Crafting and the gilsink of Leatherworker...

[Johnist]

Honestly, I think the most time conuming / expensive / friend-required Craft is Leatherworker. Once you hit Aldgoat Leather (Level 20) you start needing Mining. You also need Weaving and either Armor or Blacksmith for ingots. And let's not forget the overall shards count...

At the moment Leatherworker has 28 1-star ites and 20 2-star items. Poor Carpentry has very little High-Level recipes... (Hello Patch 2.1 to fix this!).

Overall, I think LTW cost me about 400,000 gil (yes, 400,000!) To get from Level 23 - 50. Now, that may not be much to many of you, but I rarely keep that much gil on me or my retainers as I'm always helping friends and what not... (yes I know that's a measely 20 Philo Items... a whopping 25 runs of WP/AK...) and it would have been much more if friends hadn't chipped in with some supplies for materials for crafting class quests.

What are your favorite and least favorite things about your crafting classes?

[AylaYukihana]

Took me 500K gil and about 100 Leves to get Weaver 50. Everything bought off AH.

[Argent_Wings]

I'm leveling Leather, Blacksmith, Goldsmith and Carpentry at the same time and paying pennies for materials(usually one or two stacks of skins or crystals when I'm feeling too lazy to farm them myself).

But I'd have to say I didn't care for Weaving in the Wool stage and pretty much ignored it in favor of using Linen leves to 50. I also don't like the sheer number of materials some of the Culinary recipes use. Food needs to be more beneficial for the work that goes into making it.

[Arkista]

Just got LTW to 50 today took me about 70ish leves and about 500k so not to bad.

[Tsunenori]

I'm having the exact opposite experience with leatherworking (31 at the moment, waiting on leves). It's actually been by and far the cheapest and the easiest for me to level. It's going to be my 5th level 50 craft, with my other 4 being Weaving, Blacksmithing, Goldsmithing, and Culinarian, with everything else at 15. My Mining is at level 44 at the moment, and will likely be 50 by the time I get back to my Leatherworking on Tuesday, and I spent two days prior to leveling LTW grinding two stacks of each kind of hide/skin while everyone was busy with the Lightning stuff so I had enough to take me to 50, while planning out all my leves so I wasn't wasteful with them.

And that, I think, is my favorite thing about the crafting classes. I can make what I want for pennies if I'm willing to go get it myself. Also, when I look at the gear I wear, almost all of it has my name on it. The gear my friends/FC/LS members wear? My name too, frequently. I'm able to help people and give back to those who have helped me. Melding, dyes, one star, two star, leveling gear, whatever it is that my friends or I need I'm more than capable of providing, and it's a very satisfying feeling.

Least favorite thing? That shards are the real stumbling block, and not materials. Ugh.

[juniglee]

Honestly, I think the most time conuming / expensive / friend-required Craft is Leatherworker. Once you hit Aldgoat Leather (Level 20) you start needing Mining. You also need Weaving and either Armor or Blacksmith for ingots. And let's not forget the overall shards count...

At the moment Leatherworker has 28 1-star ites and 20 2-star items. Poor Carpentry has very little High-Level recipes... (Hello Patch 2.1 to fix this!).

Overall, I think LTW cost me about 400,000 gil (yes, 400,000!) To get from Level 23 - 50. Now, that may not be much to many of you, but I rarely keep that much gil on me or my retainers as I'm always helping friends and what not... (yes I know that's a measely 20 Philo Items... a whopping 25 runs of WP/AK...) and it would have been much more if friends hadn't chipped in with some supplies for materials for crafting class quests.

What are your favorite and least favorite things about your crafting classes?

I feel that Blacksmith is also the same. Lots of lumber (CRP) and oil (ALC) to level up, and sometimes, leather (LTW) and cloth (WVR).

Now that I hit BSM 50, I can't craft anything either...BSM 2-star is hardly profitable either. I only have GSM and BSM at 50 though, but yes, I feel your pain.

[Lucipurr]

I wonder how you guys make so much gil to level your crafting classes.

[juniglee]

I wonder how you guys make so much gil to level your crafting classes.

When you do find them, the triple turn in repeatable leves gives you a fair amount of gil in returns for your HQ crafting.

I also mine my own materials, and I really only spend on shards or HQ materials from other classes that I can't make on my own yet (ie. Linseed Oil is an ALC craft not yet accessible to my Lv15 ALC). Now you know where I spend my money on...

Since I have a Lv50 GSM, I also craft and meld my own HQ ilv49 accessories and spiritbond them for materia. Savage Aim III, Savage Might III, Quicktongue III, and most Crafting III materias sell for a fair bit in my server.

[Tsunenori]

I wonder how you guys make so much gil to level your crafting classes.

I don't feel like I'm giving away any trade secrets by saying that the best thing to do is to look at the Market Board and try to provide where there's a gap in the supply, or look to sell things that people will always want. People want crafting/gathering tools and gear, food buffs, leve items, materia, tomestone items, one-off things that aren't sold in stacks of 25 when you only need one or two (I'm looking at you, steel plates), etc. Diversify and keep your fingers in many pots, and be patient. Everything sells for the right price.

[Marxam]

Wow, I never spent over 200k on a DoH, and that was my first one (BSM) since then I've boosted my ARM class using BSM and now that I have Hasty touch I can easily HQ most items in and job now. If you spend smart on the markets you can usually break even through the gil earned in HQ turn-ins. Though the markets can vary from server to server