Stop right there you unfriendly player! I shall not let you throw rocks at me before you hear what I have to say.
But first, an introduction.
My name is Riem, and I'm a new player.
-(Hello Riem!)
I started playing upon the release of this fascinating game on steam and been playing like an addict since. I bought, bargained, crafted my gear and managed to self sustain my Crystal Energy off Tier 1 and Tier 2 runs, thanks to the low prices. I currently have no problem with having to spend a part of my loot to be able to keep playing. I usually have enough left to make plans for my next piece of gear.
However, I have a problem with the way crafting work currently. Actually, I have a problem with Mid-tier Grade gear (1 and 3 stars). The difference between 0-2 and 2-4 stars gear is huge, but the difference between 0-1 and 2-3 is so low it isn't even funny. You get a very little improvement for more than 4 times the original cost. Worth it? I think not. Yet, players are still forced to go through crafting 3* to get to 4* which again cost an arm and a half. I would really like if 1* and 3* grade gear would be rebalanced to fit between the two adjacent grades instead of been a (very) small improvement to the lower grade.
Essentially, I feel like I'm wasting time (and crowns) getting my gear to 3* which gives me little improvement for how much it cost and how long it takes me to farm for it. (Not without saying finding the damn recipes is a pain too)
Community response? *Hides under a rock*
[Edit] Removed the part that made people mad since it wasn't needed.
The 3-4* items will not feel much more powerful in lower tiers due to the damage cap in those places. The real potential of the high level items will be revealed when you hit lower depths. For instance, a fang of vog which hits for easily 400 in the lowest depths only does about 50-60 in early T1 and while its fire ticks can easily kill me in T3 when I'm not careful, it can barely scratch away half a HP after 3 or 4 in T1.
In addition, chose your equipment well early on and find a playstyle that's safe for you and you won't feel like it's a waste to level it further because it'll serve you way later...
When I first got into T3, I've solo'd from 1 to 29, including most danger rooms and all arena stages from just relying on the ascended calibur charge, shield bumping and improvised hit and run tactics; it's not to say it's something hard or even worth doing over regular boss or recipe runs at this point but it should prove that the difficulty step up in lower depth is anything but impossible for newcomers.
If I had any advice at this point, it would be to just do runs that are safe and easy for you and hoard money/energy. When the unbind patch comes, you'll be glad to have built up your bank since you might be able to afford yourself a huge shortcut.
Even now, the market is saturated to the point you can pick up almost any pre-4* gear without an unique variant for cheaper than if you had to spend energy to hunt the recipe and make it yourself. I even occasionally see things on the auction house selling for lower than their minimal alchemy cost and sometimes even their NPC trash-selling cost.