I don't like my class..

[Niwashi]

I'm going to focus on just one of the questions from this thread: "when is it a good time to start crafting?"

As for crafting, I started and leveled my main craft with my 1st job. It had some benefits but more drawbacks. I wouldn't start crafting till 1 job is at 50.

I would wait until at least Lv.10 before pursuing any crafting classes. Unlock guildleves and use them to quickly level up your craft/gather classes (For Lominsans: Leves of Swiftperch). Get as many up to Lv.15 as possible to unlock cross-class abilities and good/excellent conditions. These will help you craft hq items and increase your xp gain while minimizing material costs and crystal shards expended as well.

As these quotes from posts above show, there's a significant difference of opinion when it comes to crafting. But I'll throw in both my opinion and the reasons for it.

A few levels that are significant for your main combat class to reach:

Level 10: You have to complete the level 10 class quest on your first class before the option to change classes is unlocked, so this is the earliest point at which adding crafting classes is even possible.
Level 15: The main scenario quest The Lominsan Envoy (or its equivalents for characters starting in other cities) unlocks airship (and ferry) travel between the three main cities. You'll need this before you can join crafting guilds located in the other cities.
Level 17: The main scenario quest The Scions of the Seventh Dawn unlocks the ability to hire retainers. These are NPC assistants who can do several things for you, including holding excess inventory items. Once you get deeply into crafting, you're going to accumulate a lot of crafting ingredients and supplies, so you'll need that extra storage space.
Level 20: Once you get to the part of the main scenario that has you join a Grand Company, you'll be able to undertake supply/provisioning missions for your GC. These are daily quests to make one item (per crafting class) or gather a set of 10 items (per gathering class) to give your GC. This gives a huge chunk of XP (especially if you manage to make High-Quality items) as well as a bunch of GC seals.
Level 20: The other advantage once you join a Grand Company, is that it unlocks the quest My Little Chocobo, which gives you a mount and the ability to ride it. Although not directly useful for crafting itself, it can be useful for gathering classes, and it's a good idea to level gathering in conjunction with crafting.

If you're going to take the time to pursue crafting, it would be sort of a waste to do all that but not use it to make your own gear, so it's useful to keep your crafting classes up to near the same level as your top combat class. Conversely, you want your top combat class to keep up to near the same level as your crafting classes, so that you can unlock the guildleves for the appropriate regions. This means you should ideally alternate enough that they all stay roughly on par with each other (within maybe four or five levels or so).


So my recommendation:

Once you reach level 15 in the main story and can reach all three starting cities, unlock the crafting and gathering classes and try out the first couple levels on them. (Don't worry about the fact that they seem overly simplistic at levels 1 or 2. Just as with combat, it gets more involved as you go up in levels. At this point, it's mainly about seeing how the overall interface works.)

Once you reach either level 17 in the main story and can get a couple retainers for their storage space, or at the latest at level 20 in the main story when you get your chocobo, it's time to take a little time off from combat to try to get your crafting/gathering classes to catch up on leveling. You'll want them high enough to make the next set of gear you'll be wanting for your main. In particular, you'll want to get them up to level 15, which adds the first set of skills that can be cross-classed from one crafting class to the others.

After that, just alternate often enough to keep your crafting abilities useful to your combat classes. As mentioned, this generally means keeping them near the same level as your top combat class.

(I've actually fallen a little behind myself, and it's getting annoying that I can't make better gear than my Bard already has. So I've been focusing on the crafting lately, trying to catch up again.)