Initially, I used my alchemist to soley break down crystals into shards. It was just cheaper that way, and essentially I got all the way to R27 doing primarily this, even though the SP got extremely lean lol.

Now, I've decided to rank up alc for my leather sub for the tarred item, and since I'm going to R35 anyhow for this, I might as well take it to R36 for Hands of the Gods.

However, the problem I'm runniing into is that almost every recipe requires training of some sort, and I'm very limited on guild marks. Further, I'd rather not use my guild marks on books, but HOTG instead. This may not be very practical though, so I'm thinking I should target 1 or 2 books that I can use in my goal of R36.

Currently, I'm @ R29 and focusing most of my attention on alc local leves, primarily for the guild marks, foregoing better SP in leather, weaving, and GS, but that's just the way it has to be.

The various fish --> crystal synths are just plain nasty, for whatever reason, even the R30 synths with tier 3 support. I've no idea why, but I'm probably failing these 25-30% of the time. Lanolin might be the answer and I can buy chemicking, I suppose. Velveteen dyes just aren't gonna happen in sufficient grind quantities.

Given all this, I would certainly welcome and appreciate some guidance from the esteemed alchemist community the best way for me to proceed to R36, having to spend the least amount of guild marks on training.

Kind thanks.