To start, what I am posting is nothing new. It's been brought up before, but I think it needs to be discussed as much as possible until the issue is addressed. Also, for the record I am not a dedicated crafter, but I have a good amount of experience with it in the game. I am currently leveling clothing and alchemy. Note: this discussion is meant primarily for non-consumable crafting, so when I say "crafting" in this post, I am referring to Woodworking, Blacksmithing, & Clothing. I see consumables as having long-term demand.

Where is the real value of crafting? The devs have stated that people will seek out crafters who have committed the time to learning certain set bonuses in order to procure the gear with those bonuses. Really? I have tested and crafted quite a few of the crafted set bonuses and the bottom line it that the world set pieces that cannot be crafted are insanely better bonuses that what can be crafted. This stands as true for low-level and VR++ levels.

Crafting set bonuses, if you're interested.

So I asked myself, is crafting meant for leveling only? I thought maybe this was the case. But anyone who has done any leveling knows that as soon as you would craft a piece of armor, let alone a 3 or 5-piece set, it will shortly be out-leveled or upgraded by a world loot piece. Even the world set pieces seem practically useless when leveling because by the time you get at least 3 of them, you've out-leveled them. But I digress.

So is crafting meant for VR++ and end-game content? A hard no there as well. Just as with the other scenario, the drops for VR content far out-performs the crafted gear. The the crafters will be available to upgrade gear to legendary, right? Maybe, probably not, since anyone can do the upgrade if they have the mats, so it would just take gold, and any hard-core guild will be taking care of their top-tier players on their own.

Different topic, but shows some set bonus differences.
Thanks @Nybling from TF.

So my bottom line (in my opinion) is this: I like crafting in this game. I really do. It can be fun. But right now, it is not as useful as it could/should be. If I am crafting and I keep asking myself, "Why am I doing this? Will I be able to use and/or sell my goods now or later on?" The answer has been no. For the most part people won't want/need the crafted sets unless they may by extreme casuals, in which case they probably won't even care about bonuses on their gear.

My personal suggestions that would help crafting in this game:
Short-term fixes:

• Buff craft-able set bonuses to put them on-par with dropped loot.
• Make the 8-trait bonuses better to reflect time invested by crafter.
• Make crafted traits x% higher than dropped traits

Long-term ideas:

• Give clothiers (or alchemist) ability to make clothing dyes
• Ability to match colors on different pieces of armor
• Craft-able costumes
• Give woodworkers, blacksmiths, and clothiers ability to morph armor/weapon appearance; a learn-able high-level skill perhaps (Would be cool to have a Veteran-level quest to learn the ability).

Anyway, this is my feedback from the amount of crafting I’ve done. I really like the crafting system in the game and want to see it succeed and provide a valuable path for players, as well as create a robust in-game economy.

Thanks.