Just take ur time leveling gathering as when 3.0 hits its gonna nerf the old stuff for crafting so ppl that r new can catch up without spending millions of gil. Also wait for golden saucer as i'm 90% sure you can win prizes etc that can be sold on the MB for some decent gil for the first few weeks of release.
Maybe some alternatives to hugh end crafting mats or some new goodies that can only be obtained originally thru winning it in GS.


Cuz if u wanna get anywhere in crafting ur either going to have to fork over a lot of gil or a lot of time, or for most ppl. Both with a little hint of painful progression blocking rng that will explode ur melds and synth just cuz it feels like it.