From an outsider's point of view: Is crafting dying?

[BRP]

From a distance, it looks like item inflation(either naturally or from things like ISNMs dropping Dragon Talons none-stop) and the lack of any really good synths in recent updates... has hurt crafting? Are there too many crafters on the market? ect

[Tordall]

IMO crafting is becoming much more of a time in -> money out thing.

Anything particularly expensive or profitable is likely to either take a very long time to sell and/or could get undercut if other crafters notice it.

Intermediate durables have generally higher profits than consumables, but take much longer to sell and tie up AH slots.

Consumables really are time in-> money out, but at least sell quickly.

[Melena]

woodworking on bismarck has gone completely to shit. it started with the rng nerf. Pre nerf ammo sold for nice profit and quickly. There were days I couldn't even buy ammo cause the ah was sold out. Now your lucky if you see a few stacks of bullets sell a day. Elemental staves have also gone down hill. With the amount of people with 100 woodworking, nq's are anyware from 150-250k loss, and hq is only 500k-700k profit, so you have to maintain more then a 25% hq rate to break even. I also inherited a 100 bonecrafting mule, but haven't done much on that, but even rr hairpins which were low to med profit and sold quick are even flooded now. It's at the point where when people ask me if it's worth it to level a craft now a days, i tell them only if they want to do it for fun and to not make money.

[Tomiko]

I blame all the stupid/impatient crafters out there who either flood the AH with their product or undercut by a large amount just to keep spamming for the hq. Granted the undercutting isn't out of the normal, but when they're doing it on an item that either sells fast or isn't listed often, it doesn't make much sense, especially with some of the material costs.

I agree though about not leveling a craft for profit anymore unless you're patient when it comes to selling.

[Jg]

Your question is very hard to answer. I guess you could say there is no correct answer. Experiences are different not only across servers (obvious), but from what I've found even between 2 people on the same server with the same 100 craft operating in the exact same economy.

[Tomiko]

Something that just came to mind:

In a way, I'm wondering if SE wants crafting to be less important than it used to be. My reasoning for this is due to alot of the newer (good) items being drops and/or upgrades (Salvage gear). Plus alot of the recently added synths are very subpar (Khimaira Armor, En- Gloves, - Spikes Pants, etc).

Examples of items added that replace crafted items:

Walmart Turban (Panther Mask+1)
Rostrum Pumps (Cursed Pumps, Mahatma Pigaches; for Whm?)
Goliard Cuffs (Cursed Mitts)
Pahlawhatever Body (Scorpion Harness for most jobs that can't wear Haub)

Granted there are still a few nice synths here and there (Blessed Pumps, Kyudogi, etc), it seems like it's only a matter of time before crafting becomes just a stepping stone for upgrading armor (Salvage)

[Sylvana]

SE has definetly put less interest in crafting. When you add this to an ever increasing number of high level crafters + the giseller crafters flooding everything + rampant deflation across the board crafting has become alot more about luck then anything else. When you think you spot a little niche to exploit, blink and its crashed and you are left with product you can't move or move at a loss.

[BRP]

Also, I'm sure ??? items and appraising has really put a damper on some crafting techniques. There are tons of items being made a day just from people doing Assaults, free prisoners, and to a lesser degree: certain quests.

[Yutuyu]

Assault killed alchemy. The potion market flooded and it became harder to skillup and you can no longer make money on quick-moving consumables there.

[tornfleshofsoul]

Crafting still can make you decent money. If you're willing to put the time and effort into it, you can make lots of cash. Problem is you can't just do.. Amemet mantles anymore. If you're leather and want to turn a decent profit, you have to do a wide range of items to make money. I'm not certain, but fairly sure it's the same across the board for all crafts.

[Sylvana]

Crafting still can make you decent money. If you're willing to put the time and effort into it, you can make lots of cash. Problem is you can't just do.. Amemet mantles anymore. If you're leather and want to turn a decent profit, you have to do a wide range of items to make money. I'm not certain, but fairly sure it's the same across the board for all crafts.

If decent profit to you is several 100k a week then yea. But any quick scan of ffxiah.com will show you thats not the case. Nearly all good HQ synths are NQ loss. The NQ synths that make u a decent profit move slow. And NQs that move well and make profit are roughly in the 5-20k profit margin. Yes you can make money but it is nothing great or extrodinary. And Yes I diversify, blessed pumps, dusk gloves, dusk feet, austere set, opaline, nomads mantle, fuck amemet mantles, cursed pumps, errant pigaches etc been there done that.

[Epical]

NQ Igqira Lappa are 110k profit right now on my server.

[Izzy]

NQ Igqira Lappa are 110k profit right now on my server.

not after this post they wont be lol

ps. Lindsay lohan is playing with my brain

[Epical]

I'm not a bonecrafter, it's all good. 8)

[Corrderio]

NQ Igqira Lappa are 110k profit right now on my server.

Wow, they're a huge profit loss on my server from what I seen.

And yeah, crafting can make a decent profit if you're willing to put the time and money into it. I'm 61 Goldsmithing right now and I haven't been able to make a good profit, sure there were a few low level HQs I could make for good gil, however ppl just flooded the market with them and killed the price.

Courage Rings were like 20K a month ago, however they're now like 5K each.

[Tomiko]

Problem is you can't just do.. Amemet mantles anymore. If you're leather and want to turn a decent profit, you have to do a wide range of items to make money. I'm not certain, but fairly sure it's the same across the board for all crafts.

Only time I ever did Amemets for profit was when I could go 1/5 and break even, otherwise I only did them to try for HQ to trade/sell to friends when it was 1/4 to break even. Now 1/3 HQ is a slight loss so I'm not even touching those.

Most of the profit synths for leather are basically turning hides into leather. Otherwise you're usually relying on HQ since NQ is a (decently large) loss most of the time.

[Semitry]

From a distance, it looks like item inflation(either naturally or from things like ISNMs dropping Dragon Talons none-stop) and the lack of any really good synths in recent updates... has hurt crafting? Are there too many crafters on the market? ect

Nope, crafting is better now since most of the gilbuyers who have no value of gil has quit crafting. It's fairly easy to find profitable synths if you do some research and understand that 100k profit is like 1-2m profit 14 months ago.

Many crafters are also having problems because they try to gouge and complain that things sell too slow. People need to quit overvaluing crap no one can afford and complain no one is buying.

[Sylvana]

From a distance, it looks like item inflation(either naturally or from things like ISNMs dropping Dragon Talons none-stop) and the lack of any really good synths in recent updates... has hurt crafting? Are there too many crafters on the market? ect

Nope, crafting is better now since most of the gilbuyers who have no value of gil has quit crafting. It's fairly easy to find profitable synths if you do some research and understand that 100k profit is like 1-2m profit 14 months.
Many crafters are also having problems because they try to gouge and complain that things sell too slow. People need to quit overvaluing crap no one can afford and complain no one is buying.

That just made me el oh el

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

Goldsmithing sure sucks. CoP killed it.

[Tordall]

idk, I can reliably make over a million gil in a week. It's not so much a problem of things moving, but a problem of fast moving things don't have huge profit margins, and since there's deflation, you want to do fast moving things.

I'm leveling an alchemy mule atm, and so far It's been break even or made money the whole way. Both fishing and cooking make 60k-80k in an hour fairly reliably, which is about the same average profit/time as camping HNMs.

Bonecraft (my orginal craft) is having serious issues as a moneymaker though. In an hour I can make more profit than I do in fishing/cooking, but it will take me 4 times as long to sell the results.

Personally, I enjoy getting crafting skill ups way more than I should, but I'm seriously contemplating leveling both a clothcraft and woodworking mule after I finish the alchemy mule.