Further details of how the Evolith system is going to work in terms of the actual nitty gritty on creating the synthesis process to fuse the evo-stones to your weapons, and a hit on how to remove them as well.
No longer will you be able to hide in your moghouse and conceal those horrible critical failures on expensive items, you can now share the joy of it with everyone in your party as well.
Yes, this was my first thought on the whole synergy process when reading about it, sad really isn't it.
A fancy pot-bellied oven in public areas, or a personal one you can summon out into the field via a quest that will most likely come with either a once-summoned it melts, or a recast cooldown of about 3 days allows you to access the new synergy process.
Interestingly enough this new method is something that will promote leveling a crafting skill to effectively manipulate the new synergy process. A great many more elements than the regular synthing process, beyond just the slog of skilling up are required to be successful in just starting the synergy process. Simply heating the oven isn't enough, as with the more familiar crafting process once all the aspects are in place there is no guarantee that you will succeed. At least SE is throwing in the ability to skill up synergy levels to become more proficient at it and reduce the number of breaks.
So what do you need to synergize! Beam me up Scotty!
Each synergy requires a certain skill level before it can be performed, the skill level drawing on two different sources before you can even think about starting.
The first is the basic craft level of the article you want synthing, someone in your party is going to need to have the relevant craft to level X before you can start. In addition you need to fill up your party, to a maximum number of 6 in order to create an elemental balance and fewell, which is the name of the new source of power that fuels the furnaces.
From what I can gather everyone participating needs a fewell crucible, which is a quested item that remains with you till you quit FFXI so you only need to quest it the once and since SE wants this to appeal to everyone, I should imagine that it won't be that hard of a quest to access or complete.
At the moment SE are being kind of vague on who you can invite into your party in order to fill up the maximum amount of fewell needed in order to start the synergy process, merely hinting at certain prerequisits. What these are, are anyone's guess. Could be job type, job level, holding a pumpkin, eating a cheese sandwich, casting a spell or activating a job ability, we don't know. Fortunately the npc guarding the oven will let you know and even give you more fewell for a "nominal fee".
Once you have filled your crucible with fewell, you then need to stake your claim on the oven in public areas, or summon your own private oven if you are out in the field. Depending on how popular this is, I can forsee this being incredibly laggy, just like Moblin Mazemongers was in the first days of it being released with a horde of people trying to click on a single target.
Once you have successfully claimed the oven, now you get the pleasure of claiming inanimate objects as well as that HNM every 24hours, you can shovel all your ingredients in and hope it works... WAIT! Nope, again, SE have taken it a step further.
The implication is that during the process, there will be certain triggers that have to be met in a timely fashion in order to prevent your synergy from just simply detonating. You can't just shove it in the oven and ignore it until it is done, there is more work to be done on top of that. Again, what these conditions are, as of yet are unknown, but it will be interesting to see how complicated they are making this process.
Tada, after all that you either succeed or fail.
Will it be a critical failure every time and all your ingredients are destroyed?
Will it be a little more like conventional crafting and you can retrieve something from the mess of a failed synergy?
How long is the whole process going to take, omitting the actual hunting down of the evo-stones to start with?
There are some fairly big questions overhanging this at the moment, in this modern world of instant gratification, getting 6 strangers to stand around for 30mins while you try and synergy something is going to put people off using the evolith system VERY quickly, unless you can find all the requirements amongst your friends.
They do emphasis leveling up your synergy skill in order to access more complicated recipies and to further ensure you don't ruin the whole synergy in the process. Which sounds suspiciously like a new craft using old tools more than anything else. We will have synergists popping up to specialise in this particular craft.
I really like the overall idea, its combining a lot of different game play elements into something that requires team-work. However, the rewards from the evo-stones has got to be something astoundingly amazing for it to really get off the ground given the level of hassle you have to go through to get anywhere with the evo-stones and synergy. Not everyone comes with a bucket of patience and most people who leveled a craft the first time around know how hard, and how time consuming it is.
I see no reason as to why this would be any less expensive, time consuming and hard work, just even more complicated than crafting on its own. When it comes out in the November update I will definately be taking a gander to see how it pans out in real terms.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
POL News: Synergy! Synthesis enmass.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
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.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Critical Break: 0-60 Series: Smithing
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 seventh installment: Smithing.
Smithing was a craft I always found fascinating. Most of your swords and armors come from this craft. Yes the other crafting guilds have their share of armor and weapons too, but usually when you think of someone making a weapon or a piece of armor, an anvil and some red-hot metal getting hit with a hammer are among the first things that spring to mind. This was something that intrigued me in my early FFXI days.
At least until I started losing money.
Unfortunately, this is not a craft you can get to 60 without losing money unless you have far more patience for mining to cap on a daily basis than I do. Realistically, you can farm up NPC-able scrolls and make money at a faster clip than you can from mining. Keep this in mind as I go through this guide.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Desynthesis plays a large part in saving money on some of these synths. I didn't go this route, but if I ever do this again, I'll likely set my mog house up with Moghancement: Desynthesis and spend a couple weeks collecting ingots through the various pieces of beastmen armor in my level range. Most lower level beastmen armor can be picked up for 1k or less with the results often times being 1-2 ingots of various flavors.
Phase 1: The Bait
Smithing starts off innocently enough. You'll be spending your first phase here either mining up your ores (not worth it really) or camping in front of guild salesmen. One thing to note here is the pattern most metals follow. They generally go from Ingot to Sheet to Scales in progression of skill up. Most of the metals in this guide will not get past the Sheet step as turning them into any scales will usually devalue your items pretty quickly.
Pick your favorite guild sales rep in Bastok or San d'Oria (or Whitegate if you like traveling back to the starter cities to rank up) and park yourself in front of them with some Fire Crystals. It shouldn't take long to cap on these. Save results for next synth.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 3x Copper Ore, 1x Tin Ore
Cap: Level 2
With more Fire Crystals, start eating up your supply of Bronze Ingots you just made.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Bronze Ingot
Cap: Level 4
If Bronze Ingots can be picked up for 75 gil or less from the Guild (or if you have any left over), buy up a few stacks and head out to Buburimu Penisula and farm up some Giant Femurs. Make these to cap. If you haven't started Bonecrafting here, odds are you'll cap that at 2 as well making these. Turn one in for your first rank up.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 2x Bronze Ingot, 1x Giant Femur
Cap: Level 8
Use up your supply of Bronze Sheets and cap on these. Check the AH in the starter cities for selling pace of these. It should be close to break even since the price of the mats is so low anyway and no one is usually dumb enough to put things like this up for < 100 gil. They're used in some other armors down the Smithing line, so they do sell, just not very fast.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Bronze Sheet
Cap: Level 10
Make up some more Bronze Ingots (or buy from Guild if super cheap) and make these to cap. These tend to be a good skill up item for Woodworkers, so you shouldn't lose any money selling the heads on the starter city AH.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Bronze Ingot
Cap: Level 14
You won't be able to resell these, but given the level gap after this, you'll want to make these to cap. They're cheap buying the ores from the Guild as usual.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 4x Tin Ore
Cap: Level 15
Phase 2: The Trap
The innocence starts to fade here.
I mention this one as a bit of an alternative. The Iron Ingot synth will add up pretty quick. Generally making this ingot will be a little cheaper and it's used in one of the early Gobbiebag quests. Copper and Zinc ores are relatively cheap to pick up anywhere and you can usually find a few Kopparnickel ores floating around for < 500 gil on the various AHs. Kopparnickel ore is also a relatively common drop off bugbears in the Moval zones. You may opt to use this synth for a couple levels before moving onto Iron.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Zinc Ore, 2x Copper Ore, 1x Kopparnickel Ore
Cap: Level 20
For the most part, buying your ores from the Guild will be the best way to go. Iron Ores are relatively common mining results, but when you factor in cost of pickaxes and then the fact that there's a cap on how much you can mine per day, it's best just to go farm scrolls to make the money for it. Turn in an Aspis when you hit 18 for your rank up.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 4x Iron Ore
Cap: Level 20
Use some of your newly created Iron Ingots to make these.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Iron Ingot
Cap: Level 22
Hopefully Lady Luck is nice to you and you don't have to make too many of these. These are primarily used in the Makibishi synth, which is one of Smithing's rare consumables. Hold onto your results as you'll need them for a mid-30s synth.
Recipe: Wind Crystal, 1x Iron Sheet
Cap: Level 26
Say goodbye to a lot of gil. There are two things that are possibly going to play out here. The first is that you'll lose 20k/stack or so selling your results on the AH. The second is that you manage to sell all your chains by the singles on the AH and come close to breaking even over the course of the next year. Compared to the alternatives in this range, this is the best option available. Again, hopefully Lady Luck prevents you from having to make a ton of these things and actually lets you get one of those 1% HQs that give you multiple chains. Find the cheapest way possible to obtain your ingots here. That usually involves ores from the guild, but you can sometimes find the ingots on the AH for cheaper than the guild. Turn in a Bilbo for your rank up when you hit 28.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 2x Iron Ingot
Cap: Level 30
Buy Leather Trousers from whatever shop sells them as they're usually around 500g. Make your own cotton thread if your clothcraft is high enough or buy it from the weaver's guild. Use those Iron Scales you made earlier and NPC your results. This is one of the few synths that have a rather high resale value (approaching 6k with max fame). You will still lose a little money on this synth if you get max NPC value from it, but it's far less than what you'd lose trying to sell the scales on the AH.
Also, if you haven't started Leathercraft, you'll likely pick up a few levels of it here if it's below 5. I'd recommend getting it to at least 3 or 4 before skilling up on these though to reduce your chance of loss.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 2x Iron Scales, 1x Cotton Thread, 1x Leather Trousers
Cap: Level 35
When I skilled up on these, steel ingots were 6k ea. on the AH. This made it so that I had to sell all of my results to get close to break even. Now steel ingots on Odin are around 2.5-3k ea making this synth profitable to NPC even. Take advantage of this as long as you can. Odds are you don't have enough Iron Scales to cap on the previous synth, but if you're in the 33 range, it's perfectly acceptable to move onto this synth. The Ash Lumber portion of it is super cheap anywhere.
Like the previous synth, this has a subcraft you'll need to pick up a few levels in if you haven't started it at all. Woodworking caps at 6 on this. Turn one of these in for your next rank up.
Recipe: Fire Cyrstal, 1x Ash Lumber, 1x Steel Ingot
Cap: Level 38
Farm up your lizard skins (Crawler's Nest) and try to make sure your Leathercraft skill is 8 or higher. It's probably going to be cheaper to buy stacks of iron sheets off the AH at this point than it will be to make them, but if you've got max fame, farm your lizard skins and get the sheets for 2.7k or less, you can NPC the results for about break even.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 1x Lizard Skin, 1x Iron Sheet
Cap: Level 41
The Cotton Cloth part of this synth can be made relatively cheap if your clothcraft is high enough, otherwise expect to pay about 600-800 ea. for them. This is similar to the previous synth where if you get your Iron Sheets for 2.7-ish, farm your lizard skins and keep your cotton cloth costs down, you can make most of your money back NPCing the results. These sell on the AH rather slow, but they do sell. You might opt to keep a few laying around to sell for 9-10k on the AH to make up the missing gil. Definitely make these to cap cause from here on out, it's kind of painful.
Again, be mindful of the Leathercraft sub of 12. Up to this point, it's entirely possible for you to have picked up 12 levels of Leathercraft just following this Smithing guide.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 1x Lizard Skin, 1x Iron Sheet, 1x Cotton Cloth
Cap: Level 45
Phase 3: The Drain
A number of these synths end up being profitable, but the materials cost a lot and subsequently makes breaks super costly.
This falls in the same category as the War Pick. The prices on the mythril ingot portion of this synth has fallen quite a bit from the time I skilled up on them. On Odin, their price is currently in the 4-5k range per ingot. With Elm Lumber around 2k or less each, you can NPC the results of this for about break even or even a little profit. Hold onto one of these for your final rank up item as well.
Be mindful of the level 8 Woodworking cap.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Elm Lumber, 1x Mythril Ingot
Cap: Level 47
Buy up the ores on the AH checking Bastok, San d'Oria and the Jeuno ones. Pick up your Iron Ores from the guild. A five level gap will mean you're probably going to bust a few early on. Hold onto your result for the next synth.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Darksteel Ore, 3x Iron Ore
Cap: Level 52.
Darksteel Sheets usually don't lose any value over their ingots. Make these to cap. Buy Ingots off the AH if you don't have enough from your previous skillup session as there's not really any financial difference, just time.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Darksteel Ingot
Cap: Level 55
Loss. Pure and simple. You will lose about 2k/synth on these NPCing the results. You can AH a few of them, but they're still about a 1k loss even that way and they sell very slow. This is primarily a bridge synth to the final skillup items you'll be dealing with. Make or skip these depending on how comfortable you are with a 6 level gap.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 2x Iron Sheet, 2x Leather Gloves
Cap: Level 57
When SE implemented this and the caps were fleshed out, my first thought was "Hey, that's a kick ass skillup item!" Buying all your mats off the AH (on Odin) will run about 27k ea and the results sell fast and for about break even. Considering what was necessary before in this level range, SE gave you smithers a gift.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Dweomer Steel Ingot, 1x Steel Ingot, 2x Darksteel Ingot
Cap: Level 61, but 60 for this guide's purposes.
Falls in same boat as Erlking's blade, only with a bit of a more expensive material set. These actually sell decently fast (since most are dual-wielding them...) and for a good profit. You'll spend about 56k or so on mats with the end results selling for 70k+. It will definitely be a decent way to make some of your lost gil back, but be very careful about flooding the AH with these things. There are a lot of dumbasses out there that think if 10+ are up on the AH, they have to drop the price by 50% or more no matter how fast the things are moving.
Recipe: Fire Crystal, 1x Jacaranda Lumber, 1x Dweomer Steel Ingot
Cap: Level 61, but 60 for this guide's purposes.
This is the most common synth used to get to 60. Again, buy/make your Iron Sheets for 2.7k or less, then hit up the Crawler's Nest for your silk thread. If you start making these at 55, expect a ton of breaks since this has a cap of 66. This is far easier on the wallet than my previous two suggestions from a material cost standpoint, but don't let the initial costs fool you. Break enough of these due to the level gap and you'll see similar financial losses.
Recipe: Earth Crystal, 1x Iron Sheet, 1x Silk Thread
Cap: Level 66, but level 60 for this guide's purposes.
Whew! Smithing is 60 now! This has been, by far, the most expensive craft to level in this 0-60 series. This is also one of the more common subcrafts for various bits of armor that's floating around out there. It gets worse though...
Next week: Goldsmithing, the final 0-60 chapter.
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
Chaotic Pellucidity
Teabags and KY Jelly
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