Critical Break: Guild Points and Items Part 2.

Critical Break is our crafting and economics column written by Qtipus. Q is an experienced crafter and also well versed in using the Auction House to turn a decent profit. Enough so that he was able to fund his own relic, Gungnir. Every Tuesday you will find Q's rants, raves and good crafting practices here. Qtipus is continuing his coverage on Guild Point Items this week.

As mentioned in my last post, I mentioned I would be going over the various bits of gear and whatnot you can buy with Guild Points and when you should buy them. Every craft has a set of Key Items, Gear and Furnishings available to purchase. A couple weeks ago, I went over the pros and cons (there are none...) of getting your respective craft's ring and making sure it was a priority.

So what about the rest of the stuff? Is it worth the time and money to pick them up for your craft?

Every piece of gear and furnishing can be broken down into the following:

- 70k piece (Usually a headpiece or some gloves)
- 80k piece (Ring)
- 100k piece (Body Piece)
- 150k piece (Furnishing that gives Craft Skill+1)
- 200k piece (Furnishing that minimizes the impact of a break)

They're also broken down by craft rank. You can't even start building points for these until you're at Novice or higher (28+). This is where you have to start building points though. You won't have many options for guild points in general at this stage, but there are still a few items you can turn in each week and be ready to pick up your first item. The order these should be picked up in are:

- Ring (80k, Craftsman)
- Headpiece/Gloves (70k, Journeyman)
- Body Piece (100k, Artisan)

By level 88, you should have spent 250k GP. The financial difficulty in getting from 60-100 varies by craft obviously, so make sure you take that into account before you burn your way up to 100. Having 3 items that add +2 to your current level along with giving you the option to avoid those HQ and success issues becomes significant in the skillup process.

Level 88 is a good place to make sure you're all set with these items as well as it opens up the door for every set of GP items you can make for your craft. Once you have those three pieces, pick up your other two based on whatever you feel comfortable doing. There are solid arguments for picking up your 200k item before your 150k item since you can minimize your risk of material loss, but there are also those who will look at their 150k and say "I already have the points and the +1 skill will likely have same effect as the signboard anyway...".

Your crafting Key Items are a different beast altogether. With the exception of Fishing, most of the key items range from 10k-40k guild points. Relatively cheap compared to your gear and furnishings price tags. The main thing about these items is that they aren't always necessary. They can generally be broken down into:

- Mass Production
- Black Magic infusion (Ensorcellment)
- White Magic infusion (Purification)

Bone Ensorcellment ,for example, has a series of synths that have absolutely no value whatsoever. Bone Purification on the other hand, is a very useful synth for both skilling up and making money. Filing falls into this category too, but it's so damn cheap to get that it's almost ridiculous if a bonecrafter doesn't have it.

The key here is to look at what the money producers and good skillup items are in your respective crafts. Purification and Mass Production are awesome for Bonecrafting (in that order), but Mass Production and Ensorcellment are better for Woodworking. Some crafts (like Alchemy and Cooking) will likely need all of the key items, but others (like Smithing) may get along just fine by simply picking up the Mass Production key items.

In conclusion, pay attention. Don't just blindly start picking up your GP items or blowing all sorts of gil on Guild Points. There's usually a very solid and cost-efficient way of obtaining these things that will actually make you money down the road.

And that's what you're leveling a craft for anyway...right?

...Right?