Getting to Level 50 (a few questions)

[LineageRazor]

As others have mentioned, the level 15 skills make a world of difference.

Hasty Touch (Culinarian): Like Basic Touch, but with a 50% chance of failure and NO CP cost. Use Steady Hand first, and success increases to 70%. This might still seem bad, but all that CP you're not spending can go toward an additional Master's Mend, giving you more opportunities to improve Quality. Don't underestimate how much freedom not having to spend 18 CP per Basic Touch can give you, even if it means sacrificing some Durability on failed Touches!

Tricks of the Trade (Alchemist): Lets you sacrifice "Good" conditions for additional CP. This can really add up, once again allowing additional Master's Mends.

Rumination (Carpenter): Each successful Touch builds up a cache of CP you can redeem later. Before I obtained Byergot's Blessing, I used Rumination extensively, improving quality until I was flat out of CP, then using Rumination to get the CP I needed to finish the synth.

Other level 15 skills are nice to have, but not as important as these three. (At least, not for the level 45 class quest - you'll absolutely want Ingenuity if you get into high-level crafting at level 50.)

Also bear in mind that leveling any craft to 15 is EASY EASY EASY. You can obtain all ingredients for recipes up to level 15 VERY cheaply from the guild store. You don't have to buy anything on the marketboards! You can level any craft to 15 without ever leaving town, in fact.