crafting guides

[Cynthis]

I dont tend to use guides as the guide creators situation may differ from your own and may have access to resources that others dont, like levelled gathering classes.

When I'm crafting I mostly use a database like mooglebox and work out my own levelling path that suits my situation.
Generally speaking, I tend to go for synths with minimal ingredients, never more than 3 ingredients, but thats just me.
If all else fails theres always leves

I do almost exactly the same thing. I do a lot of gathering and I've identified a set of ingredients that are commonly used as well as a set of recipes all the way up to 50 that use mostly those ingredients. I've then saved them over time and used them as I progressed through the different crafting classes. Might not have been the fastest way to level but, except for shards, I've spent virtually no gil on buying mats.