the problem with tradeskillsFollow

Wayyy too expensive to buy crystals and way too time consuming to farm them. Look at sheep leather, uses a dark crystal. Ive saved all my crystals that ive ever found and i have 7 dark crystals. Im lvl15. Sheep leather is used in a lot of recipes and can be made at lvl 0 leathercraft yet the dark crystals are about 500 each. Thats ridiculous. The frist few levels should use the more common crystals and the higher level skills should use the more rare crystals.

Be more selective in the monsters you fight. If you know that you want to take up Leathercrafting, your main targets should be Rabbits (Rabbit Hide x 5 + Grass Thread = Rabbit Mantle); Sheep (Sheepskins for leather); and Funguars (Dark Crystals).

Knowing what items monsters drop is absolutely key to being a successful craftsman. I try to (but can't always) farm all the items and crystals necessary for the items i am attempting to craft.

You'll only start breaking even around lvl 20 with crafting, and actual profit comes only when you get into the 40's. If they made it so you could start making a profit right away we'd have a screwed economy like Star Wars Galaxies where everyone has a few million within 2 months and nothing to spend it on.

I only lvl my crafting when I have a spare 50k laying around and nothing to buy for a while. What I've done is look at the chart and find somthing cheap to make that's within or somwhat above my current skill lvl. Then I go out and find the componants at a shop (never the AH, unless it's crystals or it's cheaper). I'll wait for the full moon, and craft on a day that matches the crystal I'll be using, then I go to the guild and buy the advanced assistance and start burning up my supplies.

Also, keep an eye on your skill, because it caps every 10 points and you have to pass a test to uncap it (you can just buy the item they ask for, you don't have to actually make it)

The amazing Tarutaru, Pikko, with the perfect answer! :)

The problem isnt that i cant afford it, its that i shouldnt have to pay 1200 for the wind crystals needed to make arrow wood lumber. The cost of the items needed should go up with level not start out costing a fortune.

Okay, so think about it from the other end. You DON'T do any crafts, yet you need money. You work your butt off getting that stack of Wind Crystals. Why? Because they're worth 1200 gil and is a good way for you to earn some cash. It's certainly not fair to those who are doing the dirty work for you to not get the rewards for it. If you're going to complain about price go freaking farm them yourself.

Don't farm regular mobs for crystals, that's what elementals are for! With a thief sub, you usually get 2 clusters for every elemental kill - that's 24 crystals total. If you have a mage job, you can start farming elementals pretty early (25ish?), though as a physical attacker you'll need to be a few levels higher. Zones like La Theine and Konschtat almost always have weather, and the elementals spawn in the same places predictably.

You picked a poor example, for two reasons.

One: Dark crystals are one of the highest priced crystals, leatheworking also being one of the highest priced crafts early on.

Two: You can make money wiht level 2 leatherworking using dark crystals. Quite a bit of money.

Spent almost 400k on alchemy so far.. Current level? 34... Extremely expensive, but I'm having fun leveling it so I can't complain.

Chebasaz - Ragnarok