Guild Location. As will find yourself spending a bit of time at the guild when skilling up (access to supplies, advanced support and promotion tests), you may wish to choose a guild with a location convenient for you. Low level crafters (sub-20) are encouraged to start with a craft in their home city.
Jobs. The cost of skilling up a craft can be mitigated by crafting the consumables you already use: stat foods and drinks, arrows, bolts and bullets, ninja tools, etc. Having a ready market for your crafted wares can fuel your progress.
Funds. Some crafts are much more expensive to level than others. If your funds are limited you may decide to choose a less expensive craft, so your starting funds take you to a higher level. If you have a lot of gil to invest, you may find less competition at high levels in the more expensive crafts.
Goals. If your primary goal is to make money with your craft, you need to decide whether you plan to do so with consumable or durable items. Consumables will earn your less per combine, but also have less risk of a pricy failure. Durables can require considerable capital and multiple tradeskills to be profitable, but can be very profitable at high skill.
For an excellent list of non-food consumables see this post by Aurikan:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?f ... 8300176802
Complementary Tradeskills. Some crafts have complementary tradeskills (including fishing, mining, etc.) and crafts. If you are already proficient in another craft or a collection tradeskill, you may want leverage off of this.
About the costs shown. As we get more information I am updating this list to show a range of costs to 60. The low end of the range tends to be enjoyed by the slow and steady types who raise their craft slowly by making items with profit (or minimal loss) and wait until they sell before continuing. The high end of the range are the costs being reported by power levelers who are interesting in raising their craft as quickly as possible, whatever the cost.
Alchemy (Bastok Mines)
Makes: medicines, fishing rods & lures, ninjitsu, bullets & arrowheads, weapons
A few key items: Beeswax (5), Glass Rod Repair (24), Prism Powder (41), Ether (50), Porcelain Flower Pot (61)
Useful for: ranger, fisherman
Cost to skill 60: 150K to 400K
Product mix: 80% consumable/20% durable
Complementary Tradeskills: Fishing, smithing, goldsmithing
Bonecraft (Windurst Woods)
Makes: jewelry, armor, instruments, arrowheads, weapons
Key Items:
Cost to skill 60: ~300K
Product mix: 20% consumable/80% durable
Complementary Tradeskills: Excavation, leather
Clothcraft (Windurst Woods)
Makes: thread, cloth, armor, ninjitsu, lures
Key Items:
Cost to skill 60: ~250K
Product mix: 30% consumable/70% durable
Complementary Tradeskills: Harvesting, goldsmithing
Cooking (Windurst Waters)
Makes: food, drink, pet food, fishing bait
Key Items: Insect paste (29), Meat mithkabobs (39)
Useful for: beastmaster, fisherman, mages
Cost to skill 60: 50K to 150K
Product mix: 100% consumable/0% durable
Complementary Tradeskills: Fishing, gardening
Goldsmithing (Bastok Markets)
Makes: ingots, sheets, gems, jewelry, armor
Key Items:
Cost to skill 50: 800k to 2M
Cost to skill 60: ~4M
Product mix: 20% consumable/80% durable
Complementary Tradeskills: Mining, Smithing
Leathercraft (South San D'oria)
Makes: leather, armor, parchment, ninjitsu
Key Items:
Cost to skill 60: 300K to 500K
Product mix: 20% consumable/80% durable
Complementary Tradeskills: Cloth
Smithing (North San D'oria & Bastok Metalworks)
Makes: ingots, armor, weapons, arrowheads & shuriken
Key Items: (15) Desynth Gob Helms, (20) Iron Ingots, (22) Iron Sheets, (34) Padded Caps, (49) Desynth Quadav Helms, (51) Desynth Quadav Backplates, (52) Darksteel Ingots, (69) Haubergeon, (73) Darksteel Pick (heard it sells for profit to NPC), (89) Hauberk
Cost to skill 60: 600K to 1M
Product mix: 20% consumable/80% durable
Complementary Tradeskills: Mining, wood, leather, goldsmithing
Woodworking (North San D'oria)
Makes: lumber, furniture, bows, arrows & bolts, fishing rods, instruments, weapons
Key Items: Arrowwood Lumber (2), Shihei (29), Bast Parchment (45 Woodworking, 29 Alchemy required also), Scorpion Arrow (59), Elemental Staves (75), Lu Shang's Fishing Rod (80), Mithran Fishing Rod (83, 87)
Useful for: ranger, fisherman
Cost to skill 60: 200K to 1M
Product mix: 40% consumable/60% durable
Complementary Tradeskills: Logging, smithing
, a na 60 podobno juz prawdopodobienstwo HQ na ringach (tych na 14 lvl) jest duze.
Cene Kite Shield, na ktorych leveluje obecnie z akceptowalna strata 6-7k na syntezie, ktos sztucznie wywindowal z 1-1,5k do 9k. Oczywiscie w zwiazku z tym na AH w Jeuno jest teraz 30 Kite Shield, ktorych nikt nie kupuje. Oczywiscie z czasem cena wroci do normy, ale ja mam przyblokowane skillowanie GS. W desperacji chyba bede robil zlote kolczyki - przy pechowym loscie mozna stracic 60k...
