Free to Play Cast: Evolve, Rapid Fire, and Our Favorite MMO Systems Ep 196

I think crafting is dumbed down because players are impatient these days. Most player limits are getting rare recipe (low drops etc) and few materials. Back in my days in Lineage2 for crafting (lategame) you needed more then few materials and you could even fail crafting...

Okay... this might be a lengthy one...

Wardrobe: I have to give this one to RIFT. It has outfit slots so once you save your appearance, equipping gear will not alter it. It has slots for multiple outfits. It has the option to hide any of the armor slots. It has dyes. It has no level, class, or gear type restrictions (except shield/offhand). You can 'learn' an appearance just by having it in your inventory, no equipping required. Which means you can then sell the item. And if you go it from a vendor you can sell it right back.
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Crafting: I don't think any one game has done this ideally, but... I like Archeage's crafting. Crafted gear even while leveling will be better than most quest or even dungeon gear. There are multiple ways to obtain the materials: gathering, growing it yourself, auction house, community trade. And there are some unique professions... commerce being the most notable of these. These things all keep it a bit more interesting than your average mmo. An honorable mention to RIFT for survival and fishing (includes crafting lures and poles).

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Gearing: Okay, I hate to do this... I really do... but for endgame at least, with Legion, WoW has it. At least in options. You can obtain gear via questing, dungeons, raids, crafting. For overall gear formula though, I'd have to say RIFT. Why? Stats. Every class reguardless of role uses ONE major stat. No matter if you're a healer, support, dps or tank... if you're a rogue, dex is your stat. This avoids confusion to some degree and allows some of your gear to transcend roles and be useful for multiple things.
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Inventory: I don't think anyone's gotten this wholly correct either...but, there are some things that help. Wardrobe systems, being able to craft with reagents in your bank, banks/guild banks with multiple tabs, and shared account banks all help and are too common to credit one game. Crafting specific bags can be a double-edged sword leaving you dealing with negative space or swapping bags around. FFXI (and to a lesser extent FFXIV) have storage for specific things like gear, crystals, etc. but in FFXI in particular, these aren't accessible from everywhere. All in all, I feel like there has to be a better system than simply making larger and larger bags that horribly obscure your vision when open, but I can't put a finger on what that might be.
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Leveling: WoW's zone scaling is nice for not out-leveling content, and the world quests are a boon for endgame, but their quests often feel uninspired, and the dungeons difficulty pre-Legion is laughable. RIFT has a lot of nice options: questing, rift, dungeons, IAs... and the dungeons are a bit better than WoW, but the efficiency of IAs has killed the dungeon scene, which makes me very sad. FFXIV again has a lot of nice options along the same vein as RIFT with dungeons, leves, FATEs, quests, etc. Sadly though, personally I have to give this to an mmo that is no more... City of Heroes. Most quests were instanced and scale-able with the ability to increase difficulty, this along with the player made quests from the forge made it all feel very dynamic.

Imma just come out and say it. I absolutely hated guildwars 2 crafting lol. like alot.