[Thalyn]

I’m newish to the game and I was considering picking up crafting. It didn’t take much perusing through my server’s auction house to realize that the components used in crafting are often worth more than the final product. In fact, if the components to make, say, a tunic were given to me for free, the best course of action seems to be to sell the components individually on the auction house for a heap of gil and then use those profits to buy the tunic from elsewhere. At that point I’d have the tunic and an extra load of gil left over to pocket. If I had instead just used the free components to create the tunic, I’d only end up with the tunic and no extra coin to speak of.

Now, if anyone suggests that the tunic in this example is underpriced on the auction house, I would have to disagree. Using real in-game examples, they’re actually priced higher on the auction house than they are on the NPC merchant just down the street (not always, but it’s often been the case in the lower levels), meaning the gear on the auction house is already overpriced and thus the components on the auction house are seriously overpriced.

Such is the way of supply and demand and an economy that’s obviously saturated with gil for whatever reasons. Obviously if nobody crafted there wouldn’t be a need for the crafting materials and their value would plummet. Apparently there are enough crafters out there to drive the price of materials up, which raises the question “why?”. Why craft (other than for fun or the sake of doing something different) if it’s a money sink? Why not just sell your materials and make enough gil to both make some extra money and buy the items you want?

I’ve read many comments indicating that crafting can be profitable. I’ll just say that I never bother to craft for profit. My reasons for crafting are for the enjoyment of doing something different and the idea of being self-sufficient. At the same time, there’s nothing fun about constantly struggling for money in a video game. I don’t support the purchase of in-game currency with real-life money, and because of that I have to be smart about how I spend my in-game coin because it's limited. Because of that I have to stop and ask myself if I really want to take up crafting when I know it’ll make me poorer in the long run. I'm not keen on flushing gold down the proverbial toilet.

Maybe in the mid-to-high levels, things change. Maybe the cost of equipment quickly outpaces the cost of materials somewhere along the way. If that’s true I’d definitely like to know that. All I do know is that right now things seem seriously expensive from a new-player perspective. And while that can be common for a new player to say, I’m actually a returning player who was around for about a year when the game first launched in the U.S., and things were definitely a whole lot cheaper back then for a number of reasons I won't bother to get into.

Anyway, if anyone has any insights on what makes crafting versus the act of simply selling everything “worth it”, I’d love to hear them. I would really prefer to make an informed decision rather than one which bites me in the rear later because I'm ignorant when it comes to the higher-level game.

[Raydeus]

Sounds to me like you've already made up your mind so I will only say this:

If you don't intend to go through the pain of taking a craft to a profitable lvl then selling materials is best, and also have to consider many times you'll have to lvl a craft(s) to a certain lvl to get the most out of your farming sessions and sell items as higher priced stacks of X item.

Profit most of the times is on HQ, with many NQ crafts being made at a loss. That's what leveling a craft to a profitable lvl is about, to be high enough to have a profitable HQ rate. But it's on a craft/item basis so you can't generalize there either.


Good luck.

[Malacite]

Originally Posted by Raydeus

Profit most of the times is on HQ, with many NQ crafts being made at a loss. That's what leveling a craft to a profitable lvl is about, to be high enough to have a profitable HQ rate. But it's on a craft/item basis so you can't generalize there either.

And this is why XI's crafting system fails so hard and needs to be changed in XIV.

[Takelli]

Originally Posted by Malacite

And this is why XI's crafting system fails so hard and needs to be changed in XIV.

Yea it does. HQ rates suck as well. I can craft something that I am 2 levels below, and I will get HQ liek 1/3 of the crafts. But when I am 50 levels above the cap its like only 1/500 synths to HQ, although the HQ rate is supposed to go up when you increase in level.

I did a lot of synthing, and I just decided to give it up as It wasn't yielding any results. But it might be different for you. If I get something I can synth, I will other wise, I will just sell it on the AH.

[DakAttack]

Originally Posted by Malacite

And this is why XI's crafting system fails so hard and needs to be changed in XIV.

Agreed. As it is now, crafting should earn you a Philanthropist title.

[Bricklayer]

I may be wrong, but one thing I enjoy about having Cooking at 30+ is the ability to carry around pineapples and water crystals and make juice on the fly, instead of filling my bag with unstackable food. I'm not saying this is the best route for everyone, but it works ok for me at my level (RDM 31). Perhaps other crafts have practical uses like this as well. I just haven't leveled them much (even my cooking is "low"). I'm just giving an example from my own experience with cooking.

[Elwynn]

There are a few things that's it's worth crafting, but mostly you're making secondary materials that sell better than what you started with. Taking Clothcraft to 60 has been profitable for me from time to time.

But as others have pointed out, if the craft has HQ results, you probably shouldn't bother. If it's 9 skill or less, you can do well at 60, but I'm personally not even bothering to turn in the test item to break 60 on crafts.

And there are multi-craft synths where a 60 cap + synthesis support seem to be reasonably profitable without an HQ, because so many people make one-synth mules. (stuff like Crow gear, for instance) So I'm going for 8x60. But I already have a year's worth of skillups.

[Thalyn]

One of the things I’ve noticed (and, please, correct me if I’m wrong here) is that purchasing armor off a merchant ceases to be an option somewhere between level 45 and 50. If that’s the case, then (again, I’m assuming) the three remaining options at that point are:

1) purchasing the armor off the auction house.
2) crafting the armor for yourself.
3) acquiring armor upgrades from monsters far beyond your level (I’m a bit baffled as to why level ~15 monsters drop level ~5 armor, and wondering if that trend continues in the later levels).

With that in mind, how does the cost of the first and second option compare? Is it cheaper to craft the higher level armors yourself (not counting the cost of getting your crafting skill up to that level), or does it still make more sense financially to sell the crafting components and buy the armor off the auction house (which would imply that crafters always sell non-HQ weapons and armor at a loss)?

[Yellow Mage]

Generally what people do is buy armor off the auction house. While it may or may not be cheaper immediately to craft the armor, it's still a boatload of money you have to dump in to getting the skill to even be able to craft it at all.

[Aksannyi]

Originally Posted by Thalyn

One of the things I’ve noticed (and, please, correct me if I’m wrong here) is that purchasing armor off a merchant ceases to be an option somewhere between level 45 and 50. If that’s the case, then (again, I’m assuming) the three remaining options at that point are:

1) purchasing the armor off the auction house.
2) crafting the armor for yourself.
3) acquiring armor upgrades from monsters far beyond your level (I’m a bit baffled as to why level ~15 monsters drop level ~5 armor, and wondering if that trend continues in the later levels).

With that in mind, how does the cost of the first and second option compare? Is it cheaper to craft the higher level armors yourself (not counting the cost of getting your crafting skill up to that level), or does it still make more sense financially to sell the crafting components and buy the armor off the auction house (which would imply that crafters always sell non-HQ weapons and armor at a loss)?

Another good option is to look at conquest points purchasable items. There is usually pretty good gear to be gotten from the conquest points you've earned while leveling up.

[Neverslip]

I made up my mind long ago... I farm. I haven't been impressed nor excited by FFxi's crafting mechanics. I'd rather spend the gil leveling a job (Thf) to make hunting mobs down to get their drops more profitable than sit around and button mash my gil away for a future goal I may never really achieve. Also, reading other crafter's many and varied frustrations throughout many many forums probably cemented my gil-gaining methods to merely farming. Farming suits my affinity for exploration too.

[Aksannyi]

Honestly, crafting just sucks for so many reasons. Skill ups are horrendously slow, and there's breaks to contend with. I guess I understand why you might break stuff while you're lower than its target level, but why do I critical break something that I'm more than 10 levels over the cap for, or worse, 40 levels over the cap for? Come on. (Is it sad that I can't say "Come on" and not think about BR74?)

It could maybe suck just a little less. I mean it's already a huge pain to get to 75 and cap all of your skills. Of course that's what the game is all about I suppose, but it sucks to craft for an hour and get .1 if I'm lucky.

[Karinya]

If it sucked less, more people would do it, driving product prices down and ingredient prices up, and making it suck more.

Crafting is worth just enough for the number of people willing to overcome the time and inconvenience to do it to remain in equilibrium with the number of people who want crafted stuff.

Clearly, there are plenty of crafters as it is, so why should SE make it easier? If you don't enjoy crafting, don't craft, the economy won't miss you.

[Aksannyi]

Really? The economy is horrible. The rich get richer and no one else can make any money. Sound familiar? Wouldn't kill SE to allow players to just make money somehow, but they honestly killed every good way for honest players to make gil in the game.

[Ehlonni]

Thanks for the replies to this post! It's given me some good ideas on something else to do during my city lurking times. At first I focused on cooking (gotta do something with all those fire crystals) but sadly noted San D'Oria has no guild to make it truly fruitful. But that doesn't stop me..I still make my corn and anything else I find or fish for. I am thinking about leathercrafting. For someone who is quite a bit a ways under those magical levels 18-21, should novice players focus on crafting?