Early on I remember a youtube video where the person was talking about trophies. Allegedly AGS devs had said they wanted trophies to be rare and hard to acquire so it would be a slow and fulfilling grind to becoming a better and better crafter. I like this, kind of like a end game progression sort of deal.
However, this is not how it works out in reality. What ends up happening is that the people who have a lot of coin, maybe because their company owns everfall, will buy the trophies and armorsets regardless of price. If you own Everfall it is not a problem to pay 250k for these items.
The problem is now that the Everfall-owner will be able to 13 Asmo + 1 Gem and create a 595-600 Necklace. The “solo” player that is not backed financially by anyone will with the same materials have a range of 570-585. So they have the same cost to create an item, but one of them will be able to create so much more valuable items that the person with no buffs simply can’t compete. That person is now locked out of the market. And since that person is now locked out of earning coin, there is also no way for this person to buy the trophies and catch up to the other person. Suddenly the market is a monopoly that is somewhat impossible to break.
I don’t think this is how the devs intended the trophy system to work out, but sadly this is the reality. I also hear rumors of a PTR chance that will lower loot from chests or something like that. That will just make it worse, now the people who already have the items will basically just be kings and queens and nobody will ever be able to catch up to them.