| Re: General Crafting Skill-up Rates In my opinion, it has a lot to do with how relatively easy the recipe is.
You get more skillups when you skill up on the days that your crystal is not aligned to (Either Light or Dark) On the elemental day exactly opposite of your crystal, I'd advise to not skill up because the chances of breaking increases (And the chances for skill up decreases) which is not a good thing if you're losing more materials than you are gaining skill in.
Complex recipes tend to be more than just one material. Since I've synthed in cooking before and my friends have all gotten near 100s in cooking as well, we can definitely agree on one thing. If the recipe calls for 3-5 or more materials, you're more than likely to get 0.2 more frequently than if you were to use a one material recipe (You'll only get frequent 0.1) As you know, getting 0.2s more often instead of 0.1 means that you're getting good skills up and can finish capping in that recipe a lot more quicker than plowing through "easier" synths which may turn out to be helluva lot more expensive in the long run (depending on the recipe and what the materials cost on your server)
Anyway, the only real solution to this mess is to do extensive research. Do not feel the need to rush into the craft! Take your time in deciding what you're really interested and lookup resources like FFXI Somepage. Study your AH for several days and get a feel for the supply and demand of each craft's items. Each server is different, so you can't get help by asking a public forum. Might stick to your own server and ask around, but don't expect to get straight answers either (People tend to get bitchy if they sense competition in their craft)   |