yes I love the 'everyone got more recipes, life is not fair and balanced, bring back pristine xp first time combines. shall we comapare?
as an armor I get exactly 4 armor sets of 7 items each a tier, and maybe 2 shields, a kite and a tower. then factor in mc gear, and I get a total, per 10 levels, of 60 items.
now lets take a look at an alchemist, shall we? there's at least 3 kinds of poison. mana potions, 4 different resist potions, and every fighter spell. so 6 classes, and all thier spells per ten levels. I bet that along comes out to a lot more then 60 items.
I imagine your crafter probably is one of the 'spell' makers. the ones that used to level 100% faster, easily, then any other profession. of course you want that back. well you know what, you're not going to get it back. they leveled the playing field. and yes, there is a ton of quests/missions to do to level with.
I remeber when everyone owed thier souls to alchies, I remember when the only option for leveling was first times and writs. you want to talk boring? try it. no xp potions, only your vitality, and making 1-2 items over and over and over again. THAT was tedious and boring.
nowadays? TSing has never been so easy and had so many options on what to do to level.