Anyone done a lot of crafting yet?

I'm wondering if there are eventually recipes to craft batches of goods... this one maple lumber at a time thing is getting old quick.

I got goldsmith and weaver to 14 or so.   In this beta it was possible to buy many of the starting mats -- even maple lumber -- from a vendor called Tradeskill Supplier (something like that) in the market area of each of the starting cities.  I don't know whether that vendor will still be around for Beta 4 and release.

However, I can confirm that starting around level 14 I had to make the basic components completely from scratch.  For example, Weaver has to make Cotton yarn from cotton bolls, etc.  The vendor-sold materials completely dry up by 20 or so, and the # of shards per recipe go up by tier.

It definitely looks like crafting is going to be grindy!  Five things you can do to speed it up:

1. Use your rest XP for crafting.
2. Always add as much quality as you can.  You get bonus crafting XP when there's some "blue" in the HQ bar, even if you don't produce an HQ item.
3. Do each recipe at least once for the first-time bonus XP.
4. Do Tradecraft leves, especially if you can turn in HQ items.  HQ items add a massive XP bonus to leves.
5. Buy Engineering scrolls from your Grand Company (after level 22).  They aren't cheap, but they give a boost.
6. EDIT: oh, yeah - eat food.  The 3% bonus to XP is good, the bonuses to crafting stats are even better, because they give you a better chance for HQ progress and success.

In the end, however, it looks gathering materials after the initial tiers may be the most time consuming part of all.  Especially shards... you'll need lots and lots of shards.

This probably isn't the answer you were hoping for, Aalwein, but that's how crafting is looking to me.

I am up to 10 weaver and 10 miner. I did not buy the components for hempen. I created the yarn, then the bolt of yawn then the finished product every time. I figured out about adding a bit of quality for the xp near the end of my grinding.

I researched the possibility of adding bulk recipes and the information I found doesn't look good

I already hate crafting but the "queue up and afk" systems from most MMOGs at least allow me to craft. I don't know about this system in FFXIV. Too involved and with no bulk recipe to make the basic component, I'm not so sure I'll even bother.

Crafting saves you a lot of money on repairs.  I mean a LOT.  Also, you can break down spiritbound gear into materia from level 19, which is important for min maxing. However, you can only meld materia when you reach the level noted on the gear, so levelling crafting as you go will allow you to slot your higher level gear.

You could of course get a crafter to repair stuff for you, but I think it will end up costing a lot at higher levels.

Materia does not appear to be untradeable or binding, so I assume you can buy it from the auction house. You then would have to get a crafter of that level of melding to meld it to your gear for you. (There is currently an "affix materia" option that is greyed out for beta. You can see it if you right click and examine someone. I assume it kicks in in phase 4.)

I have not yet worked out the calculation as to whether the money you sink into crafting is greater than the money you would sink into paying for repairs, but I am sure someone will post all that at some point after release. (My guess is that it will be cheaper to craft by far, especially if you gather your own mats.)

Disciple of the Hand classes other than culinarian can all make materia. I am going to go weaver which goes nicely with CNJ, so I can repair my own gear and save money, and botanist to collect basic weaver mats.  That way I can be self sufficient with costs and save more for my house :)

Gathering gets you the mats you need, but some come from drops from mobs.  You also get a ton of crystals from botany/mining.

Ironbars also mentioned the idea of crafting in sanctuaries to gain a little more rested xp.

Crafting food, leves and rested xp seem to be the keys to levelling crafting more quickly from what I managed to test this time around.

Good points Hex.  :)

I tested crafting in Sanctuaries vs. crafting with rest XP... anywhere else.  There was no difference.   The bonus is from the rest XP you've already stored up.  If you are out of rest XP you can stand for a minute or so between combines in a Sanctuary, soak up a little rest XP, and get a bonus while crafting the next item.  (BTW, resting for just a couple seconds until your bar turns blue did not give the highest possible XP bonus... it takes a minute or more of resting to 'bank' enough).

I'm starting with Goldsmith, and might do weaver later.  It seems like it will be a LOT of work to level a craft so I think I'll just do one at first.

Goldsmith is a good choice - I am not 100% sure, but it seemed like my jewellery degraded faster than my other items, and needed repair faster. Can anyone confirm if this is so or not?

I had the same impression about jewelry degrading faster, but then I used the same pieces on multiple classes.  I chose it 'cause it's 5 slots I can repair on every class.  I thought about weaver too, but I want to see how Arcanist plays before I fully commit to being a clothy. :)

I did culinarian up to 21 and botonist up to 22. Had mining up to 12, Carpenter to 3, Blacksmith and armourer to 2, Goldsmith to 6, leatherworking to 5, weaver to 3, alchemist to 8... Soo...

In a nutshell I barely touched crafting during beta 3 *cough cough*

That's my story and I'm stickin with it ;)

So it wasn't mentioned here, but I did discover there is an "automated" crafting system - called quick synthesis. It still has a chance to fail, even on stupidly easy things - albeit a very, very low failure rate, but at least you can queue up a batch of lumber or leather or whatnot. There is also a built in delay between synthesizes but it is still faster than manually producing the goods (for base materials).

You take a severe hit in exp reward though, so don't use it to actually level. I'm using it to batch make oodles of the base resource I need (ie. maple lumber, bronze ingot, hempen yarn, etc.) and then go through the process for the end products.

This makes crafting far less tedious and I actually have been enjoying it for the most part - at least in the early levels.

Yeah, you have to level some first, but I think at 10 or 11 that skill showed up on my crafting for what the system will do for live.  I would still do it the tedious way for more xp if you need to level, but at some point that doesn't totally pan out.  Like maple is the first lumber and you still have to mess with that some for items at the ash level for how you upgrade.  For instance an L13 bow I made needed me to first make the simpler maple version.  

It's a pretty cool crafting system and I enjoyed messing with it for nearly a full day of my beta weekend, including the one gathering I got.  Definitely do the gathering to save the gil.  Only thing I did see as a slight issue is the amount of raw mats I got for leather working.  It's far easier to supply some of the other crafts due to the gathering function, but hides and such are drops from mobs.  So had to stop leveling to go fight more for hides unless I wanted to spend gil to get the items.

Quick Synthesis unlocks when your craft reaches level 10.

It's convenient, but you definitely get less XP.  For leveling, you'll be using up more considerably mats (especially shards!!!) to get the same total XP via Quick Synth as someone who crafts each item individually (and works to maximize quality for each combine).

I didn't get to try crafting at all. Is there a guide anyone would recommend? 

This is a good intro to crafting:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTnxN77QQWU

EDIT: Here's another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsJVepr8j0Y

My crafting/gathering tip is to save your leves for crafting rather than adventuring. You can always fate grind if you run out of quests for you DOM or DOW, but grinding crafting is waaaay more tedious! Also, remember that your rest xp works for crafting too.