Interesting observations about the TLE servers, which get to the heart of the issue. In the early years, EQ2 was brilliantly designed for crafters in that MC gear fit very well between solo questing and group dungeons. Even weaponsmiths. I just checked my Stormhold crafters and my weaponsmith earned 70p, armorer 58p, and jeweler 14p. The latter is low only because the other two are much easier to do market research, and the first two pretty much consumed all of the time I wanted to spend on crafting/market research. It also represents the priority that I put into the gear I wanted for my own characters. The amounts seem modest, but on Stormhold in the early days, it was enough to buy two Kronos from the broker. So I disagree with the idea that weaponsmiths are inherently broken due to them making items for only two slots. It was the last of the above mentioned three crafters that I leveled, but rapidly overtook the other crafters in sales. While metal weapons are among the first items that players wish to upgrade, it also reflects the balance that the original EQ2 designers put into the game between crafted items and adventuring drops. Of course, that was then, and this is now, so I don't mean to dispute the OP. In fact, the ranger/woodworker that I started EQ2 with was replaced with a ranger/jeweler in TLE. Classes that use wooden weapons don't give them as much priority as those who use metal weapons, so my tailor was a lot more profitable. A trade-able bow that dropped in the Stormhold dungeon was far better than what a woodworker could make, followed by another one in Kingdom of Sky. It's that easy to break crafting usefulness, while achieving the early game's balance between crafted and dropped items is hard. I really don't see this crop of devs caring about it, although they should. I suspect that there is a correlation between number of subscribers and when the the balance was lost, because I'm only playing EQ2 after a two year absence to check the state of the game. The fact that I'm posting here instead of playing is not a good sign.
Another insufferably arrogant endless argument post by the OP. A long standing tradition of his opinion being the only one that matters. I played SWG during the time that crafters mattered, and BIS meant crafted. That failed because the kill and loot demographic simply could not stand the idea of earning credits and paying for weapons. They still won't. They want some horrific bit of 6th grade art class graphics to indicate to all that they killed Bill the Boisterous. Giving crafters recipes on a par with dropped has always infuriated a very vocal group. A group that has never cared or considered the synergy of dropped components being required for the best of crafted. A group that considers mere purchased gear to be a betrayal of all that is holy and pure. My WS and AS have worked for me since 2005. I've used my own crafted weapons as a point of pride and still do. My WS is also a tinker and level 100. She is a complete char and has value to me. My AS is my Adorner and also higher leveled. There are many ways to play the game, and I learned long ago that pure Adventure types resent crafters and crafting on a visceral level, and sometimes it shows up in Dev circles.. as it did in SWG. Changing our professions or improving our products will not change that, and frankly, it is too late. All your idea will accomplish is breaking things and end up with a single class just as broken as the two it combined. I see nothing solved. For almost 13 years I've played this as a roleplaying game. I still do, and my professions are part of that. I never went into them for "the plats" and was ok with making crafted items work for me. Still am.
