Crafting - why level it when ->

<-- when dungeon / raid gear is better ?

Im a new player, levelling as Arcanist and wanting to be a Summoner / Blackmage later in the game.

I was talking with the guild, and they said that dungeon / raid gear is better than crafting gear.

So let me ask here, why would i level for example Weaver - when other gear is better?

Is there anything else you would recommend me level for a new player, something that can help/is good for me?

Well until you get to them raids.... You can make yourself some gear. Or make stuff and sell on MB. Or make intermediate HQ items (yeah I an not saying that right, take the base gathering item, make it into an HQ item that is then used to make something else) and sell it on MB. Make gear, SB, sell the Materia. Plus leveling up a crafter (and / or gatherer!) will give you that option to make one of your retainers one of them. Which, in turn could give you some nice items, or minions, or what have you.

If you did want to do Weaver, you may want to do Botanist as well, depending on how much effort you want to do. I am not far in my crafting, but you gather a lot of your base cloth items with Botanist, so you could be self-sustaining in that manner.

Crafting is fun.

If you want good gear while you level up, you will need to clear a dungeon many times to get all the pieces from it. If you craft your leveling gear, you don't even need to worry if you don't get your item drops at all.

even without all that crafting items is useless... take the gear repair in dungeons with dark matter. not only will you get 100% condition. repairing it yourself can net you 199% max condition which takes out a lot of gil spending in the long run.

the only reason to craft is because you enjoy it... It has been up and down with raid gear so i would assume that it would continue that way. Give it a few and then crafting gear + melds will be at the top again.

Crafting can net you a lot of cash later on in the game. If you're only working towards gear though, there is little point. Everything you would possibly want to kill things faster/take more damage can be obtained through dungeons or through endgame tokens.

Be aware that accessories are actually very rare quest and dungeon rewards so there is an argument for you to level goldsmith to keep those updated. It's only useful if you're leveling multiple classes though.

At endgame, you may also want culinarian and alchemist, as food items and str/vit/mnd/int/dex potions can become very expensive for raiding. Those items do give you that extra edge you need to push through cutting edge content.

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Originally Posted by dementiondrive

even without all that crafting items is useless... take the gear repair in dungeons with dark matter. not only will you get 100% condition. repairing it yourself can net you 199% max condition which takes out a lot of gil spending in the long run.

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Wait, 199%? Explain this, please?

Normal gear starts at 100% condition.

Repair at any normal repair dude, and he will bring it back up to 100%.

BUT, repair it yourself with them Dark Matters, and the condition will go to 199%. No effect on stats, just means repair a lot less often, and overall cheaper.

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Originally Posted by Mykll

Normal gear starts at 100% condition.

Repair at any normal repair dude, and he will bring it back up to 100%.

BUT, repair it yourself with them Dark Matters, and the condition will go to 199%. No effect on stats, just means repair a lot less often, and overall cheaper.

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yes... this sums it up. not only does it go up to 199% repair condition BUT you can also repair with the dark matter right in the dungeon/ instance you are actually running. i have had plenty of times where we kept wiping to pass a fight and people said their gear was below 10%. some items were at 15% for me at the time. i repaired on the spot since i carry a stack of 99 dark matter with me. since when you repair yourself it is 100% added. so you can only repair if your condition is 99% or lower. so that is how you can get 199% in condition for repairing yourself.

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Originally Posted by Mykll

BUT, repair it yourself with them Dark Matters, and the condition will go to 199%.

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Holy crap, I never knew this. Now it makes sense why people claim it's so much cheaper to repair your own gear. The math wasn't adding up when I assumed the condition would naturally only hit 100%, just like NPC repairs.

Good to know. Thanks, you two.

I wasn't fully correct, but demontiondrive fully clarified it. It adds 100%, not what I said about it going to 199%. That 10% item will go to 110%, not 199%.

To repair, to make gil, to save gil.

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Originally Posted by Mykll

I wasn't fully correct, but demontiondrive fully clarified it. It adds 100%, not what I said about it going to 199%. That 10% item will go to 110%, not 199%.

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Oh, I see. Interesting.

I'm not sure this really saves much money, then, after all. But it could be nice to do before a long raid night in a progression group or something. Still interesting to know, thanks.

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Originally Posted by Vandril

Oh, I see. Interesting.

I'm not sure this really saves much money, then, after all. But it could be nice to do before a long raid night in a progression group or something. Still interesting to know, thanks.

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Well think about it this way then. That same 10% durability item, take it to a vendor, he repairs it to 100%. He improves it by 90%. Repair it yourself, it improves to 110%. You improve it by 100%. Now, take that same gear that is basically barely damaged, say 95%. Repair it yourself, and it is now 195%. You can basically repair your gear about half the time, plus the bonus of being able to repair in the middle of dungeon runs.

i buy a stack of 99 dark matter grade 6. i repair and it has saved me a lot of gil. a stack of 99 grade 6 dark matter is around 11K gil. some pieces of gear when repaired at NPCS is 600-1200 gil for 1 piece of gear depending on how damaged it is.

no matter the gear grade 6 is used across the board. so i use it only on grade 5's as the lowest. so if you equip 12 pieces of gear and say they are at 60% condition. you go and buy the repair off the NPC. it can get up to 2000 gil at times. i have had some really expensive NPC repair costs. from there that is only 1 set. now you have to do the other 2/3 or more depending on what you are/were doing before.

now since a grade 6 stack is only 11K and automatically adds 100% when you repair yourself. each grade 6 is only 120 gil for 1. so if i have a 0% completely broken piece. i hit repair. 100% automatically. so i am fully repaired by NPC standard at 120 gil from 1 dark matter. now i purposely go fight 1 monster. whatever lvl to force it to 99%. after that i go back into repair purposely. hit repair get that 99% to 199% and depending on what i am doing and how long i am playing for. i sometimes do not even have to repair for 4 days minimum at times. while a NPC repair after 4 days can net you 20-30K gil repairs depending on what you did also.

so for myself. i'll gladly buy the stack of 99 dark matter for 12K tops. (closest 1000 rounded) then have 20,000+ in repairs after awhile. and you only need 12 pieces for 1 set if all are damaged. i rarely get all 12 pieces in the green as damage. so i only repair 3-5 at times. making 99 last longer on top of everything else.

Oh, wow, I'm dumb. I never realized Dark Matter was sold at vendors. I thought it had to come from GC seals. <.<

This is what I get for all but ignoring the self-repair feature.

Anyway, there ya have it, folks. One reason to level crafting is for self-repairs.