2 Nub's Needing Advice

[MrScribble]

Hello !

My friend recently purchased FInal Fantasy and hes currently waiting for it to be delivered. Hes giving me his trial account so rather where waiting for it to be delivered :) anywho in my boredom i decided id get online make an account and take advantage of your forums to ask some questions.

First of all my friends tells me a world pass is needed to get on the same server ? aparently you have to buy this.. we where both wondering what this would cost as we intend to be leveling up together. His second question was if making another character on another server costed any extra subscription fees (Note another SERVER where aware that its an extra dollar [i think] to make a second character on the same server).

Now on to the more important questions.. MY questions ;D.
After reading a bit on these forums (admittedly not much) im still unsure of what class i should make and what profession i should do.. From what ive been told you can only switch classes around when your hit level 30 so i dont wanna be stuck with something i dont enjoy untill then. I was thinking about Samurai, Summoner or Blackmage if anyone with some extensive knowledge of the afformentioned classes could give me a short and sweet description of Pros/Cons of these classes and why they enjoy that class would be swell.

As for professions i was wondering if professions are tailored in a way that say, Bone crafting is only good for certain armour types for certain classes.

Well im off to go watch a movie.. thanks for any assistance your able to give.
Happy Hunting !

[Jei]

world pass costs around 1-2k. Easiest way to get the money is, before you leave town, talk to the city guards and get signet. Signet will allow you to gain crystal from enemies you kill. Keep killing for about 30 minutes to 1 hour you should get a full stack or 2 of crystals. Sell them on auction house and you should have the gil.

In this game we use the term "job." You can actually change it anytime you like as soon as level 1. You will have a selection of 6 starting jobs.
Upon reaching level 30, you will be able to do quest to get additional advance jobs unlocked.

As for pro-cons I'm sure there are good threads in the job forum. Try look around there.

[Mog]

I'll try to shed a little light on the subject. Here goes.

If you want a world pass, just go to the server-specific forums and ask there.

As for the jobs, here are the 6 main jobs you can choose from as a newbie,

White Mage(whm)-Basically, your main priority is to heal people, and cast cool spells like protect, which increases defense and shell, which increases magic defense, plus many enfeebling spells. In the later levels (37 and 38 i think), you'll get teleport spells, which can basically instantaneously teleport to one of the many crags in vana'diel. If you choose a whm, you will have no difficulty finding a party. Downside is less hp

Black Mage (blm)- Basically, black mages main priority is to give damage on demand. They are very sought out after, and the damage is very nice ^^. There are many cool spells. The main type of spells you will be using is elemental spells:fire, ice, water. etc. What's great is that just about every monster has a weakness, so if you have the right spell, you can exploit it ^^ There are also enfeebling spells that weaken the enemy. In the higher levels, you can get warp and warp II, which teleports you to your last home point. Downside is less hp

Red Mage- This class is seen as a little bit of everything. Not only do you have whm and blm spells, but you can use nicer weapons and wear stronger armor. It's an excellant support class overall. You'll never have a hard time finding a party.

Monk-Monks have a lot of hp and deal a ton of damage. Downside is that armor is not as good as other classes. If you wanna be a tank, monk is probably not the wisest choice

Warrior-Warriors can equip nice armor, and also can equip some of the best weapons the game has to offer. They also have the ability to provoke, which allows a person to steer the monster's-aggresion away from his/her party members to him/her. Warriors tend to be the leaders of parties, and organize much that goes into making parties.

Thief-Thieves are very agile when it comes to fighting monsters. If you like hunting for treasure, this is the job for you. At level 15 and 45, you can get treasure hunter I and II, which increases the drop rates on rare finds off notorious monsters in the game. A downside is that thieves are looked upon as being light tanks who can't take the damage as well as other people.

Focus on these 6 jobs, and when you find what you're interested in, worry about the lvl 30 jobs. Hope this helped ^^

[MrScribble]

Thankyou both for your quickly replys. Some info on professions is needed still.
And another question. I read somwhere in the forums that summoners are great for dps but you should play white mage first. Why not black (which wouldve been my original plan) and anyone care to give me a run down of the summoner and samurai classes (so if i like how they sound i can choose a starting class to back them up) thankums
:biggrin:

[Jei]

profession you mean crafting? Crafting is a really big thing in thie game and you should understand the game's economy and market before you go serious into them.

For starter, try either fishing, cooking or alchemy just to understand how they work. Don't make any hard decision yet until you know more about the game. Remember, you can train multiple crafts in this game.

[aegina]

summoner is typically played as a healer/backup healer in exp parties (not as a damage dealer). if you sub blm, the weakened blm spells lose too much power to be usefulwhen cast from a subjob. healing spells, on the other hand, don't lose much power when cast from a subjob and summoner has a TON of mp.

samurai specializes at creating skillchains. i reccomend you play another job first, to learn how skillchains work, before playing samurai. samurai is also a rather expensive job to play i hear.

both of these questions, however, are better to be directed towards the associated job forums.

and as for crafting, i stroooongly reccomend you don't start crafting until you get at least one job to level 50+ or so. to make money, sell the items you find on the auction house. crafting typically loses more money than it makes skilling up until the higher levels.

and some advise on a starting job: war is, imo, the best starting job. it's easy to level, it has no problem finding pt's, and most melee jobs use it as their primary subjob, so sooner or later, you'll have to level it anyway.
if you plan to play a mage, white mage is the best sub for nearly any mage, but levelling white mage to level 10 is slow if you don't know what you're doing. Red mage, i think, makes an excellent first job if you want to be a mage. you'll have to go back and level a sub later though.

sub jobs will become available to you starting at level 18.

[DeathFromAbove]

Here is some info-> Play what you want, but make sure you arent the same class, that makes PTs very hard to form ( except maybe 2 wars early on )

[Crode]

The usuall that i had seen when i first stated was either White mage, Monk, or Warrior. I started off as a Warrior because i wanted to prepare for Paladin. Btw Paladin is awesome:)
Good luck with whatever you do. Oh while your lvling check your "Region Info" often. There are points in the bottom right called Conquest points. You have to have Signet to get Conquest Points. Once you have 1000 points talk to a Grand Gaurd. They are the gaurds close to town Exits that have 2 initials after their name (i.e. Iron Fist I.W.). You need to use those 1000 Conquest Points to buy an Empress Band. The Band gives you plus 50% exp with every kill! :) It's very nice to have!

[=Tuyen=]

Hello !

My friend recently purchased FInal Fantasy and hes currently waiting for it to be delivered. Hes giving me his trial account so rather where waiting for it to be delivered :) anywho in my boredom i decided id get online make an account and take advantage of your forums to ask some questions.

First of all my friends tells me a world pass is needed to get on the same server ? aparently you have to buy this.. we where both wondering what this would cost as we intend to be leveling up together. His second question was if making another character on another server costed any extra subscription fees (Note another SERVER where aware that its an extra dollar [i think] to make a second character on the same server).

Now on to the more important questions.. MY questions ;D.
After reading a bit on these forums (admittedly not much) im still unsure of what class i should make and what profession i should do.. From what ive been told you can only switch classes around when your hit level 30 so i dont wanna be stuck with something i dont enjoy untill then. I was thinking about Samurai, Summoner or Blackmage if anyone with some extensive knowledge of the afformentioned classes could give me a short and sweet description of Pros/Cons of these classes and why they enjoy that class would be swell.

As for professions i was wondering if professions are tailored in a way that say, Bone crafting is only good for certain armour types for certain classes.

Well im off to go watch a movie.. thanks for any assistance your able to give.
Happy Hunting !

I would suggest starting out at a whm, it is hard in the beginning to lvl up depending on the type of style you have ^.^ but after you hit like lvl 10 people will start to ask you to pt with them (pt= join party) and lvling will go a lot smoother, and yes world pass's do cost money but in order for it to cost to make a character is if you dont have a content ID to start it out on, other than that it will cost 1.00 USD as far as I know.

Oh and goodluck, if you end up in my server feel free to ask me for help ^^

[Aeni]

Crafting should not be undertaken by anyone who's starting this game for the first time. It would be easier to focus on getting enough gil to upgrade your equipment and weapons and buying spells. First off, here are a few things that will consume much of your first month in the game, assuming you play a normal 20 to 30 hours a week schedule (Norm for "casual" players)


Getting to level 18.
At level 18, you will undergo a quest, which can be taken up either in Mhaura (Seaport Town in Buburimu Peninsula) or Selbina (Seaport Town in Valkurm Desert) This quest will allow you to obtain the ability to have a subjob or secondary job to your main job class.
Focus on leveling your subjob or secondary job to always be equivalent to half the level of your main job class. It is fairly easy to pick a first job class that may become your subjob class so that you will not have to worry about leveling it for some time after.
Obtain at miminum Rank 2 in your nation.
Sell everything on the AH, unless the items you receive can be used to complete quests you can get around the world. Check numerous database online to find quests and read up on the requirements to complete them.
Once you have a properly leveled subjob, work your way to level 20+
Head to the large city of Jeuno. You should go with a group of other players or kindly ask for the assistance of more seasoned travelers to escort you and your friend.
Start up Chocobo license quest. This quest will take about 4-5 IRL hours to complete. You can complete this quest over a succession of several days if time constraint is an issue.
As you're working on the Chocobo quest, seek for an exp party on the Island of Qufim. Explore the large city of Jeuno. Knowledge of NPCs and various points of interest in the city will help you immensely since you will spend the majority of your career here.
As you progress in levels and your party knowledge increases, start working on missions from your home country. At around level 25, you should try to attain Rank 3.
Continue to level up your main job class and subjob class if needed. Remember, it is imperative that you have a properly leveled subjob in order to maximize your main job class potential.
At around level 30, you may start to explore crafting options as well as work on obtaining various advanced job classes. This is where many players will take the time off leveling and instead start to really explore their world. Considered the first "halfway" point in your career in the game.
Pretty much will sum up many player's first month in the game. After this, pretty much everyone will deviate and do their own thing. Others might crafts for months on end while their peers zoom up in levels and heavily exp. What you do is totally up to you and this game offers numerous opportunities to do so.

More importantly, have fun while you engage with other players in a responsible manner.

[Lunaryn]

Eh, I jumped into crafts pretty early on, it's not too bad really if you use the time well and don't try to push your skill up too far.

Fishing is excellent to start with. See if you can find a cook to make Insect Balls for you. Moat Carp went for 5k/stack when I started, it's up to 10k/stack now. If you break your rod, sell it on the AH, woodworkers can skill on repairing broken rods.

As a Bastokan, I took up both Goldsmithing and Smithing. Smithing seems to be doing better now. The moneymaker here is Bronze Ingot. You can get the ores from the guild shop. 1x Tin, 3x Copper. Alchemy isn't too bad either, particularly if you plan to solo lizards. :P

Gardening has been a godsend though, as I've often been too busy to do more than check plants. Do research before trying this, though, or it could wind up as an expense instead of an investment. Pikko Pots (http://www.swapsonian.com/pikko/) is a good place to start.

[MrScribble]

Thankyou for all your great advice everyone. Unfortunatley im still at a loss of which class to play but i have got a better idea now, as for crafting i suppose ill take up fishing and if it becomes to much of a drain on my gil ill drop it.

Thanks again for your speedy replys, your advice has helped alot see you in the game soon hopefully !

[Aeni]

Eh, I jumped into crafts pretty early on, it's not too bad really if you use the time well and don't try to push your skill up too far.

Most of the crafts at low level benefit primarily from being able to farm the materials yourself. Having to either buy them from the guild and/or subject yourself to the whims of AH isn't feasible at best and is foolhardy to say the least.

Better time and gil is spent on good equipment and weapons early on. Once you can get an equilibrium and knowledge of many zones, you'll be able to farm efficiently and with a higher level job class that won't produce too much downtime. Ergo, it's better to farm Giddeus lower area with a level 30 job class versus a level 15 one ...

[bikkebakke]

I would suggest starting out at a whm, it is hard in the beginning to lvl up depending on the type of style you have ^.^ but after you hit like lvl 10 people will start to ask you to pt with them (pt= join party) and lvling will go a lot smoother

I would agree with this back in the day... however nowadays it's hard to get a pt in dunes thanks to all the PL's there... seems like WHM is hardly needed in dunes these days because most pt's bring a PL along so they go for all dd.

[MrScribble]

PL = Power Leveling ?
and also nobodey answered my earlier question about wether some types of crafting are suited to a particular Job and/or equipment type (ie weapons/armour/ect)
Thanks

[bikkebakke]

PL does mean power leveling, and sure certain crafts can benefit certain jobs better... like clothecrafting for mages and what not.

[aegina]

Most of the crafts at low level benefit primarily from being able to farm the materials yourself. Having to either buy them from the guild and/or subject yourself to the whims of AH isn't feasible at best and is foolhardy to say the least.

>.> you would make more money if you just sold the raw materials on the ah. crafting loses money most of the time, even if you farm.

and also nobodey answered my earlier question about wether some types of crafting are suited to a particular Job and/or equipment type (ie weapons/armour/ect)
Thanks

if you are going to play a mage, cooking is good. make your own fruit-type juices in the field. the various fruit juices recover mp, and the ingredients stack pretty well. if you are going to play a ranger, woodworking is good for you. make your own arrows. aside from these two, i can't think of any craft that really goes well with any job...

[MrScribble]

Again some good advice, if somone could lay out which crafts are good for certain equipment/classes

Aswell, if i where to lean towards a damage dealing class (preferably caster to better compliment my friend) what would be your advice on what to choose.

I was told summoners can do alot of damage but will be healing alot (because wht mage/red mage seem to be the only acceptable subs for summoner if i want to be pt'ing). Unlike some i dont really have the... hmm.. well i dont have whatever it is that allows people to do and enjoy being a healer :), i dont have a problem with perhaps picking up the slack if a main healer ran out of mp or healing every now and then. But i dont tihnk id enjoy doing it full time.

[aegina]

what crafts are good? none, really lol.

cooking can be good for white mages (make your own juices to recover mp.) woodworking is good for rangers( make your own arrows,) but you'll spend more skilling up woodworking than you will ever save unless you take ranger all the way to 75, and make ALL your own arrows and bolts.

other than that, i don't recomend you start any craft until you get at least one job to level 50, if then. crafting is basically a bottomless moneysink until the higher levels.

edit:
and if you don't want to be a healer, don't play a summoner. a summoner's primay role in a pt is to main heal, aka we-couldnt-find-a-white-mage-so-we-invited-you. almost every pt invite you recieve as a summoner will be asking you to be the main healer, and if you say you won't main heal, either they will have to kick you and find a healer, or else give up trying to build a party and disband.

the only true dd-mage is black mage, i think, but blm sounds perfect for you. blm is one of the best damage dealers in the game, and when the main healer is low on mp, you will pick up the slack and help cure just like you said, but you don't main heal all the time.

[Jei]

I don't think mages benefits more from cloth craft at all. Unless you get it all the way to 100 and shoot for a lucky -1 curse stuff. Almost every gear you can craft from cloth craft, are a lost. You only make them to get skill and you throw away money along the process. This is almost same with every craft, you make items at lost to skill up. Along the way you will find some profitable syn to make money with. But those definitely are not what you will be using for yourself.

Apart from cooking to make juice, there's no real craft associate to job imo.

[=Tuyen=]

I don't think mages benefits more from cloth craft at all. Unless you get it all the way to 100 and shoot for a lucky -1 curse stuff. Almost every gear you can craft from cloth craft, are a lost. You only make them to get skill and you throw away money along the process. This is almost same with every craft, you make items at lost to skill up. Along the way you will find some profitable syn to make money with. But those definitely are not what you will be using for yourself.

Apart from cooking to make juice, there's no real craft associate to job imo.

Well actually cloth crafting can be of benefit, you may throw away money along the way but in the end it all pays off, making the ceremonail dress, boots, and hairpin are worth a fortune and people are always looking for it ^^

[aegina]

Well actually cloth crafting can be of benefit, you may throw away money along the way but in the end it all pays off, making the ceremonail dress, boots, and hairpin are worth a fortune and people are always looking for it ^^

not until the extreme higher levels of crafting.

for a rank 1 player with no subjob, crafting is really a waste of money...

[=Tuyen=]

yea I see what you mean, but isnt it worth lvl'ing to reek the benefits of the future, >.< I havent even started lol and hear I am preaching about it xD

[aegina]

i'm saying, don't start crafting until you're level 50, at least. until then, you can't afford it unless you buy gil online. (or spend insane mmounts of time trying to get gil to afford it)

the higher level you are the easier it is to make money, and the easier it ias to take up crafting.

[=Tuyen=]

lol yea I know xD I never even started crafting yet and I probably will only do cloth crafting for the benefit of my whm.

[aegina]

i took up cooking and woodworking. cooking saved me money (because i was able to make juices for less than buying them on the ah. i skilled up on making those juices, and i bought most of my ingredients from npc's.) cooking, however, doesn't really make you much money.

i also took up woodworking. woodworking may have saved me a tiny bit of money on some arows, but the sheer volume of cash it took to level it to that point is far greater than any i'll save off it anytime soon. and woodworking is one of the CHEAPER crafts to level >< i have never seen a bigger waste of time and money as the crafting system in ffxi.

if you haven't even tried crafting, please don't recomend it to others. crafting is a waste of moneyespecially at the low levels. the cost of the crystals alone can kill youir bank lol.

and don't say "farm your ingredients." if you farm your ingredients, then just sell the ingedients, you'll make more money than if you crafted them and sold the crafted goods.

fishing is a much better way to make gil at low levels, as is gardening. crafting is a gilsink

[=Tuyen=]

I guess so, but I am not even going to start to craft untill I atleast reach lvl 50 then I can afford the materials, and as far as making equipment/armor you can get a lot of gil for that, I saw in the ah a piece of body armor sold for 20,000,000 gil of course it was in jeuno xD but it still sold.

[MrScribble]

Gardening isnt a drain on your money ??, cause i was thinking about taking it up.

[aegina]

gardening is a good way to make money at lower levels, yes.

[x1ang]

^ no thank you son... go advertise somewhere else -__-


edit:
gardening needs to be pretty well planned out, otherwise it can result in quite a big loss. even worse is if the gardening doesn't come out the plan and you've waited many days, it'll make you want to take a break from ffxi for a while.

let's say you grow ores. they take ~20 real life days to grow and generally you'll get 1/10 pots (3+ if things go perfect), but the investment is 400k (on midgard) and there's always the /random involved in gardening that you'll reap 0/10 ores per pot - which is a pretty big loss considering it takes 400k+20RL days (time is money). plus, during those 20 days you have to dedicate yourself to examing the plants on certain days, etc etc.

but the profit is pretty good if things go well (200~300k for the first ore, 600~700k for each additional - per sapling stacks that is). so it's you're choice whether or not you want to take the risk ^_^

[aegina]

>.> when we said powerlevelling, we meant having a high level friend cure you while you play.

i can't believe you posted a link to a site like that lol...:eek:

edit: oh, it's an ad. didn't read it that close.:P dang gilsellers...

[bikkebakke]

Guy must have lost his mind >.<;

[MrScribble]

Hmm, well i tihnk ive got a good idea what im going to be/do, youve been a great help everyone :) and once again

Happy Hunting !

[aegina]

you're welcome^^ and good luck!



... lol, it's raining chinese gillsellers! lmao

[neighbortaru]

not all gilsellers are chinese, don't generalize please.

and mr scribble, good luck with your game and welcome to vanadiel!

[JeanRC]

i am chinese >.< but i am not from china

[aegina]

i think the above one was. he spoke broken english and stuff.

sorry, i didn't mean to generalize.

i am chinese >.< but i am not from china
i'm irish, but i'm not from ireland. welcome to the US lol^^

[oobilytoob]

try here in Australia, everyone is something else, except for Aboriginals. But yeah, damn it Scribble my game doesnt come till Mon, so blegh youll have to wait a bit longer.

[Enialas]

for melee best towns to start in are San d'Oria or Bastok, npc vendors sell low level armor and weapons really cheap, in Windhurst I couldn't find any NPC vendors for melee job armor and weapons, so I had to resort to AH and pay 5-10x as much. That gave me the idea though to buy stuff in those towns and send it to my windy mule and sell there ;)

for magery, Windhurst has some nice quest item spells that go for a bit on AH. also Windy has alot of Spells availiable that if you started in Sandy or Bastok, you would have to travel to Selbina to get the rest.

Sandy has Drain, and if you quest it, you can get it for 1k but you have to be on mission 2-3 to unlock the area you need to go to get it. Warp is in Bastok and cheap if quested as well, but all Warp needs is Fame, unlike Drain.

Crafting: the only one i can recommend is Cooking and that is to make juices. Since juices do not stack, this can be a real space saver. ie. 12 Orange Juices > 12 slots or stack of water crystals + 3 stacks of Oranges. Orange Juice is the first juice you can make. and eventually you'll be able to make other foods for more mps and other stuff. For foods that are good for melees, it'll cost quite a bit to get there so one will be better off buying meat mithkabobs and such.

[oobilytoob]

ITS HERE! I thought id just post that FXI has fiannally arrived after waiting over a week and a half before i opened it up :DDDDDD

-edit- :((((( damn it its was a book :'( Evil delivery people! It is meant to come today and the order tracker says its "out for delivery" so hopefully i alctually get it today, not some book.....

[oobilytoob]

Sry bout dbl posting. BUT its actually here this time!!! not some stupid book :D finnally have FFXI +2 expansions, but i need my mate to come over with his dvd drive.... -.- , but its hehre FTW

I will see some of on hopefully, in a few hours time *dances*:thumbsup:

[Aeni]

Apart from cooking to make juice, there's no real craft associate to job imo.

You don't even need to do that. Whichever country is in first place, go to that and from those travelling troupes, buy ginger cookies. At 11 gil each (With my hero fame) it's a total steal. Each cookie lasts about a couple of minutes or so and gives +5 mp/tick when you're resting. I believe this stacks with a RDM's refresh/BRD's ballad.

[aegina]

paladins should cook juice in the field, imo. mages should just use those cookies. i use those cookies on my whm, and they're a real godsend :)

[Sadeira]

the best advice is never blow off suggesstions from a more experienced player when they give you advice on how to play your job.

the greatest complaint most experienced players have about newer players is that the newer players seem to get extremely offended when offered advice.

be humble and incorporate everyone's advice in your style of play and find out if it fits you. if it doesn't, just move on.

[Armando]

The thing to remember about crafting, like the others have well put it, is that it's a money sink. You'll never be able to craft equipment appropriate for your level, because you'll never have the gil at that level to make something worth it. Even if you find a piece of equipment or two that is actually appropriate, you can probably find it on an NPC for much less, you can buy it on the AH for less, or you can buy its High Quality version on the AH. The non-generic pieces of equipment that are really worth making are so expensive in terms of materials, and it would take you so much gil to get to the point where you can make it reliably anyways, that you'd be much higher in level by the time you could make that kind of money. Juices (and cookies) are already available at random item/grocery shops in the main nations, as are cookies. Once you get to Jeuno, you can find juices from the most basic (Orange) to the more powerful ones (Melon/Grape) for less than the AH as well at the tavern. The only situation I can find a craft being practical for a job is if you can make pineapple juices (arguably the most cost-efficient juice) in the field, and even that is dubious because crafting time could've been spent resting that MP in the first place, unless you have downtime in the party, which is generally what you try to avoid in a party, so it's not something you can count on. The best you can do in terms of making juices is be a non-mage DD job that doesn't need to pull, so you can synth juices for a mage friend between pulls. And you can't base your whole job decision on that, really ^^; Basically, crafting doesn't offer you much except for a few early recipes that can make gil. There's a few crafts you can take up a few points and make gil doing so, but don't try to level a craft with the goal of raising your skill, because it's going to cost you a lot, and you won't have much to show for it.

Regarding Gardening, if you do a bit of research (like at PikkoPots) it can be good for side money. Since you only have to check it periodically (aside from planting and harvesting at the proper times) you can farm or do just about anything else between checkings. And yes, please do accept other's advice. Every time a newbie blows up on me when I offer them some advice, it almost makes me want to stop giving out advice to new players altogether. But if you accept it kindly, even if it doesn't fit you, you may make a new friend that'll help you out along the way.

[Aeni]

This may seem like it's going offtopic, but I figure this might help other players ...

What I find odd is the striking resemblance between a melee and his/her equipment and food and a mage and his/her equipment and food.

Melee
-All +acc gear and eat meat
-All +acc gear and eat sushi
-All +atk gear and eat sushi
-All +atk gear and eat meat

Mage
-All +mp regen gear and eat pies
-All +mp regen gear and eat cookies
-All +stat (magic) gear and eat cookies
-All +stat (magic) gear and eat pies

I purposely made it simple, brutally I admit, but to show you the main points in this.

Last night, I was in a party with 2 support players. One was a SMN/WHM and the other was a BRD/WHM (I was main healer as WHM/BLM)

I used cookies. The other mages had used pies or something similar. To make a long story short, it was I who died twice and near died about four times. Basically, I was the only mage of the 3 to get back enough MP quickly on terribly long fights to heal up the melees and subsequently got too much hate stacked under my name (Versus if the healing was being shared so that hate was redistributed)

I had a 75 BLM friend who swore by cookies, as well. It totally helped in his Dynamis runs ... while most others were engorging on Snoll Gelatos and Rolanberry Pies, he was the one in the end parser result to totally wipe the floor with his damage.

I think the +stat on food is nice and all, but when it comes right down to it, if you're not getting any refresh (low levels) or the refresh isn't good enough (end game) then your basic focus should be getting mp back quickly and not just having the most mp pool every 30 min ...

[dragen3]

On the crafting thing, i've found that you can do okay cooking or weaving at low levels, because stuff drops that you can use and then put back into your character. I personally play a mnk/15 i do some cooking and weaving, My cooking is done by killing Carrion Crows or Goblins (plenty of these in the newbie Windy Area) for Fire Crystals and using them to make Grilled Hare from the Rabbit Meat that Rahabs drop in Sara and Tahongi. This creates a useful +str with decent duration. I have started working on weaving by breaking Yag Necklaces (again real common in windy start area) into thread and then making thread into cloth, Earth Crystals come from a lot of weak creatures in the area including Rahab which i also use for meat and wind crystals come from bees and the yags i kill trying to get necklaces. So it is possible to start crafting early on and get some useful stuff without spending a fortune in gil.

[Armando]

It's possible, but just because you farmed it doesn't mean you saved money or got it for free. If the recipe's end-result costs less than the total cost of the materials, it doesn't matter if you got the materials from drops, because you could've sold the materials as they were for more gil. Just keep that in mind. Another reason why farming isn't the same as getting it for free is because farming takes time. I'd rather, say, farm silk and beehive chips for an hour and make, let's say, 40k in that hour, and buy materials with that, than farm rabbits for an hour for just 10k's worth of hides and meat just to use them in crafting. In both scenarios the same ammount of time was wasted, but the former scenario was four times as productive as the latter.

I'm not saying this to try to drive people away from crafting, but so that they're more informed. There ARE a few things you can do with low level crafting that'll actually make money. If you're in San d'Oria or Bastok, you can make some profits bringing up Smithing to level 2 on Bronze Ingots, for example. Low level alchemy also has many recipes that actually make money just from skilling up on them (Mercury comes to mind.) Just understand this: not all crafts are created equal. Taking Alchemy up to 60 will cost you FAR less than taking Goldsmithing up to 60. Dabble in crafting if you want, but research the recipes first so you'll know if you'll gain or lose gil.

[aegina]

you would make more money if you just sold the raw materials, especially the crystals.

do NOT take up any craft until you can afford it. if you want to farm ingredients, sell the ingredients and pocket the cash.

[nazlfrag]

The crafting system can be done as you level, and while not as productive, I enjoy it. If I am levelling a lower job, I'm better off crafting a lot of the drops than selling them. Things like sheepskins that don't stack. Like hare meat which isn't worth selling. I love the sandy grocery store, for low level cooking they have the spare ingredients I need.

Heres how I levelled cooking:
0-2: Grilled Hare - fire crystal(drop) - Hare meat(drop) + dried marjoram (store)
2-10: Orange Juice - water crystal(drop) - 4x Saruta oranges(store)
11+: Roast sheep - fire crystal(drop) - G.Sheep meat(drop) + marjoram (store) + mahura garlic (vendor/gardening)
11+: Roast Mushroom - fire crystal(drop) - 2x Sleepshrooms(drop) + rock salt(drop/store)
11+: Apple Juice - water crystal(drop) - 4x Faerie apple(store)

All of these I use while I'm levelling. It means I can level my jopb, my craft, have cheap food to make things easier and use my common drops, giving me more storage for the rarer and higher priced drops.

I will also mention 'Scavenge', the ranger ability which lets you get crafting materials from your environment. This is a perfect way to skill up woodworking at little cost. The earth crystals used are easy to come by, too.

I would reccomend doing this on your very first job. Every little bit helps. Sure, cookies are cheap and effective, but until level 20 juices are fine. Mushrooms are good for dunes healers that have uncapped healing, and will help with enfeebles. Grilled hare will help with the grind of 1-10, and roast sheep is useful for a while after. It also breaks the monotony. So skill up or don't, I'm just trying to say it doesn't need to cost a fortune. I agree about not farming ingredients for synth in general, but soloing 1-10 you can collect these ingredients for little or no cost.

I have also levelled smithing, leathercraft and woodworking a little as I levelled low jobs. While slow going, it's nowhere near as slow as fishing is with the skillups. While not making money, I'm not losing much, and getting cheap skillups as a result. You can craft for the early stages as you go, you just have to be prepared.

[tetsuol]

/em wonders why a 5 month old post was bumped when the OP could very well be 75 by now