Crafting on Main or Alt - Which is best?

Hello,

Would it be better to level my crafting jobs on my main or my alt?

I play FFXIV with my GF since the beginning and doing crafting jobs mean I will have to use the bonus exp (blue bars) and we both want to do every DoW and DoM to 70 which I fear will get slow if I use the exp. I have three retainers and I want to keep things clean.

I've been skipping the story on my main and I use the alt to enjoy what I missed. I started to like my alt a lot and I was thinking maybe I can gather and craft for both the story and for some funds which I plan to trade to my GF and she trade to my main seeing how you can't mail your alt and vice versa. The alt is currently at Levi, I plan to do all story content!

What kind of benefit would I have in Stormblood if I do crafting on my main instead of my alt? I'd really like to do it on my alt if possible but I will wait opinions so I don't regret my choice. Alt will focus on SAM & DRK if this can help.

Thank you! :)
-Blaise Ryuu

Hi Blaise,

You have a pretty complicated situation here, and I can only answer a few things for you.

If I am interpreting it correctly, you and your GF have your mains on Faerie, while yourself has another alt on Leviathan, and you're considering doing crafting and gathering with your alt.

Firstly, characters on different servers cannot transfer items or gil. So you can't really "trade to your GF", and have her "trade to your main", unless you initiate a server transfer for your alt to go to Faerie.

Secondly, you said you have been skipping the story on your main, but you want to level every DoW and DoM to 70. Well, sure you can level anything to level 70 without doing the main story. But without doing the main story, you can't actually unlock contents for a level 70 character to enjoy what it supposed to be able to enjoy. For instance, raids like Omega will not be available to your level 70 character unless you finished your main story. Another thing would be our daily Expert Roulette, which we all use a lot to collect Creation Tomes. Without finishing the main story, Expert Roulette will not be available, and so your Creation Tomes gathering rate will be very low... And without enough Creation Tomes, it will be very hard to gear up your character. So you'll likely just end up with a very weak all-70 character that is good for nothing. Thus, my opinion is that doing the main story on your main is a must... you can't skip it.

Thirdly, to answer your question about what the benefits are for your main if you do crafting on your main... The most straight-forward things that come to my mind right away are: (1) "Repair" and (2) "Materia melds". (1) Being an omni-crafter, one of the advantages is that you can repair all your gear any time, even if you're inside a dungeon or in the middle of a trial. This is particularly handy, as once in awhile, you will find your gear % going towards zero, and eventually you'll lose all the stats, and be forced to leave the dungeon/trial to repair. So being able to repair any time any where is pretty cool. (2) When you need to meld materia onto your own gear, being an omni-crafter is also extremely convenient, as you can DIY any time any where for free as well. (3) In addition to (1) and (2), you now possess the ability to craft anything you need for yourself, both for stats or for beauty. Instead of paying to buy items, you just DIY. Now to reach that status, it requires a lot of time-sink and usually some money-sink as well. So it's a long shot. But once you're there, whatever power you gained from crafting will stay with you forever.

P.S. If you plan to level crafting/gathering and plan to level all combat asses to 70, 3 retainers will likely be not enough. I'd say 5 to 6 retainers would be more practical.

Hello Caimie,

Thank you very much for replying!
Sorry, my English is not great and I need to erase a lot when I post due of characters limit. I really appreciate the time you put in your answers! I got every MQ completed on my Main, we sped through the content. My Alt is also on Faerie, I meant that I past Levi in the story. So, the only benefit in doing crafts on my main is being able to repair on the go which I don't have issues with and only having 3 retainers will be an issue. In that sense, leveling all crafts with my Alt while I keep my Main away from it would be the best course of action? I will of course get my Alt a lv70 Tank and DPS if I need to get certain Mats. I can always ask my GF to help me for Mats too! As for the materia meld, I don't mind doing it with the npc in Rhalgr's Reach. I also don't mind about turning equips into materia. If there is anything I forgot please mention! I think I will start crafts this weekend, it's new to me haha Thanks again!

If you level crafting on an Alt you will want to level the MSQ on it as well. Collectables and master books require MSQ and gathering requires the map to be unlocked.

I have 8 characters on Sargatanas and 3 of them are 60+ crafters but the true meta projection is in the retainers. Being able to craft is just good for GC seals to feed the retainers. Of the 3 x 60+ I have, one does not have HW or SB unlocked and she has no master books and no access to gathering nodes. She relies exclusively on the other two. In terms of crafting, all on the main is optimal and blue bar won't get gobbled up by crafting. It will get gobbled up by gathering though and you won't want to try and craft without gathering. The cost will be too high.

Hello Ksenia,
8 Characters, that's impressive!
I see, so the plan would be to level the three gatherer on the Alt to avoid big costs. I'm having fun reading the story, I'll get both HW and SB unlocked so that should cover the master books and gathering nodes. I'm thinking maybe I can bring all three gatherer to 50 for a start and store whatever I farmed in my retainers, either to sell or use, then do a crafts or two to 50s. I read somewhere you can cross some skills so I'll research further once I start doing crafting. Thank you! I'm more confident about diving into crafting now

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Originally Posted by CuddlyRyuu

Hello Caimie,

Thank you very much for replying!
Sorry, my English is not great and I need to erase a lot when I post due of characters limit. I really appreciate the time you put in your answers! I got every MQ completed on my Main, we sped through the content. My Alt is also on Faerie, I meant that I past Levi in the story. So, the only benefit in doing crafts on my main is being able to repair on the go which I don't have issues with and only having 3 retainers will be an issue. In that sense, leveling all crafts with my Alt while I keep my Main away from it would be the best course of action? I will of course get my Alt a lv70 Tank and DPS if I need to get certain Mats. I can always ask my GF to help me for Mats too! As for the materia meld, I don't mind doing it with the npc in Rhalgr's Reach. I also don't mind about turning equips into materia. If there is anything I forgot please mention! I think I will start crafts this weekend, it's new to me haha Thanks again!

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Ah, sorry for misinterpreting you earlier. Yea, I agree with you that leveling crafting/gathering on your alt is totally fine.
Good luck getting started this weekend!
Since you're relatively new to crafting, my prehistoric crafting guide may still be of good use to you:
https://ffxivrealm.com/guides/ff14-a...ie-tsukino.39/
I took the effort today and updated it a little bit. It has some pretty comprehensive information about crafting which could be of help.

Thank you very much Caimie!
This will indeed be helpful, I'll make use of it. Especially for chapter 10 you saved me a lot of time searching for a proper explanation and what I'd like to get first, I'm not sure if Stormblood changed cross skills for crafts too but at least I'll know what's good or bad. I'll study from top to bottom when I get the time tonight once I'm back from work and I will start tomorrow with a better knowledge. :)

BTW you can go over the character limit in the Edit function.

Something to add to melding is being able to OVERMELD by yourself. If you don't have the levels you have to rely on the kindness of strangers, which in my experience, can be frustrating. As for the rested bonus exp... it doesn't last very long if you're overly active. You can also use Grand Company Turn-Ins and Leves to level your crafter/gatherers so that they don't touch that rest exp. In my opinion, doing it on your main far outweighs the rested bonus and very VERY slight fall behind your GF you'll experience.

Btw when you craft you are gaining rested exp( as long as you do it in a sanctuary). You gain it whenever the moon symbol appears on your exp bar.

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Originally Posted by Ksenia

In terms of crafting, all on the main is optimal and blue bar won't get gobbled up by crafting. It will get gobbled up by gathering though and you won't want to try and craft without gathering. The cost will be too high.

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Originally Posted by Masekase_Hurricane

Btw when you craft you are gaining rested exp( as long as you do it in a sanctuary). You gain it whenever the moon symbol appears on your exp bar.

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Your rested EXP is used up by killing mobs (as a battle class), gathering items from a node (as a gathering class), and crafting items (as a crafting class). You will only "gain" rested EXP while crafting in a sanctuary if the rate at which you gain it is outpaced by the rate at which you're making items, which is unlikely. It is not used by completing quests or leves, or by handing in collectibles or GC turnins.

During that interminable period where Best Served With Cold Steel was blocking 99% of players from progressing, I used nearly all of my rested EXP on my miner solely by gathering items. Later, as I was leveling my crafters, I did so again while crafting items, which I usually did at my house, a sanctuary. So, yes, your blue bar will be used by crafting, but perhaps at a lower rate than with the other 2 kinds of classes, since most of your EXP will be gained through turnins.

How much of your rested EXP is taken, I'm not certain. I imagine it's the base amount of EXP you gain from the craft (minus any bonuses from food, FC buffs, manuals, etc) but I couldn't say for sure.

Rested is a 50% bonus, provided you have enough, of course.

It is percentage based, however. So, if you're level 1 and only need 500 exp to level, killing something worth 100 exp (which is now 150 exp with the 50% bonus, ignoring Armoury for now), you've used 10% of the whole exp bar's worth of Rested. If the exp bar was empty to start, but exactly half blue, after that kill you'd find it 30% filled, the next 40% blue, and you'd have used up 20% of your Rested.

On the other hand, if you needed 10,000,000 exp to level up, and had that same half blue bar, it would take a lot more exp-earning activities to deplete your Rested that same percentage amount.

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Originally Posted by Elamys

How much of your rested EXP is taken, I'm not certain. I imagine it's the base amount of EXP you gain from the craft (minus any bonuses from food, FC buffs, manuals, etc) but I couldn't say for sure.

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To put it in to perspective, if you HQ a High Steel Alembic it gives 60K for the action of making it but less than 20K is removed from the blue bar. The rest is obtained by quality bonus, rested exper and others and doesn't effect the blue bar. The HQ Alembic gives 1.9 million on turn in. 6 would get you from 69 to 70. You would lose 120K Blue bar on 11 mill in turn in.

Early levels, you will see blue bar deplete very fast. For the first 20 levels of crafting I would suggest buying NPC items, turn them in as Leve and hold for leve recovery if blue bar is a priority.