Inventory Management

[Rongway]

Now to address fanboy arguments:

The thing is, it can be a suboptimal system and the "fanboy arguments" can be relevant.

You don't need to hoard the materials for every single recipe in the game if you manage your leveling right. There are certain ingredients that will be useful from 1 to 80; however, the vast majority of ingredients are used for only a short level range. Level all your crafters to the point you can toss everything except the evergreen ingredients. At that point, if you need to craft something that you don't have materials for, you can go out and gather just what you need.

If you are compelled by some preference or personality trait to maintain a stock of every single ingredient, even the ones you would only use once a year if ever, buy more retainers. That's one of the reasons the optional retainer service exists.


Would improvements to the system improve quality of life? Undoubtedly.

Is the "discouraging but not prohibitive" system a critical flaw? Only if you're compelled to keep things you don't regularly need: in general terms, no.