Post by SunScript on 2023-12-09 04:34:24
These are my current crafting skills in FFXI. I'll explain why I ended up with those levels, from top to bottom.
I started out wanting to raise fishing a bit because fish is loot. Quickly learned I'm not suited to fishing because it requires a lot of patience, learning about different water bodies, moon phases, currents, rod types, bait types, and different "signals" the fish give you. So I ended up disliking it (and I could afford to, my group has 2 fishers). Then, I got really into chocobo racing and because my chocobo does well during rainy weather in races (while most just trip and fall behind), I ended up wanting to craft Foulweather Frogs (which cause rain during said races) and that in turn required fishing for Elshimo Frogs. So I now had a powerful motivation, a very specific fishing target, and an area of the game I actually enjoyed being in. That's how I "accidentally" ended up rising from Fishing 5 to Fishing 14 without feeling like the usual slog.
Woodworking is not something I enjoy a lot, but from time to time I enjoy putting together simple tables or cutting apart wood logs. Any level of woodworking I get is useful anyway, because Woodworking is a secondary crafting skill for many recipes (Polearms for example) and because even the base level arrows are still good to have and use.
Smithing is something I care a lot about, so I put a lot of effort to raise it this far, and intend to raise it even more. The only reason it isn't my main craft is because I main Monk and I like my main craft being able to benefit me directly. It sucks when I make a cool sword and I cannot use it. But I do like making swords, smelting ore into ingots and Smithing is a secondary craft for Goldsmithing recipes, my main focus.
Goldsmithing is my main craft. It's one of the most expensive to raise, but I also cared about it for many reasons: I can specialize into Clockmaking (think gears and automaton modules for Puppetmasters), I can cut gemstones, I can make and sell sweet jewelry (which my main class Monk can use), I can enhance Smithing weapons with alloys and so on. The reason it isn't higher right now is because I need to fully decide what kind of crafter I am. I need to decide how much to dedicate myself to mainly Goldsmithing versus splitting my focus more in Smithing and perhaps Clothcraft. This is decided by what kind of high level recipes or High Quality items I want to focus on.
Clothcraft I have a complicated relationship with. I decided to raise it this high mainly because I wanted to make equipment involving enchanted threads that required it. My friends sometimes describe me as an Item Master or Money Based Red Mage because of my heavy use of such enchanted items (think limited spell charges on gear). I wish I didn't need to raise it this high for what I wanted, because I don't feel like I'm truly enough of a Clothcrafter for level 70 to represent me, I even had to delevel a bit because it felt bad to think of myself that way. This craft often ties in with Goldsmithing (gold and silver threads) and it lets me break down capes I loot from mobs into useful cloth to sell, so it's okay.
I hate Leathercraft. I really wish I didn't have to raise it, but we have no active group member with this skill and a bunch of gear I need in order to reach the Counterattack rate cap on Monk requires Leathercrafting gear or some really unpleasant compromises in other areas. I decided raising this would be less miserable than not being able to Counterattack fools. Level 50 is very precise, I need at most 50 for all Counterattack gear I want and never anything more.
Bonecraft doesn't interest me much, it just amuses me to make glue out of bones and stuff so it somehow ended up at 12. This unintentionally ended up useful, it turns out the glue I like making is part of making Brass Tanks which you need for storing potions (it's a type of charged item, which I like using).
Alchemy was a weird surprise. I really don't like chemistry irl and dealing with solutions, so I expected never to raise it. But it turns out in FFXI you can use lightning to break apart millioncorn into starch, which is fun. And then like glue, I found making bees wax amused me. Then I boiled Gigas Socks to make Poison Powder (never stopped being funny). And then I found out I could make use of some mob gear by breaking it apart into carbon fibers or optic fibers and profiting off those. And then it turned out Optic Fiber is a component is some Clockmaking stuff I care about making with Goldsmithing. Basically, I was able to raise Alchemy an unexpected amount by never mixing solutions, but instead breaking things apart for fun. It's the only game that ever taught me the crafts you choose aren't the full story of who you are, it's also how you approach them. I hadn't intended to raise Alchemy this far, and I don't regret it.
Cooking at 45-47 was a very intentional decision. I have a high level cook in my group, I don't want to take their place. But the mid level allows me to survive well off on my own, adventuring and using what I hunt to keep going forward. I value a certain degree of independence and Meat Mithkabobs represent that independence. Eventually I also became an amateur Patissier though.
Synergy is a weird one so I won't go into much detail. We have high level Synergy players in the group so I don't need to be one and raising it feels like an unnecessary chore.
***
Now to tie it back to Ashes, I expect my focus to be split somewhat between Gathering and Crafting, dabbling only a bit in Processing.
- When it comes to Gathering, I'm expecting my spread to be: Apprentice Herbalism, Master Hunting, Master Mining, Apprentice Lumberjacking.
Hunting sounds very appealing to me. In my group, I'm one of those who explores ever nook and cranny, optimizes hunting paths, optimizes the seconds spent on every spawn of the same mob for 2 hours straight etc. So I know which mobs drop which crafting materials my group needs and where to go get them and how to hunt them. I am really hoping here that Taming is a distinct and optional branch of Hunting. I'd love to help my Animal Husbandry and Beastmaster experts with Taming, but I'm not interested in being quite like them (so I would only dabble a bit).
I have no interest in Lumberjacking except if I can use precious wood to craft jewelry. Then I might dabble.
- In terms of Processing: Apprentice Alchemy, Journeyman Cooking, Journeyman Metalworking, Apprentice Weaving.
No interest in Animal Husbandry per se, what I want here is the same as in FFXI: to be able to raise one or two cute pets/mounts with the instructions of my more knowledgable Animal Husbandry friend. Especially crows and foxes.
- And finally, for Crafting: Grandmaster Arcane Engineering, Grandmaster Jewel Cutting, Master Weapon Smithing, Journeyman Scribing, Journeyman Armor Smithing, Apprentice Tailoring.
I started out wanting to raise fishing a bit because fish is loot. Quickly learned I'm not suited to fishing because it requires a lot of patience, learning about different water bodies, moon phases, currents, rod types, bait types, and different "signals" the fish give you. So I ended up disliking it (and I could afford to, my group has 2 fishers). Then, I got really into chocobo racing and because my chocobo does well during rainy weather in races (while most just trip and fall behind), I ended up wanting to craft Foulweather Frogs (which cause rain during said races) and that in turn required fishing for Elshimo Frogs. So I now had a powerful motivation, a very specific fishing target, and an area of the game I actually enjoyed being in. That's how I "accidentally" ended up rising from Fishing 5 to Fishing 14 without feeling like the usual slog.
Woodworking is not something I enjoy a lot, but from time to time I enjoy putting together simple tables or cutting apart wood logs. Any level of woodworking I get is useful anyway, because Woodworking is a secondary crafting skill for many recipes (Polearms for example) and because even the base level arrows are still good to have and use.
Smithing is something I care a lot about, so I put a lot of effort to raise it this far, and intend to raise it even more. The only reason it isn't my main craft is because I main Monk and I like my main craft being able to benefit me directly. It sucks when I make a cool sword and I cannot use it. But I do like making swords, smelting ore into ingots and Smithing is a secondary craft for Goldsmithing recipes, my main focus.
Goldsmithing is my main craft. It's one of the most expensive to raise, but I also cared about it for many reasons: I can specialize into Clockmaking (think gears and automaton modules for Puppetmasters), I can cut gemstones, I can make and sell sweet jewelry (which my main class Monk can use), I can enhance Smithing weapons with alloys and so on. The reason it isn't higher right now is because I need to fully decide what kind of crafter I am. I need to decide how much to dedicate myself to mainly Goldsmithing versus splitting my focus more in Smithing and perhaps Clothcraft. This is decided by what kind of high level recipes or High Quality items I want to focus on.
Clothcraft I have a complicated relationship with. I decided to raise it this high mainly because I wanted to make equipment involving enchanted threads that required it. My friends sometimes describe me as an Item Master or Money Based Red Mage because of my heavy use of such enchanted items (think limited spell charges on gear). I wish I didn't need to raise it this high for what I wanted, because I don't feel like I'm truly enough of a Clothcrafter for level 70 to represent me, I even had to delevel a bit because it felt bad to think of myself that way. This craft often ties in with Goldsmithing (gold and silver threads) and it lets me break down capes I loot from mobs into useful cloth to sell, so it's okay.
I hate Leathercraft. I really wish I didn't have to raise it, but we have no active group member with this skill and a bunch of gear I need in order to reach the Counterattack rate cap on Monk requires Leathercrafting gear or some really unpleasant compromises in other areas. I decided raising this would be less miserable than not being able to Counterattack fools. Level 50 is very precise, I need at most 50 for all Counterattack gear I want and never anything more.
Bonecraft doesn't interest me much, it just amuses me to make glue out of bones and stuff so it somehow ended up at 12. This unintentionally ended up useful, it turns out the glue I like making is part of making Brass Tanks which you need for storing potions (it's a type of charged item, which I like using).
Alchemy was a weird surprise. I really don't like chemistry irl and dealing with solutions, so I expected never to raise it. But it turns out in FFXI you can use lightning to break apart millioncorn into starch, which is fun. And then like glue, I found making bees wax amused me. Then I boiled Gigas Socks to make Poison Powder (never stopped being funny). And then I found out I could make use of some mob gear by breaking it apart into carbon fibers or optic fibers and profiting off those. And then it turned out Optic Fiber is a component is some Clockmaking stuff I care about making with Goldsmithing. Basically, I was able to raise Alchemy an unexpected amount by never mixing solutions, but instead breaking things apart for fun. It's the only game that ever taught me the crafts you choose aren't the full story of who you are, it's also how you approach them. I hadn't intended to raise Alchemy this far, and I don't regret it.
Cooking at 45-47 was a very intentional decision. I have a high level cook in my group, I don't want to take their place. But the mid level allows me to survive well off on my own, adventuring and using what I hunt to keep going forward. I value a certain degree of independence and Meat Mithkabobs represent that independence. Eventually I also became an amateur Patissier though.
Synergy is a weird one so I won't go into much detail. We have high level Synergy players in the group so I don't need to be one and raising it feels like an unnecessary chore.
***
Now to tie it back to Ashes, I expect my focus to be split somewhat between Gathering and Crafting, dabbling only a bit in Processing.
- When it comes to Gathering, I'm expecting my spread to be: Apprentice Herbalism, Master Hunting, Master Mining, Apprentice Lumberjacking.
Hunting sounds very appealing to me. In my group, I'm one of those who explores ever nook and cranny, optimizes hunting paths, optimizes the seconds spent on every spawn of the same mob for 2 hours straight etc. So I know which mobs drop which crafting materials my group needs and where to go get them and how to hunt them. I am really hoping here that Taming is a distinct and optional branch of Hunting. I'd love to help my Animal Husbandry and Beastmaster experts with Taming, but I'm not interested in being quite like them (so I would only dabble a bit).
I have no interest in Lumberjacking except if I can use precious wood to craft jewelry. Then I might dabble.
- In terms of Processing: Apprentice Alchemy, Journeyman Cooking, Journeyman Metalworking, Apprentice Weaving.
No interest in Animal Husbandry per se, what I want here is the same as in FFXI: to be able to raise one or two cute pets/mounts with the instructions of my more knowledgable Animal Husbandry friend. Especially crows and foxes.
- And finally, for Crafting: Grandmaster Arcane Engineering, Grandmaster Jewel Cutting, Master Weapon Smithing, Journeyman Scribing, Journeyman Armor Smithing, Apprentice Tailoring.