Best way to get cross-craft mats?

Having a full time job during the week, I find myself having decent spare time to devote to the game.... but not really enough to level up every single crafting class. That's a bit much. Therefore, I often find myself needing mats from other classes, such as leather for my weaver, in order to finish levequests. Is there any other way of getting the mats? So far, my FC has been pretty good about helping me, as we are a mix of people with different classes. The Market Board is too costly and I won't make any profit off of the quests.

I really don't think there is any other way and I'm probably going to end up trying to add leatherworker to my trades, but just on the off chance that there's another way, I thought I would ask.

Hm.. At low levels, you can get away with buying such mats from NPCs. I always run a search at http://xivdb.com/ to see if I can buy this or that mat from somewhere before resorting to crafting it, since I hate gathering shards to make up for it afterwards.

At higher levels though, you're stuck either crafting them for yourself or getting/buying help.
If you ever do find the time to level up more crafter classes though, it's worth it. Certain skills, like Byregot's Blessing, are amazing for any crafter.

Or you could take a break to level up a combat class first, and then jump into some beast tribe quests. I'm told the Ixali daily quests are actually quite good for giving crafter xp, hardly costing you any shards, on top of providing you with the quest mats required. Like by the time I capped out my reputation with that tribe (which took a couple of weeks?), one guy said he went from 1 to 46 CUL. Granted, you can cap a craft faster than that normally if you have access to the mats to do it; but for something you can do on the side, those quests are very good.

Yeah, I always check xivdb for sources of things I'm going to need.

For leather, you could farm up the hides yourself and find someone to leather-fy them for you. Or spend that time doing something more profitable and buy the leather with said profits. Same net effect. Depends on how you view the spectrum between "fun" and "time/cost effective."

What are your retainers doing? If you have one set as a battle class, they can bring you back specific monster drops. Might need to level/gear them to a certain degree to get the stuff you're specifically after, and for leather you'd still need to find another crafter, but it's an option.

Personally... I just accepted the cost of leveling DoH classes. It may be possible to profit from the leveling the whole way, but that's a whole lot of time and energy (i.e. opportunity cost). For me it was easier to just spend some up-front gil to level, knowing I'd make it all back several times over once I'd finished leveling.

Beast tribes for sylph, ixali, and Amalj'aa will get you cloth, wood, and metals you can purchase, but takes a month or so to unlock vendor that high. I don't think they have beast tribe selling leather.

Honestly, if you want to do endgame crafting, you'll have to level up all DoH classes to 50 anyway. If you have limited time to spend in-game, I strongly recommend doing the daily Grand Company turn-ins to get crafter exp. You can also do the Ixali Beast Tribe Dailies to get good crafter exp. Also, crafter leves give tons of experience and can be done rapidly if you pre-craft the turn-in items, and make exclusively HQ ones (don't do the triple-turnins, do the singles or couriers).

But, if you just want a ton of NQ mats of specific types (like, Boar Leather), you should /shout in a city and see if you can find a crafter who will make you a bulk order of the item (99-396 depending on how much you'll use it) for well under the MB price. This can be done by the crafter via Quick Synth while afking, and they'll get some HQ items they can keep and sell on the MB. I know I'd do this for you if you were on my server, for a fair price.

You can buy leather and hard leather right from the weaver guild supplier, heck of alot cheaper than the MB. As stated though once you get higher, you will either need to level other classes or spend on the MB.

Going to have to agree with Nyalia. There's little reason to take up just one craft, since you need them all up there to HQ reliably, and all classes use items from a variety of crafters, so even if it's just to craft/repair/meld your own gear you'll need at least 3-4.

My suggestion is to not take on a levequest that specifically requires you to outsource materials. Instead, focus on redoing a single levequest that is located within close proximity to the levemete. That is of course unless you desperately want that particular item, but otherwise it's just better not to deal with them.

^ This too. Use a list like this one to determine what items are requested for the different leves, find the one that's easiest for you to make, and just do that one over and over until you hit the next multiple of 5. Repeat until 50.

Some crafting classes are more dependent on others for materials than others are, and (as you've already seen) Weaver depends on a lot of Leatherworker items. It's true the other way around as well. Leatherworker needs a fair amount of thread and cloth from Weaver. So it tends to be easier to level those two up together. (Each needs occasional items from other classes as well, but not as often as from each other, so that makes it somewhat easier to either buy those occasional items, or just avoid the crafts that require the more expensive ones.)

Even if you don't feel you have time for dealing with all eight crafting classes at once, would you consider expanding from two to three of them at a time? If so, I'd suggest the following:

• 1st) Unlock Leatherworker, Alchemist and Culinarian, and level those three from 1 to 15. (Pause on leveling Weaver and Goldsmith during this step, except for whatever Weaver items you need to supply your Leatherworking.) Alchemist and Culinarian are relatively self-sufficient in terms of materials from other classes, and Leatherworker mainly needs Weaver items, which you can already make.
  
  Once you get these three up to level 15 (along with Weaver and Goldsmith which you already have), you'll have access to five of the best level 15 cross-class skills. So you won't be too gimped in your ability to produce High Quality items while you're leveling stuff the rest of the way. (You still won't have quite the versatility of someone leveling all eight classes, but you'll gain a lot of it.)

• 2nd) Once you've unlocked those cross-class skills, abandon ALC and CUL, and focus on bringing Leatherworker up to around the same level as Weaver.

• 3rd) Continue leveling Goldsmith, Weaver, and Leatherworker (trying to keep WVR and LTW near enough the same level to supply each other with mats). You'll still need occasional metal or wood materials, but not that many, so you can either buy those or just avoid the recipes that need them, depending on how expensive they are.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CaptainRumfiend

Having a full time job during the week, I find myself having decent spare time to devote to the game.... but not really enough to level up every single crafting class.

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Add small kids to the equation and you are exactly where I am. The best advise is to pack your patience. It took me 10 months to achieve 50 all DoH, plus Botany and Mining. For long stretches of time I was limited less then 10 hours per week. I leveled them all pretty much in a wave together because of all the cross class crafting material requirements.

As for earning XP faster:
Eat food, you can gather (lv5 nodes) or purchase (8 gil) La Noscean Oranges, from the get go. +3% XP (every little bit helps save time).
Always rest in Sanctuary, when rested you get +50% XP bonus.
Do the Ixial beast tribe story line, the xp rewards are pretty much equivalent to a free level quest.

Here's another tip: If you're belonged to FC, make sure it has material supplier NPC. He/she will sell all craft mats needed for lvl 15 and below. And add crafting facilities if possible, those will benefit greatly for craft class level 40 and below. :)

Because I feel like it, here's a compilation of where you can get low to mid level crafting materials from NPC vendors. First, here's a list of where these vendors have their shops:

• City Vendors: In each city, in the market area, there's a vendor that sells low-level crafter materials. In Gridania, when coming from the LTW guild to the marketplace, go left at the retainer vocate and she's the first vendor on the left. Similarly, in Limsa, when going to the market area from the Aetheryte, the first vendor on the left is the materials vendor. I'm too lazy to craft in Ul'dah, so I dunno where the Ul'dahn City Vendor is found.
• Beast Tribe Vendors: Each Beast Tribe has items that it will sell to people with reputation in that Beast Tribe. For all but the Ixali, you only need Neutral reputation, which you get by doing the quest that introduces them and unlocks their initial Beast Tribe quests. There's no reason not to do this for every Beast Tribe from the get-go. For the Ixali, a few rather useful mid-level items are not available unless you rank them up a bit.
• FC/Personal House Vendors: These can be paid by your FC (or you in a personal house) to set up shop in the house. They sell a fairly large selection of items.
• Housing Ward Vendors: In the Housing Wards themselves, there are a set of vendors, including the ones you talk to in order to build a house. One of them sells materials. These vendors mostly overlap with FC/Personal House Vendors, but not entirely (most notably: Iron Ingots, Growth Formula Beta, Elm/Yew Lumber)
• Crafting Guild Vendors: In each crafting guild, there's a merchant that sells useful items for that craft. However, nearly all of these items can be bought from the City Vendor or the FC House Vendor.

Here's a list of where to get each of the commonly used items (if the item is sold at a City Vendor, I won't list the guilds it's also sold at):
Cloth/Yarn

• Hempen Yarn: City Vendors
• Undyed Hempen Cloth: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors,
• Cotton Yarn: FC/Personal House Vendors, ALC Guild, Sylph Vendor, and Housing Ward Vendors
• Undyed Cotton Cloth: FC/Personal House Vendors, ARM/BSM Guild, Sylph Vendor, and Housing Ward Vendors
• Undyed Velveteen: Sylph Vendor
• Linen Yarn: Sylph Vendor
• Undyed Linen: Sylph Vendor

Feathers

• Cock Feather: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Crow Feather: FC/Personal House Vendors, Sylph Vendor, CRP Guild
• Wildfowl Feather: Sylph Vendor

Leather

• Leather: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Hard Leather: FC/Personal House Vendors, WVR Guild, ALC Guild, GSM Guild, ARM/BSM Guild, CRP Guild

Bone, Blood, and Sinew

• Animal Sinew: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Beast Sinew: FC/Personal House Vendors, LTW Guild, and WVR Guild
• Beastkin Blood: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, ALC Guild, and Kobold Vendor
• Scalekin Blood: Kobold Vendor
• Bone Chip: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Soiled Femur: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Bat Fang: FC/Personal House Vendors, ALC Guild, and GSM Guild
• Ram Horn: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, GSM Guild, and ARM/BSM Guild
• Aldgoat Horn: Kobold Vendor
• Bat Wing: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, CUL Guild (seriously, don't ask)

Wood

• Maple Log: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, Ixali Vendor
• Ash Log: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, and Housing Ward Vendors
• Maple Lumber: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, Ixali Vendor
• Ash Lumber: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, ARM/BSM Guild, Ixali Vendor, and Housing Ward Vendors
• Elm Lumber: Ixali Vendor and Housing Ward Vendors
• Yew Lumber: Ixali Vendor and Housing Ward Vendors
• Walnut Lumber: Ixali Vendor [rank 3]
• Oak Lumber: Ixali Vendor [rank 3]
• Maple Branch: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, ALC Guild, and Ixali Vendor
• Ash Branch: FC/Personal House Vendors, Ixali Vendor
• Yew Branch: Ixali Vendor
• Oak Branch: Ixali Vendor [rank 3]

Metals (Ore/Ingot/Rivet/Plate/Rings)

• Tin Ore: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors
• Copper Ore: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors
• Iron Ore: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, ARM/BSM Guild
• Zinc Ore: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, GSM Guild
• Copper Ingot: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors
• Bronze Ingot: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors
• Brass Ingot: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, ARM/BSM Guild, CRP Guild, Housing Ward Vendors
• Iron Ingot: Housing Ward Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor
• Steel Ingot: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Mythril Ingot: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Bronze Rivets: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor
• Iron Rivets: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, Housing Ward Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor
• Steel Rivets: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Mythril Rivets: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Bronze Plate: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor, ARM/BSM Guild
• Iron Plate: Housing Ward Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor
• Steel Plate: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Steel Rings: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Mythril Rings: Amalj'aa Vendor

Reagents/Other

• Fish Oil: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Animal Glue: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, Housing Ward Vendors
• Rubber: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Obsidian: FC/Personal House Vendor, CRP Guild
• Ragstone Whetstone: FC/Personal House Vendors, ARM/BSM Guild
• Quicksilver: City Vendors, Kobold Vendor
• Rock Salt: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, CUL Guild, ALC Guild
• Distilled Water: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, CUL Guild
• Mineral Water: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, CUL Guild
• Clear Glass Lens: FC/Personal House Vendors, Housing Ward Vendors, GSM Guild
• Growth Formula Alpha: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild
• Growth Formula Beta: Housing Ward Vendors
• Bomb Ash: Kobold Vendor
• Jellyfish Umbrella: Kobold Vendor
• Red Landtrap Leaf: ALC Vendor
• Blue Landtrap Leaf: Kobold Vendor
• Morbol Vine: Kobold Vendor

And so on. At this point, I got bored, so ingredients are left as an exercise for the reader.

Beast tribe vendors. I think they have most subcomponents (not all) up to around level 30 items. That will help.