[2023] Loot makes crafting obsolete.

Some of it is RNG but mostly on the item drops. Crafting goes up pretty much as planned because with so many rolls it evens out.

For me, I do go out looting whenever I can but ended up crafting a lot of my gear. In A20 I might have crafted 1 or 2 pieces tops.

Crafting is definitely a lot more viable now, especially since you can craft items with 4 mod slots.

Eventually looting will get you the final version of your stuff but... given the 4 mod slots a lot of QL5 gear can now be better than QL6 so even that is not a huge difference any more.

And "eventually" is something in the vicinity of lvl 75-90 so that's gonna be a while.