The Profession Gear Gap

[Jpec07]

In leveling my classes, I was able to keep up with my gear and craft items well. But this all changed when I got to 50 on BSM and ARM. Even with HQ mats, I can't manage more than a 25% HQ chance on anything, and the big reason for this is gear.

For all DoW and DoM classes, not only do quests give you gear, but you can spend the Poetics you've gotten for enough gear to fend for yourself in HW.

This is not the case for DotH and DotL classes. When you hit 50, you have nothing but the gear you've been leveling with - 40-50 gear, plus one blue and one green 50 item from the quest.

Trying to craft HW items with that gear is rather hard. Even at 51, if you don't have HW gear, you're going to struggle, and the only way to get HW gear for DotH/DotL classes is through the MB, from friends, or by making it yourself.

What I'd like to see would be some easing on this gap, by making the level 50 crafting/gathering sets easier to acquire, or by putting NQ gear on a vendor.

Thoughts?

[Roth_Trailfinder]

In leveling my classes, I was able to keep up with my gear and craft items well. But this all changed when I got to 50 on BSM and ARM. Even with HQ mats, I can't manage more than a 25% HQ chance on anything, and the big reason for this is gear.

While your gear may be lacking, it sounds to me like your skills are lacking even more. Got Hasty Touch? Tricks of the Trade? Steady Hand 2? Innovation, Comfort Zone, BYREGOT'S BLESSING?

You want my thoughts? Quit trying to be a specialized crafter for a moment. To be an effective specialized crafter, specializing in Armorer and/or Blacksmith, you need the skills of an Omni-crafter. And, to dramatically reduce costs, you need the skills of an Omni-gatherer too.

[Jpec07]

While your gear may be lacking, it sounds to me like your skills are lacking even more. <snipping elitism>

You want my thoughts? Quit trying to be a specialized crafter for a moment. To be an effective specialized crafter, specializing in Armorer and/or Blacksmith, you need the skills of an Omni-crafter. And, to dramatically reduce costs, you need the skills of an Omni-gatherer too.

So...you're telling me that the crafting classes cannot stand alone and aren't BUILT to stand alone, and that in order to effectively use them I NEED to grind out all of the other DotH classes? I refute your claim, sir.

I was doing just fine making HQ items up until 50, but the first HW tier is too highly-tuned to allow a smooth transition while leveling. It assumes I'm going to spend time at 50 to go 2.0-2.55 like I did my job, and I don't have the time for that (call me casual if you must).

[Ruri]

So...you're telling me that the crafting classes cannot stand alone and aren't BUILT to stand alone, and that in order to effectively use them I NEED to grind out all of the other DotH classes? I refute your claim, sir.

Can refute it all you want but eventually you will want most cross-class craft abilities from pretty much every DoH

[PotatoWafflez]

So...you're telling me that the crafting classes cannot stand alone and aren't BUILT to stand alone, and that in order to effectively use them I NEED to grind out all of the other DotH classes? I refute your claim, sir.

If they were built to stand alone they wouldn't have used the cross class system and had every crafting class have access to all the crafting skills when leveled.
They could have fixed this with specialists as well by allowing you access to all the skills when the soul of the crafter was equipped but they didn't.
You can not level all the classes but you will end up spending more gil in the long run, have less access to mats and have a harder time gearing up, which by the sounds of it you don't even have a full HQ ARR BSM/ARM set or accessories which is trival to make if you had the classes leveled and is on par with a NQ level 51 set more or less.

In terms of gear progression the level 51 set doesn't even make that huge a difference the bigger upgrade comes when you hit 53 and have access to the level 52 main hand and the level 53 off hand.

Main hand & Off-hand
http://xivdb.com/?compare/items/11875-2354-2365-11919

ARR Set and Level 51 Set
http://xivdb.com/?compare/items/1195...973-3928-11978

[Laurell]

Your main issue Jpec, outside of not having omnicraft status, is the level difference working against you. If you want to continue as you have, and you certainly can, you're gonna have to level yourself up first. You could try completing your challenge logs and auto synthing to get to/above the recipe level and you'll find them much easier.

[Jpec07]

<snip>

The problem here is that when most players hit 50, they're still wearing level 30-40 stuff in many slots (namely because who can really afford to spend 60k on a ring they're going to replace in 5 levels). Even if you keep up with buying crafting gear off vendors, the highest pieces you'll be able to get outside of the blue and green from the class quest are only around level 46-47. By that point, anyone who's gotten their professions this high will have spent all of their gil to buy the mats - or at least those that you can't pick off a vendor or easily gather yourself, and so they can't afford to purchase the level 50 pieces from MB, and certainly can't afford the level 51 pieces from HW (at least on my server, prices are still exorbitant for 50 and 51 gear--less-so for 53). I get not wanting to make crafters replace their hard-earned crafting sets with vendor whites, but the lack of gear catch-up here is extremely frustrating.

[Jpec07]

Your main issue Jpec, outside of not having omnicraft status, is the level difference working against you. If you want to continue as you have, and you certainly can, you're gonna have to level yourself up first. You could try completing your challenge logs and auto synthing to get to/above the recipe level and you'll find them much easier.

Even at 51, while still wearing the gear I'd leveled to 50 in as a Miner, I still couldn't get more than 30% chance at Mythrite Sand until I'd sold enough of the stuff to be able to spend 750k on the 51 gear. I'm willing to bet the same will hold true for ARM, BSM, and any other DotH classes I'm masochistic enough to level.

[PotatoWafflez]

The problem here is that when most players hit 50, they're still wearing level 30-40 stuff in many slots (namely because who can really afford to spend 60k on a ring they're going to replace in 5 levels). Even if you keep up with buying crafting gear off vendors, the highest pieces you'll be able to get outside of the blue and green from the class quest are only around level 46-47. By that point, anyone who's gotten their professions this high will have spent all of their gil to buy the mats - or at least those that you can't pick off a vendor or easily gather yourself, and so they can't afford to purchase the level 50 pieces from MB, and certainly can't afford the level 51 pieces from HW (at least on my server, prices are still exorbitant for 50 and 51 gear--less-so for 53). I get not wanting to make crafters replace their hard-earned crafting sets with vendor whites, but the lack of gear catch-up here is extremely frustrating.

You can't afford these ARR mats to get a level 50 HQ set that any other crafter could HQ for you with minimal effort and would likely do it for free if you provided mats?

http://ffxivcrafting.com/list/saved/...:4254,1:4152,1

Also a list for a HS starter set encase you decide to get someone else to craft you a starter set for 51+

http://ffxivcrafting.com/list/saved/...2017,1:11970,1

The mats required for the ARR sets are cheap and plentiful you do not need the old BiS accessories, but if you don't want to deal with the hassle of other people you can always take the time to get your BSM or ARM first master book for 5 HQ Darksteel ingots and do your token hand-ins for your artisan set in Mor Doh for 35 HQ Darksteel Hooks or 35 HQ Darksteel Wire.

http://xivdb.com/?compare/items/1005...60-11965-11973

http://xivdb.com/?compare/items/7524-2354

And if you don't want to pay for accessories level up CRP for HS and GSM for ARR, once you get to 58 you can just get your blue scrip gear and you'll be sorted till you get your red scrip set but you'll have even more trouble there by refusing to expand into other crafts and gatherers like others have said by not levelling them you are making it harder and more costly for yourself when crafting and gathering are the easiest things to level in the game and give you benefits such as more mats and skills and you can make your own gear.

[Mikedizzy]

You need to buy or have someone make you the crafted gear for your Craft. I am still using my over-melded LWK gear and the Artisan set for all my others and am doing just fine. I am 3 star on all crafts though so that helps but it just sounds to me like you have not put in enough effort to do higher content yet. Have you done your over melds???