Finally got all my Crafting Classes to 60. Now about the gear...

[VirusChris]

A few days ago I finally got all of my crafting gear to level 60 so I can start melding Materia at my level and craft gear and other items I might need or sell on the MB.

However I'm still using the HQ versions of the Lv55 and 56 gear and in order to make some of the Master Craft Book III items my Craftsmanship and Control need to be better and so I'm looking to see what's the best gear to get at the moment to make it better.

But I'm also asking seeing as Patch 3.3 might be coming out this month and they will have new and better Crafting Gear than the current one and got my thinking... should I wait for better gear?

I looked at a piece of BSM Body Part in my server's MB and the price they had it was 9 million for an HQ one fully melded and a 15 million gil HQ one with no melds. Sad to say I lack the funds to EVEN buy one of them and that's the ONLY two on my server.

I mean I need 589 control to make some of the Recipes for the final turn-in for each of my respective Crafting Class (a such there was no superior tool (well starting superior) to be obtained in them like the old Lv50 Quest).

Any suggestions guys?

[Kamote]

Hiya Chris!

http://www.ffxivguild.com/ff14-arr-d...materia-melds/

it is a good source for the gear progression for crafters. seeing as 3.3 is nearly here, i suggest to get the Chimerical/Serpentskin/Dragonskin left sides and the Hallowed right gear for now. if you are serious in crafting and want to craft all the succeeding gears by yourself, then you really have your work/wallet cut out for you! Either way, good luck!

[VirusChris]

Oh! Another fellow player from Malboro, nice to meetcha!

Well this guide is helpful and I thank you for providing the link, but I dislike how the ads for some reason are slowing down my PC when I view that page... then again I have had my computer on... for days. >_>;
Anyway the Chimerical/Serpentskin/Dragonskin HQ versions and the Hallowed gear are perfect for now so they can be shared by all classes and I'll have more than enough Control to start working on the other recipes that require high control.

I'll continue to ask questions if I need something to help me with.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

We do not know for sure when 3.3 is going to hit. Current guesses I've seen on the web range from the end of this month, to the 14th of June. So, you do have *some* time.

The generic, any-class i150 (or lower, for the Hallowed accessories+belt) crafting gear is the next stepping stone, given where you say your gear is, TC. Do not meld this any more than you have to, just make it (HQ, of course!) and use this for a little bit.

When 3.3 hits we will know what the crafting classes for its gear are, and whether the gear is locked behind Specializations. And, almost more importantly, what the crafting requirements are. Those pieces of information are what you will need in order to determine where to go next. My own guess is the 3.3 gear will require current 3 star stats (850 craft, 820 control) but that is only a guess. Considering that those stats cannot be reached with a full set of i180 Red Scrip Gear unless you eat food, they may be high for the new gear.

Play around with http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/CUL (or any class) to decide how you want to meld things.

[Kamote]

Hit me up in game if you are on and maybe i can help you!
(cant remember, but will check if you are in my FL since your name sounds familiar)

[VirusChris]

I'll see if I can hit you up Kamote... I don't think I'm on your Friend List. I know there's a few Chris's and Coronas running about in FFXIV.

Anyway I finally got the left side compete with the Chimerical/Serpentskin/Dragonskin... costed me a pretty penny a bit... but I'll be making those gil back now that I have near 600 on Craftsmanship and Control stats. Though I'm going to need the Primary and Secondary Tools right to go over it and have a enough and the right side with the accessories, well those can wait a bit. I have a good amount of CP to make HQ items and there's scarcely any on the MB so I'll wait.

However looking at the prices for HQ tools for my class, like LTW...



Why do people do this? They KNOW it won't sell, right? That's too pricey even if it's the only HQ item of that tool on the MB! Some people are just overly greedy and I rarely see the items I want. It's like crafters are died on the Malboro server. Also having Crystal Clusters to make those items... I know that Fire and Lightning can be EASILY gotten and faster in HW but I haven't seen any method for the rest to be easily gotten as well. Some of the time gates for them sucks.

Anyway my old Lv55-56 had 76 - 79% spiritbond status on them and I like to get them to 100% so I can convert them to materia and hopefully have Tier 3 - 4 Materia for Crafting for my hard work. Any suggestions to make it fully spiritbond faster for crafts?

[Roth_Trailfinder]

The i170 items are the top end crafted crafting/gathering gear right now. That price reflects that, and the time involved in producing the item. For example, that offhand took four 2* refined materials. Prior to the Favors change, that would have meant gathering from 4 sets (of 5 each) Botanist Favors, and an equal amount of Mining Favors. Post change, those number are, for all practical purposes, cut down to a third, but it still means two sets of Mining and two sets of Botany Favors. Then there is the 2* crafting itself : refinement of the materials, then crafting the OH tool.



That is a lot more work than most previous crafting equipment, the only *possible* exception being the work required to obtain the Ehcatl Sealants. And those, at least, were much more readily available on the board for those who sought to buy their materials rather than gather themselves.

So, yea. Those things are pricey. Your alternative is to craft the gear yourself, or get the i180 gear. i180 is better before melds than the i170, but the i170 has higher stat caps when melded, so it's your call what you want to do there.

[VirusChris]

Ah, I see. I have my Gathering all to 60 but I don't do Favors or know where to go to look for them which explains why it's so pricey, but still that's a LOT of gil! Not a lot of players or crafters are willing to shelf that much.

This reinforces that Crafters got gimped big time in HW when it came out. However I don't know where to go to buy the Red Scrips gear which is odd as I thought they were be with the Scrip Exchangers, but I'll look a little harder. Probably in Idyllshire somewhere and I missed it.

So far it's only the Secondary Tool that's pricey? I got the LTW HQ Main Tool for 45k on the MB which was nice.

Thanks for sharing that, I didn't know. Sigh... this is going to be harder to secure those Tools now.

[LineageRazor]

SE dropped the ball pretty hard when it came to the top-of-the-line crafting equipment in Heavensward. They made the process so convoluted and difficult that only a very small percentage of the crafting population could put up with it. The time investment needed to craft a piece was such that they NEEDED a huge price tag to justify the time spent. Otherwise, the crafter could have been using that time making as much money or more by crafting easier things that take less effort and less risk.

And the risk was pretty big. Before folks worked out good rotations and stat requirements, it was difficult to HQ this advanced equipment - and NQs were all but worthless, as their stats were low enough that they were barely better than easy-to-HQ standard crafting gear. For example, compare a NQ Gemmaster's Coronal to a HQ Chimerical Felt Turban of Crafting: Both grant 62 Control, though the Coronal also adds 3 CP. That 3 CP is not nearly enough to justify the difficulty of obtaining the expensive ingredients used in the Coronal - and while the Coronal DOES have higher stat caps for melding, the horrifying expense you'd go through to meet those stat caps would make the HQ price tag look like chump change.

These high risks caused a goodly chunk of the crafting population to bail, and all that remained were the serious crafters - folks who were generally wealthy enough to afford these crazily high-priced items. Most crafters of this kind, though, were the sorts of people who could make the stuff themselves, and so the market willing to shell out for them was pretty niche. It's similar to real life, really; there are plenty of markets that get by by selling very limited quantities of items to very wealthy buyers for high prices.

However, this was NOT the outcome SE wanted, which is why I say they dropped the ball. They've backpedaled time and again, making the process easier and easier. Trading Favor items in for materials now gives three times as many back as they used to. Gathering the Favor items now takes only a third of the time that it used to. The recent addition of 3-star recipes are barely more difficult to craft than the 2-star recipes were, and the ingredients involved are much easier to obtain (Tomestone materials - and super cheap Tomestone materials, at that). SE is clearly trying to draw back the crafters they alienated - and it's working, but slowly.

In the meantime, though, top-of-the-line crafting gear is still a bitch-and-a-half to make, and that's going to keep the prices high. In the meantime, the Chimerical Felt and Serpentskin stuff is good enough to craft almost anything once you give it a good melding. SE has promised, though, that the next generation of crafting gear will require top-of-the-line gear from the current generation to create. Given how few crafters managed to keep up for the current generation, that means next-gen gear is going to be available only at a slow trickle.

[Ibi]

In the meantime, though, top-of-the-line crafting gear is still a bitch-and-a-half to make, and that's going to keep the prices high.

I keep looking at crafting as something I should consider getting back into, then I run the math and see that each item requires multiple millions of gil of materials (primarily the favor materials), and suddenly find that I no longer care as much as I thought I did.