You can't get the catchup gear without overmelding?

[Zorafin]

Overmelding has prevented me from crafting since ARR. It's such a dumb system that benefits nobody and just serves to make the game more boring.

With the crafting changes in 3.3, I thought now would be a good time to try upgrading my crafting gear. I got a new primary tool, which was nice and simple. And I otherwise have the best gear a fresh 60 can get. But I'm still nowhere near the requirements for the next upgrade! By the looks of it, I'm expected to cram a bunch of materia into my gear at an abysmal chance to reach those requirements, and that just doesn't seem enjoyable.

Why have they made crafting so complicated and frustrating? It was fun until 50.
Oh well. Maybe next patch they'll make secondary tools easier to get, and that will give me enough points to reach the 2* requirement.
Or... looks like Beet Soup gives me the required stats for this. I should try that...

[ChameleonMS]

Crafting is an easy operation. The only way SE can make it's progression difficult is through mind numbing time consumption and RNG.
At least crafters actually use their materia. The game spent 2 1/2 years with no practical use for DoW materia and even now the use is minuscule.

Use Blue Scrip turn in to get your i180 stuff. That will get you to 2**.

[Espritduo]

As the person above mentioned, token gear is the path people who don't want to meld should take. Full i180 blue scrip gear is incredibly easy to get now even for a fresh 60 with NQ vendor gear, and hits 2-star easily. Augment those pieces with red scrips to their i200 counterparts while keeping the i180 belt and offhand and you are well over the stat requirements even for 3.5-star crafting. No melds of any kind required.

[Zorafin]

I just didn't want to spend time gearing one class when I need to gear all of them.
I found out that Beet Soup HQ puts me close to 2* requirements. I had a spare materia laying around from the moogle quests, so I put that into my earrings, and now I can do 2* crafting. I'm looking up some 2* crafting rotations, and that should be all I need for the chestpiece. Dunno if I can do it at 381cp, though.

[Seyb]

Reaching 2 star stats is incredibly easy and cheap. You only handicap yourself by not getting the ilvl 180 tool and body. This is all you need. Not. A. Single. Meld.

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/UQNW

Eeat an HQ Seafood Stew and you are at 399 CP. This is not very much, but you have a lot of free slots to get the extra 38 CP for a good 2 star rotation.

Then you can start crafting your ilvl 170 gear and switch to HQ Bouillabaisse or HQ Baked Onion Soup.

In reality, Heavensward has made crafting a joke. It is way too easy. Getting the master books is way too easy. Getting the main hand tools is way too easy. Gearing-up is way too easy. The crafts are way too easy...

[Nezerius]

OP, just get a set of Carbonweave gear, the i170 gear that's shared across all the DoH jobs, it shouldn't be too expensive to get. Meld some materia into the 100% slots, since you can't overmeld it.
Work on getting the augmented mainhand tools for your specialist jobs, and the i180 versions for your non-specialist jobs. Maybe get the i170 or i195 offhand tools depending on how much you want to spend, the i170 offhand likely not being as expensive anymore, due to red scrip mats dropping in price.
SE already said that new augmented offhand tools and accessories will be coming in 3.4, which will likely cause the current i180 offhand tools/accessories to be shifted to blue scrip tokens.

Outside of that, if you want all of your DoH jobs to be at the same stats for the highest recipes, without the feeling of gearing up 1 job at the time (augmented gear), then you'll have to get into melding ironworks gear.

In reality, Heavensward has made crafting a joke. It is way too easy. Getting the master books is way too easy. Getting the main hand tools is way too easy. Gearing-up is way too easy. The crafts are way too easy...

Would you prefer going back to 3.0, with its 15 min favor buffs, hours of preparation to craft anything 2-star, DoH sets that took longer to craft than any of the sets in 2.x, and DoW/M gear that was almost dead on arrival when the majority of the playerbase ignored it over tome gear/gordias gear?

[Seyb]

In reality, Heavensward has made crafting a joke.

Would you prefer going back to 3.0, with its 15 min favor buffs, hours of preparation to craft anything 2-star, DoH sets that took longer to craft than any of the sets in 2.x, and DoW/M gear that was almost dead on arrival when the majority of the playerbase ignored it over tome gear/gordias gear?

Last time I checked Heavensward started with 3.0? What was hard about favor gathering? What was hard about 2 star? All it took was time or a lot of money.

I am talking about having to craft 40 durability crafts in HQ for your first master book. Crafting the token turn-ins in HQ for your second master book. Getting the artisan tools. Getting the supra tools. Getting the lucis tools... You get it?

[Zorafin]

Just the weapon and the chest will get me to 2* crafting? Alright, I can do that.

And honestly, I think the difficulty of a game should be related to its depth. There's very little that's actually deep about the crafting system, so it makes sense that it should be easy. Otherwise you master it quickly, and anything from that point on is boring. That's why I hate the materia system. Getting the materia is simple, applying the materia is simple, but you have to expend so much effort to actually do it that there's no joy to be had.
I like actually crafting stuff, but getting to the point where you're crafting is boring. Flying from place to place, running around and picking up items... Some materials are gained from Diadem. Who does Diadem anymore? And God forbid there's a fishing ingredient.

[Nezerius]

I am talking about having to craft 40 durability crafts in HQ for your first master book. Crafting the token turn-ins in HQ for your second master book. Getting the artisan tools. Getting the supra tools. Getting the lucis tools... You get it?

Nothing about that was hard, and I've been crafting since 2.0.

Master book I: A bit expensive during the initial rush, but it certainly wasn't something difficult. You just had to attempt HQing it a few more times, since it wasn't possible to 100% HQ it without RNG. (Heck, I even remember HQing 5 out of 6 Vanya Silks, with my 2-star melded gear)
Master book II: This was the RNG wall of 2.x, since you couldn't 100% it unless you'd get 11 IQ stacks and an excellent condition on Byregot's. However, RNG =/= difficulty.
Artisan tools: Time consuming, but not nearly as much as the 2-star gear in 3.0. Getting these turn ins were a joke, because you could get nearly 50% starting quality with HQ mats.
Supra tools: This was difficult? Sorry, but you only needed NQ items for this. This was a gil sink.
Lucis tools: This wasn't difficult either, it was repeatedly attempting to HQ something, similar to the master book II. The difference between the two is that you could turn in NQ items to get most of the important mats back.

Crafting was never hard.

[Seyb]

snip

Yes, that's all it takes. And I agree, an overly convoluted and time consuming system is not fun.

Snip

You don't seem to get it. Here's a very easy example:

2.55 BiS: Lucis Tool, rest crafted
3.X BiS: All crafted

It's not about being difficult or not. It's about being too easy. If you can buy your way to BiS, something is very wrong.

Also, i quite liked the upgrade path in 2.X. Heavensward is not too bad either, if you do it on your own. Buying your way up is not fun to me.