9 Coke required now? (or other)

[Reika]

We know crafted is better than darklight, But not before HQ with 1(2) or more materia, but it is NOT better enough to spend tokens on crafting mats vs darklight, that is what the whole bottom of the front post explains.

Points of claim, look which has way more steps:

Leveling battle classes and getting dungeon gear -> Run dungeons a few times for Darklight -> Get ilvl90 gear after accumilating easily obtained tomes of mythology

Takes WAY less time than:

Leveling battle classes + leveling gathering classes + leveling crafting classes + crafting gear -> Craft or purchase the best crafting and gathering gear possible -> spiritbonding + converting gear to materia Note on Spiritbinding Ilvl70 items would be totally wasted if they get filled with grade 3 materia, and the only way you get G4 Materia is spiritbonding ilvl55 gear, and it very rarely created when converting. Ilvl55 gear also takes a VERY LONG TIME to spirit bond, much longer than the ilvl50 and below gear even when using every single one of the +spirit bond jewelries. Normal gear takes a good amount of time too. Don't be swayed by how fast that lowbie gear you were leveling up with spiritbonded, you're going to be repairing that ilvl55 gear MULTIPLE times before it reaches 100% spiritbond.-> Repeat spiritbond proccess a great number of times for both crafting and gathering gear -> meld gear -> multi meld with possibility of failure - Finally craft AF gear -> Repeat spiritbonding + materia conversion and melding process to meld to new AF gear -> Reach required level of craftmanship and control to craft ilvl70 items -> Run dungeons far more times than you would run them for just darklight for the tomes needed for the crafting mats -> craft materials for gear, purchase the ones you cant craft -> Attempt to HQ (if you dont have every crafting class maxed and "get it" then good luck) or else you just a piece of crap.
Finally: Be upset that barely anyone needs your Ilvl70 crafted gear by the time you finish all of this, and you can barely sell it, so consider it crafted only for yourself.

I hope you know you have to all of that.


Important:
You may look at a legacy player like me and think it doesn't take that much time, but know that I had countless of mats from various levels saved up, as well as everything to 50 already, as well as almost 100 gr3 cracked materia and almost 80 grIV cracked materia to skip MUCH of the spiritbonding phase. It still took even me a decent amount of time, given that I have a job and sleep, to make all of my Gather what I was still needed AND create my crafter/gatherer AF gear AND do the battle content + Story. Imagine if I had to go out and do it all over again. I would have best spent my time leveling up battle classes and focusing on primals and bahamut than to jack around with crafting and gathering.