Supply and Demand is a funny thing

I was very bored yesterday. So bored, in fact, that I started crafting again. I made 36 venom potions to get a 0.1 skill up. I finally stopped, but only because the auction house was out of scorpion claws and farming them puts me to sleep.

After that, I decided to browse to check the price on a few spells. I'm after the 5th tier of spells, namely Protect, and I've been having the most horrible time with casting lots. I swear, I'll cast a 996 on a Dark Ring and a 112 when Protect drops. I could buy it, but we all know that I'm not exactly rolling around in gil.

I also decided to take a look at some other spells. Specifically, Aspir II and Phalanx. It goes without saying that I nearly screamed.

Not even a week ago, Aspir was 5k. Today, it's 90k. I don't remember what Phalanx cost pre-update, but that's now 300k. In perspective, Utsusemi: Ni is 130k. That's right. Phalanx costs more than Utsusemi. I think this should be emphasized because some people may not get it.

Phalanx costs more than Utsusemi: Ni.

Have people lost their damn minds?? This is absolutely ridiculous. Who's even going to use it? Oh that's right, Paladins can now use it. Before you move forward with the "duh" comment, let me ask you this? Who the hell considers Paladins useful?

I say this because if you look around forums for any given time, it's nearly a unanimous consensus that Paladin is a situational tank at best. Personally, when I think of a tank, Paladin is always what comes to mind. However, a vast majority of Vana'diel seems to think otherwise. RDM, SAM, WAR, or anything else seems to be better suited at tanking, while PLD is reserved for BCNMs or other specialized situations.

So if that's the case, why the price jump? Is there any justifiable reason for this? The same can be said for Aspir II. From 5k to nearly 100k in 4 days...and for what? All because Black Mages will be able to use it. These price increases rarely seem based on the actual usefulness of an item. Seriously, think about it. When's the last time you did an event that went wrong and saw this in your chat log:

"Damn...we would've won if only our PLD had Phalanx."

If I had to guess, my answer would be "never." Yet for some reason, this marginally useful spell is 1/3 million gil and rising. I imagine Aspir II will be 200k by the end of the week. At the very least 150k.

Haste and Refresh are sitting at 23 and 50k, respectively...yet they are a hell of lot more useful than Phalanx will ever be. It always amazes me that whenever SE adds a spell, armor, or weapon to a job that could never use it before, the price skyrockets to out of this world amounts, even if it's barely worth using.