When is a good time to start Crafting??

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

When we do start with the crafting and such... do we NEED all of the crafting classes, or can we just take the ones we like?

Short answer: Yes, you need all of them.

Long answer: Crafting in this game is most profitable if you are able to make High Quality (HQ) versions of the different recipes. In some cases only HQ is acceptable, such as with various quest requirements, relic components, etc. So being able to reliably make HQ equipment is very important. In order to achieve this, you need to have access to certain skills which can only be learned by specific crafting jobs. Each crafting job has unique skills, and you'll need many of them in order to produce a crafting rotation that enables you to reliably produce HQ items. Some of them you could arguably do without, but in fact most of them are useful in the right situation. So leveling every job is recommended in order to have access to the full array of crafting skills. When you reach level 60, you'll gain access to specialist actions which can only be used by specialist crafters ( you can only choose 3 crafters to specialize in). So you may be thinking you can just level the 3 crafts you plan to specialize in, but in fact, the specialist actions are mostly unreliable as they rely heavily on the condition of the craft which is decided by RNG. When you're trying to make HQ as reliable as possible, you want to minimize RNG as much as possible which means that the specialist actions in general are not viable options. This means that you'll continue to rely on your skills learned from all the crafting classes even after becoming a specialist.

All that said, before you go and start leveling up every crafter to 60, you should decide if it's really worth it for you. Crafting in this game is primarily used as a way to make money first, but also has added benefits such as being able to repair your own gear, and meld your own materia (which will become very important in 3.2). If you find that you don't really need money for very many things, then it's entirely acceptable to just level the relevant crafters you need to meld and repair up to level 50 and stop there. If you're fine with having someone meld your materia for you and using the repair NPC, then feel free to ignore crafting entirely.

[Zadocfish]

Sweet. I mostly just wanted to be able to craft my own gear that's as good or better than the bought stuff; min/maxing doesn't interest me that much. Thank you!

[Frizze]

As you level up most of the very best gear will come out of dungeons, either directly(greens and pinks in chests) or via items you get that you trade in for gear(often blues - this happens more in higher level dungeons then lower ones). The stuff you can buy off npc merchants/get from quests is often the lowest quality. By crafting you can find a middle ground by making higher quality versions of the items that are sold(and as some items arent sold at all, doing intermediary upgrades if needed). You also get a big advantage gearing any classes you level later, as your crafting would likely already be high enough to make most everything you need. Crafting can also turn profitable if you want it to. If making money becomes your goal, it will help a lot to be able to gather your own ingredients(for instance, leveling miner to get the metal AND armorer to make the gear).

But i do feel i need to clear up one misconception. It is not at all required to level any classes other then the ones you like. You get bonuses and advantages(cross class skills and making your own parts) for leveling multiples, but if you dont mind working a little harder(using more hq mats, failing and retrying sometimes) you can get as far as you want to go on just a single class.

[MistakeNot]

But i do feel i need to clear up one misconception. It is not at all required to level any classes other then the ones you like. You get bonuses and advantages(cross class skills and making your own parts) for leveling multiples, but if you dont mind working a little harder(using more hq mats, failing and retrying sometimes) you can get as far as you want to go on just a single class.

It is certainly not required, but many people end up leveling all the crafting/gathering classes anyway. Main reason for that is that so many recipes require materials crafted/gathered by some other class.
Sure, you can try buying those from the MB, but that tends to become expensive - and sometimes the items you need are not even available for purchase.

[Urthdigger]

It is certainly not required, but many people end up leveling all the crafting/gathering classes anyway. Main reason for that is that so many recipes require materials crafted/gathered by some other class.
Sure, you can try buying those from the MB, but that tends to become expensive - and sometimes the items you need are not even available for purchase.

My thought is if you need to buy half the mats anyway, you may as well just buy the finished item as it is.

[DPZ2]

My thought is if you need to buy half the mats anyway, you may as well just buy the finished item as it is.

Yup. The mats for the high-end recipes these days often cost more than the finished item. While I'm stuck in the mid-50s for crafting, I also know I can produce anything someone from 1-50 requires as an HQ item ... mostly for other crafters.

[Niwashi]

Main reason for that is that so many recipes require materials crafted/gathered by some other class.
Sure, you can try buying those from the MB, but that tends to become expensive - and sometimes the items you need are not even available for purchase.

Some are more important than others in this respect, though. Culinarian, for instance, although it provides a couple of extremely useful cross-class skills, is hardly ever useful for providing materials to other classes, nor does it need materials from other crafting classes very often. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to try leveling either Leatherworker or Weaver without the other due to the amount of leather used in WVR recipes and cloth or thread used in LTW recipes. Armorer and Blacksmith produce many of the same intermediate materials, so if you have one of them, you'll only rarely need materials from the other.

If you want to try out crafting, but don't want to level multiple crafting classes, Culinarian might be a good bet. Either that or Alchemist. Both will need a lot of gathered materials, but not much in the way of materials crafted by other DoH classes.

If you want to try several DoH classes and make most of your gear, but find leveling 8 of them at a time too much, a combo of Weaver, Leatherworker, and Armourer can give you a broad enough range to make most of the materials you'll need. (Most =/= all. There will occasionally be recipes requiring an item or two from Goldsmith or something, but not as often.) It's also a good combo if you're interested in glamour, as it covers all your left-side equipment except for weapons. You'd be able to make, repair, glamour, and meld your most visible gear. You'd still be missing some of the good cross-class skills, though, which would make creating HQ items more difficult.

Your best bet is still to go for all 8, as well as all 3 gatherers. That gives you all the cross-class skills you'll want and access to all the materials you'll need. The only downside is that that's a lot of classes to level.

[Frizze]

MistakeNot and others, i was never implying that leveling multiple/all the classes isnt advantageous. Cross class skills are a big help in finishing harder recipes, a big help in HQing recipes. An armorer being able to make his own leather for the padding(as an example) is at a big advantage both in terms of time and money saved. I couldnt say that it isnt helpful in good conscience, as im almost done leveling all my crafters and gatherers to 60(3 crafters in the high 50s to finish as of this writing, fishing recently hit 51 as last gatherer). I was just arguing against Zetsumei saying you need them all. The OP was asking when was a good time to pick up crafting, and whether he had to commit to doing all 480 levels worth of it. If they like crafting, most people do seem to eventually end up picking up everything. But you can certainly start small, and expand if/when you decide you need those extra advantages.

[Atoli]

Start when you feel like it. Crafting can be very overwhelming and it will take a lot of time to get anywhere, especially if you are just starting out and therefore have neither money not seals nor leveled retainers to speed up the process.

People talk about crafting gear for the class you are leveling, but tbh the best gear comes from dungeons and later on raids and tome trade-ins, so unless you are hellbent on never entering any content more than once, crafting or buying any gear while leveling up is likely not needed.

If you enjoy it though, there is no reason to wait and not get started right away.

[Niwashi]

People talk about crafting gear for the class you are leveling, but tbh the best gear comes from dungeons and later on raids and tome trade-ins, so unless you are hellbent on never entering any content more than once, crafting or buying any gear while leveling up is likely not needed.

While it's true that better gear technically can come from dungeons, it comes only when you happen to get lucky on what drops. While leveling, you're very unlikely to get a full set of green dungeon gear to drop for you before out-leveling it.

Maybe you'll get one piece of a green dungeon set on-level if you're lucky (or in extremely rare cases, maybe two), but you'll still need another source for the rest of your gear. Crafting (if you can HQ the items) lets you have the good gear as soon as you reach its level. That will be the best gear available until a green item drops for you, which might not happen for a long time. In most cases, it won't happen until after you've leveled up through another tier or two at least of crafted gear.