Best way to get cross-craft mats?

[ChameleonMS]

Having a full time job during the week, I find myself having decent spare time to devote to the game.... but not really enough to level up every single crafting class.

Add small kids to the equation and you are exactly where I am. The best advise is to pack your patience. It took me 10 months to achieve 50 all DoH, plus Botany and Mining. For long stretches of time I was limited less then 10 hours per week. I leveled them all pretty much in a wave together because of all the cross class crafting material requirements.

As for earning XP faster:
Eat food, you can gather (lv5 nodes) or purchase (8 gil) La Noscean Oranges, from the get go. +3% XP (every little bit helps save time).
Always rest in Sanctuary, when rested you get +50% XP bonus.
Do the Ixial beast tribe story line, the xp rewards are pretty much equivalent to a free level quest.

[BobbinT]

Here's another tip: If you're belonged to FC, make sure it has material supplier NPC. He/she will sell all craft mats needed for lvl 15 and below. And add crafting facilities if possible, those will benefit greatly for craft class level 40 and below.

[Nyalia]

Because I feel like it, here's a compilation of where you can get low to mid level crafting materials from NPC vendors. First, here's a list of where these vendors have their shops:

• City Vendors: In each city, in the market area, there's a vendor that sells low-level crafter materials. In Gridania, when coming from the LTW guild to the marketplace, go left at the retainer vocate and she's the first vendor on the left. Similarly, in Limsa, when going to the market area from the Aetheryte, the first vendor on the left is the materials vendor. I'm too lazy to craft in Ul'dah, so I dunno where the Ul'dahn City Vendor is found.
• Beast Tribe Vendors: Each Beast Tribe has items that it will sell to people with reputation in that Beast Tribe. For all but the Ixali, you only need Neutral reputation, which you get by doing the quest that introduces them and unlocks their initial Beast Tribe quests. There's no reason not to do this for every Beast Tribe from the get-go. For the Ixali, a few rather useful mid-level items are not available unless you rank them up a bit.
• FC/Personal House Vendors: These can be paid by your FC (or you in a personal house) to set up shop in the house. They sell a fairly large selection of items.
• Housing Ward Vendors: In the Housing Wards themselves, there are a set of vendors, including the ones you talk to in order to build a house. One of them sells materials. These vendors mostly overlap with FC/Personal House Vendors, but not entirely (most notably: Iron Ingots, Growth Formula Beta, Elm/Yew Lumber)
• Crafting Guild Vendors: In each crafting guild, there's a merchant that sells useful items for that craft. However, nearly all of these items can be bought from the City Vendor or the FC House Vendor.

Here's a list of where to get each of the commonly used items (if the item is sold at a City Vendor, I won't list the guilds it's also sold at):
Cloth/Yarn

• Hempen Yarn: City Vendors
• Undyed Hempen Cloth: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors,
• Cotton Yarn: FC/Personal House Vendors, ALC Guild, Sylph Vendor, and Housing Ward Vendors
• Undyed Cotton Cloth: FC/Personal House Vendors, ARM/BSM Guild, Sylph Vendor, and Housing Ward Vendors
• Undyed Velveteen: Sylph Vendor
• Linen Yarn: Sylph Vendor
• Undyed Linen: Sylph Vendor

Feathers

• Cock Feather: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Crow Feather: FC/Personal House Vendors, Sylph Vendor, CRP Guild
• Wildfowl Feather: Sylph Vendor

Leather

• Leather: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Hard Leather: FC/Personal House Vendors, WVR Guild, ALC Guild, GSM Guild, ARM/BSM Guild, CRP Guild

Bone, Blood, and Sinew

• Animal Sinew: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Beast Sinew: FC/Personal House Vendors, LTW Guild, and WVR Guild
• Beastkin Blood: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, ALC Guild, and Kobold Vendor
• Scalekin Blood: Kobold Vendor
• Bone Chip: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Soiled Femur: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Bat Fang: FC/Personal House Vendors, ALC Guild, and GSM Guild
• Ram Horn: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, GSM Guild, and ARM/BSM Guild
• Aldgoat Horn: Kobold Vendor
• Bat Wing: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, CUL Guild (seriously, don't ask)

Wood

• Maple Log: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, Ixali Vendor
• Ash Log: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, and Housing Ward Vendors
• Maple Lumber: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, Ixali Vendor
• Ash Lumber: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, ARM/BSM Guild, Ixali Vendor, and Housing Ward Vendors
• Elm Lumber: Ixali Vendor and Housing Ward Vendors
• Yew Lumber: Ixali Vendor and Housing Ward Vendors
• Walnut Lumber: Ixali Vendor [rank 3]
• Oak Lumber: Ixali Vendor [rank 3]
• Maple Branch: FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild, ALC Guild, and Ixali Vendor
• Ash Branch: FC/Personal House Vendors, Ixali Vendor
• Yew Branch: Ixali Vendor
• Oak Branch: Ixali Vendor [rank 3]

Metals (Ore/Ingot/Rivet/Plate/Rings)

• Tin Ore: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors
• Copper Ore: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors
• Iron Ore: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, ARM/BSM Guild
• Zinc Ore: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, GSM Guild
• Copper Ingot: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors
• Bronze Ingot: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors
• Brass Ingot: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, ARM/BSM Guild, CRP Guild, Housing Ward Vendors
• Iron Ingot: Housing Ward Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor
• Steel Ingot: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Mythril Ingot: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Bronze Rivets: City Vendors, FC/Personal Housing Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor
• Iron Rivets: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, Housing Ward Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor
• Steel Rivets: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Mythril Rivets: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Bronze Plate: FC/Personal Housing Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor, ARM/BSM Guild
• Iron Plate: Housing Ward Vendors, Amalj'aa Vendor
• Steel Plate: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Steel Rings: Amalj'aa Vendor
• Mythril Rings: Amalj'aa Vendor

Reagents/Other

• Fish Oil: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Animal Glue: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, Housing Ward Vendors
• Rubber: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors
• Obsidian: FC/Personal House Vendor, CRP Guild
• Ragstone Whetstone: FC/Personal House Vendors, ARM/BSM Guild
• Quicksilver: City Vendors, Kobold Vendor
• Rock Salt: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, CUL Guild, ALC Guild
• Distilled Water: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, CUL Guild
• Mineral Water: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, CUL Guild
• Clear Glass Lens: FC/Personal House Vendors, Housing Ward Vendors, GSM Guild
• Growth Formula Alpha: City Vendors, FC/Personal House Vendors, CRP Guild
• Growth Formula Beta: Housing Ward Vendors
• Bomb Ash: Kobold Vendor
• Jellyfish Umbrella: Kobold Vendor
• Red Landtrap Leaf: ALC Vendor
• Blue Landtrap Leaf: Kobold Vendor
• Morbol Vine: Kobold Vendor

And so on. At this point, I got bored, so ingredients are left as an exercise for the reader.

[dspguy]

Beast tribe vendors. I think they have most subcomponents (not all) up to around level 30 items. That will help.