Culinary Q&A

[Dreamer]

I'm making this thread in hopes that it can serve as a reference for newer players as we accumulate more questions and answers. Expert crafters, we need you!

So, I've been doing leves like a madwoman trying to get my culinary skills to surpass my combat classes. One of my linkshell members mentioned grinding fish recipes (sand, I assume) if I wanted more SP.

1) Is this really a better method than simply doing leves?

2) Also, has anyone tried abusing Hasty Hand to craft lots of mediocre SP recipes en mass for greater rewards?

As it stands, it seems horrifically more difficult to level the DoH classes than my combat-oriented stuffs.

[Hubert]

I'm no expert crafter but I'll chip in.

1) It's not a better method than doing leves. Leves should always be done first because it is not only free but gives you boosted exp, not to mention the reward after completing said leves. After you are done with leves (if you can stand to craft that long) crafting sand becomes the next best thing.

2) I'm not sure what you mean by greater rewards but Hasty Hand severely lowers the amount of exp you get per craft. Also has a moderate rate of failure. You would probably be better off just crafting normally between the failure rate and the reduced exp. Only thing this ability is good for is to quickly make ingredients such as distilled water.

Thanks to the sand method, cooking is probably the cheapest and easiest craft to level.

[Moth]

Cul. is difficult because most of the recipies require so many diffrent mats, which also usually require a middle lvl Botanist job, fishing job, or a high lvl DoW/DoM to far mats off mobs xD

I am rank 38 cul now, and personally I always do as many guild leves as I can first. If I have the time to go to every city to pick up just cul leves, I do. Limsa always has the best/most leves for culinarian because that is where the guild is located

Also I never Hasty Hands any recipie because it really does cut your sp gain down by a lot.

If I still want to continue to craft when I am finished with leves I mainly grind off of fish to get the sea/river sand. There are a number of easy to obtain fish (if you have fishing lvled that is) to catch and lvl off of with good exp gain. THe problem is there is really no money in that method, as all you obtain is sand. You could use those sands to craft into fine sand to break down crystals, but it is sort of pointless as you use crystals to make the fine sand in the first place! x.x

Right now I am grinding off Southen/Northern pikes I catch. Although their crafting lvl on YG is not listed, I still get 250-330 exp on my cul from breaking them down. I assume these are lvl 36-37.

If you want to make money by grinding and skilling at the same time, I suggest crafting Meat Miq'abob. The ingredients are relitivly easy to obtain (Dodo Tenderloin, Black pepper, table salt, etc. Recipie listed on YG.) Only pain is the tomatos, but if you have a 40+ DoW/DoH they are easy to farm off Lemurs in the Black Shroud. On my server I am able to sell these for 2k-3k each, and you create 6 per synth. They also sell pretty fast!

Lots of info I know, sorry for the walls of text. Hope this helps some!

[Radaghast]

Cul is one of the easiest crafts to level up to around 44-45ish if you fish at the same time. Past that it's making annoying 7-8 combination recipes. Note that up to 25 or so (iirc), you can just buy the fish to grind off of at the LL vendor.

After that you can fish off the Cedarwood coast for Ash Tuna, Hammerheads. Sell off the white coral or use it for goldsmithing at the same time. This will take you to about 37-40 if you want.

Then do as Moth suggested and do northern/southern pike to 45 (sp is terrible even at 44 so might want to stop there). Past that I've been doing stuffed cabbage/crowned cakes. You either have to harvest via botany or buy some of the ingredients at this point.

I prefer doing Grid/Uldah leves for 40+ as it involves less running around. Either got to port or run to iron lake/bald knoll for LL half the time.

[Eldaena]

I find turning fish to sand an extremely cheap method of ranking up culinarian. And when I say cheap, I mean less than appealing. Yes, you can get sp off it and receive....sand. You can definitely get your ranks up, but honestly after you hit about 40 you can make most recipes in the game. The sand is not useful in any regard. (And yes I'm aware 4 sea sand = 1 fine sand in goldsmithing, but honestly, who is making that?)

I do leves myself and make food (completed dishes) instead of sand because I like to actually have a use for the things I grind on. (Such as food to give to my LS or sell for profit.) The fish that would be turned into this useless sand could be made into: Food, Crystals, Shards, etc alchemy goods. So, personally I think it's a terrible way to rank up in the idea you are trying to actually make something useful. However, if you'd like a pile of sand and lots of sp if you are willing to fish or buy the goods, I'd say go for it.

(P.S. That pike a lot of people are grinding makes the best crafting food available at the moment. What a waste!)

[Radaghast]

Some are there for the journey, others for the destination. But you can't deny most recipes aside from fish are annoying. Culinarian is the only craft that forces you to gather multiple ingredients (some from different zones even), have multiple subcrafts to make said ingredients, and then to top it off takes nearly all crafting slots to make one item. You either have to pick what's easier to grind, or like you prefer make things that you can profit off of/give to friends. Neither is wrong.

[Eldaena]

Some are there for the journey, others for the destination. But you can't deny most recipes aside from fish are annoying. Culinarian is the only craft that forces you to gather multiple ingredients (some from different zones even), have multiple subcrafts to make said ingredients, and then to top it off takes nearly all crafting slots to make one item. You either have to pick what's easier to grind, or like you prefer make things that you can profit off of/give to friends. Neither is wrong.

I will say that I did not say it was wrong, just not what I care for. Unfortunately, it is an option in the game, as is several things I think are less than desirable from a moral gaming perspective. However, I do realize they make it an option so it is fair game. It's just most culinarians I see actually get to 50 in this way never make food anymore and it all feels very wasteful to me.

[Radaghast]

Blame the system, not the playa! Or blame the playa because they work up a craft and not make anything with it after?

I'm confused now.

[Dreamer]

New questions time!

Q: With the new changes to stats, is it worthwhile to stack piety and control, or do I need a decent amount of craftsmanship or mg. craftsmanship as well?

Q: Is grinding sand still the fastest way to level CUL?

Q: Is there anyway outside of trial and error to know if I should be using my primary or off-hand utensil for cooking?

[Estellios]

On question 1: Piety would only be for trying to get HQ. If you're going for success, go for control and either focus on craftsmanship or magic craftsmanship if you know what type if synth it is (you can probably figure out with a couple of test synths). You would probably be ok just having a good balance of control, craftsmanship, and magical craftsmanship.

2: Sand might still be the fastest if you have a good supply of fish but with the gathering changes, if you have a gatherer it's a lot easier to find what you need now. I went out looking for basil on my Botanist and in a few minutes ended up with 14 when before I would get so much random junk it was not really worth the effort. Also, most ingredients you can buy from the NPC or ones that are NPC-buyable only had their prices reduced. I don't know how much money you would make off selling food though, but at least food stats show up on your status now.

3: Just from eyeballing it seems like cooked food is easier on mainhand and fresh foods (like salads) are easier on off-hand, but it might be my imagination.