Why is crafting/gathering so difficult/grindy?

[Frizze]

As I'm typing this, I want to do a Koppranickel Index because it's starred (Red Scrip turn-in).

I need...

2 Mythrite Nuggets (5 sand, 1 mythril ore)
1 Amphithere Leather (3 Skins, 1 Dark Chestnut Log)
1 Koppranickel Ink (3 Sand, 1 Deepeye Tears, 1 Moth Scales)
1 Beech Lumber (5? Logs)
2 Koppranickel Nuggets (5 Sand, 1 Copper Ore)

So they got me going to Western Highlands, Churning Mists, Forelands, Southern Thanalaan, Fringes, Peaks, and a vendor that sells copper ore. There are also 5 mob drops in there.

Isn't that kind of ridiculous? To get this junk it will take me a couple hours most likely if I didn't already have a few from opening chests and such.

The Vath beast tribe sells most of the HW ore nuggets(all of the lower ones, he stops at adamantium), so if you did the non-crafty beast tribes you can just buy the mythrite for like 2100ish each. Dark Chestnut Log spawns a 15 second flight from vath tribe. Thats one trip to forelands and at most 3 mins spent. Amp skins are often cheap on the MB, otherwise a short visit to CM for a few kills. Lets say 10 mins(honestly my estimate would be less then 5). Deepeye tear prices can fluctuate, but as you only need 1 for an ink the flight from falcons nest to their spawn area and a few kills is still a short trip. We'll use 10 mins again, but this should be like 3. Quick port over to the fringes, beech logs arent that far from Oriens. And you only need 4, so one node worth. 3 mins. Fly/port to Rhalgrs reach, and zone over to peaks. Moths are near the zone in, so kill a couple for a scale. Fly up to the KP sand area, and you need 1-3 nodes worth of sand to finish your shopping list. Its 4 per nugget and 3 for the ink(kings yield 2 plus an accuracy boost would be 12 or 15 sand, depending on if you picked a 4 or 5 swing node). This visit probly takes 5-10 mins. Finally teleport to your home town, and do the craft and turn in there(each town has a vendor with your copper). Thats like 35 mins if you use the bad time estimates, though my personal guess is i could do it all in 12-15 without using the market board. And since this is a scrip turn in, you could spend a little more time in each combat area and hit a few more nodes to make extras without doubling or tripling the time easily. If im making 8 turn ins, i dont want to spend 15 mins on each of them(2 hours to gather mats and probly another hour to make everything? ugh, no thanks). But i can skip some, some will use the same mats so i can just hit more nodes when im out, and i try to do a couple solo treasure maps a week and use the mats they drop to skip some of these steps.

[Elamys]

I mean, if you gather the exact materials you need every craft, yes, it's going to take you a long time. This is why you should keep a stock of the most common materials, if you're going to craft a lot.

[Maeka]

I mean, if you gather the exact materials you need every craft, yes, it's going to take you a long time. This is why you should keep a stock of the most common materials, if you're going to craft a lot.

Which takes a ludicrous amount of room on yourself/retainers, lol. I suppose it gives players incentives to buy the extra retainers, but yeesh. That's a pretty ham-fisted way to get us to pay for extra retainers...

[Elamys]

Which takes a ludicrous amount of room on yourself/retainers, lol. I suppose it gives players incentives to buy the extra retainers, but yeesh. That's a pretty ham-fisted way to get us to pay for extra retainers...

All of my crafting materials are on a total of 3 retainers, all of whom have plenty of empty space, and honestly, I keep a lot of materials I don't really need. With 2 free retainers you won't be able to hoard a ton, but you can hold onto enough that you don't have to go running around for every single craft. If you are going to be a dedicated crafter/gatherer, that's a bit of a price you have to pay for efficiency. But you don't NEED to buy additional retainers, if you're careful about what you keep.

[QT_Melon]

One of the things you want to do is look at what are commonly used in a craft. Let's say Koppranickel (either sands or ore). If GSM, ARM, BSM use it, then it's wise to keep it around It may also help you save time by thinking this way: Make the base item that can be used for another item. For Koppranickel you can start making nuggets or high steel ones from the same mat, since a housing vendor usually sells the iron/copper ores. That way instead of keeping Koppranickel sands, you only have to worry about the ores.