My pre-53's have been relying on the Collection system. No need to make HQ stuff. Get HQ items (Easy for me as I have much higher capable gathering Classes) and collect away. Far easier. And while its potentially lower in XP than the Leve's I find it less stressful as I don't need an HQ item to get xp. Well... its almost perfect. I need to farm for wind crystals soon. XD

With that said. I managed to 100% an HQ item on one of my 52s. Sure I had to spend a good deal of gil to get the CPs needed for it, but at least I'm getting closer to where I was from 30-50 (I was reliably making HQ things using one of the guide's Macro lists.) Sadly I was too slow in leveling and so did not get the lucis or supra things, no artisan items. Though I had HQ'd every classes (Save Cul) gearsets. (I had bought most of the right side for dirt cheap).