New To Culinarian

[Jordanlc]

I had a archer lvl 18 + and jobs of a miner and goldsmith, Archer was expensive and miner / goldsmith made me no gil, Gil seems hard to make :/ , so im gonna make a Maurder/Fisher/Culinary , whats your opinion when it comes to money and culinary

[Kinseykinz]

Well for starters, there is a lot of flux in game atm so it is hard to judge what the profits for CUL will typically be however you should just know a couple things.

1. CUL is typically a 'slow and steady' income. Food items just can't be sold for too much or no one will buy as they are not 're-usable' or 'long-lasting' like a Cotton Tunic would be. Gear/weapon crafters usually see a large sum of money when they sell something but their stuff sells slow. Cooks, sell quicker, but its small transactions each time. You need to decide which style fits you.
2. Mats require a LOT of Farming/harvesting time to make your synths profitable (esp. at lower levels). BTN is a better choice overall for CUL crafting. FSH is better for CUL grinding. (The fish dishes only represent 1-2 types of CUL recipes but BTN drops (or straight farming) gives you more items for all types of synths). It's not that fishing is a bad choice, it's just BTN is a little more helpful overall.
3. CUL can't repair any gear or attach materia, meaning you will still need to rely on others/pay for these services.

If your main goal is 'to make money now'. Then I'd suggest picking any DOL and getting it to 50. Basically, just sell the mats you harvest from the DOL. Doesn't matter which one you pick...just pick the one you like the best. Another option, is to look at the wards and see which mats seem to be in high demand. (Meaning they either sell quick or for a good sum of money) Go out with your MRD and kill these. While doing this, level CUL through LOCAL LEVES. This way, you don't need to worry about having mats, but at the same time, will slowly earn and stack key items needed for synths. I'd only bother level CUL in a traditional way once You had at least 2 of the 4 set up.
1. BTN to rank 50
2. A DOW/DOM class to 50
3. A LS that has plenty of friends that pass you all their 'crappy food mat' drops.
4. Fishing to about rank 26+ is nice but not necessary (most CUL's who have fishing leveled it for sand grinding...sand doesn't sell for anything so ranking fisher, you are better off selling the raw fish than grinding them...at least until you get post rank 30-35+ish in CUL)

All this being said: I do make the majority of my gil via Cooking atm. However, I am level 50 CUL, BTN, BLM,WHM, and level 31ish FSH. I literally farm 95% of all my mats and/or have LS mates who donate them to me. So in addition to spending several hours a week cooking I also spend about the same amount of time gathering/farming the mats I need.