by Burbie52, HSM team writer

When I started Final Fantasy XIV several months ago, I really didn’t know that much about it. Having never played a massive multiplayer game online before, with the exception of  Red Dead Redemption, everything I saw was a totally new experience for me.

I picked a beginning class for my character, Valpurisa Arborleon, and started playing with the help of some people who knew more about it than I did. I had played in the beta as both an Archer and Conjurer, but the beta was short-lived and didn’t give me much time to explore these classes.

The first class I chose in the full game was Gladiator. I didn’t even know what the role of this class would be; a tank was a foreign concept to me, so I played it through for several levels in the main story until I realized that tanking wasn’t really for me. I still finished it to level fifty and became a Paladin though. But for the storyline I finished as an Archer/Bard, which I liked much better. I then went on to do Conjurer/White Mage and Lancer/Dragoon to level fifty as well so that I had all the needs of my group covered. Though I will probably never take these to the levels many of my Free Company have, as I know I am not able to help too much at higher levels, my age is not a friend when it comes to this sort of play and I struggle to keep track of things in large-scale fights. Once I had these all done I decided to try Thaumaturge/Black Mage, and I still play around with it now and again.

My Goldsmith at work

But the one thing I never had truly done was crafting at this point — or gathering, either. I had dabbled a bit at first with a couple of them early on, but wasn’t sure it was something I could really get into at all. It seemed like such a grind to do anything in them, and I had never really done anything like it. Boy, was I wrong.

When I decided to bite the bullet, I tried by starting a gathering class: miner. There are three classes in this category – mining, botany and fishing. Mining seemed pretty easy, so I started there.

One of the things you really need in this game is gil, the currency that is used to purchase everything in the game from meals that enhance your stats for thirty minutes to gear that enhances your stats on a more permanent basis. You can buy gear that helps you through every class, even gatherers and crafters, so it is an important requirement to possess the gil to pay for it. There are many ways to make gil even without crafting or gathering, but it is a slow process because you can only sell the things you acquire through killing specific enemies or some of the things you obtain in dungeon chests or quests called Guildleves, though many of those are unable to be sold as they are considered unique.

Miner was first

As a crafter you have a long road ahead of you. Once I had my miner well on the way I decided that Goldsmith would be a natural addition, as I could mine most of what I needed in the way of gemstones and ores. Goldsmith is a very lucrative class when it comes to sales; jewelry can make a massive difference in any player’s stats, be it warrior, healer, crafter or gatherer. Even lower-level items sell for quite a bit, especially if they are high quality (HQ). Being in any crafting class requires time, energy and a lot of gil to level up. Selling as you go is really the only way to ensure you have all the materials necessary to reach your goals.

Once I had my Goldsmith to level fifty and received my HQ gear for it from a generous Free Company member, I decided to try another gathering class, Botanist, and along with it I picked Weaver as a new goal for myself. As before, Weavers need a lot of the items you can collect by gathering as a Botanist, so they were the perfect match to help me with materials I needed to hone my craft. This time I was able to make my own jewelry and clothing as I leveled up, HQ of course for the stat boost it gives.

The thing I like the most about crafting — once you understand the ins and outs– is that it is such a great boon to my Free Company to be able to help them as they level with new gear. I can now gear them from head to toe in any class, including crafting and gathering. It’s a very rewarding feeling to know that I can help them in this way. I had to do all of my leveling as a fighter and crafter the hard way, and it is a long road without the gear to back you up. Getting to the point of being able to craft HQ gear gets a big boost with the right gear.

Weaver. Blacksmith and Alchemist

I have written previously about the markets in the game, and they are such a huge game unto themselves I won’t get into it much here. Suffice it to say that learning them is a big part about being a crafter, as you will need to sell gear you make or things you gather, and you want to do it right so you don’t cut your own throat by underselling in the long run.

One of the great things about FFXIV is that they are constantly adding new things to do, no matter what your class is. Crafters have traditionally had new content to be crafted from a series of books you can obtain through advanced crafting or by using something called demimateria, which is a skill you learn by literally taking apart things you have crafted. This ability gives you back some of the materials used to craft the item, though at times it will fail and you lose it. Through this process you can also gain things called fieldcraft demimateria or battlecraft demimateria, which are used to purchase the advanced books needed to make higher-level items or to craft the items themselves.

The newest addition is a series of quests involving a beast tribe; there are already several of these for warrior classes, but this time they added one for crafters. A nice addition to an already amazing game.

Once I got into crafting I never looked back. I’ve continued to level all of them and now I am level fifty across the board in all classes of crafting. This gave me a new title I could wear above my head — Builder of the Realm — and I wear it proudly as an achievement of a goal I set for myself. There are others in the game who have done this; I have many in my own Free Company who are better crafters than I am. But I will now start to build my gear up by adding materia until I can craft anything in the game. This is my new goal as I look forward to the future in Final Fantasy XIV.

Share