Totally new to crafting

[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.