What's the point in crafting?

[EllisDee37]

What's the point of crafting, you ask?



This is the effin point of crafting.

There is nothing about that weapon I'm not green with envy over except for the +4. Everything else -- including the material/weapon type combo -- is still a pipe dream.

Earlier today I used my +3 Holy Cold Iron Greatsword of Chaotic Outsider Bane on some flesh renders and it tore through them like a hot knife through butter, and I'm only crafting level 35/35/32. It's amazing how quickly you can craft some very powerful items.

Compared to falchions, silver and cold iron khopeshes are dirt cheap and plentiful. I don't understand why falchions are so much rarer, but whaddya gonna do, right?

[donfilibuster]

Can't tell what's the point for sure, but can be fairly certain of what isn't:
Is not to going replace regular loot.
Is not so you can craft the gear you want while at level.
Is not going to let you craft any combination of abilities you want.

Note that the slope in crafting is the same difficulty new players get when trying to get good gear at level.
Treasure in D&D is tiered, it'd take a lot more savings to try get the next upgrade of gear than stick to appropiate gear and move up into the next challenges.
Player's pricing is accordingly, so often a new player notes the prices of a weapon are 'out of reach' when it is priced to a player two levels above just because they will be getting more loot.

The progression in crafting seems to follow the same curves, you turn all your harbor loot and still be limited to fire touch and the starter gear you'll be finding.
To get to the holy shard you probably need a few more character levels, just to get the mats in reasonable time.
The frecuent advice in chat is to stick with lesser banes when starting out, they are accesible and technically better than flaming despite the issue of having to carry the right one.

For perspective, new players are getting into level 30, whereas the real goodies are more by 50.
These are rather equivalent to lv 7-9 gear, not 3-5, and indeed you'll find better in good loot and named items.
50 seemed like a whole world of work at first, because 75 was deemed the end, but it is not even the middle point since the levels will go to 150 or beyond.

Still, the crafting has a number of advantages, between saving slots and reusing blanks, etc.
The most gain is for toons other than the crafter, if you have shared bank or to provide to guildies or players that do not do any crafting.
For a vet player wanting to outfit a lowbie it'd be more efficient to pass the mats to a dedicated crafter and buy the unbound shards from them.
If you are like me that need to outfit 14 alts and half your guild, yeah, investing into it would be plat well spent and will get help from all the friends.