Crafting or Gathering: Is it worth it?

Sadly, I think it is not, the amount of gil you put in leveling it up would never be enough to cover what you can sell out of it.

Am I the only person here, that thinks it is really a waste of resources if you continue to think that someday all those gils wasted in leveling up your gathering class and crafting class would one day pay off?

I became a goldsmith in the hope of gaining some gils to buy things for myself, but my god... the horror that faced me in leveling up that class... in the end I stuck with it not for making gils, but actually for sheer boredom when one is at the post story life in the game.

I make more money killing mobs for their drops actually...

I've nearly bankrupted myself doing carpentry and I'm only at level 35. Sure if I gathered all the resources myself it'd be fine but that would take farever.

I spent roughly 500K and 100 leve's to get leatherworking to 50, Initially i did not make my money back for crafting items until i started crafting 1 star militia gear to burn for materia. After Gathering/Crafting ilvl55 gear i have made my money back in burning the items for materia.

so IMHO they go hand in hand.

and honestly the only reason you make money from mob loot is because some crafter needs it to make an item. if there wasn't any crafting there wouldn't be a need for those mob loots :P

From a purely monetary standpoint, gathering is not worth it right now. Markets are already pretty flooded with high level Mining and Botany mats. Note that this may very well change in a month when people are rushing to get housing items crafted.

Crafting depends on which one you choose. Something like ARM doesn't really have anything with high demand and it will be hard to make your money back. GSM, on the other hand, makes the accessories that people convert into materia and thus has a high demand market to sell to. Choose wisely and you will make a good profit; choose poorly and you'll lose a good deal of gil and leve allowances.

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Originally Posted by Zheri

From a purely monetary standpoint, gathering is not worth it right now. Markets are already pretty flooded with high level Mining and Botany mats. Note that this may very well change in a month when people are rushing to get housing items crafted.

Crafting depends on which one you choose. Something like ARM doesn't really have anything with high demand and it will be hard to make your money back. GSM, on the other hand, makes the accessories that people convert into materia and thus has a high demand market to sell to. Choose wisely and you will make a good profit; choose poorly and you'll lose a good deal of gil and leve allowances.

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Cool then, my GSM is still worth it after all, ahahaha. Would you mind telling me what accessories are commonly used for materia assimilation?

Gathering = shards and clusters, with clusters going for 400-800gil each, and the fact you can get many clusters from a node.. you do the math on it.

As for crafting, I made heaps with Cooking, and it cost me nothing to max it to 50, skilling up was pure profit if you pick the right recipes.

Weaver cost me about 300K so far on items for Leves (bought all from AH, too lazy to grind it out) and I am nearly 50 in it.

I have been crafting for a bit now and recently tried gathering as some of the mats are getting pretty pricey. I have used prospect and triangulate in zones and haven't found one thing. I tried with and without crafting gear and the appropriate tool. I then tried my normal gear with the buffs enabled. Nothing seems to work. I have blown over two hours and not one twig or stone. Obviously I am doing something wrong. But I feel its broken as its so much of a guessing game trying to get it to work. Should be pretty cut n dry. Any help is appreciated.

How can you say gathering is not worth it? I have made millions with mining shards, crystals and darksteel.

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Originally Posted by Aedrict

Sadly, I think it is not, the amount of gil you put in leveling it up would never be enough to cover what you can sell out of it.

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The one who can't make money when he's 30 won't be able to make money even he is 50 in all DoHs. Crafting/Gathering don't produce gil by themselves (except for leve reward), the gil comes from the market transaction. You need to learn to play the market. I know a guy who has no DoH/DoL over lv15 has made millions so far by just trading: start with egg/orange juice in EA then vender mats/gears then buying shard during weekday and selling at the weekend. Finally break into materias/2 star gears swing trading with enough capital.

By the way, I have just checked your lodestone.
With your gear set and cross-skill I don't think you can 100%HQ the products around your level with NQ mats. This maybe your problem:
At this stage of the game (2 months+ from EA), low level products do not sell too much because people pass low level quickly and they have learned they can get them from vender cheaply. Mid/High level NQ products have less value than the mats to make them. Just search your server to see how many lv50 GSMs is online (should be the most than any other DoHs). HQ products still sell (due to the 40 max selling slot for each character) but you have to lower your cost to make a profit (aka use NQ mats only or gather by yourself).

Conculsion: upgrade your gears and hit 50 asap if you still want to make gil by GSM. Or start another class (LTH/BSM/WVR) or just give up and grind WP/AK then sell philo mats which will pay you a better hour rate on gil.

To be honest GSM was the biggest money maker in the first 1.5 months from EA. But the good old time has gone (because everyone went for it for making gil). You can still make money from it but nothing big. Even the 2 star gears of GSM are cheaper than other 2 star gears in my server due to the competation.

In the long run it is worth it to level up crafting, just bear in mind that it is a gil synch in the meanwhile and yes you can make money with careful planning. Being able to do things like meld your own gear saves you having to fork out gil everytime you want to add material. Gathering is very nice and can make gil at level 1 by mining shards, just bear in mind it is very tedious. Use Lay of the Land to find nodes, it can find them even if they are over 500+ yalms away. Also bear in mind selling things on the market board typically takes patience and by not undercutting and instead matching the lowest selling price on the market you make a very nice profit.