Dear Devs, I hope this reaches your ears for consideration in future crafting system changes. I think the game is currently at a precipice that could go either really well or really poorly for crafting and I'd like to give some feedback on perceived problems and potential solutions that could go a long way toward improving crafting in ESO. Like with many other system design choices I think crafting is great in concept and perceived intent, but took a left turn instead of right during implementation.

All concerns are my opinion, but also reflect opinions of the majority of my guild mates. All points come from both a player's and guild master's (me) point of view.

1. Crafters aren't builders, we're destroyers- The current inspiration (XP) rewards for deconstructing so greatly outweigh the rewards for making things that crafters have become deconstructing drones rather than creators. Every single (100%) member in my guild has at least one, more often two or three, *never used* crafting professions maxed out simply from deconstruction XP. While we appreciate the ability to level crafting professions in multiple ways, the situation as it stands seems totally backwards.

Solution: Please reverse the XP gains to reward making things more than deconstructing things. Making an item> deconstructing player made items > deconstructing world/dungeon/quest drops/rewards > deconstructing self made items, with higher quality (purple/blue etc) giving more XP than greens and whites for any given type.

2. Weapon and armor crafting is almost at the point of obsolescence- Overworld and dungeon drop sets are for all intents and purposes superior to crafted sets. The bonuses and ease of attaining sets like the Stormknight and Akaviri Dragonguard make them much more desirable than crafted sets; especially when a crafter needs 6+ traits known PER PIECE in order to make the crafted sets. I'm sorry to say this, but as it stands the researchable traits and craftable sets are pretty much useless except for bonuses like Mundus, Divines, and Training. The other traits have niche use, but they're generally a second tier deal and are easily passed up with little negative impact on play. Including the increased armor and crit resistance ones, and I'm primarily a tank…

Solution: Allow crafters to research and create sets available through over world, dungeon, PVP, and trial drops. Research would still require people to run this content and leaving the drop rewards as is would give people the option of attaining these weapons and armor through running content, buying off the market, or crafting for themselves. Furthermore, allowing people to eventually make these sets will help people gear up and prepare for new content if finding groups to run "has-been" content is too difficult or simply undesirable. Requiring research (that's on a timer) will keep crafted "bleeding edge" gear from flooding the market and give the people running progression content the opportunity to accumulate full sets of the "best" or most prestigious gear before crafters can flood the market. Finally, the decision to either use or deconstruct/research a piece of gear is significant, something the dev team has shown a desire to encourage.