Heroic raiding is an incredibly complicated aspect of the game which appeals to a very tight niche. Should Blizzard continue to make that?
I mean, really, it's nice and fluffy to say that Blizzard really cares about crafting skills. But look at what they do, not what they say, and all they've done, mechanically, is add additional skill returns to certain crafted items in the last two expansions. Since release, the only other things they've done are require you to be in a certain location to craft certain things, and... Well, discoveries and glyph research are nice, but is it okay that the three crowning achievements of WoW crafting "getting more than 1 point from more expensive items", "once-per-day RNG" and "stand here and make some CLOTH goddurnit"?
Crew skills and the crew management system is probably one of the best aspects of SWTOR, but that doesn't speak anything of how you exactly play the game of advancing your crewskills. You can either advance vertically by making stuff and watching your numbers go up, or advance diagonally by reverse-engineering equipment to create superior versions, the second of which is a very good but somewhat flawed spin on the crafting system. They could, for all crewskills, simply remove the vertical advancement and create chains using the RE system(with maybe some kinder RNG) and it wouldn't do any damage. I'd probably love it, actually. All you'd have to do would be remove the arbitrary stat rewards for maxing out your profession of choice so that these professions aren't oversaturated by necessity, and you'd have an optional, enjoyable game system.
Bioware's ineptitude aside, I didn't say they were useless. I said they weren't interesting. They have a use in that they provide you with statistical bonuses, with materials you can sell in an economy and items you can produce by refining those items. They're not interesting because advancement is a banal checklist, and development is identical to the same methods by which you get every other piece of gear in the game
What does needing to buy gems, food and elixirs, enchants and the various hodgepodge of profession-specific enchants add to the game, other than arbitrary fees for equipping a new item or showing up to the raid for the night? What does requiring(and don't pretend it's anything other than a requirement for any player who's even slightly serious about their performance) players to level their crafting to 575 do for them, other than cost them gold? What does dropped crafting patterns add to the game that simply dropping the completed item from the raid trash in question would take away?
it's almost like my avatar isn't of a game in which you can get gear of the highest quality by crafting, a game in which the content you involve yourself in isn't because of a gear treadmill, but because you have a conscious desire to play through that content
if i wanted to do raids, i'd do them. i DID do them for three years before i got bored and put them to the side. maybe i WANT TO DO crafting, because i can feel there's a game in there somewhere just waiting to be let out.