Craft Skill Limitations

[Blah]

That too, I'm not even 100 and yet I'm feeling the crunch. Waaay too much stuff is simply not there to even try to reasonably skill up.

[Byrth]

I am a level 110 alchemist and have a level 105 clothcrafter. SE made it much easier to skill up to 105 lately for a lot of crafts with the AA ingredient recipes.

Also, Tidis, you're wrong about hexed gear being your only option after 102. Saline Broth takes you to 104 and Malison Medallion takes you to 106. After that, you are either stuck doing Hexed gear or finding a Smith friend to make you Adaman Kilijs for Killer's Kilij, which I imagine would be straight loss at this point because they suck compared to iLevel swords. Still, it's not impossible to level.

[Tidis]

I chose to flat out ignore those 2 options because of Heliodors and the Adaman Kilij's because they're just as unlikely to obtain as the belladonna sap. One synth I forgot to consider was the Saline Broth since Buried Vestige are somewhat readily available but that would still only take you to 104. Back when Voidwatch was popular I wouldn't have complained about the difficulty in leveling a craft because the items were there to obtain but now it's just a dry well.

[Byrth]

The real reasons that Squama supply crapped out are:
1) No more people making VWNM trial weapons. - No more incidental Verthandis.
2) Prices dropped. - I was still paying 1mil per Squama when I hit 110. The price is now 500k per squama (and there has been inflation), so there's less incentive for people to farm it.
3) Voidwatch rate decrease. - In the entire history of FFXIDB, only 120 Squamas have come from Voidwatch as opposed to 298 from Verthandi. So it contributes to the supply but is not really driving it.


Heliodors are relatively easy to get. Just throw gil at the AH and they'll appear in your inventory. I probably wouldn't bother with Kilijs because they're a PITA (like 15 ingredients all-told?) and there's honestly no reason to take Alchemy over level 106 at the moment. At 106 you can Tier 1 HQ the only profitable hexed synth (Coif -1) and the Tier 2/3 boosts you get between 106 and 110 are minimal.

That said, "profitable" is a bit of a relative term for Hexed Coifs. I mostly make them because I feel dumb having leveled Alchemy to 110 and want to validate it with trivial profit. At a 6.25% HQ rate, 5% break rate, and 550k per Coif, Hexed Coif -1 costs 9.25 mil to make on average. If you do 20 synths, you have a 30% chance of NQing or breaking all 20 synths and simply being 11 mil in the hole. You cannot be 95% confident that you will HQ once until you do about 50 synths (27.5mil investment). Can you imagine gathering 50 Squama in the current economy? Why the heck even try and skill up Alchemy?

[elqplau]

I craft what i have on hand i only goto a guild if the lvl capps ....being a solo player for the better part of ten years i dont goto towns long enough to do much more than upgrade gear or change jobs ....got out if the party scene if you will..crafting just clears my gobbie bags

[Tidis]

Here I am to complain about Alchemy again, is there possibly something that can be done about Ethereal Squama? I've done 2 pops (terrible sample size I know) and in both cases 0 dropped with TH9+, ffxidb.com has ethereal squama at a drop rate of around 40-60%, if it keeps going this way then getting the ethereal squama I need to progress from lvl 106 alchemy is going to be a massive pain, can't the VNMs drop 1 guaranteed like their Abyssea counterparts?

I would much rather do Dija Sword synths but Yggdreant Roots don't last 5 minutes on the AH right now, in the past I was able to stockpile 15 roots and I don't particularly want to use them when they probably won't even get me to 107 as of yet, I saw the Dija Sword as a 108-110 synth as I'd rather not burn through 2 belladonna saps per synth on Hexed Doublets since those don't stay on the AH too long either, have a much larger stockpile of those though.

[Zarchery]

Post 100 skilling sucks but I hate to say that Dija Swords are your best bet. I did those to 110. Can do Killer's Kilij too, but those are crazy expensive.

I usually stockpile for weeks, then do a big synthing blitz. If you use Kitron Macaron and synth in Adoulin with Ionis active, you should get a better skillup rate.

[Tidis]

I did figure that Dija Swords would be best, no real surprise that Yggdreant Roots don't last long on the AH then, I guess I'm not the only Alchemist trying to beat the 106-110 hurdle. I did manage to get an ethereal squama last night, currently buying Liks and Gugs off the AH to try and get an Ebisu so I can fish for Matsya, try and get a Shaper's Shawl while I'm stockpiling mats.

Also yeah I always craft in Adoulin with Kitron, it does seem to help quite significantly.

[elqplau]

I was a provider... meaning all i did was farm or grow things.. elemental ores used to sell 150-500k depending which ones i harvested...nowl they drop in aby sell price 3-5k npc for3726 i have 45 arcaine pots that are now space savers.. thanks to aby

[Krysten]

id love to see all crafts maxed, there no reason not to. its not like one can easily zerg to 100 and might help some servers with struggling AHs