Barrier to entry for crafting is to damn high.

[Silverbane]

The way I figure, it's the more you invest, the more you make

Absolutely. To the point that I penta-melded my gear to take some of my commonly-used production macros from 13 steps down to 12 -- that extra 3 seconds per craft adds up, and time is money!

[Shikhu1]

Summary for those who dont craft or dont want to read:

Mans trying to do the crafting equivalent of run the new extreme using basically their LV90 AF gear and doesnt want to farm tomes to upgrade their gear.

[Ard_Xiol]

I pentamelded all crafting gear in Patch 6.2. It cost me 10M+ gil. Is that a normal and expected price?

[Jojoya]

I pentamelded all crafting gear in Patch 6.2. It cost me 10M+ gil. Is that a normal and expected price?

If you bought all the materia needed to pentameld off the marketboard, that sounds about the right price. The closer it is to the start of an expansion or the release of new master recipes, the more materia will cost due to supply being low and demand high.

Keep in mind that prices will vary by world. It pays to data center hop to try to find better prices (if you're not using Universalis to look them up in advance).

If you want to reduce the amount you need to purchase, don't forget that crafting/gathering materia IX and X can be purchased for Seafarers Cowries on Island Sanctuary. Those will still be valuable in 7.0 and certain IXs should remain valuable all the way through to the first month of 7.4.

Also remember to use one of the various spiritbond potions (if you're not using a tea/syrup/draught) and/or a squadron spiritbond manual when crafting current endgame gear to increase how often you can extract materia from your gear.

It is usually cheaper to mass produce collectables for scrip to purchase the materia you need from one of the Splendors vendors but that does require more of your time than simply buying from the MB.

[ICountFrom0]

You might also try buying up the cheepest materia you can find from the previous set and take them to mumbliplex. Turn in 5 and maybe get a crafting boost.

[Aldath]

Honestly I just can't. I tried reading crafting guides but it feels like I'm taking yet another college degree and although there is people who enjoy this kind of thing, I come here to have fun, not to learn Eorzean Economy and a little programming sprinkled on top. I seriously commend SE for not making crafting mandatory.

That said, Gathering is pretty chill when you are waiting for queues or want to listen to a podcast and there are not chores at the house and I'm not in the mood of playing something that wouldn't let me pay attention to the broadcast or series. I'm currently playing BG3 and Sea of Stars and it's hard to play those while listening to other stuff.

You won't become a gillionare fast with Gathering, but it gives a nice amount of money compared to the effort and you can buy pretty nice glams and furniture with what you earn. There's a decent amount of people who would rather buy the mats than gather them.

[ChonkGoblinSuprem]

“the high level gear is all locked behind content I don’t like”

There it is…. The only real complaint in that whole screed.

“I’ve never had more than 30 million gil”

Throw in a nice humblebrag to round it out.

I r8 this b8 an 8 out of 8.