What bothers you most about the current synthesis system?

[HiirNoivl]

Something they could do instead, is make the system more akin to combat, where you

Kick the crap out of something? (*hopeful look*)

have a couple bars to gauge (Perhaps durability being similar to your HP and progress being the craft's HP, in this analogy), and several actions to interact with these gauges, whether slowing durability loss, increasing progress gain, restoring durability, and other such factors. This would make crafting more engaging, while at the same time not completely changing the genre.

W-wait... that sounds almost exactly like what crafting is now...