Stuck crafter seeking advice

When I first started FFXIV, I fell in love with the crafting system. I quickly leveled all the DOH/DOL classes to 50 - and then the struggle began.

I've managed to get all my DOH classes to 55-56 with the moogle quests, but I'm really having a hard time gearing up. Along the way, I've been crafting my own gear, but it doesn't seem like that's even possible at this point. I've made a few attempts at collectibles for blue script, but my gear/skill/both? is so bad I can't get even the lowest level needed for script turn in.

Is the only way to progress at this point through the marketplace? I don't have millions of gil to spend. I am just so frustrated.

Scrips aren't really relevant until like, level 58 or 60. I never bothered with them till then anyway.

Once you've reached that point, then you can start grinding them out to get new recipes and the end-game starter gear. And of course, Red Scrips to start upgrading those.

Might seem frustrating, but don't think you need to resort to buying everything just to progress. I've got all my crafters leveled to 60 and geared to 2-Star or 3-Star stats, and the only thing I've ever bothered spending money on the marketplace on is the occasional specialist craft I can't make. Only big purchase I ever made was an end-game sewing wheel for my WVR.

Crafting for Blue Scrip is the same as crafting for HQ : do your best to max out the Quality bar before actually finishing the craft. The only real difference is that you have the Collectible Synthesis buff up, and the result is a Collectible rather than a HQ/NQ item. And by the way, starting with all HQ materials puts you incredibly close to the minimum Collectability Rating for handing in.

The basic means of crafting remains the same though : get yourself set up with Comfort Zone and Inner Quiet, get your Progress filled until one more Careful Synthesis 2 will finish the craft off, then build up your Inner Quiet stack as much as possible through various Touches, culminating with a boosted (Great Strides, Innovation, maybe even Ingenuity 1 or 2) Byregot's Blessing before you finish it off with that last CS2.

That said, if your gear is that bad, double check the Moogle vendor. I believe they sell level 57 crafting and gathering gear. It may be merely NQ, but with a few melds (you have been doing Ixal beast tribe stuff and collecting both Oakknots and T4 crafting materia from them, right?) you will be well positioned when it comes time for the initial level 60 stuff. You will have to craft your own accessories as they only sell visibles.

Thank you both for the quick response! Looks like I'll keep plugging away - I really appreciate the encouragement :)

And while i know this isnt the answer you were looking for, but theres another thing to keep in mind. Your level plays a much larger part in the crafting calculations post 50. So you could always just keep plugging away at the moogles and occasional leve quest to boost your levels a bit higher then try the gear again. Might work for you.

it's pretty simple actual, forget all this scrip grind, you'll have plenty of time doing that at lvl 60. So to just get there quickly get the lvl 55 NQ gear @ Moghome. Do the daily GC turn ins, you can craft these yourself or check the market board, most of the items on our server don't break the bank anymore when purchased as HQ version (that's what you want to get more exp). Now look at some of the leves at lower level, most of them are level 52/54 and don't require much resources. Again check the market board if you have no gatherer at level 60 and craft these turn ins ( (7 - 11 HQ turn ins get you 1 level most of the time). Don't bother with leves that require you to turn in 3/6 items focus on the single ones. If you don't want to get there within a couple of hours, just throw a couple moogle quests in every day and voila level 60 in no time, with minimal effort/gil spent lol.

The difficulty of recipes does ramp up pretty steeply after level 50, largely because SE wanted to "catch up" to the level 50 three- and four-star recipes. As early as level 53, recipes have higher progress and quality requirements than even four-star level 50 recipes. For crafters that kept up with their gear prior to Heavensward and had heavily melded Artisan gear, it wasn't so bad - that gear could carry them pretty easily to level 56, or even later. For newer crafters trying to get by with standard, unmelded gear, the journey is much more difficult.