Carrot Broth? I think not ._.

[Serryl]

I've been trying to Level my Cooking Craft...
I must have made at LEAST 200 Carrot Broths, and have only increased my skill by one.

Seems to me that's a waste of time...
And money.

Anyone have an alternate recipe for Level 1 Cooking?

[Jarre]

http://ffxi.somepage.com/recipedb/cooking-synth-1.php

this has all recipies you need to learn includign the skill cap. Best advice is synth the item 3 levels below the cap, used advanced support and you get skill ups of between 0.1-0.2 every 2-3 synths. This is the safer way of doing it with less crystal breaks etc.

[Ellipses]

Let me just type some generalities while I'm looking stuff up. First, if you're not familiar with it already, look at this page on skill-ups (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/index.php/Crafting_Skill_Ups). Also, in general, you'll kind of need to learn to do some research on your own, because prices and such can vary from server to server. Find a recipe a few levels above your own (such as here (http://ffrecipe.com) or here (http://dragonlair.a249thspc.com/modules/ffxi_crafting)), see how much the ingredients cost at vendors and the AH, and how much the results sell for. I tend to go for something 4-8 levels above, depending on whether I'm going to get guild support or not, and then stick with that til it caps.

Now that I've found a few recipes, depending on your server's economy and such, Peeled Crayfish, Grilled Hare, Pebble Soup, or Herbal Broth might work for you. I'd get support for at least Herbal Broth if not the others to avoid breaks.

[Serryl]

@ Ellipses
I was under the impression that I could only Craft Recipes that were within my Level for that Craft...

[Ellipses]

The levels listed on recipes are the level they cap at. For example, with Carrot Broth, which is a level 3 cap, you absolutely will not get any more skill-ups past level 3. You need to synth things that are slightly higher than your level, but not so high that it's mostly hopeless. Think of it like chaining T-VT instead of taking on one IT+++. ;)

There's a hard limit, I think 10 levels higher than your own, where it won't even let you try to synth it. You get an error about not having the skill to make that item or something.

[AngryUndead]

Absolutely use this timer to calculate when to craft. (http://ffxi.lokyst.net/timer/crafttimer.html) READ THE GUIDE ON HOW TO USE IT AS WELL.

It is probably the most amazing resource. It will help you understand when and how to skill-up and reduce your reliance on guides.

Good luck.

[Dooom]

There's a hard limit, I think 10 levels higher than your own, where it won't even let you try to synth it.

It's 15 levels ^^ At 0 skill you can try to synth a 15-cap recipe, but not a 16 one.

[Ellipses]

Personally, I've never used the timer. I'm sure my crafting would go a lot better if I did, but I mostly can't be bothered. My main crafts right now are cooking and alchemy, and I only do it in short bursts, so it's not such a big deal if I have a bad streak here and there due to crafting at the wrong time. For the first 60 levels of cooking, I didn't even bother learning the compass directions. It only took 20 levels of alchemy to make me regret that, though, and I use the compass religiously now.

Double Post Edited:
It's 15 levels ^^ At 0 skill you can try to synth a 15-cap recipe, but not a 16 one.Groovy, thanks. :) Personally, I think trying something that much higher sounds like a really bad idea anyway, but it's good to know. :biggrin:

[Tif]

Isn't it 5 levels above, you can't get skillups from breaks as well? Another reason to stay within a decent range, so you can get the max skillup chances even if you aren't successful on the synth.

[Kittyneko]

Absolutely use this timer to calculate when to craft. (http://ffxi.lokyst.net/timer/crafttimer.html) READ THE GUIDE ON HOW TO USE IT AS WELL.

It is probably the most amazing resource. It will help you understand when and how to skill-up and reduce your reliance on guides.

Good luck.

Quote from the timer:

Begin: May 12, 21:48:00
End: May 12, 22:45:36

Lol. Craft for an hour, then wait a whole bunch of hours when to craft again for an hour. If you want most skill ups, with least costs. I just crafted straight forward lol.

[Jei]

Yea Tif. If the cap is within 5 skill range, you will be able to get skill from breaks. This is ideal for skill up imo. Higher than 5 gap, you only get skill from success synth.

[AngryUndead]

Sweetkitty, thats what time the day in question starts/stops on.

The timer shows you which way to face and how much support to have for that day to maximize skill ups. You still craft whenever you want.

[Kittyneko]

Sweetkitty, thats what time the day in question starts/stops on.

The timer shows you which way to face and how much support to have for that day to maximize skill ups. You still craft whenever you want.

Yes thank you I did say "If you want most skill ups, with least costs." however. ...Silly monk tank >.>

[AngryUndead]

Silly monk tank

That is SOOOO not me. I'm actually pretty offended by that.

[infected]

I must have made at LEAST 200 Carrot Broths, and have only increased my skill by one.

I find this extremely hard to believe. Unless you broke a lot of them with no skill-up gains, the skill-ups at that level should be relativley quick (about a level ~2 stacks of materials max, sometimes even a level per stack) if you synth on the right day facing the right direction.

200 Broths (50 synths) should give you quite a bit of skill, considering at 62.5 I made 60 Synths of Pumpkin soup (some breaks) and that got me up to 64.5 Cooking. It would be helpful to post the time and direction you were facing when synthing, that way people could easily give you answers to your problems.

All that aside, the crafting timer that AngryUndead posted a link to is your best friend when crafting. A general rule I follow on the timer is if the synth profits or breaks even, I look to get a total of around 3.00 difficulty. If the synth has expensive ingredients, I look for synthing with a total difficulty of around 2.00, but no lower.

Hope this helps :thumbsup:

[greydaze]

Absolutely use this timer to calculate when to craft. (http://ffxi.lokyst.net/timer/crafttimer.html) READ THE GUIDE ON HOW TO USE IT AS WELL.

It is probably the most amazing resource. It will help you understand when and how to skill-up and reduce your reliance on guides.

Good luck.

When I quit a year and a half ago, this was still an unconfirmed way to maximize c rafting and no one had done tests to hint otherwise. If there have been some since then, please let me know! I never seemed to increase or decrease skill/breaks using this. And I wrote down everything in a spreadsheet... that was sussequently lost in a reformat. ._.

[Nakti]

Yep, I can confirm that you can try a synth if you're within 15 skill levels. You can even try it within 18 skill levels if you've got advanced synth support. But it will leave you crying (really high break rate and no skillups from breaks) so keep within 5 to 10 levels.

I've had a very strange path through crafting (still do), but here's what I did for early levels of Cooking:

I synthed Orange Juice until level 7 or so. (I found them useful as a WHM.)
I synthed Sliced Sardines until level 11. (I had started fishing already.)
I synthed Selbina Butter until level 20. (And kept a lot of it for later Pies.)
I synthed Insect Paste until level 29. (Useful for fishing.)

I didn't pay much attention to element day, moon phase, or direction and I averaged a full skill level every 14 to 16 synths.

Remember to turn in your guild test items or you'll be capped every 10 skill levels. ^^b