So, with tier one crafters the grind is too much. The game inherits the rules of Exiled Lands, but in Exiled Lands the tier 3 and 4 crafters are available to any player at any level. No need to get 1000 elderium and no need to use a shrine to make them spawn. Plus the shrines are only for clans/guilds. Activate one solo and you get no thralls and lose all your stuff. You start the game solo so it is implied the game will be accessible solo. Siptah is not.
All my tier 3 fighter thralls die before reaching level 20, we are at 7 and counting. Not enough hitpoints to survive. Kind of stupid, just stand there. They all have food and good armor when they died. Some were killed by other players after they back-stabbed me from behind. My horses too, all dead before level 15.
I see lots of players come and go. They build some giant structure from the Flotsam set and then in a week it’s gone along with them. This is most players. I assume the grind was too much for too little.
Then I look at the locations for bases and they are pretty useless for the most part. Most players build a treehouse, which experience tells me are food for any trebuchet. Maybe 5 minutes to bring any of them down. The treetop environment is cool though.
So a lot of players won’t put up with it in my view. I have really curtailed my time in Siptah and Exiles. Futility, ennui.