Mining.

[Elandur]

I was recently introduced to mining, and so far i love it. Started out with about 1k worth of pickaxes, went to Yughott and came out with about 15k worth of ore.
Anyway, does anyone have any mining tips?
Is the gear that helps mining really worth the investment? Im generally very, very broke, so its pretty expensive to me. And what exactly does it do? Does it make it more likely to get a more valuable piece of ore or something?
Is there a macro that will automatically target mining points? I figure a macro would be easier than scrolling through everything with "0".
Anyway, any mining help will be appreciated, as this will probably be my main means of getting gil from now on.
Edit: And i have seen ingots in the auction house. How exactly to i make them, and would it be better to sell the ore seperatly or just combine them into ingots to save pack space?
Edit #2: Sorry, would this maybe go into crafting and synthesis discussion?

[icesharc]

Mining gear reduces the chance of your pickaxe breaking. I haven't mined without the gear ever because of this, so I'll tell you what happens on an average run of mine (no pun ^^) and you can compare the time I get out of my axes.

Normally I'll end up with a weird number of axes liek 14 or so, never just 12 or just 24. With those 14 axes and about 5 items of equip ment or whatever I'll have roughly 20 spaces available. I normally have to come back to my mog house/AH with 2 axes left. So I'm getting roughly 20 ores for 12 axes. The gear doesn't increase your chance at finding higher grade ore, only 2 things modify that, mining zone and probability.

Overall I'd say do something else to make money then get the gear so that you don't waste money breaking axes, however if you only spend 1k on axes and got 15k in ore, just keep doing that. However I assume you got lucky and struck a darksteel or two, which with 12 axes is quite unlikely, don't take this first trip as an example of what is to come everytime...

[EverJams]

My experience in gusgen. I allways take 36 stacks of picks with out the gear I was lucky to have 2 darsteel ore and a color rock out of the whole set of picks. After I got three of the pieces I have gotten 5-12 darksteel ore, and around 3-5 colored rocks. I haven't notice a decrease in pickaxe breaks but more chaces on better ore.

As for the ingot you make. I take two stacks of fire crystals as well. I combine 4 copper to make copper ingots, 3 copper and zinc to make brass, 3 copper and tin to make bronze, and 4 tin to make tin ingots, also with my skill in smithing I make iron ingots from 4 iron ores. Just started goldsmithing with the attempt of mining. so can't make the silver or mythril ingots yet. one darksteel ore gets me back my money on the three stacks of pickaxes I buy.

[Kaickul]

People dont like to give tips on making money that cuts into their profits, which is why you have yet to see all the worth while suggestions. Gotta love greed...

At any rate...
Get the gear for sure.
Make a macro for mining:
/targetnpc
/item "Pickaxe" <t>

The following days are gooding for ming:
Earthsday - You break less pickaxes
Lightsday - Good for increased chances of getting gold, silver, etc.
Darksday - Good for increased chances of Darksteel.

Check out this thread also.

http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/sho...threadid=33609

[Elandur]

Thanks everyone, that should help me out a bit.
And if anyone was wondering what i made 15k on, i got a chunk of gold ore (which was selling for about 11k at the jeuno AH) and a bunch of iron ore.