Gathering/Crafting jobs - Is it worth it?

[Sacred-Oblivion]

So I was initially planning to level mining, blacksmithing, and armorsmithing as I leveled my GLA in order to gear myself up as I level. The idea being that I'll be able to do a better job tanking once I start endgame dungeons.

However as I looked into it further it seems it may be a waste of time since dungeons will always have better gear than what you can craft. So, it sounds like it would be more efficient to re-run the easier dungeons over-and-over until my gear is high enough to start the harder dungeons than to spend the time leveling these 3 DoL/DoH jobs.

Is there some extra perk to mining/blacksmithing/armorsmithing that would make it worth my time to level these jobs? Right now I only care about making myself the best possible tank.

[Bixby]

At this moment, no, not really. If you have trouble making gil, the gathering classes offer a relatively simple way of doing that. But if you're not crafting, there isn't that much at end-game to spend money on, and the day-to-day expenses are pretty easily covered just by dungeons, dailies, etc.

You shouldn't really even need to spam dungeons for gear all that much. You can also just fill in the few slots you're behind on every few levels with vendor gear, GC gear, or something off the market boards.

It can be cheaper to repair your own gear, but it's not exactly expensive to begin with. There's also materia melding, but that's only a thing if you're using crafted gear and trying to min/max it. (Edit: Well, and your relic quest, but leveling a craft to 50 just for that is kind of a big investment.)

For the most part, you can easily get away without crafting or gathering and not be missing out on much.

Currently. 2.2 is almost here, and will bring new crafting recipes etc., so things may change.

[MythToken]

GSM isn't a bad option for End game tank, if you want to make your own accesories/overmeld them.
That being said it is quite expensive to get to 50 if you power lvl it, and if it is still quite costly to make the items/meld them.
With 2.2 as close as it is, I wouldn't bother.

[Meshico]

Yes, it is, and it will be more so in the future.

Crafting in any game will never match the Creme of the crop of drops in end game. But to help you get those items it will definetly help.

Also crafting all your own gear and such is a huge help and benefit.

The game is ever evolving and instead of playing catch up with a few thousand people, try to be ahead of the game and make your items and stay ahead of the curb.

ALSO if your nutty, like me, over melded gear from Materia you basically crafted, is better than the dropped dungeon gear.

[Naberrie]

Green HQ gear with materia is actually quite good. At high levels crafting is very useful.

If you level everything at once, your cost is almost zero. Just do everything in chunks of 5 levels. All the crafts/gathering feed off one another. You can gather or make your own mats. Look for the Leves that need the fewest ingredients. It's really pure profit if you do it that way.

You'll also be able to repair your own gear, so you'll eliminate repair costs entirely.

[Niwashi]

Doing your own crafting makes gearing up while leveling easier. Yes, dungeons may provide better stuff, but only when you get lucky enough for the particular item(s) you need to drop. For instance on my scholar Dylise, I was level 43 before I finally got the last piece of the level 15 Acolyte's set (and that's with running those low-level dungeons that drop it regularly in Duty Finder). At least it will be useful when I level up Conjurer and Thaumaturge later, but by the time I got it it was completely useless as Arcanist/Scholar/Summoner.

In the meantime, you're going to want crafted gear for all the equipment slots for which you haven't gotten a good drop item. Depending on whether you enjoy the crafting and gathering in this game, you can either make that crafted gear yourself or buy it from others, but you're going to want a continuous supply of new gear as you gain levels, and only a few pieces of that will drop for you in dungeons at the time you need them.

[Maelwys]

Think of the current state of Crafting as an optional sidequest.
It makes "interesting" stuff, but not "better" stuff.

The one exception is Culinarian.
If you're going to level any craft to help your "battle classes", level Culinarian. Food = good; and the level 15 and 37 Culinarian skills are both brilliant.
(In order to be able to HQ things reliably, you may also want to level at least Carpenter and probably also Weaver for the level 50 cross-class skills)

[Thaliss]

For your 1st class/job leveling crafts won't matter, you get more than enough from the story quests and dungeons. And a battle class is needed to unlock leves for crafting too.

Crafts are great for all the secondary classes/jobs.

If you plan on focusing on end game dungeons and play mostly battle class, maybe don't bother with it.

[jwilliams133]

With the new patch coming (and likely i80 or i90 crafts) craftables will be a major way to make gil (not that gil is really usseful at this point...). The glamour system will also be dependent on crafters. It's just not been confirmed on how it will. Just a couple things to mull over

[Sacred-Oblivion]

All of this is excellent information, thank you everyone!

Gathering/Crafting was something I wanted to get into, so I'm happy there's enough practical incentives for me to do it.