A word to lvl 60 crafters who don't quite understand crafting yet

[Dreggit]

In my mind, crafting is about making money. And to make money understanding supply and demand and basic economic principles is a must.

I have a good buisness atm selling potions due to ALC but I'm still pretty new to it. But I would say that it is obvious to me that you want to use HQ items and sell HQ products.

so far to me every craft is a math puzzle for efficiency that's fun to work out. I'm not the best at crafting and I definitely started off rough due to misinformation from my FC

If you don't like playing the market game and making stuff for profit it might not be the best thing for you.

(Seriously on Famfrit almost everything on the MB that alc can make is ridiculously profitable to make using the composition materials and 3 minutes)

[Dreggit]

Hell. Blue yarzan legs sell for 10-20k

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Hell. Blue yarzan legs sell for 10-20k

Well, Blue Yarzon Legs are sold by a merchant called Z'ranmaia at Limsa Upper Deck (x11,y8) for 375 gil each. You can technically buy a stack, and earn a fortune by selling them on the MB then.

I used to do the same with Finger Shrimps, Cloves and Clear Glass Lens back in the old days of ARR...

[Roth_Trailfinder]

I have a good buisness atm selling potions due to ALC but I'm still pretty new to it. But I would say that it is obvious to me that you want to use HQ items and sell HQ products.

Actually, you want to be able to make HQ products from NQ materials. Even though people generally regard HQ as being more valuable (IE - can get more for them, or have to pay more for them) than NQ, in materials due to undercutting it can go either way. You want to be able to get HQ results from NQ materials in case those NQ materials are the cheapest you can get.

Revenue from sales - production cost = profit. Use of HQ materials can cause the production cost to be higher than it otherwise would be, reducing your profit.

[cgbspender]

Glad to see you're back, Caimie !

[craized]

Lots of people here saying stuff like if you want to be the best crafter you can possibly be and touch the stars with your crafting greatness Yada yada then you should never use macros. Well that's great and all, and those who are into that, crack on.

but the fact is most people don't care about that, most people want to make money from crafting and the way to make money from crafting is through quantity, and quantity takes time. I don't play this game to be like a job. The absolute best bit about crafting in this game for me is the fact you can do it while watching Netflix.

I levelled up on macros and I've made a fair bit of money from crafting higher end stuff with macros. Having said that, I do have a working knowledge of crafting abilities and I've learned to play around with macros for best results, but mostly following patterns of well known rotations found on the net. Macros are good!

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Self-written macros are good. Macros obtained by scouring the internet, and just copied in without understanding what the lines mean, that is bad.

[craized]

Self-written macros are good. Macros obtained by scouring the internet, and just copied in without understanding what the lines mean, that is bad.

Whatever gets the job done.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Whatever gets the job done.

No. If you can write your own, go for it. If you cannot, then you obviously still have something to learn. Learn it (how to macro, or what moves do, wherever your ignorance lies) then write your own.

[craized]

No. If you can write your own, go for it. If you cannot, then you obviously still have something to learn.

You're missing the point. If the macro you found on the internet works, then use it. Regardless of wether you know why it works. If it's doing the job you need it to and you are happy with its success rate then who cares if you don't understand it? At the end of the day you are achieveing your goal.

This was certainly the case for me for a long time when I first found a link for a rathe rotation. I only looked into how it worked when I moved onto a more difficult recipe and it stopped working, and I realised I needed to remove a couple of hasty touches and add a couple of careful synths to get it to work with a hit to overall quality. I still use those macros for most of my crafting. And I certainly didn't write those from scratch. But they work, and that's what matters.

And yes learning your abilities and rotations is a good thing, but not the most important and certainly not a requirement to successful crafting.