Yeah, no fighting for the crafter and hanging out in a party sounds like a really boring time for the crafter. Since there is no experience then it is not like they are going to be leeching, but yeah does make you wonder what they will be doing. It seems like it would just make more sense to have someone that is a craft as well another job and when there is equipment trouble the party breaks and the crafter fixes all of your gear. Then the crafter switches back and you go back to killing things.

But I'm figuring things will work like how the fishing rods do currently in FFXI. Which is funny that they are the only items in the entire game that have a break status that can be repaired as well. Its really weird that way, but I'm figuring that to be the case. I bet if you broke something you could sell the broken gear on the AH or whatever and some crafter could buy it and fix it. That would be my guess, but you'll need some sort of system to let the player know the status of the condition of the weapon so you know when you're going to lose it. Unless it is just a random thing like with the fishing rods.