just started mining, any tips?

[Selyndria]

Put the pickaxe down, go to the AH, buy whatever you were gonna mine and craft instead. Too many bots to make a decent living mining anymore.

Well although the number of bots is pretty sickening (really makes me wonder if Square gives two shits because they do it right out in the open for days on end) I think there is still money to be made. I sell ore regularly and it doesn't take that long to get some and put it on the market. The higher end stuff seems to sell pretty quick too. There are going to be alot more crafters than miners I think just because of the sheer pain in the ass of getting all the way to 50.

[Laryndra]

Well although the number of bots is pretty sickening (really makes me wonder if Square gives two shits because they do it right out in the open for days on end) I think there is still money to be made. I sell ore regularly and it doesn't take that long to get some and put it on the market. The higher end stuff seems to sell pretty quick too. There are going to be alot more crafters than miners I think just because of the sheer pain in the ass of getting all the way to 50.

The problem with this logic is a miner pulls up 4x the amount of ore required to level a crafter. The sheer number of bots + players will far outweigh people who pick up crafts. Most people that DO pick up crafts level one or two, not all eight. On my server, darksteel is under 1k each. I can take 6 of this ore, 2 spruce (12k) and turn it into a 120k item.. AKA --> Crafting >>>>>>>gathering.

[Shuon]

The problem with this logic is a miner pulls up 4x the amount of ore required to level a crafter.

first, my primary purpose of gathering is to be a self-sustainable crafter. originally, I wanted to keep all my yields so I could proceed to lvl crafts. do you mean that we will most likely end up having too much excess materials? does this apply even if I do GC supplies/leves, or is this only the case if I mine my exp all the way? and finally, is it reallys illy to simply mine for my EXP all the way til 50?

[Laryndra]

first, my primary purpose of gathering is to be a self-sustainable crafter. originally, I wanted to keep all my yields so I could proceed to lvl crafts. do you mean that we will most likely end up having too much excess materials? does this apply even if I do GC supplies/leves, or is this only the case if I mine my exp all the way? and finally, is it reallys illy to simply mine for my EXP all the way til 50?

Doing leves as a gatherer is a waste of leveallowances. I would HIGHLY suggest against doing that. Save them for your crafting job. The leve allowances for gathering are only SLIGHTLY faster than just grinding it out. Also, you can self-sustain crafting by leveling it and selling HQ items along the way, then buy the mats for the next tier. Ect.

The sad truth is, if you're adamant about gathering to self sustain.. You'd have a better go of it just gathering shards, and selling Shards for gil and then buying materials you need.. Than puling up ore and stuff.

[Corkafish]

Doing leves as a gatherer is a waste of leveallowances. I would HIGHLY suggest against doing that. Save them for your crafting job. The leve allowances for gathering are only SLIGHTLY faster than just grinding it out. Also, you can self-sustain crafting by leveling it and selling HQ items along the way, then buy the mats for the next tier. Ect.

The sad truth is, if you're adamant about gathering to self sustain.. You'd have a better go of it just gathering shards, and selling Shards for gil and then buying materials you need.. Than puling up ore and stuff.

If you go the route of farming shards for gil, make sure to get both Botany and Mining up to 20 first. That lets you spend 400 GP to farm 15 of any kind of shard out of the same node (with an extra gathering attempt proc).