Quote Originally Posted by Niwashi View Post
The advantage to starting crafting/gathering early is that if you get it up to around the level of your main class you can make your own gear while you level up. You'd have access to High Quality crafted gear whenever you want it and the ability to upgrade everything for free every time you gain a level that makes the next tier of gear available.

The advantage in waiting until level cap is that leveling your crafting and gathering can take up a lot of time (either that or a lot of gil if you prefer power leveling your way through it with purchased materials and turn-in items). Lots of players don't want to interrupt the story or advancement with such a time consuming activity. (And at low levels gil is harder to come by as well, so it can be harder for players who want to power-level their crafting.) They'd rather advance through the game quickly, and later once they reach the end take the time to go back and advance other classes.

There are people who prefer either way. Pick which is more important to you: better leveling gear and the satisfaction of creating it yourself, or uninterrupted advancement through the storyline and earlier access to endgame.
Levelling up with your combat class also allows you to do your own materia melding. Levelling up after you've reached cap allows you to level your DoH classes with the Ixali crafting quests, which really give you a leg up.