Your thoughts on changes.Follow

that sucks :(

On the whole, I am pretty happy with the update. I have always been a big fan of crafting and have always enjoyed harvesting. Post LU24, both of those are even more fun for me.

I am of the belief that the newer "easier" crafting will cause prices to fall on the broker and in spite of the fact that I have earned most of my income through broker sales, I don't have a problem with that either.

I also believe that since final combines are now easier to make, and since they take less time for me to craft, I can afford to turn them over at a much lower margin and still make a living.

But the big bonus for me is that even with limited play time, I can now make "freebies" for friends and guildies without feeling that it is absorbing a sizable chunk of my meager game time. In the past, altruism had it's price, but not any more!

As far as changing stats on player made items, I can live with it... after all, the majority of the player base does not raid or take down boss mobs on a regular basis so the items I make will still have better stats than most of what they can aquire. Unless brokered high end dropped gear takes a huge dip in price... However, I don't think that is likely because with their new increased availability, the price of rares should also fall and adventurers who strip mine for income will lose that revenue stream.

Overall comment; well done, SOE... Thank you! /doffs hat

Unfortunately that's not true, and that's the core of the problem. You can get better drops than rare crafted for the same tier in places like the newbie adventure yards, Wailing Caves, StormHold, Blackburrow, Sanctum of the ScaleBorn and more are being added with every LU. All you need is a small group, not even a full one.

I do like being able to quickly churn out a piece for someone or a stack of them to sell on the broker, and I like being able to harvest (i'm estimating) 3 times faster than before, but that convenience comes at a price. It takes less time and dedication to level a tradeskill, so the items you can make are less valuable.

During the lead-up to this overhaul one of the devs referred to rare crafted items as "gained with little risk by digging something out of the ground (if you're patient enough)" Apparently the time and effort it took the crafter to get to the level required to make the item was meaningless.

Of course what really matters is how it works in game. I used to get 2 or 3 tells a week out of the blue from people asking me to make them T6 cobalt weapons, and I still get them now and then. I've been at level 69 or 70 for a couple months now, and I have had exactly zero requests for Xegonite weapons. If I found or bought some cobalt, made some weapons and put them on the broker they sold within a few days. I've had a few xenogite pieces sitting on the broker for 2 weeks now. If people don't want your stuff, there's no point in crafting to me.