Quote Originally Posted by Nezerius View Post
You seem to be remembering the Favor mats period of the game very, very differently from what I remember how things were, back then.

I remember it as a period of time in which the Favor system required a change to make it bearable (buff timer reduced to 5 min, down from 15 min, increased chance for concealed nodes to spawn). The effort that went into crafting the 3.0 DoW/M gear made it so the prices were high enough for most of the non-crafter playerbase to just ignore it in favor of the more easily attainable (augmented) Law tomestone gear/Gordias normal gear. It turned into a game of crafters crafting gear for other crafters/gatherers, and that's where the majority of the gil profit came from. And even that profit would go down over time, as more crafters realised that the DoW/M market was dead.

That period of the game was the turning point that eventually lead us to where we are right now. DoH/L gear introduced in odd numbered patches, in preparation for the DoW/M gear coming in the following even numbered patches. DoW/M gear that would then be easy enough to craft, so crafters could churn it out in patch day, allowing the first wave of savage raiders to be use it for progression.
True, hardcore raiders had Gil anyway and would spend 35 million Gil on a chest piece that took blood and sweat to craft hahaha. We all know hardcore raiders are rich from selling Savage runs. And The savage wasn't in the best shape anyway in 3.0. It was so hard only Hardcore raiders managed to clear A3s and A4s. Obviously my opinion about favor mats is not popular but it really revolutionized the value of gatherers to the crafters. Maybe keep the craftable battle gear easy to HQ so it doesn't make it tedious for raiders as the OP suggested, but at least make the crafting and gathering gear difficult to HQ.