Should I level crafting as I go?

So I am a new player, and I like crafting. However, it seems crafting works way different in this game than other MMO's I have played. I am enjoying the game so far as my Conjurer, but I wanted to also make my own armor. I grabbed Botanist as soon as I was able to at level 10, but I realized at that point you have to switch weapons and it's a completely different play experience with it's own quests. I got it to level 6 before I switched back to my wand and shield as a CNJ at level 12. I decided to do some research at this point, and from what I have read I should just do all the crafting at once, or none at all. Is that accurate? Should I just wait until I am maxed level, or how should I go about leveling crafting as a new player and considering the expansions?

Right now I have only the base game, and subbed a month. I plan to keep going though, and buy the latest expansion if I am still enjoying the game at level 50. At this point, it is sucking me in, and so I probably will buy it.

Thanks for any tips for a new player and a potential crafter :cool:.

It is in many ways a good idea to level all the crafting and gathering classes in parallell so they remain at roughly the same level.
There are basically two reasons for this:
a) That means they can share gear, which will greatly reduce the space needed for all their gear.
b) It means that when you are doing crafting you can gather and/or craft nearly all the materials needed by yourself instead of having to buy stuff from the Market Board.

Leveling your crafters along with your battle class(es) also lets you make your own gear, and thus be less dependent on lucky drops or buying things. It will also let you repair your own gear, and let you meld materia. (You probably haven't encountered materia yet, but you will.)


If I were you I would wait a bit with leveling crafter and gatherer classes until you have joined one of the Grand Companies. This will happen in a level 20 quest - you won't be able to miss it.
Reason for this is that doing the daily supply missions for your GC will give you lots of XP for your crafter/gather classes and is also an efficient way of earning GC seals at the start.



Waiting until you hit max level before you start leveling any crafters is of course possible, but that way you will have very little use for the items crafted while leveling your crafters.

Thank you for the suggestions! I will wait until I get that GC quest and then just level them all as I go. No point in rushing to the end.

Another reason to wait until you unlock your grand company is that's when you ALSO unlock having a mount, which will make gathering easier. Other than that, go nuts, level them as you go, enjoy the journey.

Thats also roughly when you unlock retainers, which allow you to sell things on the market board(and buy things? or was that always open? its been SO long).

One thing i always liked is the way the systems synced up. A level 30 gatherer will get materials that a level 30 crafter can use to make gear that a level 30 fighter might want. There are lots of ways to get gear so it isnt strictly needed, but its a nice boost from time to time. And having crafters leveled makes gearing up a 2nd(3rd, 4th, etc) class much easier.

I am going the route of leveling up a main job first and then I can hit the crafts after. Dungeons tend to have provided me with great gear so far so I don't mind holding off on crafting.