It was one of my suggestions in another thread that crafting success be based on your stats, not your rank. We all know it is your rank vs item rank. damn near everything in this game is determined by your rank vs other rank, even battle. I hope the battle changes put an end to that, but it needs to be the same with crafting, otherwise people would be crafting naked with the same results. And yes... I have tested crafting naked, even on higher rank recipes: the tool seemed to be enough. VERY little change, if any. Stats dont do enough.

It needs to be crafting stats vs recipe stat requirement, not crafting rank vs recipe rank. The rank can still be there to determine the SP you get, but not the success rate.