Crystal Gathering too Slow

[GakkuPlove]

Alchemist+fisher used to be able to.

yes thats true i do miss that Greatly

[oberonQA]

If your crafting class was meant to make its own shards, it would be able to.

Back in 1.0, you could take Crystals and break them down into shards with Alchemist. If memory serves (mind you, it's been a LONG time), it was 1 crystal and a pinch of Fine Sand. You could also break down Clusters into Crystals with Alchemy as well... again, if memory serves.

Beautiful thing was, you could get Fine Sand with cooking by boiling clams... so it was an entirely self-sufficient method for getting shards. All you had to do was go out and kill sprites/ele's for crystals and then break em down.

I wonder whatever happened to those recipes....

[Vanidin]

I burned through 400 shards in two levels below level 30 as a Weaver. This was with creating all of my yarn and cloth, not buying them on AH. Two levels, when leveling is still relatively fast and easy.

It goes really fast.

Level your crafting with leves, you'll use a fraction of the crystals that way.

[Tercino]

Level your crafting with leves, you'll use a fraction of the crystals that way.

Less yeah, but still some. I'm also leveling WVR, and if you haven't tried it you don't really understand. My wind shards for CRP are steady at about 1.7k (no idea how I got that much but they're not going down), my earth shards for LTW are holding steady at about 200-300. I've never had to gather or buy shards for these classes, I'm just using what I get from leves and quests. For WVR, I've bought about 600 lightning shards. I've also been given 700-800 by a friend in exchange for crafted gear. I'm about to move on to diremite web, and will need another 540 to craft all I need, which I don't have yet.

Now, I do aim to craft all the items in the log, but I normally only do each once (or twice, if my friend wants one). Compared to the other crafts I've tried, WVR is insanely shard intensive.

[Cocytus]

how long does it take you to use 1k shards? and what do you get out of it

If I make a stack of 99 food on cooking in the 45-50 range each synth takes 5 fire and 6 water. That means just for 1 stack of food produced I'm using 500 fire and 600 water so 1,100 total shards. F*ck my life. Cooking currently has the highest shard use from my view point as you only have to make a piece of gear once. Cooking once you eat the food its gone and you need to replace.

[Vinncent]

Is shard farming something that crafters would actually pay money for rather than farm themselves? I'm not much into crafting, but I love gathering. I should look into this >.>

[GakkuPlove]

not only that but its sooo boring gathering for 2 hours just for 1 thing

[Earendur]

I need 12000 wind shards, you expect me to mine up that many? How long would that take when you get 4~6 shards a mining point? You expect me to do nothing but mine shards for 3 months 8 hrs a day? Oh but wait i can buy them right? Oh but wait Gil is being evaporated at an alarming rate. Ok so i buy 12000 wind shards for a couple of mil, then what do i do? I'm broke cant craft anything because i cant buy the materials. Oh i can go farm them you say? Hrmm i could but i would have to run that dungeon that drops the pieces i need for days on end and maybe il get one.
Welcome to the twilight zone where logic is thrown out the window.

[FutanXIV]

I got to 38 Blacksmith, 33 Carpenter and 33 Leatherworker with just the shards they give you with the starting quests. I'm just now running low on earth and fire. Still decent on wind and ice. If you're grinding instead of using leves and the crafting log, then that's your own fault for wasting crystals. /thread

EDIT1:

Or you could be using Leves for a Land craft, like I am, for the slightly faster EXP. It takes a lot longer to level Botany and Mining, even with the limited shards, than it does the Hand crafts.

I've done the same(Mining 38, Botany 37). However, I've learned that it's definitely better both experience-wise and monetarily to grind the gathering jobs and leve the crafting.

Find what's most efficient and do that. Think instead of brute forcing your way to 50~

EDIT2: Oh, I forgot to mention provisions quests. Extremely easy exp a day.

[CyrilLucifer]

If you're grinding instead of using leves and the crafting log, then that's your own fault for wasting crystals. /thread

Or you could be using Leves for a Land craft, like I am, for the slightly faster EXP. It takes a lot longer to level Botany and Mining, even with the limited shards, than it does the Hand crafts.