Crafting isn't dead, you just don't see any benefit from it right now. Raid gear will ALWAYS be BIS for Combat classes, and the Crafted Combat gear isn't completely useless, it can be great catch-up gear. If you take the time to look at stat weights for some of the classes then you'll find that a few properly melded i180 Combat pieces actually beat their respective i190 Gordian gear. I know for a fact this is true for the BRD Crafted i180 Headpiece, Chestpiece, and Gloves, and the MNK Crafted i180 gloves actually edge out their Eso gloves in terms of raw DPS gain.

Crafters will NEVER be useless. Just because we can't supply near-Endgame Combat gear doesn't mean we can't still contribute to our FC or a static, even if it's only through food, pots, or gear to help jump-start an alt into AS1. Again, the only thing I'll agree with you on is the scarcity of the Crafted Combat gear itself and the length of time it takes to craft versus how long it will actually be useful. The rest is just your opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt.

[nickyblaze]

I've been in plenty of fcs and seen plenty of fcs needING crafters for crafting airships, that's the extent of our uses. These pieces you're referring to, I don't see any for sale, nothing in past sale history and none of the 100+ players I talk with have ever requested it or even talked about it. I'd love to make them, I'd craft them all night for free and enjoy it but sadly nobody has ever mentioned it.

Besides benefiting myself with my weekly allowance, there isn't really anything for me to do. Raiders don't need me, gatherers don't need me. For crafting odds and ends, crafting red scripts I need either deep pockets or a gatherer, to make specialty items I need either deep pockets or raiders to provide me with the items (ravana for ewing for example). It's a broken system, where's the team effort in an MMO?

[nickyblaze]

imagine gatherers not having the stealth skill, they'd have to party up with dow/m to gather, encourage team play. Everybody benefits for what's gathered cause the gatherer can't gather alone. Gatherer directs the party and the roll of dow/m stays the same. the loot ends up back at the fc and can be used to make everyone's gear. And perhaps raiders can raid in this gear and can get upgrades after beating raids to improve the armor.

Crafters make the armor, maybe beating ravana you can use the ravana forewing to buff it 10 ilvl to 190, maybe a1s can enchant it to 200 and give it a different glow, make it unique,

I gather as well, it's limited to a loop of nodes, nothing changes, nothing eventful, timed nodes are timed, always in the same slot, no surprise nodes, no fear of getting attacked cause of stealth. Has a gatherer ever been in a party with dow/m? Again where is the team spirit? :/

Maybe it's just me that enjoys a well rounded team effort outside the battlefield

[Sollux]

That's specific to your own server, not the game at large. There are a few i180 Combat pieces on the market on Tonberry, I've even sold one or two myself. If your server has a decent population I guarantee that if you advertised the ability to Craft 2-Star pieces you would get a few people asking about Combat gear. I Crafted an i180 BRD Chestpiece for someone 2 weeks after Red Scrips released, and that was when prices for materials were way higher than they are now. You won't get anyone asking about them if you don't promote the fact that you can Craft them.

If you don't have a Gatherer to get you mats, then level one. If you don't have a Raider to get items like Ravana's Forewing then start running Ravana EX yourself. There's plenty for you to do, it just isn't what you WANT to do, and I understand that completely, but if you aren't suggesting any solutions to your problems or even trying to solve them yourself then there's nothing I can really say to help you. That being said, it IS an MMO and you SHOULD be able to find people to work with and grow alongside each other. If you're actively out there trying to find people to play with or Craft for and you just aren't having any luck then it may just be your server and I'd suggest transferring.

Edit: There's nothing wrong with working together as a community to achieve something, but there are also people who prefer solo play. I personally enjoy Crafting because I can Progress my Endgame by myself. I have the ability to Progress faster with the help of a friend, but it isn't a requirement.