Omoi and I are back from vacation! Give us a day or two to get on top of all the information we have missed and expect a lot of new information from us, as well as Izman's personal rant about the BST changes!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Critical Break: 60-100 Series: Clothcraft
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. Part two of his 60-100 Series this week covers Clothcraft.
After looking through what it takes to get Clothcraft to 100, I have to admit it doesn't look too terrible. Most of the stuff can be farmed up with relative ease if you actually take the time to do it.
In the 0-60 Clothcraft guide, I mentioned how much all the pre-synths you had to do annoyed me to no end. Fortunately, after 60, that seems to ease up quite a bit. Before diving into the guide, take time to understand why anyone would level Clothcraft to 100. The same basic questions apply to all crafts.
Does it have consumables? Yes, the Ninjutsu sneak tool, various threads and various arrow fletchings galore. The ability to HQ these are what make these money makers, so reaching the highest tier possible on these synths makes these attractive.
Does it have in demand end game gear? Yes and it falls into the same category that Bonecrafting does. Clothcraft's end game gear revolves mainly around the cursed gear for the Aquarian Abjuration set and 3/4 of the Blessed gear set. Unfortunately, it also shares the same trait of NQs being priced below cost usually and the HQs being the only way to make money.
Does it have in demand, T1 or above HQ'able gear? Yes, the Noble's Tunic is a T1 synth and Clothcraft has a few other odds and ends accessories that could potentially turn a profit if you catch the market at the right time.
The bottom line is, Clothcraft was assisted greatly by the implementation of ToAU as a lot of the stuff needed is easily accessible from those areas.
After the jump, see what it takes to get to 100.
This is a continuation of the 0-60 Clothcraft guide. Keep farming up those silk threads or trying to keep your cost below the NPC line so that you can break even.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Silk Cloth
Cap: Level 62
Easy and cheap synth if you farm your feathers up. The drop rate is decent on the feathers. Buying the stacks of feathers off the AH will be a shortcut, but a costly one. The fletching stacks sell very slowly since there are only two arrows that can be made from it and they aren't all that useful to begin with, but they do sell. If farming these are annoying, bridge the synth a bit with some Hunter's Cotton to 63.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 2x Apkallu Feather
Cap: Level 66
Hopefully you've got a buddy that can HQ some rainbow thread for you or at least turn your spider web farmings into said thread for free. Buy your thread from the guild or farm it up from the yagudo. Turn in a Wool Doublet once you hit 68, then move on to the next synth.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 5x Grass Thread, 1x Rainbow Thread
Cap: Level 69
There's not really a solid way to farm the feathers up unless you're into gardening or chocobo digging. There's also not really anything here at this level that isn't a huge loss. On Odin currently, the feather stacks sell for ~6k with the fletching stacks selling for ~13k. Doing the math and assuming 17 successful synths, you'd need nearly 3 stacks of feathers (~18k) against a 13k sale price. Losing 5k over the course of 18 synths is nothing to sneeze at though. Go farm up a scroll or two from goblins to offset your cost and cap on these. They sell like hotcakes due to the fact they're used in the demon arrow synth.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 2x Black Chocobo Feather
Cap: Level 72
I remember a long time ago when spider webs used to cost a crapload of money and were semi-rare drops. It made leveling Clothcraft back then a far more painful experience than it is now. With the addition of all the spiders in the various Aht Urgan areas, spider web costs have dropped to next to nothing. Farming your webs up is definitely a way to make a good chunk of money during this portion, but due to them not being stackable, it might kill your inventory space pretty quickly. Pay attention to the rainbow thread AND cloth sale prices in comparison to the spider webs on the AH and use your own judgement there. Definitely cap on these and save your results for later. Turn in a Silk Cloak when you cap for your Adept rank.
Recipe: Lightning Crystal, 2x Spider Web
Cap: Level 78
Use the results of your previous synth or skip this part and go to the next depending on how much you like fighting puks. If you farmed all of your spider webs and capped, definitely turn into cloth and save them for the final stretch to 100. If you bought webs off the AH, then sell and recover your money.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 3x Rainbow Thread
Cap: Level 80
If you didn't hate Puks before, get ready to hate them now. Farm up 5-6 stacks of Puk wings or buy them off the AH for super cheap if they're available. The Puk Fletchings themselves have never sold on Odin, so they obviously have no use other than to be NPC'd. Keep your costs to a minimum here and cap. Good thing about farming these is that they drop the necessary crystal as well. You could potentially skip this synth (especially if you have an inside track to Wamoura Cocoons) if you capped on Rainbow Cloth and go straight to Wamoura Silk if you royally hate Puks.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 2x Puk Wing
Cap: Level 82
There are a lot of BLMs that solo/duo/trio/burn on the Wamouracampas in Halvung. You can take advantage of their XP sessions by buying the cocoons off of them as they're a relatively common drop. Or you can just farm them up yourself if you find an empty spot with a ton of them running around. Cap on these, save your results and turn in an Arhat's Hakama for your Veteran rank.
Recipe: Lightning Crystal, 2x Wamoura Cocoon
Cap: Level 88
Turn all your silk into cloth then AH the piss out of it. The stacks are regularly bought for Salvage gear and this will most likely make you some money.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 3x Wamoura Silk
Cap: Level 90
Farm your giant bird plumes out in Misareaux Coast near the Sacrarium entrance. You might have a little competition since the feathers are used in Icarus Wings. Buying the plumes off the AH will likely be suicidal to your wallet. Currently on Odin, stacks of plumes are ~40 while the stacks of fletchings sell for ~20k. Again doing the math shows that you'll be spending ~120k against making ~60k back. Don't take shortcuts here, it gets painful financially after this.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 2x Giant Bird Plume
Cap: Level 93
When SE made this part of the Gobbiebag quest, it's value skyrocketed and, as a result, the pain from going through the 90s in Clothcraft was eased up quite a bit. Farm up your silk thread and rainbow thread for this. Try to catch the Arachne Webs or thread on the AH if possible and turn around the foulard for a slight profit. The pace from here on out will be slow and tedious due to the lack of materials, but given the alternatives, just bite your nails and be patient.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 3x Silk Thread, 2x Rainbow Thread, 1x Arachne Thread
Cap: Level 98
There's nothing else other than Cursed Dalmatica synths that aren't a complete and total disaster to your wallet here that will get you to 100. With this synth, you can at least HQ the gold and silver thread portions of it to minimize your costs and you can easily farm up the materials for the Velvet and Rainbow cloth portions. It's also possible to take advantage of dipshit crafters selling their threads for below cost if you don't want to risk NQing everything you attempt in the thread dept. This is also why I mentioned saving your farmed up rainbow cloths earlier in this guide.
The painful part will be paying for the Galateia. If you can minimize your costs for all the other materials and maybe catch a few buddies who will sell you the Galateia cheap from the ENMs they do, you might be able to break even on this, but as it stands now just on Odin, you automatically lose money just buying the 2 pieces of Galateia and that doesn't even take into account the other materials that are necessary. It's by far the most painful stretch you will see in this craft, but if you're careful and diligent, you can make up the difference elsewhere. All things considered, this synth is not as painful as some of the 100 synths I've seen in other crafts, but it can add up quickly.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 2x Velvet Cloth, 1x Rainbow Cloth, 1x Silver Thread, 2x Gold Thread, 2x Galateia.
Cap: Level 100
Congrats, you're finished!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Critical Break: 60-100 Series: Bonecraft
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. After spending hours upon hours writing eight 0-60 guides, Q shows he's a glutton for punishment by starting another series; 60-100. The first in this series is Bonecraft.
In the 0-60 Bonecrafting guide I wrote, I mentioned the fact that Bonecrafting was one of the easiest and cheapest crafts to level. This holds especially true for this craft up to about 70. Beyond 70, it gets a lot more risky, but the end result will still show you being around the break even point.
That's what I hope to demonstrate in this guide. Yes you will need some working capital and a little luck avoiding breaks (Artisan's Advantage is your friend), but the amount of time you'll spend farming up items for this trek is slim to none. This guide mostly relies on the availability of materials on the Auction House.
Each of these guides will ask three questions. These questions will revolve around where the money is made. Here they are:
Does this craft have consumables?
Yes, Bonecrafting has a number of consumables. The most notable of which are reraise hairpins/gorgets and arrowheads. There are a couple other odds and ends consumables, but these are the primary ones and they are consumed enough to make a living off of them.
Does this craft have in-demand end-game gear?
Yes, quite a bit actually. The Neptunal Abjuration set has 3 common pieces dropping from sky and are pretty much still among the best pieces you can get for the slots. The other two pieces drop off Fafhogg and out of Einherjar and generally sell for a loss due to spammage, but you may catch the AH at times for a little profit. There's also the hydra gear commonly used for damage reduction sets. A couple pieces of the unicorn set are decent and there's the ever popular Igqira set.
Lastly, does this craft have in-demand mid-range items?
Yes. While Beetle gear is probably a notch or two below "mid-range", some of it is good until those mid levels. There's also the Scorpion Harness and a host of weapons that are decent.
Before we really get into the guide, we need to go over what you will need in order to follow this guide. Details after the jump.
First, you will need to get Bone Purification. If you're serious about taking this craft to 100 and making money off of it, you're going to be using this particular key item a ton.
Second, Filing doesn't hurt. It's cheap from a GP standpoint and saves some time. There are some that will argue against using this since they feel it minimizes the number of chances you have to HQ various arrowhead synths, but from my testing, the end results are about the same.
Third, get your Protective Spectacles and your Bonecrafter's Ring before you start on this guide. Won't hurt to be doing GPs along the way so you can pick up your Boneworker's Apron once you hit 68. The reason for this relates specifically to a 25ish level stretch between 68-96 depending on which items you choose to synth.
Fourth, learn the value of the offset. Spending a little time killing for some of these materials early on (or fishing if it's high enough in level) and it will pay dividends later when the inevitable breaks occur. This doesn't mean farm up every single material you're going to use (unless I say otherwise...), but it does mean that you'll need to understand there's a value in working with time spent vs. gil earned/saved. The idea behind these guides is to have you at or over what you started with in terms of gil.
Lastly, patience. Don't overload yourself on too much stock. This causes materials to inflate and product to deflate.
Phase 1: Let Me See Your Patas
These are commonly picked up by woodworkers for making the arrows. If you have a buddy skilling on these arrows or that simply uses them to make money, sell them to them. Otherwise, just put your stacks up on the AH. They usually sell for a little above cost even if you NQ every single one of them.
Also be mindful of the single horn prices (4k) versus the stack horn prices (60k, or 5k ea). It will take 17 successful NQ synths to make one stack. Buying the horns at 5k each and farming up your bone chips will result in a cost of ~85k. Current AH prices at the time I'm writing this guide (early Sept) show stack sales at ~120k. As you continue to skill up, you can use these as a bit of a fall back for a bit of a quick cash grab as long as material costs stay pretty steady. Filing helps with this process.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Demon Horn, 1x Bone Chip
Cap: Level 63
This is just about the only item I will say "Go out and farm up your materials" for. Your main goal here is to keep your costs below 1k. Crab shells and giant femurs are usually in decent supply and cheap on the AH, but the carbon fiber will usually eat up your budget. All of the materials are cheap enough where if you want to lose some money on these, feel free. You probably made enough on the demon arrowheads to cover it. Make your own carbon fiber if your alchemy is at 45, but it will likely end up being cheaper just to buy off the AH. I hope you have a lot of mule room.
You can also dump a few of these up on the AH for sale if you choose to and try to get lucky by catching a goldsmither who is skilling up. Save one of these to turn in for your Artisan rank.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Crab Shell, 2x Giant Femur, 1x Carbon Fiber
Cap: Level 68
This is only here because it's a relatively cheap synth to make. It's a loss if you buy your ram horns off the AH, so if you elect to use this as a synth, head out to the highlands or the plateau and start raping some rams.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 2x Ram Horn
Cap: Level 69
Phase 2: Reraise Items Are Your Best Friend/Worst Enemy
You need Bone Purification here. You also need a friend who can make some animas for you. Buying stacks of animas off the AH will rape your wallet. Not that buying the somber, startling or radiant clusters/memories will be easy on it, but definitely not as hard as the end product. This begins a series of synths that you will be selling on the AH.
Your Bonecrafter's Ring comes in mighty handy here too. HQ'ing below the cap is rare as it is, but killing that chance while increasing your chances of NQ success will definitely pay huge dividends for you.
A staple of your next 12-14 levels. Save all of your results. Good thing they stack. Cap on these before you move to the next synth. Also, once you cap, buy a crapload of Shall Shells or Istiridyes off the AH for 7k/stack or less. If they aren't that low, hopefully your fishing skill is somewhere around 25. You can park yourself in Nashmau and fish up the Istiridyes all day long.
Since you're at 71, you're now in HQ Tier 3 range for the pearl and black pearl synths. Making your own always works out to be cheaper than buying off the AH, so keep this in mind. If you want to mass produce these to make money off of them through volume selling, buying the black pearls off the AH can be offset somewhat by making sure you made a couple stacks of your own. On average, for every 8 stacks of shells I burned down, I ended up with approx 3 stacks of pearls, 1 stack of black pearls and 4 stacks of pebbles. You can do the math from there as to how many stacks it will take for you to get to the 10ish stacks of black pearls you'll need to cap at 80 here. NPC the extra pearls you have (1,235 gil with max fame in Windy) along with the pebbles and I hope you have a ton of storage space.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Light Anima, 1x Water Anima, 1x Lightning Anima, 1x Coral Fragment
Cap: Level 71
These will ultimately get turned into Reraise Hairpins. Start using the aforementioned Pearls and Black Pearls you hopefully made before starting these synths. Try to get up to around 73 before you start putting the results together with the Vivified Coral you made earlier. If you have both of your +skill armors and synthesis support, you won't experience many breaks. Hold onto one of these to turn in for your Adept rank once you hit 78.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Coral Fragment, 1x Pearl, 1x Black Pearl
Cap: Level 77
Around 73-75, you'll start making these and selling them on the AH for profit. On Odin, the profit margin is usually around 5-10k each and they sell fast. Unfortunately, the market is pretty saturated with undercutters. Be mindful of this as you list them for sale. You will likely be undercut within 2-3 sales.
Skilling up between 73-80 will pretty much consist of alternating between Coral Hairpins, Reraise Hairpins and Coral Gorgets as you need the supplies. You will be revisiting the Vivified Coral synth quite often, so again, I hope you have at least 2 stacks of each anima and I hope that you get a little lucky with the skillups.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Vivified Coral, 1x Coral Hairpin
Cap: Level 80
You will be making these primarily for the next synth. If you get completely pissed off with the Shall Shell/Istiridye synths to make Coral Hairpins (I don't blame you if you do), then this is a good way to cap at 80 too. Farm up your sheep leather (you do have Leathercraft at 4 don't you..?) or buy off the AH if it's 8k/stack or less. Save your materials for the next synth.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Sheep Leather, 1x Coral Fragment
Cap: Level 80
Cap on these and sell them on the AH. They don't sell as fast as the Reraise Hairpins due to their job limitations, but they still sell at a good pace. These are almost always listed a little cheaper than the Hairpins as well due to a slightly lower cost.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Vivified Coral, 1x Coral Gorget
Cap: Level 82
Phase 3: Trumpeted Fanfare
In most guides, the area between 82 - ~86 is usually a complete wasteland of money. The general consensus for these particular levels consist of making the various parts of dragon armor. These are generally still good to make, but they sell super slow and often for well below cost. They serve no purpose other than to provide a material for an Alchemist who is perhaps trying to HQ some of the cursed Wyrmal gear. The skillups through this area will be slow, but fortunately, SE has given Bonecrafters a better way forward.
The Karakul leather portion of this synth isn't super cheap compare to it's sheep leather counter part. This is due to SE's stupidly implemented Imperial Tea Leaves. If you happen to catch a few stacks of these leaves on the AH, definitely swoop them up. The Karakul skins are commonly available for 1k or so each and this makes your Karakul leather synth cost around 2-3k each instead of paying the ~7k that they're currently selling for. Wivre Horns are usually available too for around 3k and the end result of this synth sells decently for profit around 10k ea.
Have a set of Coral Bangles ready to turn in for your final rank: Veteran
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Karakul Leather, 1x Wivre Horn
Cap: Level 86
Easily the best gift SE ever gave to Bonecrafters. This is a HUGE level gap, but well worth it when you consider the alternatives. If you've picked up the 3 pieces of available gear from GPs and can get the trumpet shells off the AH for less than 21k/stack, you can just park your patootie right in front of a vendor and NPC your results for a slight profit. There will be breaks yes, but if breaks are your only loss at this level in any craft, you're doing wonderfully. My experience through this phase saw me HQ 3 rings and break around 20 synths. I know I got lucky, but my pointing this out is really just to show that this level gap isn't anything to be super worried about. Definitely make to cap.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 2x Trumpet Shell
Cap: Level 96
Phase 4: Final Push
The path to 100 here gets rather tangled up. You're either limited by AH supply or you're taking rather large monetary risks. Hydra greaves material prices have come down quite a bit since the implementation of ZNM along with the Orochi Nodowa. Both of these pieces sell decently paced on the AH (especially the latter) and for a profit, but the issue is catching the scale. For the path to 100, I tried to go with items that were relatively cheap and had materials available for short burn sessions.
If you manage to nab these on the AH for 2.5-3k ea., you can NPC the results for 2.7k. Not a huge loss at all. You might even be able to sell a couple on the AH for a decent-sized profit since it's used in one of the most commonly upgraded relics; the Gjallarhorn. The material for it isn't always available though.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Colossal Skull
Cap: Level 100
At this level, you can HQ the piss out of some Titanictus for the shells. Make sure you take advantage of this. NPCing the results here will be a loss no matter what, so try to make sure you keep your costs to a minimum since this thing doesn't sell on the AH at all.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Titanictus Shell, 1x H.Q. Pugil Shells, 1x Sheep Leather
Cap: Level 100
There you have it! You now have a craft at 100 with mostly profitable consumables and end game gear sets that have managed to stay in demand all these years. Between the Neptunal Gear, Igqira Gear and, to a lesser extent, Hydra gear, Bonecrafting has a lot to offer in terms of making money as long as you're mindful of the fact that HQ money is a bonus and not a way of life.
If you brought this to 100, then it's obvious you're wanting to make money at it. If you haven't already done so, your next priorities should be getting your Leathercrafting and Alchemy subs capped. Picking up Tanner's Gloves will enable you to reach tier 2 for both portions of the Scorpion Harness synth (with Adv. Leather support).
The 60-100 series will follow the same pattern as my 0-60 series. One thing that I will be doing, as I have not actually leveled all crafts to 100, is that I will be getting contributions from experienced crafters for these guides. Next week, we'll take a look at Clothcraft.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
POL News: The Bottom of the Barrel.
Now, I will not deny the fact that I am a positive advocate for SquareEnix as a company. I don't really believe the fans deserve full disclosure on everything done in their business, nor do I really believe they are accountable to us for every single thing that happens as we play the game. In the days of religious hysteria we had the convenient excuse of the devil to blame, in this world where such values hold far less sway people tend to latch on to the closest, easiest thing to blame that is not themselves.
HOWEVER, after reading the latest "news flash" on POL's website, the above is now what I deem this latest offering from SE. Infact, I think they should throw in an in-game scraper just to make sure we get everything from it.
In a company that prefers to keep a fairly private public profile, this is one of the most trasparent efforts at changing a system from a personal attention to an automated, hands off affair, did this department really cost SE so much money it had to be axed? Apparently so.
However for those who are interested, they are now offering the Wedding Services via a player interface which automates the whole process now, instead of having a real GM show up and put in the effort.
This feels like a really hollow update. I hate all these automated systems that go on in real life, I don't really want to subject myself to one in a fantasy world either. Yes, if you want to be pedantic the whole concept of FFXI is an automated world, but there is an important distinction between the game play I enjoy and the idea of going through a once personal system in favour of something that now just feels like a cookie-cutter process. Do I feel empowered? Not in the slightest. To coin a phrase, weak-sauce.
Critical Break: 0-60 Series: Goldsmithing
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. This week, Q continues his 0-60 series with the final installment: Goldsmithing.
Easily the worst craft to get to 60. Virtually every synth it has is a financial loss. The primary reason for it is stupidity. For starters, SE uses many of the ingots found through here as a reward in various BCNMs and Einherjar tiers. This causes a a rather large influx of the more popular ingots like Gold and Platinum ingots and as we all know...
...when the AH has 10 or more of an item up, people start getting really stupid with their undercutting habits. On the surface, this looks like a good thing since you can take advantage of said stupidity and keep your costs down, but since Goldsmithing is similar to Smithing in it's Ingot - Sheet/Ring/Hairpin/Earring - Scales pattern, the stupidity just keeps spiraling down through the various levels of financial hell.
I wish there were a way for me to write a Goldsmithing to 60 guide without starting off in such a negative way, but reality is what it is. You will lose a lot of money getting to 60 with this, so make absolutely sure you have a rock-solid method of income (or a ton of patience) before you attempt to tackle this. Some of the ingot synths can be slightly profitable, but any profit you make from them will get eaten up ten-fold shortly afterwards.
Read on for the pain...
Phase 1: Copper and Brass - Nothing Witty to Say About Them
This will be as simple as it gets through this guide. What you'll find is that you will be spending a lot of time making ingots early on, then taking advantage of the stupidity of people selling the ingots only to get victimized by more stupidity trying to sell off your results to recoup your money.
Guild. Buy the copper ores there, it doesn't get any cheaper. Stacks of these sell for a slight profit due to lazy crafters, so take advantage of it while you can. Keep some around for your next synth. If Guild prices are out of whack (i.e. more than 14 gil ea.), buy from Denvihr.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 4x Copper Ore
Cap: Level 3
Use your previously made ingots to cap on these. Might be able to AH a few of these for a little profit, but don't count on it. Save one for your rank up, but NPC your results otherwise.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Copper Ingot
Cap: Level 7
There are usually a ton of Zinc Ores up on the AH in Bastok due to the fame quest there. Buy 'em at 500 gil or less, then buy your copper ore in the usual places. Stacks of these usually go for 9-10k on the Jeuno AH, so it might behoove you to make a few stacks specifically to sell and keep building that cash buffer if Zinc Ores stay in supply. If not, Palborough and Zeruhn Mines are the easiest spots to mine these things up with Palborough having the best rates, but far more spread out mining points.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 3x Copper Ore, 1x Zinc Ore
Cap: Level 9
Use some of your previously made brass ingots to cap on these.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Brass Ingot
Cap: Level 11
Can skip these if you like, but probably not a good idea. Save some money again by making your own brass ingots.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Brass Sheet
Cap: Level 13
Save one for rank up. Possible to sell on AH for a slight profit, but again, don't count on it. NPC results otherwise. It's possible to skip this synth and move onto the next one depending on the availability of silver beastcoins, but again...you probably want to pick up at least a couple levels off these things before moving on.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Brass Ingot
Cap: Level 17
Phase 2: Silver - Your Wallet's Last Stand
Sometime during this phase, throw a goodbye party for your wallet, cause afterwards, you're going to lose it.
Silver beastcoins are usually cheap on the AH. This synth comes in around the same price as buying the silver ores from the guild for 341 each as long as you buy them for 4k/stack or less. Save your ingots for a later synth.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 4x Silver Beastcoins.
Cap: Level 18 Buy these from Goldsmithing guild at their lowest point. Cap on these and save for later synth.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 4x Silver Ore
Cap: Level 20
NPC your results here. These have no purpose to anyone whatsoever. You can cap on these or move to the next synth and cap on that. You will have less invested in the next synth and you will make more in return to NPC.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Silver Ingot
Cap: Level 22
This is purely a bridge synth. You will lose a little money on this unless you farm up your zinc ores for the brass ingot. Buy a bronze hammer from Ciqala for 300ish gil and craft away. Just NPC the results.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Brass Ingot, 1x Bronze Hammer
Cap: Level 24
Save one for rank up. These cap at 27, but at least make to 26. You're going to lose about 500-1k/synth minimum here. As with the previous hairpin synths, you can possibly recoup most of your cost if you manage to sell on the AH, but I wouldn't rely on it happening.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Silver Ingot
Cap: Level 27
Keep your costs to the absolute minimum here. If you manage to do that, you'll break even on these reselling them on the AH. These sell about average there, so you could reasonably expect to move 2-3 stacks a day. Problem is that these are pretty much one of the only consumables that Goldsmithing has, so there are people who will HQ these as a bit of a side-money-maker.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Copper Ingot, 1x Silver Ingot
Cap: Level 31
This is the last chance you have to really break even or profit from any of the synths in this guide. They sell for cost or slightly above on the AH, but move about as fast as the Hiraishin. Again keep your costs to a minimum and cap on these.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 2x Silver Ingot
Cap: Level 33
Phase 3: You Didn't Like Gil Anyway
Farming is the only way you're not going to lose your ass here. Farming the materials for some of these next synths sucks too, so that's usually not an option.
Here's the good news: You can cap this at 38 without really losing your ass as long as you buy mythril beastcoins off the AH for 14k/stack or cheaper. Ingot prices may be a little higher on other servers, but on Odin, the Ingots themselves are turning around for about 4-6k ea. Make as many of these as you can and then some, pay close attention to single ingot prices and stack ingot prices and sell according to the higher one. Turn in a Chain Gorget when you cap for your next rank.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 4x Mythril Beastcoin
Cap: Level 38Here's the bad new Odds are you're going to lose money here. You can buy mythril ores from the guild for as cheap as 1.5k ea and the AH is usually around the same point. Unfortunately the AH doesn't keep many ores around and the guild isn't down that low most of the time. Your only other alternative is to farm golems or antica or anything else that might drop the ore semi-regularly. A little relief is in sight with the next synth though.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 4x Mythril Ore
Cap: Level 40
Use your ingots you just made to cap on these. The sheets sell for about the same as the ingot or a little more.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Mythril Ingot
Cap: Level 41
I put this here mainly as a bridge and didn't mention it's Vivified Mythril Ingot synth from earlier. The reason I didn't was because making your own animas requires you to have Alchemy at 75. Buying them off the AH is a joke on Odin. To me that pretty much tosses that particular synth out the window. However, there are some that make the ingot and sell it or some that find it in the Chocobo Hot and Cold Game. Compare the cost of the two materials to the sale price of Reraise Earrings and decide from there if you want to do this synth. You can buy the Mythril Earring from Scamplix or Matoaka. Due to it's low level cap and low level use, this item is spammed like crazy on the AH. They sell fast, but there's almost always a huge supply of them up.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Mythril Earring, 1x Vivified Mythril Ingot
Cap: Level 45
A brief reprieve in the mass spending dept. Make your own mats and definitely synth to cap here. You can probably skip Reraise Earrings or even Mythril Sheets and the second Mythril Ingot synth if you don't mind a 9 level gap. NPCing the results will net you a slight loss, but it takes a ton of breaks and a ton of loss before you even come close to matching what you'd lose by busting one or two reraise earring synths completely.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Brass Ingot, 1x Copper Ingot
Cap: Level 47
Phase 4: May As Well Be Charged 87,489 Every Time You Log In
There is no easy way to finish this off. Just grit your teeth and do it.
Gold Beastcoins are regularly thieved from higher level beastmen, so they're usually in steady supply. Make to cap here and keep for later synths. Turn in a Mythril Ring when you hit 48 for your last rank up.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 4x Gold Beastcoin
Cap: Level 51Same progression as the other ingots. The coin version is a couple levels below the ore version. Gold Ore is usually up in decent supply on both the Bastok and Jeuno AHs. You will likely lose 2-4k/ingot if you decide to resell these, but if you've been following these guides, you know to hold onto them and use them in the next synth.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 4x Gold Ore
Cap: Level 53
These sell on the AH for a loss, but they sell kind of decently. Cap on these instead of Gold Sheets as you'll lose more money on those and the level gap is covered by synthesis support anyway.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 2x Gold Ingot
Cap: Level 55
These next few synths are probably going to hurt or make you sit on your inventory for a while. These do sell and they sell for about the same loss as the Gold Chains. Should definitely consider capping on these, but be prepared to have your inventory space killed on a mule for a while.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 2x Gold Ingot
Cap: Level 57
Insane loss on Odin server. You lose about half the ingot value making these and reselling. Avoid these unless you just don't want to risk a double ingot bust on the next option.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Gold Ingot
Cap: Level 58
Higher level Goldsmithers will buy these in quantity attempting to HQ the mid-level stat rings. This makes their sales streaky though and the only way you're really going to move them is to sell them at a loss. On Odin, they sell for about a 5k loss, which isn't bad all things considering, but can still add up quick. They'll kill your inventory space while you wait for them to sell too.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 2x Gold Ingot
Cap: Level 60
This an appealing option due to the fact that it's a single-ingot synth and the results sell for a profit. The unappealing part of it is that it's cap is 64 and you're probably going to bust a few of them. Catch Artisan's Advantage and try to cap on these instead of Gold Rings if you don't want your wallet or inventory space destroyed.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Platinum Ingot
Cap: Level 64, but level 60 for this guide's purposes.
There you have it. Goldsmithing at 60. You probably lost about a half-mil to a mil if I had to estimate following this guide. Hopefully you made some gil from the actual profitable synths prior to the huge loss ones.
This also concludes the 0-60 Series. What I hoped to accomplish with this entire series was to shed some light on newer options that are available due to updates that have happened since a lot of the guides have been written. I also hoped to shed light on the options that were available to make getting from 0-60 as cheap as possible. These guides will likely not have their own dedicated section on this blog, so after they've all been published here, I will publish them on my own blog and dedicate a small section to them. Hope you guys enjoyed the trip and look for my next series, 60-100 to start up soon.
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