A question for Goldsmiths.

Draciot

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Draciot
I have recently decided to take the plunge and level a craft, since farming/mining no longer cuts it. I heard that Goldsmithing costs the most; but also has the most return. So I ask all you high level goldsmiths: Is it worth it? I heard that it would take about 300k to get me to 50-ish, and that is when i hear the big money starts coming in (i heard at 50-ish i could make about 1-3 million gil). Whether or not this is true I do not know, yet another reason as to my post. If Goldsmithing does not reap all the rewards that i have heard, could someone kindly point me in the direction of a craft that does? Any guidance on this matter would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
All can I can say is go for it! Get yer ass to 87 so you and I can partner up a make millions in the HQ elemental staff market! Mwa-Ha-Ha!! :twisted:
 
I'm no goldsmith, but believe me when I say I have done my homework on crafting. If you're careful and patient, you can level any craft with minimal losses. However, if you want to get goldsmithing to a profitable level in a decent amount of time, you will lose millions. 300K should take you to level 20 in goldsmithing with a little luck. Cost to skill it to level 60 is 3 million, I believe.

Goldsmithing "makes a lot of gil" because it produces many in-demand items which require a high skill level. Goldsmiths don't have to be as conscious as other crafters on ingredient prices.

Any craft is profitable. Even at level 25 clothcraft, I check the AH every so often and find that prices for materials are down and products are up, so I craft some things and make a slight profit. No, it's not millions in return, but it adds up over time. If you can make 10K profit over crafting and then go farm while you wait for the stuff to sell, it's more efficient than just farming.

Oh well. That's just my $.02.
 
Ok my Goldsmithing is at 28.4 now, and it has cost me way more than 300k, Goldsmithing doens't become profitable till you start pumping out those +1's. break it down by cost say for example, the lvl 14 rings. say the purple ones

Silver ring : 1300 at AH, a bit more to craft it
Jewel: a few hundred, unlesss you craft it then it's about 2k.
so far you've put in about 3300, plus crystal cost. you synth and you get a regular ring Dex+1, sells for say 1400. nice big loss there. say you get a +1, then it's about 10k, so goldsmithing, imo, is not a get rich quick scheme, it takes time and a lotta cash.

From what i've heard from friends on other servers, or what i've gathered rather, Quetz is kinda screwy for crafting, until high lvl.
 
does anyone have a list of stuff that is good to craft for goldsmithing or smithing. i'd also like to work on this but i'm not sure what would be the best path to make this the most managable. i know it will tak a while before i start seeing the returns but i also dont want to flounder around to much.
 
somewhere here on QCDN is a good goldsmithing guid, under the guide section =P it helped me a bit...
 
i got mine to 29 and it was a pain

getting it beyond 30 will be even more pain

copper >> silver >> mythril >> gold >> ??

each step costs and the cost will go up a lot each time you move up

but... but!! if you make it up there i heard you can make some good money

here's 2 choices.... buy materials from AH or spend lots and lots of hours stuck in some dark,damp,lonely mine ^^;;

i actually gave up a while ago but i might get back into gs again to lvl it up a little more.... seems mythril ore prices have gotten a lot lower since last year ^^
 
Its best to keep within 6 levels of the cap when leveling a craft. But there are a few exceptions in Goldsmithing due to materials cost...its sometimes more cost effective to take more breaks than to use a more expensive synth...

A Quick Power Leveling Guide.

Copper Ingot -> 3
Always check vendor at the Guild - OR, the Galka vendor IN the Bastokan Airship departure area before resorting to AH
Brass Ingot -> 9
Check Bazaars for cheap Zinc, else buy from AH. Keep in mind the copper vendors. Save Brass Ingots for Brass Sheets
Brass Sheet -> 11
Brass Flowerpot -> 12
Here is your first losses starting to mount. I did these because they sell faster than Brass Scales at about the same loss. You can buy Brass Flowerpots at a vendor which is why they are cheap on the AH.
Silver Ingot (silver beastcoins) -> 18
Stay on beast coins as long as you can. They are cheaper than using ores. Should break even on AH if you keep failures down.
Silver Ingot (silver ore) -> 20
Slight loss here.
Silver Earring -> 21
Again, losses are getting larger. I think this is a 2k loss per synth. Getting off this synth as fast as possible. You can skip Earrings and go straight to hairpins if you want, but keep in mind you will have more initial breaks.
Silver Hairpin -> 27
Again, 1k loss per synth but they move fast as people use these for desynthing.
Hiraishin -> 31
1-1.5k per synth loss but I think it's better than Silver Rings which is what most people do. 3 synths = 1 stack meaning you can do more with less space. Plus they move well on the AH in Jeuno. If you do Silver Rings, I believe it is a 2-3k loss per synth, but they sell fast as well as people use them for desynthing.
Mythril Ingot (mythril beastcoins) -> 38
Usually, these sell for a 4k loss, but right now, they are a 5k profit. Stay on beast coins to 38 as they are cheaper than ores.
Mythril Ingot (mythril ores) -> 40
This is your last glimpse of sanity. Do these until 40, no exceptions. Should be about break even to 4k loss per stack.

Here is where Goldsmithing gets rough

Silver Bangles -> 46
This is a 3k per synth loss on the AH, even more if you vendor it. You will have a ton of breaks, but it is overall cheaper than the alternatives of Mythril Rings or Earrings - which is a 6-7k loss per synth. This is bad but it prepares you for what leveling Goldsmithing is all about - losing money. I tried to keep big loss synths to a few levels tops - the best I can do here is 6 levels. At 46 it's safe to do Gold Ingots.

Gold Ingot -> 50
3k loss per synth unless you get lucky and find gold ore for 6k apiece. This caps at 51. This is all I have mapped out for myself right now. I am just starting Bangles. Gold Ingots don't seem to bad...until you get a a critical failure. = 28k lost. The 300k upfront cost to make a stack of ingots is intimidating as well.

After Gold Ingots, you are pretty much screwed until Platinum Ingots. Platinum Ingots are the last profit-to-break-even haven in goldsmithing as far as Power Leveling goes.
 
alanon said:
All can I can say is go for it! Get yer ass to 87 so you and I can partner up a make millions in the HQ elemental staff market! Mwa-Ha-Ha!! :twisted:
lol, sure, if you give me the money to get to 87. :P

Songi_ said:
I'm no goldsmith, but believe me when I say I have done my homework on crafting. If you're careful and patient, you can level any craft with minimal losses. However, if you want to get goldsmithing to a profitable level in a decent amount of time, you will lose millions. 300K should take you to level 20 in goldsmithing with a little luck. Cost to skill it to level 60 is 3 million, I believe.

Goldsmithing "makes a lot of gil" because it produces many in-demand items which require a high skill level. Goldsmiths don't have to be as conscious as other crafters on ingredient prices.
3 million? That is a lot of gil, and to be quite frank, if I had that much i would not be trying to level a craft right now, since that would buy 3/5 of the items i need. ^^ (my original plan was to wait untl level 60 to sink all my money into crafts, since i'd have all my gear that i'd need until around 72 (barring Coral Earrings which aren't too expensive), but mining has really gone down hill due to the gil farmers and some damn glitch made me lose 50 or so beastmen seals, for the second time i might add; so doing bcnm's for money isn't really an option)


Songi_ said:
Any craft is profitable. Even at level 25 clothcraft, I check the AH every so often and find that prices for materials are down and products are up, so I craft some things and make a slight profit. No, it's not millions in return, but it adds up over time. If you can make 10K profit over crafting and then go farm while you wait for the stuff to sell, it's more efficient than just farming.
True, but I need the millions in return.

Devi said:
Ok my Goldsmithing is at 28.4 now, and it has cost me way more than 300k, Goldsmithing doens't become profitable till you start pumping out those +1's.
That is disheartening, i'm starting to think goldsmithing isn't for me. :(

Eni said:
but... but!! if you make it up there i heard you can make some good money
How high is 'up there' though? That makes all the difference.

Theorist said:
I am just starting Bangles. .
How much do you think you've lost leveling it that high?
 
How much do you think you've lost leveling it that high?

Honestly, this isn't the exact path I took. Since I had high Alchemy, I did some dual craft synths on bullets which were break even to profit.

But if I had to take a guess...

250-300k to Mythril Ingot stage or GS30. Like I said though, after Mythril Ingots, the costs leap through the roof.
 
On a positive note, you can take that 300k and turn almost 60 level in Alchemy. ^^ I think...it's been awhile...
 
Theorist said:
On a positive note, you can take that 300k and turn almost 60 level in Alchemy. ^^ I think...it's been awhile...
Really? I was planning on leveling Alchemy eventually anyway, perhaps i'll start now...
 
Theorist, a quick qestion, I'm at 28 now, so I should whip up Harishin? tha'ts just a copper and a silver + fire yes?

I know this sounds bad, but all I want is lvl 48 =P
 
Whoever posted that level 60 GS costs about 3 mil hit the nail on the head. I've spent pretty close to 2.5 million, and I'm lvl 56. I'm hoping to get to 58 in the next week... finally! Then I'll slowly creep up to platinum ingots cap, which will take some time, probably 1-2 months. After that... I'm just screwed. QQ made a post recently on how getting from 65-66 cost like 1.5 million or something.

The last I heard, getting to 75 will cost in excess of 15 million gil. Goldsmithing is easily the most profitable craft, but you won't see REAL profits until 55, and even then, it's not a huge profit, just a nice supplemental income to what you're already doing. At 75 is when I hear you can make a millions, although I'm not completely sure of that. But as has been stated, you have to have tons of gil to get there.
 
Elemental Staves don't produce much of a profit anymore. If you calculate the loss per synth if you don't HQ (which can be quite a bit)... when you do get the odd HQ is just makes up for all the losses from not HQ'ing.
 
well, what about bonecrafting? does that take long to lvl or is it expensive to lvl? i jus want a pair of shades ^^
 
Not many high level NAs to ask since goldsmithing is fricken hard!!!
taruwaru is the highest that comes to mind......
i know of a few at 51 including myself..... but i am taking a break from goldsmithing for a while..... leveling Thf/nin...... still need a stupid hairpin and I am more in shock from the money i lost leveling nin than i ever was when goldsmithing.....
 
Goldsmithing seems to defeat the point of crafting. Most other crafts allow you to invest a little gil to make returns on it shortly after. IE: Insect Paste Balls - It's break even to miniscule loss to level culinary to that point. Insect Paste Balls are solid profit. You can make money as you go with Culinary, so it helps you to raise gil for those expensive items you need. Goldsmithing is more expensive to level than any item you'd need to buy. Goldsmithers deserve a lot of respect for levelling a craft that won't bring them gil until they've poured enough gil into it to more than pay for any equipment they'll ever need.
 
Alchemy

Alchemy is cheap. I skilled alchemy to...20-something (whenever sneak oil starts to get expensive because you have to use the stupid recipe for skillups) with a loss of a few thousand (skilled up when the crystal market was down).

HOWEVER.

Alchemy =/= profit until post-60, and at that point it's mostly on HQs.

Anyway, for crafting guides, check allakhazam. Most of them are good (unlike many other things on that site >_>). For alchemy I used the guide "Cheap alchemy" by wolfsable (I think).

Luck.
 
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