General Question(s) on Group content and midgame

[Bixby]

Yeah, to be clear, I only said non-cooking because I was talking about repairs and CUL doesn't repair anything. Didn't mean it to diminish the usefulness of CUL.

[Niwashi]

I'm still not sure if it's wise to only lvl 3 crafts past 10 to be able to get said 3 crafts to the capped desynth levels.

Personally, for choosing which crafting classes to specialize in, or how far to take them, I'd focus more on the actual crafting part than on the corresponding desynthesis skill, but maybe that's just because I haven't gotten into desynth very much yet.

At some point I'm going to force myself not to craft beyond the 3 I pick.

If you're dabbling in all of them through the early levels before specializing to three, level 15 might be a good target for where to bring the others. At levels 15, 37, and 50, each crafting class gets a unique skill that can be cross-classed by any of the other crafting classes. By getting them all to at least the first of those, the three that you continue further will have a variety of extra skills available to choose from.

The level 15 skills are:
Alchemist: Tricks of the Trade - Restores 20 CP. Can only be used when condition is good.
Armorer: Rapid Synthesis - Improves progress. Efficiency: 250%, Success Rate: 50%
Blacksmith: Ingenuity - Lowers recipe level to current level for the next 5 steps. (24 CP cost)
Carpenter: Rumination - Removes Inner Quiet effect and restores CP proportional to the number of times control was increased.
Culinarian: Hasty Touch - Improves quality. Efficiency 100%, Success Rate 50%
Goldsmith: Manipulation - Restores 10 points of durability after each step for the next 3 steps. (88 CP cost)
Leatherworker: Waste Not - Reduces loss of durability by 50% for the next 4 steps. (56 CP cost)
Weaver: Careful Synthesis - Improves progress. Efficiency 90%, Success Rate 100%

At level 37, most of the DoH classes (all except for Culinarian and Goldsmith) get a "Brand of <Element>" skill specializing in a different element for each of them. These are only useful for the small number of recipes that actually have an elemental affinity, which is rare enough that I wouldn't regard them as a high priority. For the two exceptions:
Culinarian: Steady Hand II - Improves action success rate by 30% for the next 5 steps (25 CP cost)
Goldsmithing: Flawless Synthesis - Increases progress by 40. Success Rate 90% (15 CP cost)
These two are useful, especially CUL's Steady Hand II.

Then the set that you only get on the classes you take all the way to 50:
Alchemy: Comfort Zone - Restores 8 CP after each step for the next 10 steps. (66 CP cost)
Armorer: Piece by Piece - Increases remaining progress by 1/3. Success Rate 90% (15 CP cost)
Blacksmith: Ingenuity II - Lowers recipe level to 3 below current level for the next 5 steps. (32 CP cost)
Carpenter: Byregot's Blessing - Improves quality. Efficiency: 100% plus 20% for each bonus to control granted by Inner Quiet. Success Rate: 90% (24 CP cost)
Culinarian: Reclaim - Increases the chance materials will not be lost after botched synthesis to 90% (55 CP cost)
Goldsmithing: Innovation - Increases control by 50% for the next 3 steps. (18 CP cost)
Leatherworker: Waste Not II - Reduces loss of durability by 50% for the next 8 steps. (98 CP cost)
Weaver: Careful Synthesis II - Improves progress. Efficiency 120%, Success Rate 100%

[DawgPilez]

Thanks for posting that. I'm sure people have the 'best cross-skills' down pat. I don't imagine you will need all of the skills.

I've finally paused on crafting. I was doing it for seals on the provision missions, but they yield so little reward that it's almost useless (better to do leves...) That and I'm not seeing a point to seals beyond the choco license. CAR is all around useful and CUL still has it's benefits. I'm not a pureblood min-maxer so I don't seen a need for ALC. I find it interesting that lowbie gear has slots since who would bother putting materia in trash gear unless you happen upon lowbie materia (which I've not received likely due to you having to meld it). Which would take me back to crafting if want to get some additional stats (but... I'm not a min-maxer so vicious cycle plugged).

I'm rambling. I believe all of my questions have been answered. I'm glad I hit 30 in CNJ. It's a pretty boring class pretty much made to focus purely on healing with the occasionally dot. Sometimes I feel like it's a 'rush' to keep a team alive while trying to keep myself alive. That is the only time I'm really enjoying playing the class.

[Garlyle]

Thanks for posting that. I'm sure people have the 'best cross-skills' down pat. I don't imagine you will need all of the skills.

Depends on how good you want to be. All of the level 50 skills are incredibly powerful. You can craft very high level stuff without them - but good luck HQing them reliably, completing high level furnishings, etc. without them.

As for seals, early on just throw them into any gear you might need and focus on maxing your GC rank. Later, they're valuable as a consistent source of Ventures for retainers, gearing up alt classes, and if worst comes to worst you can cash them in for materials to sell on the market board for cash. (You DO want max GC rank for hunting purposes and access to PvP - especially Frontlines, which is good fun if you don't want PvP that's taken too seriously since it's a massive cluster****)

CNJ/WHM is as exciting as you make it. Trying to maximize your DPS by swapping in/out of cleric stance while still keeping the party from dying is, imo, by far the most exciting pre-job class in dungeons.