(Updated for 5.2)
From: Bitsy Nez
To: My friends and family in SlvrD
Hi! I'm lazy.
This covers how I finished leveling my crafter classes 1-80 in around a week (although I already had one or two leveled up a bit before starting). There are plenty of other ways to quickly level crafters, such as using Levequests, and things I haven't even heard of yet. This guide is hyper-focused on using one system.
- Be lazy like me
- Be at least level 60 Disciple of War or Magic
- Complete the Main Story Quest Litany of Peace (Patch 3.3).
- You have to be somewhat reasonably geared for these crafts to work. It doesn't have to be HQ gear and it doesn't even have to be socketed, but make sure your gear level is not behind your own by more than 5 or 10 levels. If your gear isn't good enough, your stats won't be sufficient to complete the craft with the required collectability (quality) in the TeamCraft Simulator (more below) or in game
- Try to craft things at a profit and sell them as recipes become available to your crafters
- Put your excess Approved Skybuilders' materials (more on this below) up for sale and try to stay somewhat on top of keeping the listing prices updated. The Skybuilders' market moves fast
- World shop for things which are expensive or which you need in bulk. If you need sub-combines (mats made by other crafter classes) which you can't yet make, ask the FC for some help.
The Firmament is unlocked by completed the quest Towards the Firmament which can be picked up from Recruitment Notice in Foundation at X:9.7 Y:11.5.
Follow this quest line until the The Firmament is unlocked.
Once unlocked, you can travel to the Firmament using the Aetheryte menu in Foundation. The Firmament is not accessible via the local Aethernet; only the Aetheryte.
When you travel to firmament, you will find yourself in an area with several tents and NPCs. Run around this general area and click on everyone with a quest bubble until you've gotten through all the cutscenes, tutorials, etc.
Click even if it is a Side Quest bubble (like above) rather than an Unlock Quest bubble. This can be confusing because Side Quest icons usually do not unlock content, but in The Firmament it is different for whatever reason.
The Diadem is a shared, gathering-focused instance in which you gather special Skybuilders Materials used in helping with the Ishgardian Restoration.
This is optional if you have enough gil to buy Approved Skybuilders' Materials from the Market Board.
You can travel to the Diadem by talking to Aurvael in The Firmament:
- You'll be booted out of the Diadem after 10 mins of inactivity
- You get to keep any materials gathered while in the Diadem, even if booted
- You can leave at any time by opening the Duty Finder window and clicking Leave
- Flying is unlocked by default; fly into tornado lookin' things to move around more faster
- Monsters are not KOS and do not fight back
- Use the Diadem-unique Aetheromatic Augur skill to kill monsters for lots of materials; it does not charge up while fishing, though
- The Augur Gauge looks and behaves like a limit break bar. To use the Augur, stand still while targeting a mob and use the Aetheromatic Augur skill.
Materials gathered directly from the Diadem are untradeable and can't be used in crafting (useless) until they are "Approved". This guy next to Aurvael can help with that, if you say please.
- select a DOL tab at the top of the Resource Control window
- spam "Auto Select" -> "Request Inspection" until there is nothing left for approval
- if the "Auto-Select" button is grayed out, then you don't have anything for that class.
Once Skybuilders' materials are Approved, they can:
- be used in crafting Collectibles (the primary turn-ins in this process)
- be traded and sold on the Market Board (some reasonable gil can be made here).
Collectibles are the items turned in at Potkin, the Collectible Appraiser, to help with the Ishgardian Restoration. This is where the EXP actually comes from (as well as Skybuilders' Scrips). In order to craft these items, your crafter must be at least level 20.
You can find the Recipes for Ishgardian Restoration Phase 2 in your Crafting Log under the Special Recipes tab, subsection Restoration (2):
You will see the recipes available for your current class, based on your current level, map to a request from the Collectible Appraiser:
Important stuff:
- Collectibles can not be Quick Synthesized
- Collectability is analogous to, and replaces the concept of, Quality with regard to how it works during crafting
- the Collectibles have a minimum Collectibility in order to turn-in and receive rewards
- Rewards increase in tiers based on Collectibility of the items as listed at the bottom of Ishgardian Restoration window.
Crafting these in bulk and turning them in will already level you up fairly fast, but we can make this process far faster and easier by making use of reliable Macros. This is where TeamCraft comes in.
TeamCraft is a free, in-depth, and feature-rich crafting manager and simulator for FFXIV. It can be daunting at first but trust me, learning it is worth the time. Here I'm only going to focus on the elements of TeamCraft which are needed for this Power Leveling approach, but going learning more about it will help you get comfortable with submitting, gathering for, and assisting in carrying out Crafting Requests managed within in our #crafting-requests Discord channel.
- Visit TeamCraft
- You will be given an Anonymous user by default; in the Upper-right, hover and click "Registration"
- Register and confim your account
- Go to your Account Profile and Add your FFXIV character by Name/World.
You'll then need to verify your account. Follow these instructions to do so. NOTE: Step (4) of these instructions links to the french version of the Lodestone Profile. Use this link instead.
For this example I'll be using Carpenter to create Grade 2 Skybuilders' Stepladder
In the upper right of TeamCraft click "Profile", and edit the stats for the desired class using this particular blue button, and then Save:
On the Left, click "Search" and type in the desired name. Note fuzzy search works here. I.e. "sky ladder" will return "Grade 2 Skybuilders' Stepladder". In the item's row, click the "Craft in Simulator" button here:
A sidebar will show up on the right. Click "New Rotation":
Your character stats will automatically fill in. At the bottom of the screen you will have a Crafting Simulator with your skills available for your class, level, and stats. The notches on the Quality bar for these Collectibles represent each tier of rewards, with the first notch being the minimum required for turn-in.
Play with the rotation until you've found a solution you are happy with that at least gives you the first tier of rewared. When the rotation bar turns green, your craft is complete.
Now that you have a working rotation, export it to a Macro using this... particular blue button:
Copy the generated Macro into a Macro within FFXIV:
The maximum macro length is 15 lines. For longer macros, you'll need to split the commands into 2 macros. TeamCraft will create both sections for you:
Visit a Fieldcraft Supplier vendors and buy all your Primary and Secondary tools for one particular class. There will be a vendor section for each chunk of 10~ levels up to 49.
Go through each section and snag one of each for the class you are currently working on (powerleveling one class at a time is the way to go here imo, otherwise it can get too hectic with inventory/macro management).
Personally I use this guy in Limsa Lower:
You must be lvl 20 to participate in Ishgardian Restoration. Go find the guild for your curent crafter class and start the quest chain if you haven't already. Buy up simple mats from the vendor there (or the Material Supplier in our FC house) for use in lvl 1-15 recipes. You should easily be able to spam Quick Synth up to level 20 in 30mins - 1hr.
Go to The Firmament and talk to the Collectible Appriaser. They will show you which item you need to craft given your current class and level. Find that recipe in your Crafting Log, favorite it, and look at the mats required.
You will BREAK YOURSELF buying skybuilders' mats as well as other required mats from the MB unless you world shop. You can visit an Aetheryte at a Capital City, and select "Visit Another World Server"
Take down some simple notes for the mats you need for your current recipe, starting with noting Siren's current price:
Item A: Siren 100
Item B: Siren 150
Item C: Siren 200
While doing so, add these to your Favorites in the MB for easy searching.
Visit every world in the data center, and every time you see a price that beats one on Siren, note that price and world name. When you are done visiting all Worlds, you should have a list of each item required along with where it is cheapest. Double back and buy mats at the lowest price (you'll often find listings that are near or substantially lower than 100g/ea).
Note: If you are not already using this World Shopping technique for anything expensive or in high-quantity, you are probably spending well over 200% of what you actually have to, cumulatively. Use this.
Go back to TeamCraft and find the item to craft. Create new rotation, and find a successful synthesis that gives you the desired collectability, and update your Macro in game.
VERY IMPORTANT:
- keeping your gear reasonably up to date. Your stats are absolutely essential in being able to craft these items at the collectability required to turn them in
- keeping your Crafter Class stats up to date in your TeamCraft profile in order to keep the results in the TeamCraft Simulator and the actual in-game craft consistent
- If you are having trouble staying geared without going broke, ask the FC for help. Most of the time, when a crafter helps out with making some gear, they will also make some extras to sell on the market board. Not only do we want to help you, but we end up making money anyway. LET US LOVE YOU. You aren't bothering us. <3
Once you have all your materials, pick a comfy spot and click Synthesize. Wait for your character to finish their animation and for the craft window to be visible, then kick off the craft macro. Mind the delay or the rotation may not be executed correctly. If you panic and need the macro to stop, use /mcancel.
Each Macro generated by TeamCraft includes a "chime" at the end of Macro completion. This will let you know to look away from whichever series you picked so you can click 2-3 buttons and wait another 30-40 seconds. If you position your crafting window so the "Synthesize" button is above the crafting macro, you don't even have to move your mouse at all.
Rinse and repeat until you are out of materials.
Travel back to The Firmament and visit the Collectible Appraiser again. Click the relevant row and turn in the items one by one until you are out. Do this until you are leveled enough to accept the next-highest-level item the Collectible Appriaser will receive from you.
Each time you unlock a new Collectible turn-in, return to step (4) and repeat the process for the new item and macro.
- Ask FC family for help in procuring crafting gear you'll need to make this work. If you skimp on crafting gear, you will have trouble achieving high, or even minimum collectability. You don't want to skimp too much on crafter gear (Especially your Primary, Offhand, Chest, and Legs).
- If prices on Siren for a particular material are very high in comparison with the best price you found, it might be worth it to scoop up some extra and throw it up for resale on a Siren retainer as a means of self-sustaining your operation.
- Ask FC family for help in procuring materials which turn out to be cost-prohibitive, even after world shopping (looking at you, LTW). I'm sure someone will be willing to assist in gathering what you need.
- I didn't focus too much on gatherers here, but all the Skybuilders' materials you'll need for these crafts can be found in the Diadem manually as well, although that will take a lot longer. If you choose, you could level up your Gathering classes in tandem with this, as Diadem is, in general, very good experience for Gatherer leveling.
- Ask FC family for help DANGIT
- ASK FC FAMILY FOR HELP. LET US LOVE YOU.
- PLEASE tell me how this guide can be better by giving any feedback or if you have questions, comments, or concerns.
Malen Kins - GSM/BSM/WVR
Rebecca Love - ALC/BSM/ARM
Saya Tula - WVR/LTW/CRP
Emily Amell - ARM/GSM/CUL
Ishdar Teldath - LTW/WVR/GSM
Raena Tavare - ALC/CUL/GSM
Misplaced Hope - WVR/LTW/CUL
Kirra Skye - GSM/BSM/WVR
Moose Dragon - General Omnicrafter
Bitsy Nez - General Omnicrafter
Ayira Ebele - CUL
Doks Mistake - ALC
Please don't hesitate to reach out!
- Bitsy <3