Quote Originally Posted by Velo_Vandore View Post
Gulp... Bronze Gladius is HARD to make! Is this right? I need leatherworker r4, goldsmith r11, blacksmith r20!, and armorer r11. By the time I make this I don't know if a rank 6 sword will be any use . Why is the bronze gladius recipe blacksmith r6 when you need to be blacksmith r20 to make one of the components?
Not exactly.

To make the bronze gladius from the materials, you need to be a level 6 blacksmith.

To make all the component parts from scratch, you need to have all those ranks you listed. But if you don't have all those ranks, you can just buy the parts you can't make from the Market Wards, or have another crafter make them for you. At least that was the idea when SE designed it. It would encourage people to rely on others to make stuff, thereby encouraging cooperation and stimulating the economy.

Recipes are going to be changed very soon. Materials and recipes will be simplified, which I suspect is going to mean making lower level recipes possible for lower level crafters.
Perhaps I'm looking at this the wrong way. Should I be keeping all my crafting ranks 10 or so above my gladiator rank? Is crafting targeted at high level/endgame players? Will I need to just buy gear for my current level (10)? At what levels should you actually think about upgrading gear?
Totally up to you. My crafting levels lag behind my DoW/M levels by quite a bit. I'm generally trying to level everything to at least 40, so I can repair all my own gear. But you should probably do whatever's fun for you.

Crafting is definitely easiest for higher level players. But that doesn't mean there are no helpful -- or profitable -- recipes lower level players can do.

As for whether to buy or craft gear at your level, I found it easiest to just buy gear. But someone has to make it. And I understand that lower level gear is often pretty expensive or difficult to find in the Market Wards right now.

The good news is that at your rank, you don't have to worry too much about wearing the best gear. You can now get lots of gear from leves. And keep in mind that -- while you don't get the full benefit of all stats if you're under the gear's Optimal Rank -- the difference for gear scales, meaning that you won't be in too bad of shape if you wear gear above your Optimal Rank. (However, there's a huge difference when we're talking about Weapons and Tools. You generally want to stick to weapons and tools that are at or below your Optimal Rank.)

Here's what I do:

Some gear is suitable for all classes. For example, you can buy a Cotton Tunic (r11 shirt), Cotton Slops (r16 pants), Dodoskin Wristguards (r13 hands), and Dodoskin Shoes (r13 shoes). You can wear those while leveling all your low level jobs. That way, you don't have to worry about switching your gear every time you switch to a new class, and you won't have to have a full set of gear for every class you run.

That gear will generally upgrade about every 10 levels. So you can start looking for new gear as you approach 10 levels above that.

I wouldn't worry too much about getting the best possible gear until you get to end-game, or otherwise decide that you're going to focus on one class. When you start running the Darkhold at rank 45, you might want to start worrying about having Gladiator-dedicated gear. But until then, you're mostly going to be focused on leveling, so you can look at the stuff as leveling gear.

On the other hand, I'd try to keep your weapon upgraded. While you don't generally need to upgrade every possible time (for example, daggers vs. swords are just different types of weapons, and not necessarily an upgrade), you'll be surprised how much a new weapon or tool helps. Just be sure that you're generally using a weapon or tool that's at or below your Optimal Rank.

Although I feel I've hit a lot of obstacles in the game, this isn't intended as a rant. Despite feeling really confused about things like this, I'd love to get the hang of this game because i'm curious to see what it can eventually offer, and the designs just blow me away! Also, I find solving the puzzles of this game becomes an obsession in itself, lol, and it's interesting to part part of the game as it develops and changes with players!
Glad to hear you're having fun. I think the depth of FFXIV is one of the good things about it. It's got a steep learning curve, but the fact that it's difficult to figure out is one of the things I like about it.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.