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I am only rushing, because you have to have an end game character to have one of the new classes. Something i wish they explained sooner.
1. Do I really need to waste time with "gathering" and crafting? or can I wait till i reach 50 at least?
The whole "change your suit" for crafting and gathering was a little annoying so I didn't mess with it much.
2. Crafting is mandatory to improve your gear with materia?
Actually, no, you do not need an end game character to be one of the new classes. End-game, now, is after the Heavensward story, not after the Realm Reborn story. You can access the three new jobs when you are barely into the Heavensward story.
You do not need to bother with crafting/Gathering at all, if you do not want to. You can get the quest to be able to break stuff down to Materia, and then to affix your Materia, but once you have those, even if you have no crafting skills at all, you can Request Meld of a crafter high enough for your item and get someone else to meld for you.
At one point level 50 was endgame. that's what i meant. So my gear wont suck for not having Materia in it?
You can purchase base gear for HW through npc vendors, the story and a few side quests provide you with hq gear too. Materia will allow you to excel but it is not a requirement to complete standard content.