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Jessweeee♪
12-10-2013, 12:32 AM
I don't like crafting/gathering. It's not just FFXIV, I pretty much never enjoy crafting in any RPG.

Some days I'm like, "yeah I'm gonna get all these crafting classes leveled I'll be able to do stuff and completion yay" but most days I'm like "crafting is boooorrriiinnnngg I want to fight stuff."

Anyway, what would you say is the most effective way of leveling crafting/gathering classes?

Dr Unne
12-10-2013, 03:12 AM
Anyway, what would you say is the most effective way of leveling crafting/gathering classes?

1. Create a macro for crafting something that's unlikely to fail, preferably for a levequest
2. Get some alcohol
3. Turn on a movie
4. About once per minute, hit the macro button
5. Drink the alcohol
6. Repeat until the movie is over or the alcohol runs out

o_O
12-10-2013, 04:07 AM
Unfortunately since gathering involves clicking through menus and not executing commands, you can't make macros for it like you can with crafting. And on top of that, your GP regenerate a lot slower than you can use them, so you kind of have to be mindful of which nodes you're executing your skills on, to maximise your efficiency.

I'm far from a pro gatherer, but I try to use my HQ skills only on nodes with extra gathering attempt or increased HQ rate bonuses; otherwise I run out of GP too quickly. Also try to make sure that your gear is sufficient to give you enough perception to HQ gathering attempts at the nodes you're gathering, and make sure your gathering is high enough that you're getting a decent rate of yield. Nothing efficient about mining a node with only a 30% chance of actually gathering anything, so I try to make sure I have at least an 85% chance of success.

Loony BoB
12-10-2013, 12:37 PM
Do gathering classes first. Just keep doing leves. Honestly, leves are by far the best way to level up both crafting and gathering, and you should make full use of them. Every five or so levels, update all your gear. This will cost, but the upside is that no matter what you gather, you're never making a loss - you can sell it all for a guaranteed profit.

When gathering without leves, please note the following will be extremely useful when crafting...

Mining

Tin & Zinc ore are only useful in the lower levels, never gather more than one stack of these and don't expect to use them all. Honestly, I wouldn't waste my time on them.
Copper ore, Iron ore, Mythril ore, Cobalt ore, Silver ore, Electrum ore - all necessary for leveling ARM, GSM and BSM. You can gather multiple stacks of these and get good use out of them.
Bomb Ash is required for Steel Ingots, and that means it's just as vital as the above for ARM & BSM.
Raw gemstones are required for leveling goldsmith and, as they only require one raw gemstone to make each gem, they tend to be the fastest gathered material for experience. I seriously reccommend gathering stacks of these, turning them into gems and then selling them on the markets. Check out which of them sell fastest before you really start building up stacks, though.

Logging

Logs in general. All the logs are good for carpenter! Naturally some more than others, but if you're leveling, any logs that give you half decent experience are good'uns.
Straw, Flax, Cotton Bolls - these are all great for weaver.
It's also worth in the early stages checking certain things such as La Noscean Oranges which are good for making orange juice for culinarian. Simple things like this will help you level culinarian, but generally CUL uses far more ingredients than it should and is a general pain. When you get to something like oranges or apples or something basic, check to see if you can make any food using just that, and if so, level up on it.

Finally, shards. Shards, shards and more shards. Crystals, too. These are how you will make things, and if you run out of them then you can't craft a bloody thing. The best way to get them is not by gathering, but by doing levequests as I mentioned earlier.

I can't remember what spot to go to for each of the lower level gathering leves, but I do remember this...

L25 - Quarrymill? I think?
L30 - Costa del Sol
L35 - South East Coerthas, I forget the names of the forts. I think this one is really long! South of Dragonhead aetheryte.
L40 - North West Coerthas, I forget the names of the forts. I think this one is Whitebrum or something. West of Dragonhead aetheryte.
L45 - Mor Dhona, at the camp East of the region's aetheryte.

If you have a lot of company seals from doing FATEs after you join a grand company, then you can spend those seals on good gathering gear and (more importantly, in my view) Survival Manuals and Engineering Manuals, which will boost the experience you get from gathering & crafting respectively.

Gathering new things gives you a pretty healthy bonus, so when you unlock new nodes, learn what's behind each of the 'unknown' bits so that you get that bonus. It adds up pretty quickly whenever you unlock 'em. Fills up your inventory like a bitch, but you can just NPC most of them if you need to free up space.

Crafting is easiest leveled using leves, too. If you HQ the stuff for the leve, you get a 300% bonus. The same goes for fishing. You may not have too many after doing all those gathering leves. When this happens, start slamming through gemstones for Goldsmith while you wait for them to tick back up, because GSM is too easy to level to waste leves on.

If crafting simply isn't your thing, don't worry - if you need anything, just send me a Mognet asking for it and when I hope on, we can get it sorted. No biggie.

Jessweeee♪
12-11-2013, 12:38 AM
Thanks guys, I'll put that info to use c:

Citizen Bleys
12-12-2013, 03:15 AM
Mayhap someone--preferably someone hopelessly addicted to data gathering and manipulation but not naming BoB--should compile a list of Fat Chocobos with maxed out crafts for the noncrafters to use when they need something made.

AFAIK BoB and Killy are the only Builders of the Realm, but I just hit ARM50 today on Despard and now I'm working on BSM.

Also be sure to check out craftingasaservice.com; it will give a list of items to gather and a crafting plan to fill out your crafting logs. While just filling out the logs alone isn't enough to level on, it makes a huge difference, and the site marks which items you craft that are used in leves and which are needed for class quests so you won't accidentally vendor them, and it has a searchable levequest list. Last note with regards to CAAS: Don't forget to mock BoB and Killy for the fact that I had to learn about it on mafiascum and not from our TWO Builders.

Loony BoB
12-12-2013, 11:10 AM
To be fair, most of my leveling was done in 1.x and I wouldn't have a clue how people are leveling from 1-32 in this game on any crafts, as I had L32+ on all crafts when ARR began, and L50 on a few of them from the get-go. Essentially I haven't done much to learn about the leveling process in ARR just yet, but if anyone asks, we can do our best to answer!

I can put together a list pretty easily, I'll just have to remember to do it once I'm home. If anyone wants to drop me a reminder on IRC, I'll see it once home and remember!

Yeargdribble
12-14-2013, 09:21 AM
If you plan to level them all, I'd recommend leveling them all at the same time in 5 or so level increments. From 1-15, maybe 20, you can buy all of your materials from the guild supplier.

Make sure you're trying to improve each item as much as possible to get maximum XP per synth. Eventually, find a rhythm for a given item you're making and make a macro or two to make something that's successful everytime and will usually have a lot of improvement.

Even if you feel like grinding one straight to 50, at least get them all to 15. The cross class abilities make a huge difference.

Other benefits to leveling simultaneously are that you can share the gear, you have the classes to make the gear, and the different crafts will feed one another. In fact, if you want to level your gatherers along side them, they will also feed the crafts at all the same levels.

However, things start getting pretty grindy after 30. That's when you really start exploiting leves. Hell, I got my Botantist from 34 to 50 in about two days of off and on level spamming. I'm currently about to ding 50 on my Miner who was 36 just yesterday.

Crafts aren't quite so quick as gathering classes on leves, but they are pretty good.

The problem is, if you want to go fast, it can cost you. If you are willing to go slow, you can profit all the way. Always stock up on shards though. You'll probably find yourself almost never hurting for them until the late 30s, but in the early 40s when things start taking 5 or more per synth, it can get a little crazy.