Leveling a Crafting Class: Is it simpler now?

[Aqua_Amaiyo]

Title pretty much. I know it was sort of a pain in the ass to level a crafting class without a crap ton of Gil, but is it easier now than it was (like around sept, November) to craft and actually be able to level it? Or is it still a pain in the ass, or the worst option, is it even harder to gain levels?

I'm asking mainly in order to see if I should just transfer my main to another server where I made another character just to be with my friends. If it's easier to start from scratch and build myself back up again I'd gladly do that. If not I'll just wait for the server to open up and transfer.

[Sadana]

Crafting is something to do if you enjoy it. ^^;
That being said, gathering your own mats and crafting leve items and GC turn ins is very cheap but can be time consuming. You can get lots of exp from these, so perhaps you would find buying finished goods off the mb to be worthwhile if you earn enough gil from dungeoning and challenge log (etc.)

[Surian]

The problem with crafting at the moment isnt so much the cost, or the time investment.

With a little research and planning ahead you can make most leve items very cheaply. Even more so when you gather your own items. And you can bridge other levels simply by mass crafting something that takes one or two ingredients.

No, the real problem with crafting is, there's nothing to work towards.

I present to you situation A:
- "I want to level Carpenter to 50 because i want to make furniture for my FC!"

This is a noble goal, but with todays economy, you're spending immense amounts of time and gil in order for you to make something that can be purchased from the market boards for a mere 300 gil in most cases.

Infact for most things, it's cheaper to just buy them from the market boards, or to have someone make it for you than to level it up yourself.

Even in cases such as Situation B:
- "The three star items are way too expensive, i'm going to level X to 50 myself and get up to 3-star crafting levels!"

Again, a noble goal, but the amounts of materia (and it's current prices) will make you put in 1-2 mil of gil easily just for the final upgrades already, especially with all the failures you will endure melding them in. Not to mention the time and money spend leveling up.

Which, besides the point, the current highest level craftable gear is ilvl90. Why would you make something with horribly expensive materials that (outside of visual looks) you can obtain with the amount of Myth tomes 3-4 dungeons will get you? And even if you absolutely must have that single piece of crafted stuff over everything else, it's infinitely cheaper to just buy it or let someone else make it. And again, you're settling for something that's not even all that great stat-wise.

You dont level crafts to make stuff, or to make immense amounts of money. Those times are long behind you.

You should only level up a crafter if you enjoy crafting for the sake of being able to craft stuff. But if you did, you would have leveled one already despite the time and gil costs, wouldnt you? :/

[Vaer]

Pretty easy to get them to 50 now if you can find someone or have a friend that already has them at 50 to HQ the turn in items. Even easier if you have the authenticator free teleport and find someone else that does.

Look up courier leves and turn in HQ items. Find someone with a free teleport destination. Have them set their free one to the city where you get the leves and you set it to the place the courier leve goes to. Free teleports back and forth. Saves like 20-50k gil. Get a level every 2-3 turn ins. Each turn in and grabbing the leve again takes about 15-30 seconds depending on load times.

It gets boring fast, but you get the levels really quickly.

[Seif]

I've reached the cap in a week with several classes.

I kinda like it but the levelling speed is a joke really. Getting a job to 50 takes a bit of concentration but getting a crafting class is as fast as taking out the garbage.
Basically there's no reason not to level up all of them to 50 except that they're kinda useless mostly.

[LineageRazor]

I don't think Crafting has ever been crazy expensive, even since ARR launch. Goldsmith was my first class to 50 (even before any DoW or DoM job), and at worst I broke even leveling it, even though I couldn't HQ for crap. Once I got the hang of how to HQ stuff, subsequent classes have been pure profit leveling; my latest craft, Clothcraft, I made over a million gil in the process of leveling it, selling the HQ equipment I crafted on the marketboards.

No, there's not a heavy price tag associated with leveling a craft. The bomb hits AFTER you've leveled a craft, and then need to meld materia into the gear. That's when you see all the sweet profit you got from leveling go up in smoke...

I suppose if you're determined to level a craft as fast as possible, then it may start to ramp up the cost of leveling. If you're patient, though, diversify the things you craft (rather than just stick to a single recipe and spam it) you should be able to sell your products for as much or more than you crafted them for. When leveling a craft, I craft at least one of every item in the Crafting Log. The ones that can be turned in for Leves, I turn in for Leves, but everything else I sell for profit. I don't spam any single Leve to level up faster. Even using this "slow and profitable" method, though, I can level a craft in less than a week, and I'm a moderately casual player.

[lololink]

Again, a noble goal, but the amounts of materia (and it's current prices) will make you put in 1-2 mil of gil easily just for the final upgrades already, especially with all the failures you will endure melding them in. Not to mention the time and money spend leveling up.

Or you can farm the materias and the materials to lvl up and then it's free and you can even make some gils by selling some items.

[Nikita]

I have no shame in saying I had help power leveling my crafting classes. I got the mats and my friend HQd the items and I turned them in. I got each class to 50 in a matter of hours by saving leves and burning through them.

[Failia]

Which, besides the point, the current highest level craftable gear is ilvl90. Why would you make something with horribly expensive materials that (outside of visual looks) you can obtain with the amount of Myth tomes 3-4 dungeons will get you? And even if you absolutely must have that single piece of crafted stuff over everything else, it's infinitely cheaper to just buy it or let someone else make it. And again, you're settling for something that's not even all that great stat-wise.

You dont level crafts to make stuff, or to make immense amounts of money. Those times are long behind you.

to slightly disagree with you here. With the coming of novus weapons, the demand on Type 3 and 4 materia has gone up considerably in the past 2 weeks. Those are only attainable from the ilvl 70 and 90 crafted gear and there's quite a market for those. Depending on the materia that you obtain from spirit bonding, you can get 200-400k per materia.

[Aqua_Amaiyo]

Awsome, thank you everyone! I think I'll leave my main in Levi for now and work on the crafting classes where I am and then based off a month or so decide from there if I'll transfer it or not :3 thanks for all the help!