Food for alchemist?

[Alisi]

Hi! My Alchemist is level 44 now and it's just killing me. I'm curious about which foods would help the most. I've tried the ones that are purely for one of each stat but I really don't notice any improvement in the ease to get to HQ. I actually have the hardest time getting HQ with things that have 40 dura. It seems almost impossible (even with HQ ingredients) or I'm just incompetent. LOL

Since I'm gunna use the food anyway, which is better? I've been learning towards the control one but I could be totally wrong about this.

[Alx789]

If you are up to gear - there is no problems to make hq from hq after lvl 30.
I used macros from this guide http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/678051-f...orn/faqs/68530
Maybe you need to train other classes to get some crossskills. Note, that at lvl 50 you will not be able to progress normally w/o all craft classes at 50. Combat class can progress alone, craft - no.

[Conradus]

Hi! My Alchemist is level 44 now and it's just killing me. I'm curious about which foods would help the most. I've tried the ones that are purely for one of each stat but I really don't notice any improvement in the ease to get to HQ. I actually have the hardest time getting HQ with things that have 40 dura. It seems almost impossible (even with HQ ingredients) or I'm just incompetent. LOL

Since I'm gunna use the food anyway, which is better? I've been learning towards the control one but I could be totally wrong about this.

I default to control bonus, but if you see you're just falling short of CPs to do a desirable rotation, CP food is good. Ditto for Craftsmanship food if you're just falling short of being able to cut a synth step out of the rotation. These situations will depend, of course, on exactly what you're synthing and your own stats, so it's very situational.

Yes, 40 durability is tough to HQ. They're all intermediate crafting materials, though, so I don't even bother to try. Just make NQ; most of the time you'll be able to craft an HQ final product out of that.

[GenJoe]

Do you have other classes up to par? You need the cross class skills, some level 15 ones and some 37 ones. Even then, if you're missing some of the level 50 cross class skills it's still hard to hq. If Alchemist is your first and only crafting class, you should have trouble as that's not the design.. Get everything to level 15 first, then try to get Carpenter to 50 and Culinarian to 37. That should make crafting a lot easier.

[Alisi]

SNIP!

I didn't know that about the steps. Good to know! I did notice that I only got a 15% bonus flat, regardless of having all HQ materials so I was coming around to thinking that.

SNIP!

All my crafting classes are at least level 15. Tailor is my second highest around 30 and Cooking is the third. I hate cooking though. >_> Doing the daily turn in for my GC is almost too much. FFS, how many ingredients do Mashed Potatoes really need?

[LineageRazor]

Even if you hate cooking, try to get it to level 37. Steady Hand II is beautiful. Once you have it, you'll almost never use Steady Hand again. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

And, yeah, cooking recipes tend to have a stupidly large number of ingredients - but in most cases, a lot of those ingredients can be bought cheaply at the Culinarians' Guild or the Markets. Take, for example, Beef Stew. It has six ingredients: Sunset Wheat Flour, Buffalo Sirloin, Black Pepper, Wild Onion, Sour Red, and Mineral Water. Of that ingredient list, you only need to buy Buffalo Sirloin off of the marketboards (and it's usually quite cheap there). Sour Red can be bought from the Tradescraft salesperson an any of the three cities' markets, the pepper, Onion, and water can be bought at the Culinarian's Guild, and the Flour can be crafted from Sunset Wheat bought at the Guild. The cost of these ingredients when bought from NPCs instead of from the marketboards is insanely cheap, often under ten gil apiece, when you'd pay hundreds or even thousands if you bought from the Marketboards.

As long as you do your cooking in Limsa Lominsa, getting together all the ingredients you need is pretty cheap and easy - generally MUCH cheaper and easier than the ingredients for other crafts.

If you do decide that you want to get serious about Alchemy, you'll want to level all of your crafting classes to 50. If you do, start with Carpentry. Byergot's Blessing is amazing. It's like a cheat code for HQ. All those easy HQs will make leveling the rest of your classes so much easier.

[Conradus]

And, yeah, cooking recipes tend to have a stupidly large number of ingredients - but in most cases, a lot of those ingredients can be bought cheaply at the Culinarians' Guild or the Markets. Take, for example, Beef Stew. It has six ingredients: Sunset Wheat Flour, Buffalo Sirloin, Black Pepper, Wild Onion, Sour Red, and Mineral Water. Of that ingredient list, you only need to buy Buffalo Sirloin off of the marketboards (and it's usually quite cheap there). Sour Red can be bought from the Tradescraft salesperson an any of the three cities' markets, the pepper, Onion, and water can be bought at the Culinarian's Guild, and the Flour can be crafted from Sunset Wheat bought at the Guild. The cost of these ingredients when bought from NPCs instead of from the marketboards is insanely cheap, often under ten gil apiece, when you'd pay hundreds or even thousands if you bought from the Marketboards.

Sunset Wheat Flour can be bought directly from the Whistling Miller in Gridania or the Sahagin Vendor up in Halfstone (if you've unlocked the Sahagin Beastmen quests) for 4 gil a throw, which is cheaper than you can craft it

[Conradus]

I didn't know that about the steps. Good to know! I did notice that I only got a 15% bonus flat, regardless of having all HQ materials so I was coming around to thinking that.

Wrong way to look at it, actually. The percentage to HQ does not advance proportionally to how much quality you've generated; it's backloaded. The first quality generated creates very little percentage, with it tipping over past the half-way mark. That 15% chance actually represents generating half the quality required for 100%. If you can't make guaranteed HQ with all HQ inputs, you're doing something very, very wrong. It's still a crutch you don't need when you have a proper rotation.

[LineageRazor]

Sunset Wheat Flour can be bought directly from the Whistling Miller in Gridania or the Sahagin Vendor up in Halfstone (if you've unlocked the Sahagin Beastmen quests) for 4 gil a throw, which is cheaper than you can craft it

I'm aware. If you use Gridania, though, you lose the cost advantage to travel fees (not to mention the irritation of travel time) unless you buy in bulk. Sahagin aren't quite so bad as it's cheaper to travel there, but you're still talking 40 gil ferry fees per trip unless you go the long route via Middle La Noscea.

Both require travel, though, and crafting your own means that the only travel you'll be doing is between the markets and the Bismarck. It's a tradeoff.

Me, personally, I keep a stack on retainer of every ingredient the Sahagin have to offer, and restock whenever other business happens to take me to that area, but not everyone is willing to use inventory space so frivolously. Ditto with several commonly-used Bismarck ingreds, like Wild Onions and Black Pepper, just so I don't need to go there either. That's not the kind of advice I'm going to give to a newbie, though!