Goldsmith grinding guide

[pepesylvia]

First thread on the English Goldsmith forum? Let's make it a useful one!

Here's how to grind:

1-12:
leves, bone harpoon butts, copper nuggets, brass nuggets

through r15:
copper earrings, t1 gems, and silver nuggets when you can (would be wise to start stocking them)

r15-18:
copper rings

up to r25ish:
brass earrings then phase into brass rings (require the same mats, get a feel for it)

r24-28
brass rings mostly and electrum nuggets when you can (would be wise to start stocking them)

r28-38
silver ring into silver needle when you can reliably do it

r35-40
silver needle will go as far as 41, though slow, it is super cheap to grind. can also add in some silver chakram, tier1 gem rings, and white coral (arrowheads i believe)

r39-44
electrum rings (time to suck it up. mats are gonna be pricey, unless you can mine gold. And if you were thinking about leveling miner, and arent in any real hurry... now would be a good time.)

r44-50
silver francisca, mixed in occasional t2 gem rings, could keep going with electrum rings too if you're a masochist.
also red coral. but in my personal experience i find coral to be hilariously rare and mediocre, not something anyone should expect to grind off of. I personally never really reliably grinded coral, just like 3 or 4 synths per rank. Maybe someone can post an efficient way of collecting coral.

Note: Silver Francisca mats will require CRP20ish (ash francisca haft) and ALCH40ish (scale glue). Should not be too much a prob though. Especially if you're coming down off an expensive electrum grind.

Hope this helps. I'll tell you now the electrum grind is brutal, and may turn people away from GLD for the time being. It's only because the gold sand/ore market is so expensive and controlled by miners (their prices are justified). Depending on your bank you may wish to put your GLD on pause at this stage, it may be safe to assume that something in the future will happen that will cause gold to decrease in price. (and really, this disclaimer is mainly for those who are interested in leveling gold from the beginning. They may find value in knowing of this situation way beforehand. For the rest of you who are already 40+ and climbing, carry on! Godspeed!)

If you find yourself doing a bunch of faction NM leves, keep an eye out for Drake Collar drops off the Branded Drake type mobs. Ask your party members for those. They synth into 8 electrum nuggets and chances are those people are just going to vendor them for nothing.

Guide compiled from personal experience and a few references on other forums.

[Luluna]

Thanks for this pepesylvia ^^

Im currently at 37 and getting to 38 prob tomorrow if i can! ll give it a go. I always pray for good leves and hope for 40 plus but get them very rarely

[Alicia_WM]

Great job, want to also point out that in the 44+ stage you can cut raw t3 gemstones if you have them, then set them in electrum circlets. Rare, but good SP when you can.

[Peregrine]

I would think franciscas would be more painful than electrum rings.
You can subsidize your electrum ring grinding with T2 gems as well. That's a R49 synth plus some side cash.

I'm gonna be the first GSer on wutai who had to go the entire final stretch to 50 without any use of silver needles. Freaking PAINful. Thank god for miner.

[AuroraBorealis]

I found even at level 35 electrum rings weren't too difficult to level off of..expensive but very good xp per synth

[Shampooo]

Ride silver needles as long as you can, electrum is a pain

[Maverick_Hawkeye]

Do people think that (I think tier 2... Sunstone, sphene, malicite etc) Rings are not worth it from 37->...

I'm Rank 37 and I'm able to get silver nuggets for about 2k a nugget.... I pick up the gemstones anywhere from 2k-3k... (either raw or finished)

The synth costs roughly 6k and you get 2k back if you NPC it.... so you're looking at taking a 4k hit in mats.. Which really isn't too terrible considering the alternatives.... plus you're getting about 400/500 a synth....

So even if you go Silver needles... which will cost you 1 nuggett (2k) but probably nets you 150-200 (haven't done it in awhile) you're going to end up spending 2 nuggets worth (atleast) to accomplish the 1 ring synth.... which puts you already at spending 4k (not counting crystal cost) which you NPC for 1000.. costing you 3k a synth...

So at BEST you're saving 1k gil.... thoughts?

[pepesylvia]

I agree, I never REALLY did them as a "grind" just only if I had the gems lying around or found some for significantly cheap. I did it because they were slightly better SP and they sold okay (not really what I would consider "income" but yeah they sell). Also the chance of HQing them is nice, you could keep the HQ, sell it for more, or give to a friend.

[Ragz]

The easiest way of get GS to 50 is probably level Carp and Alc to 36. This allows you to get Mass Production and one of Assemble / Perfection right away. With 2 of the above skill it is relatively easy to grind Silver Chakram at low 30s and start on Silver Francisca at high 30s, by passing the most brutal Electrum all together. Also alc 36 allow you to make your own scale glue for Silver Francisca grinding.

[Alicia_WM]

Do people think that (I think tier 2... Sunstone, sphene, malicite etc) Rings are not worth it from 37->...

Just wanted to clarify:

T1 (~r10 synth): Sunstone, Lapis Lazuli, Malachite, Sphene, Danburite, Fluorite
T2 (~r30 synth): Garnet, Aquamarine, Peridot, Helidor, Goshenite, Amethyst
T3 (~r50 synth): Rubellite, Turquoise, Tourmaline, Amber, Zircon, Spinel
T4 (recipe unavailable): Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Topaz, Diamond, Iolite