Totally new to crafting

[Mistletain]

Hello. I'm a total noob when it comes down to crafting. I've been looking for guides, but most of them are outdated. My questions are:

1. With which DoH class do I start?
2. How do I level up with a decent pace?
3. What's the use of crafting?

Thank you in advance for taking your time to read (and maybe answer) this.

[OoglieBooglie]

Well, the best doh to start with really depends on your needs and desires. Do you want to make glamour gear? Then culinarian is the worst first choice. Do you want to make potions for raiding? Then alchemist is the best choice. Do you want to make spiritbonding gear for a caster/healer class? Then go with weaver/leatherworker. And so on. The best stuff for making gil differs from server to server, and changes with time.

To level up with a decent pace, you'll want to use levequests after you get to lvl 15-20+. You can probably just make cheap recipes for those first 15-20 levels to save your leves since it won't take very long.

There are several uses of crafting, most notably crafting stuff. Kinda obvious, but that is the main purpose. Want some housing furniture? Just make it yourself. Need some new gear? Just make it yourself. It's also good for making gil, although it does take a little more effort than "I'm gonna make 10,000 bronze ingots and sell them all at once!" That won't get anywhere because bronze ingots aren't particularly valuable, and if you put 10,000 ingots up at once you'll just crash the market. Another use is for repairing gear. If you have dark matter of a high enough tier and a sufficient crafting class level, you can just repair your gear anywhere, even in dungeons. It does depend on the piece of gear though. Basically, if the class makes a piece of gear, then the gear is repaired with that class.

[KinnisonArc]

1. With which DoH class do I start?
- Depends on which you want to achieve first :
Carpenter lets you HQ easier with Byregot's Blessing crossclass skill at Level 50
Blacksmith lets you craft a variety of weapons and also many other crafter's main/offhand tools
Armorer's skill is usually needed in later levels, also lets you craft tank gears and also some crafter tools
Goldsmith lets you craft accessories
Leatherworker and Weaver both have gears necessary for your crafters. They also have necessary crossclass skills to help ease crafting a lot.
Alchemist has CP restoration crossclass skill that is good for early levels.
Culinarian for food buffs.

2. How do I level up with a decent pace?
Once you unlock levequests, you can start doing turn-ins for EXP. Also Grand Company allows you to turn-in one specific item requested at your level for plenty of EXP once per day for each crafter class. Completing challenge log also yields as much but once per week.

3. What's the use of crafting?
Having all crafters at high level has a benefit. Aside from able to craft things on your own for cheaper cost and make money, you can also repair gears on your own using Dark Matters. Unlike repairing with NPC, you get to repair items pass their 100% durability up to 199% so they'll last longer.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Actually, my old original crafting guide still applies to any new crafter these days:
http://ffxivrealm.com/guides/ff14-ad...ie-tsukino.39/

Your question 3 was answered by "Ch1: A Reason to Craft"
Your question 1 was answered by "Ch2: Picking a Few Main Crafting Classes for your DoW/DoM", "Ch3: The Benefits of Leveling All Crafting Classes to Level 15 for Cross Class Skills", "Ch4: The Importance of WVR & BSM to Crafting", and "Ch5: The Importance of CUL & food". Chapter 3 has also given you a sequence of which class(es) to level up first for cross class skills.
Your question 2 was answered by "Ch13: Leveling Crafting Classes"

Carpenter lets you HQ easier with Byregot's Blessing crossclass skill at Level 50.

In my opinion, although it is true that Byregot (CRP 50) is a very desirable skill, there are other priorities that can help one to push a class towards lvl 50, and that's obviously all the level 15 cross class skills.

Do you want to make glamour gear? Then culinarian is the worst first choice.

As to which class(es) to reach lvl 15 first, I actually recommend LTW, CUL and ALC. With these Waste Not, Hasty Touch and Trick of the Trade, it allows someone to HQ items very early... as early as lower than level 15. Thus, even though CUL appear useless if you're only interested in making furniture or glamor items, it's important to get Hasty Touch for the sake of leveling a class that will eventually be used to make furniture (even though we understand that furniture does not require the use of any "touch" at all).

[KinnisonArc]

In my opinion, although it is true that Byregot (CRP 50) is a very desirable skill, there are other priorities that can help one to push a class towards lvl 50, and that's obviously all the level 15 cross class skills.

Yeah but even after getting every classes to level 15 (which I forgot to mention), OP eventually has to decide which class to push to level 50. Just listing out what each crafter class can provide on higher levels.

[OoglieBooglie]

As to which class(es) to reach lvl 15 first, I actually recommend LTW, CUL and ALC. With these Waste Not, Hasty Touch and Trick of the Trade, it allows someone to HQ items very early... as early as lower than level 15. Thus, even though CUL appear useless if you're only interested in making furniture or glamor items, it's important to get Hasty Touch for the sake of leveling a class that will eventually be used to make furniture (even though we understand that furniture does not require the use of any "touch" at all).

Well yes, that's true. I was referring to just what the class made though, not the cross class skills. There's more to choosing which class to level first than 'which skill is most useful to me?', although it does play some part. Culinarian is a very good choice to get to 15 early on for Hasty Touch. Blacksmith is good for Innovation or Ingenuity or whatever it is that lowers the recipe level, which can be surprisingly useful even when leveling. Leatherworker is kinda meh at lvl 15, although it becomes more useful in a few rotations. Armorer is very very useful for Rapid Synthesis, although it does still require some RNG luck. Goldsmith is useful for the 35/40 durability mats with Manipulation, and it's 4 cp less than Master's Mend I as well. Alchemist is VERY VERY VERY useful if you need to replenish cp, with Tricks of the Trade. Weaver is good for consistent progress with Careful Synthesis. Carpenter is also useful for restoring cp with Rumination, although it's pretty much dropped completely once you get lvl 50 Carpenter for Byregot's Blessing.

That's my general opinion of the lvl 15 skills for crafting. As the title of Caimie's third chapter points out, it's a good idea to get all the crafting classes to 15 before shooting for 50 on one. If you only go by skills in order to make leveling them easier, especially the first one, then I'd probably choose culinarian, alchemist, or armorer to get to lvl 15 first. Keep in mind that you can't use all 10 cross class skill slots that you have at 50 while levelling, so it helps to pick the ones that are most useful to leveling to get to 50 if you want to get them all to 50 or even 60.

Also, while the option to make super awesome crafting food might seem super useful while leveling other crafting classes, it's not as useful as you would think because it's based on percentages. So while a 2% or whatever craftsmanship increase with a 50 max cap boost from the food (I just made this up as an example) might seem super duper awesome, it's not going to be as useful if you don't have the high craftsmanship required to cap it.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Yeah but even after getting every classes to level 15 (which I forgot to mention), OP eventually has to decide which class to push to level 50. Just listing out what each crafter class can provide on higher levels.

I see. That makes sense.

Well yes, that's true. I was referring to just what the class made though, not the cross class skills. There's more to choosing which class to level first than 'which skill is most useful to me?', although it does play some part. Culinarian is a very good choice to get to 15 early on for Hasty Touch. Blacksmith is good for Innovation or Ingenuity or whatever it is that lowers the recipe level, which can be surprisingly useful even when leveling. Leatherworker is kinda meh at lvl 15, although it becomes more useful in a few rotations. Armorer is very very useful for Rapid Synthesis, although it does still require some RNG luck. Goldsmith is useful for the 35/40 durability mats with Manipulation, and it's 4 cp less than Master's Mend I as well. Alchemist is VERY VERY VERY useful if you need to replenish cp, with Tricks of the Trade. Weaver is good for consistent progress with Careful Synthesis. Carpenter is also useful for restoring cp with Rumination, although it's pretty much dropped completely once you get lvl 50 Carpenter for Byregot's Blessing.

That's my general opinion of the lvl 15 skills for crafting. As the title of Caimie's third chapter points out, it's a good idea to get all the crafting classes to 15 before shooting for 50 on one. If you only go by skills in order to make leveling them easier, especially the first one, then I'd probably choose culinarian, alchemist, or armorer to get to lvl 15 first. Keep in mind that you can't use all 10 cross class skill slots that you have at 50 while levelling, so it helps to pick the ones that are most useful to leveling to get to 50 if you want to get them all to 50 or even 60.

Also, while the option to make super awesome crafting food might seem super useful while leveling other crafting classes, it's not as useful as you would think because it's based on percentages. So while a 2% or whatever craftsmanship increase with a 50 max cap boost from the food (I just made this up as an example) might seem super duper awesome, it's not going to be as useful if you don't have the high craftsmanship required to cap it.

Yea, speaking of food, most people have a tough time understanding what the "%" vs "max number" mean. A lot of lower levels thought they could boost stats by a lot when using a high level food, when in reality, the high level food provides no more stats than a low level food to them to due to the % vs max restriction. Lower level food mostly have a higher %, but low to medium "max" number, like "15% craftsmanship, 8 max". Where as high level food could be something like "8% craftsmanship, 40 max". If a young crafter's base craftsmanship is 100, then 15% = 15 craftsmanship. So the low level food would add up to 8 craftsmanship, since 8 is max. But if the crafter's base craftsmanship is only 100, then for the high level food, 8% = 8 craftsmanship. So the high level food would only add 8 craftsmanship as well, even though it has the potential for 40. To utilize that 40, one would need a base craftsmanship of 500... then 8% of 500 would be 40. Therefore, there's no reason for a low level crafter to acquire high level food. Else the expensive food would just be wasted. This is something that new crafters probably have to learn early and pay attention to... I might add this into my old crafting guide soon. Thanks for the input!

[Nekotee]

I might be late to answer...
Especially with caimie landing his paw on the thread...

Funny seeing kinnisson saying carpenter first

In my case, when I advise beginner crafter
I always give them :
- All 15
- CUL 37, because steady hand 2 help a lot
- WVR 50 because careful synthèses 2 allow you to always finish your craft
- CRP 50 because Byregot's blessing... Is a blessing
- then whatever the person want... Often I say ALC because comfort zone can be good too

...

And I always spank them with my CUL tool if they don't craft with food
Especially now that there some good one in the GOLD saucer

Am I an horrible teacher ?

[Mistletain]

Thank you to all of you for the answers and the (very helpful!) guide. Now I can finally progress. ^^

[KinnisonArc]

Funny seeing kinnisson saying carpenter first

It's because I actually list them in order they appear in the crafting log. Top left to bottom right. xD
Also CRP is my first crafter class to hit Level 50, it actually did help lot with HQ back then when leveling the rest.