Leveling Alchemy 40-50

I'm r44 Alchemy at the moment and I'm stuck in a rut. There are only a handful of r45+ Alchemy recipes and they're all either too expensive to grind on, impossible to find mats for, or they just give poor SP.

I've been mainly breaking clusters and doing the two local leves in Ul'dah. Besides how uncommon it is to find clusters in abundance, they're giving medicore SP at r44. The recipes for Gold Enamel, Or and Argent Lacquers, and Smothering/Disabling Baghnakhs all give the same sort of mediocre SP, sharing the fact that the mats are few and far between. I'd turn to making boar leather dye, but I never see the scale bugs for boar leather dye on the markets.

So I turn to you, wise denizens of the official forums. To those of you who are r50 Alchemist, know an r50 Alchemist or just like pretending to be an r50 Alchemist -- nevermind, scratch that --, how did you manage to get to r50? Did you just do the same synths, slowing gaining of off the ever-lessening SP or what?

I'm currently 48 and it has been rough 45+. The only economical recipe to grind off of on my server is the lvl 41 Black Sole recipe. It yields me about 100 to 150 SP per synth and I make the gil back by selling the crystals. I've also been spearfishing Dart Frogs from the low-grade areas in The Black Shroud. Those can be made into Reanimating Salts (lvl 47) which can be converted into Heart Drops.

Boar leather scale bugs(rust, beige and storm) are the best way to do it
but you need to hit grade 5 mining

theres also the dart frog route which requires fishing

Nearly every alchemist I know took the dart frog route. It's really not that hard to get dart frogs either.

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Originally Posted by Wynn

Nearly every alchemist I know took the dart frog route. It's really not that hard to get dart frogs either.

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the problem with drogs is they are 4 ranks lower in recipe for recipe
and something like 7 levels lower for the powder they make after

so sp is way lower

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Originally Posted by TheVedis

Boar leather scale bugs(rust, beige and storm) are the best way to do it
but you need to hit grade 5 mining

theres also the dart frog route which requires fishing

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Is there any other way to obtain the scale bugs? My mate said he couldn't find any when mining at the grade 5 quarries.

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Originally Posted by NotApplicable

Is there any other way to obtain the scale bugs? My mate said he couldn't find any when mining at the grade 5 quarries.

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Ask him to try it at Halatali, it should be a good place for the scale bugs and some gold/silver, Treespeak is another nice option if he's also interested in flax.

Where are the spearfising locations for the dart frog? Can you suggest a map?

You can find them in the streams around Bentbranch, Tranquil, and Emerald Moss. Unfortunately they are the most rare drop in those loot pools. You'll be farming them for a long time. I can get about 50-100 after farming for 4 hrs, and at 45+ on Alchemy; those go quickly.

You can use Disciples of the Land website to find gathering nodes.

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Originally Posted by rubina

Where are the spearfising locations for the dart frog? Can you suggest a map?

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anywhere in black shroud almost can drop them
some nodes dont, but youll still use them to hop between your 3 nodes needed to cycle(i use the 2 in humble + 1 in bent Northwest)

i did black sole along with the other fish that produce 6 crystals from ranks 35-50. its true, it takes a very long time past 45, but this was the easiest path for me and is waaay more efficient than farming dart frogs for hours. you can forget about buying dart frogs on the market, they are rare, expensive and you will need tons of them - this is pretty much true for any ingredients in the rank 45+ recipes. i was also able to turn a huge profit from all the crystals.