With release of Stormblood, the single crafter has become viable but the single crafter success is limited by a few factors.
1. The skills which make single crafting viable are not learned until you pass 60.
2. The cross class skills (lv15, 37 and 50) are frequently still stronger than their single DoH counter parts.
3. There are some pretty hefty gear / difficulty jumps between 50-51 and again between 60-61.
Always attempt to achieve as much Quality as possible because your XP increases greatly for quality.
e.g. A craft done at 0% quality will earn 100xp, if you can increase the quality to 100%, 300xp will be granted. A 200% additional xp bonus. It is a non-linear sliding scale down for the XP.
My advice will focus on OMNI crafter (all 8 DoH) perspective.
First get all your crafters to 15 to gain access to all basic cross crafting skills.
Levelling from 1 - 15 is pretty simple, complete your crafter log for first time bonus and nearly all the materials you will need are purchasable from vendors. If you have membership in an Free Company, the Materials Supplier has nearly everything you need for all crafts at very cheap prices.
From this point until level 50 try and level all your crafting class equally. Most crafting gear is shared by all DoH classes.
Then get them all to 50 (CUL and GSM 54) to gain access to full set cross class crafting skills. These skills allow you to reliably make High Quality (HQ) items with Normal Quality (NQ) materials.
Level 15 cross class skills:
ALC - Tricks of the Trade
CUL - Hasty Touch
BSM - Ingenuity (repalced by Ingenuity II at lv50)
WVR - Careful Synthesis (replaced by Careful Synthesis II/III at lv50/62)
ARM - Rapid Synthesis (replaced by native Skill Rapid Synthesis II at lv63)
CRP - Rumination (replaced by Byregot's Blessing/Brow at lv50/51)
LTW - Waste Not (replaced by Prudent Touch at lv66)
GMS - Manipulation (slightly less expensive alternative to Master's Mend)
Level 37 cross class skills:
CUL - Steady Hand II
GMS - Flawless Synthesis (which until 3.2 was affectionately class Useless Synthesis. Maker's Mark has given this skill purpose)
Level 50 cross class skills:
ALC - Comfort Zone
ARM - Piece by Piece (Useful for very high level crafting with a lot of difficulty; two uses is 50% completion a third use is gear dependent)
BSM - Ingenuity II
CRP - Byregot's Blessing
CUL - Reclaim
GMS - Innovation
LTW - Waste Not II (Replaced by Manipulation II lv65)
WVR - Careful Synthesis II (Replace by Careful Synthesis III if you have the CP)
Levelling all your DoH classes is expensive, you pay with time or GIL.
Lower Gil with higher time, if you gather your own materials.
Truck loads more Gil, with way less time, if you buy your materials from the market board. Many, many base materials can be purchase from in game vendors at significantly lower prices than the Market Board.
Do the
Beast Tribes to unlock additional vendors and materials.
To assist in your crafter leveling the
Ixal Beast Tribe is available after completing the quest
In Pursuit of the Past.
It unlocks the quest
A Bad Bladder. This is available after lv41.
To further assist you,
Moogle Beast Tribe is available after completing the quest
Laying the First Brick.
It unlocks the quest
Tricks and Stones. This is available after lv53.
DoW Gil Guide, you need GIL to pay for your crafting. At least until you have the skills to make items HQ that population wants to buy from you.
Maps are another great source of income:
Timeworn Dragonskin maps open
The Aquapolis and
Timeworn Gazelleskin maps open
The Lost Canals of Uznair
References:
Caimie's Crafting Guide something every crafter should read at least once.
Crafting Simulator for practising different rotations without burning your materials. This is fan generated site so the accuracy of the results can be a little suspect from time to time. It is generally pretty accurate.
End game gathering from timed nodes:
FFXIV Clock
Unspoiled Nodes
Fisher Reference.
Emphemial Nodes gathering rotation. This rotation after you get Impulsive Appraisal II and get good, pretty much removes the RNG from it.
Desynthesis Guide a source of rare materials for the very ambitious.
End game Gear setups:
Ariyala Toolkit
Crafting HQ follows some basis rules:
1. Turn on Inner Quiet to start
Each successful quality touch will increase your Inner Quiet stacks. Each increase makes your next quality touch stronger by 20%. Inner Quiet has no effect on completion.
2. Start your craft by getting your completion to within one Synthesis of 100%, then work on quality.
Using skills such Muscle Memory, Piece by Piece or Rapid Synthesis I/II for very large completion gains. These are needed for high level crafting.
3. Use skills to restore/conserve your CP.
Comfort Zone, costs 66 CP but over 10 steps, restores 80, thus, +14 effect.
Hasty Touch and Rapid Synthesis, costs 0 CP as the expense of RNG.
Tricks of the Trade, restores 20 CP for each use.
4. Use skills to buff your skills.
Steady Hand (22 CP), Steady Hand II (25 CP), increase reliability of your actions.
E.g. Pop Steady Hand II, the use Hasty Touch multiple times. This will give you an 80% success rate on 5 quality touches costing 0 CP.
Great Strides doubles your next touch effectiveness.
Innovation increases your skill for up to 3 touches.
Ineguity I/II is generally only required for crafts above your own level. Generally these the * crafts for each tier. Recepies in the Master Books.
5. Use skills to restore/conserve your Durability.
Masters Mend I/II, Manipulation I/II, Waste Not I/II
For Durability 70/80 crafts, Master Mend II is the most efficient until you reach lv65 have access to Manipulation II
For Durability 35/40 crafts, Manipulation is most efficient, followed very closely by Masters Mend.
6a. Before you have Byregot's Blessing/Brow (lv50/51), you should be using Rumination to restore CP for a couple of extra touches.
6b. After you have Byregot's Blessing/Brow. Use Byregot's Blessing/Brow for an enormous quality jump.
E.g. SH, Ingenuity II, Innovation, Basic Touch, Great Strides, Byregot's Blessing.