What's the best crafting class?

[Kazwako]

With so many crafting classes available it's hard to decide where to start. We have ranked 5 of the crafting classes here Would you agree?
We have looked at the story lines involved, the great things about each class, what you can make, how it helps and, of course, how cool you will look.
The conclusions have been drawn from personal experiences in crafting. I would advise carpentry and botany to anyone starting out. That could be biased because that's how I started but it does seem like a good match. What do you all think?

[Caimie_Tsukino]

With so many crafting classes available it's hard to decide where to start. We have ranked 5 of the crafting classes here Would you agree?
We have looked at the story lines involved, the great things about each class, what you can make, how it helps and, of course, how cool you will look.
The conclusions have been drawn from personal experiences in crafting. I would advise carpentry and botany to anyone starting out. That could be biased because that's how I started but it does seem like a good match. What do you all think?

With the super nerf of crafting since Stormblood, and the introduction of Ishgard Restoration in game, it is practically a joke to level all crafting classes. Back in ARR, it took me literally months to get them to level 50. Now? My friend, Zino, who's a raider who knew quite little about what the buttons do, managed to go from level 10 to level 45 in about 1 hour of play. And once he hit level 80, with the power of macro, he no longer needs my help to craft lvl 80 raiding potions. He just farmed white scrips, got white scrip gear (and I supplied a few pieces of endgame crafted gear to overmeld CP for him), and now he's just macroing everything with ease.

Honestly, these days, it's not hard to level 4 or 5 of them together, or even ALL of them together.

The website your supplied gave me a fun read... It's intriguing to see someone's personal opinion on what the 5 best classes are, and to see what the justification are. So I copied and pasted the author's justifications below, and I put in my comments about each of them.

Here are five reasons to love Culinarian.
>> You get to make Lord Lolorito squirm.
I don't even remember this name. (EDIT: Ok, now I remember, but how does that make CUL the best class though...)
>> It inspires you to cook a great meal in real life. (Where can I buy aldgoat?)
What? I thought most of the dishes in the game were inspired by real life dishes...
>> The food provides a great XP boost for levelling.
Yes, but you can buy 10 stacks of 99 food for about 40 gil each from vendor... why bother to make your own food if it's just about the XP boost?
>> It is a relaxing class to play.
Yes, ok. But all the other crafting classes are just as relaxing...
>> There is always a small market for food on the market board.
Yes, and that's exactly the same as any other classes...

Here are five reasons to love Weaver.
>> Making your own amazing Glamour.
Yes, it's true most of the coolest glamour are made by Weaver. This is valid. But you can also say most of the coolest weapons are made by Blacksmith as well. So why isn't Blacksmith on this list of 5 best crafters?
>> Selling Glamour for mucho gill.
Yes, but it's true for many other classes too. My BSM and GSM got me millions of gil lately (See pic).
>> A beautiful storyline accompanies the craft.
Isn't that the same for many other classes? Some are arguably even better than Weaver!
>> Redolent Rose Challenges at the Gold Saucer.
This is completely unrelated. You do NOT need to do weaver to unlock Fashion Report at the Saucer. Totally a misunderstanding of the game!
>> High-quality healer gear.
What? So how about high quality tank gear from ARM? How about high quality boots from LTW? Every class, except CUL, makes some gear that's important for certain battle jobs anyway!

Here are five reasons to love Leather Worker.
>> Easy for someone just starting out in crafting.
No... simply just wrong. All jobs are the same. Cross class skills is no longer a thing now. You don't need to do LTW to get "Waste Not".
>> Cheap to start as you get most of your needed goods by killing animals.
No, this is the worst advice ever... Don't do this! You just buy all your mats from the cheapest NPC vendors from FC house, crafting guide NPC vendors and from big city trader NPCs! They sell stuff like a few gil per item. It saves you a hours and hours of farming mats from monsters, which randomly drops mats! Meanwhile, level up your retainers in a battle class. They can provide you with a set amount of monster-dropped-mats securely every hour without your prayers to the RNG god.
>> You can make your own pieces of armor saving time and Gil.
Isn't that the same for Weaver, Blacksmith, Goldsmith and Carpenter too? Every class makes something that you need anyway.
>> The furniture side of the crafting journal has some awesome pieces.
Apart from CUL, almost every class has some cool furniture anyway.
>> Geva is one of those NPC’s you want to get to know.
What? wtf??? I don't even know how to respond to this...

Here are five reasons to love Alchemist.
>> The storyline.
Seriously, many of them has nice storylines...
>> The ability to create your own potions.
Ok, this is actually a valid point. But damage-enhancing potions is only useful if you're doing the most difficult group raiding activities at endgame. If you don't even have a level 80 battle job yet, this is NOT a valid point at all. Other potions can be useful too, but you can also easily acquire them from different sources, such as the grand company...
>> A way to use all that blood.
What??? You mean those Beastkin Blood or Spoken Blood? This is not a valid point at all... You will come across many other mats that are not that useful in your crafting anyway. Blood is just 1 out of 100 of them. This is obviously a newbie's comment.
>> Alchemists are the ones who create Grimoires for Arcanists.
So? Every class creates something unique and needed by certain jobs anyway.
>> Makes a lot of the things high priced carpentry items use (like glue). Great for selling on the market board.
That is true.... ALC does make a lot of things that all other crafting classes use (not just carpentry, but almost all other classes except CUL). But ALC is also lacking the things that other classes have. So its advantage kind of balances out its disadvantages.

Here are five reasons to love Carpentry.
>> Using Carpentry skills to make and sell furniture is the best way to make a fortune in Gil in FFXIV.
No. Just wrong. I mean some Carpenter furniture do sell a lot (and same goes for many other furniture made by other classes). But will only last for a short time. Right now, the furniture market is pretty DEAD. NONE of the furniture from any class sell well anyway. This is not how the market works, buddy...
>> Many other classes require lumber that you need carpentry skills to make.
Silly silly... many other classes require cloths too, many other classes require ingots too, and many classes require glue as well.
>> The only crafting class story I know that sends you running into a warzone for story purposes.
What? What????!!!
>> Beatin is another well fleshed out NPC that you would love to know.
Ok, I have enough of this...
>> Easy collectables; exchange your work for Materia and gear.
Nope. Totally wrong again.

I can only say, whoever wrote this article has VERY, VERY limited understanding in how crafting works and how the economy works... He/she has probably played for about a month or two, and never reached level 80 on any of the classes (which means he/she was probably "doing it wrong", and not using the best leveling method as well).

Here's a pic of what I sold lately in 1.5 days during the beginning of Patch 5.5:

The blue items were made by Blacksmith and Goldsmith.

So, do you still think CUL, ALC, WVR, CRP and LTW are the most gil-making classes now?

I am not saying Blacksmith / Goldsmith are better. I am saying, NONE of them is the best! The best one is the one that you ENJOY most, or/and the one that you manage to find the right items to sell at the right time, which makes you the most gil. Earning gil has to do with your understanding of how the game works (what mats are usually required by what classes at what time, what patch... when battle gear are released, what is needed for what?). This sort of knowledge come from continuously engaging crafting/ gathering with ALL DoH/DoL classes, as well as participating in some raiding activities for months/years. The more you play, and pay attention to what people need, the more you will know how to make gil.

[Kazwako]

wow dude, you really thought about this. I guess it is a point of view thing as I agreed with many of the points as a level 80 in many crafting classes (still levelling some) But totally agree with you on how the market can change, such information changes with each patch.

[Tint]

I like Culinarian the most because you do not depend on any other crafting class. All your pre-crafts are done by the Culinarian theyself. So a great class for casual crafting. However, not so casual is the fact that basically only the endgame crafts are interesting for the market and competition is hard.

[Coletergeist]

I like cul to make my own food since that can get pricey if you have a gil saving problem like myself, especially if you want to buy food with good buffs (like the +10% stuffs) and to constantly have that extra 3% exp gain.

[Mykll]

Here are five reasons to love Carpentry.


>> The only crafting class story I know that sends you running into a warzone for story purposes.
What? What????!!!

Having just finished up the level 45 or 50 quests of them all, I think he means, yes without spoilers, you have to make the bow for the guy while he is out doing his thing. You are not attacking anything, but your crafted bow helps to end a battle.

[kiagenwa]

Honestly, these days, it's not hard to level 4 or 5 of them together, or even ALL of them together.

I feel like a joke now that I level all DoH and DoL
But it's true, it's very easy now compared to 3.0 where I dropped previously.
Even so, you can still level them easily via GC deliveries back then, if you're not short on time.

Now that I rejoin into a preferred server, gotta take advantage of the good buff and level all to 70!

Good thing though, no need to buy things that I can craft/gather. (except when it's cheaper to buy)

The only limit is the map. As I'm still stuck in ARR despite getting close to 80 now.

My takeaway for OP: it depends on your main and what you want from crafting.
i.e. if I main NIN I don't think I'd have many uses for being a carpenter?

[Duskane]

I would say WVR and LTW are the "best"
generally pretty easy to make money just from selling cloth and leather that pretty much every other DoH needs for there crafts
and with Map glamour very easy to make and profit from

[Sqwall]

Cullinarian has been my go to for crafting lately. I would say that CUL is pretty heavy in the gathering classes more so then any other crafter.

The PROS: Quick easy sales, minor price adjustments (if ever), make your own buffs (Chili Crab, Blood Bouillabaisse, Smoked Chicken), almost ALL recipes yield 3 items per craft.

The CONS: Insane amounts of prep with gathering, requires all 3 gathering classes if you don't want to buy your EXPENSIVE mats (looking at you Blue Crabs), inventory hog,

CUL is all over the place for gathering mats... Salt (miner), Blue Crabs (fisher), Night Pepper (Botanist). And that is a handful of items.

CUL is strong around Fridays and the weekend, as raider's gobble up all the food for clears weekly. I generally craft food heavy on the weekdays and save the postings for FRI into the weekend. It's not uncommon to rake in around 3-4millon.

While everyone is buying my food I'm back to harvesting mats, and I never pay for mat's. OK wait I buy crystals, I stopped farming crystals altogether as it's more cost effective to buy them then to waste time farming them. I consider my cordials are a waste when farming crystals, and I like having over 7000 of each shard, crystal, cluster as it fuels all my other crafts. Buying crystals is like a meat locker paying to keep the freezer running, and I wrap that into the cost of the sale.

The white scrip ingredients can be a pain, but necessary. I usually devote Wednesdays to scrip mats, and go nuts on grinding out collectibles. I usually like to have around 300 chicken thighs which is used in Smoked Chicken (melee DPS buff) and Fettuccini Alfredo (tank buff).

Then you have your ingredients that are just annoying to make. Frantio oil is easy to HQ and helps with getting your crafts up to 11k HQ. The downside is you will be making 300 of these suckers and running your quick HQ macro a butt load of times. I hate when I get low on Frantio oil....usually means I have to farm frantios for an hour or two, and craft till I vomit. All this work simply means I can get my HQ # just a little higher to save on white scrip HQ mats.

CUL is a highly rewarding craft when you understand how much work goes into it, and the CUL community is small as I have been competing with the same group of sellers for 4.0 and 5.0. I have actually grown to know some of them and we now work together in cornering some markets, and those are the most LUCRATIVE times as we approach patches. We basically set our own prices and purchase any undercuts and sell back at a higher price. I have had some crazy binges of being a day trader and having a lot of fun buying the undercuts all weekend and selling them the next making 60% profit. You can't do this in any other market as the prices become to high, but CUL, ALC can get away with this.

[Shibi]

I would advise carpentry and botany to anyone starting out.

I'd actually advise - start them all at once, do your daily GC hand ins. Level them all at once.