And I’m on one of the busiest servers there is. It can take hours to find a person to craft you your gear.
That said - getting things crafted at r5 - also introduces a sketchy process. Half the time, you’re required to send a personal order - and set it to r4. The crafter gets the gold and can just simply send it back to you at r4 - even though you agreed to an r5 craft and price.
I swapped from a Full to a ‘High’ server and maybe it’s just me but been blessed with max R5 each time.
I feel like on the full there is a lot of good crafters but a lot more people trying to make a quick buck.
Note if someone is asking you to set it to R4 and you don’t want an R4 - don’t craft with them.
Has that happened to you? I’ve had a lot of things crafted this x-pack and know a lot of others who have as well, and none of them have ever had this happen to them. I’ve also never heard anyone talk about it in trade…which I am sure they would do after getting cheated.
Overall, while it’s not impossible for it to happen…I don’t think it happens frequently enough to be considered an issue.
I’ve had no issues ever getting an R5, never had to send it back for a recraft, never had to pay more than a few K gold, but I also use R3 mats even if not 100% needed.
However I do find it extremely difficult at times finding someone who even can craft what I want. Days to find someone with alchemy and the trinkets, days to find someone with the lariat or frostfire recipes, and that’s the main problem, the recipes are so hard to come by that unless you only want something basic, it’s the time you spend in trade chat trying to find that one person who is still crafting that makes it hard.
It typically takes me a solid hour to find someone willing to craft/recraft anything that requires the alter of decay.
You could also join a guild, make friends, and stop relying on randoms to craft for you.
Requires that person run a dungeon. It’s going to be difficult and/or expensive.
My expertise has been the opposite. On area 52 posting in trade chat I usually get 2-4 DMs right away, some with crazy high prices, but I’d say half will say free tip whatever you think is fair. I always ask if they can recraft if it doesn’t proc rank5, almost all will say yes. The ones that don’t respond timely I just move on. This far into the season most crafters have high skill levels. Early in the xpac u did have one crafted item where it didn’t proc, even though he said he would didn’t respond after so I had to find another recraft er, that was annoying but just spend a few minutes chatting and hopefully everything goes smooth. I’ve had one bad experience the rest of the crafting has been great. But I’m also on a high pop heavy horde server
My server is almost instant for public orders.
You guys can thanks Blizzard for a such an awesome system. Think about people on low pop realms. If you ever gotten a lariat crafted by chance, getting a re-craft is almost impossible.
Also, the system is too complicated for the average players. Not every item R5 is difficult but some do.
I do the same with mats. Make their life easier so they can do the same to mine. 
I think it depends. Maybe I’m just lucky but I always get my stuff crafted within several minutes of listing it and advertising a tip for it in trade chat.
You only get 4 public orders a week. So most will need a personal order. Or take your chances with public.
What’s ironic is ill send dm’s to people requesting and saying if they provide all mats, I do not charge. Ive got like 10k mettle so insights are not an issue. So yeah, free crafts. And 5 min later I get messages they found someone. Whatever.
I just use my 4 when im there and look for any providing all mats. Dont even care what the tip amount is
I usually tip 20k for this items, plus I provide all mats. Maybe I need to offer more?
Eww no.
20k? Id clear a dungeon for that. Heck, BHH is soloable on regular. I did it to make the book for my priest this weekend. And I did look to see if any public orders were there while in there
Wow I do 12k on mine and I get thank yous in the crafting mail I get.
Have I been lowballing? I could probably afford more.
I’d love to craft stuff. I’d even do it for free if the mats were provided. Unfortuantely, they’ve made it VERY VERY dificult to even get your skill to max and learn a lot of the recipes.
So my issue is getting actual skill points (not knowledge points) and learning the recipes I need to craft stuff for people. They’ve made this exceedingly difficult so only the hardest of the hardcore will have them.
I’m not sure, because I can never get a crafter to just say how much they want lol.
I was looking for a crafter for my boots for a long time at 10k in trade chat. It wasn’t until I started saying 20k did someone step up.
IMO you have to understand the crafting process yourself to keep yourself safe, not unlike security in the cyber world. You can get a very safe R5 craft on a recipe, as long as you realize who has the recipes and who doesn’t. For example, a wildercloth cloak, never set public because anyone could take it and level up their skill. But a raid drop? Someone’s looking to do a quick turnaround, provided you don’t overestimate the skill and whether illustrious is needed.
R4? Sounds legit to me. I looked yesterday at a public, not something I do alot, because I knew I’m maxed. Quickly noticed that it would be R4 without illustrious, R5 with. Thus explaining the difference. Checked the tip, nope, no deal.
People don’t put their characters and names clearly on the order if they’re going to cheat. A crafter has to keep their reputation. I think you’re worrying about the wrong problems.
locking recipes behind dead content is always a good idea. Pair this with a crafting system designed for a game that’s not dead makes it even worse.