Current State of AlchemyFollow

I've recently come back after a short break. My Alchemy is currently 64.

I was hoping that the introduction of Synergy and the new recipes would boost the entrepreneurial (word check?) value of having Alchemy leveled past 60. I've always heard how much Alchemy sucked as far as a gil generating craft goes from others that have it leveled to 100+. I'm at a point where I can either begin working on taking it to 70+ or switch my focus to something more beneficial (arguably) like Woodworking or Smithing.

So what are your opinions of the current state of Alchemy? Would I be better served going the route of WW or SM/GS and leave my Alchemy at 60? Bullets, Oils, Mercury, etc., are usually available at or below cost thanks to the large number of Alchemists that HQ regularly to make some kind of profit and these days I have less of a use for these types of items anyway. Combine that with the fact that there are very few (if any?) items that sell at even a half-decent rate post 60 and I'm seriously considering going a different route.

Is it just too early to tell if Alchemy received a boost from Synergy? I don't think many people are interested in Synergy yet. Unless the interest is piqued with the addition of new items in Alchemy or Synergy, is it still a worthless craft?

Thanks

don't do alchemy, it's dead dead dead. Can't even make little bits of gil from HQ potions/ ethers anymore since they fall like rain from assaults etc.

I can make more than that with other underlevelled crafts with no subcrafts. :P

Thanks for the information. I'm going to level my other sub-crafts and continue with what I will enjoy the most.

Actually, its reraise earrings. Make the anima (or should I say hq the anima) at 100+3+3 alchemy and vivified ingots at 40goldsmithing and reraise earrings at 45 goldsmithing. And yes, I prolly could sell all 46 you get, from clearing out both guilds of mythril ore, in 1 day if I constantly kept putting them up, and constantly kept clearing the guild, lowering the overall supply to only me.

But thanks for the rate down XD


The last ones where i was talking about 50k+profits were in fact, bullets. but as you said, they sell slow so I don't really make them.

its not just goldsmithing. Goodluck finding the anima on ah, and paying more than you should have to. the whole point of the alchemy is to make a crap-ton of hq anima.

and the price doesnt fluctuate that much, at least on my server. they go between 28-30k. all of the diehard reraise earring makers and myself, keep the market in those ranges. the times it drops, are when new people come into the system, and then we just force them out of it, or the ones who buy the ingots from chocobo hot and cold, and make earrings off of them.

As others have said before, I too find that a combination of levelled crafts and sub-crafts makes a profit for you. There are some decent synths that can land you a decent profit but the chance for failure outweighs the chance for success (blood / crimson) gear here.

I think this most recent update actually hurt alchemists a bit as I am told there is a poison potion replacement now that is cheap and plentiful.

Do not rely on one product and watch the markets. You will begin to see trends. For many consumables, the weekend means a flood of product and dropping prices. During the week the market stablizies and by early Friday morning prices are high (but will soon drop). Moon phases affect price too as cooks tend to churn the grub out on full moon and you can see the Sushi market bottom out on a weekend with a full moon on Friday (stacks are 9K by Sunday).

I find, that it is the player with patience and persistance that makes a living crafting. I farm constantly and convert almost everything I get into some sort of profitable product. I also have a herd of mules with more than 150 items on the AH somewhere at any given time.

Let me give an example. I farm Kon. Highlands (75 Thiefie). I can pretty much one-shot everything there. I believe in the burnt earth policy too and kill just about everything.

Beastmen: Gobbies drop masks (desynth into glass fiber) and armors (I desynth these into cotton threads) along with a boat load of other items all of which I desynth. Thunder Elementals pop here too, how convienient. Ambushers also drop animal glue (useful for many alchemy synths. Quadavs drop junk scrolls but the Amethyst variety drop a great many backplates. Even though my smithing subcraft is only 60, I tend to either break these or HQ the desynth, more often as not into a darksteel or iron ingot.

Huge Wasps are great for beehive chips which I later synth into beeswax and then again later into Silent Oils (they still sell - just not as fast as before Monomi Ichi). Honey is synthed into echo drops, giant stingers into poison dust and then into poison potions with the lowly insect wings into insect fletchings (stacks are 4k on sylph).

Strolling Saplings drop a lot of Grain Seeds in this zone (more than vegetables). These keep my flower pots full growing Tarutaru Rice - to the tune of 10+ stacks per mule per harvest (sell excess with a stock going to my cooking mule for Sushi). The Treant Bulbs churn into Vitriol. Steal job ability can net you another Grain Seed as well.

One of the biggest pleasures is the Giant Sheep. Buy some Windy tea leaves from the Sarutabaruta Region Vendor NPC (18 gil each), demineralized water (I make water tanks with 40 stacks each), and farm some dark crystals and convert the sheep skins into leather. Now here is the best part, sheep leather bounces from 9-12K a stack on the AH (Sylph again) and sells very fast. It is hard to sell a skin for 200 gil but the leather, another story.

No need to go on - you can see my pattern. Take alchemy to 100 but level those subcrafts too. I didnt talk about it but fishing is VERY lucrative with a cooking mule and an alchemist. Get yourself as many mules as you are confortable with, level Thiefie (45 is TH2), and learn the markets and NPC vendors. Sell a variety of product and do not flood the markets on any one item. I make obscene gils this way and you can too.

I find that I can only do it for a few weeks until I build up a nice 7-8 million nest egg then I am off to level or merit for a longer while and generally spend it over the course of that period.

Fasl of Sylph

100+ Alchemy
100+ Fishing
all subs at 60+
Thiefie 75 (as well as some other jobs)
Mule with cooking 100+ (and other mules with other crafts)

The profit on a reraise earring on my server is give or take 10k. That doesnt take into account hq on anima at all.

And if youre looking at ffxiah to see how many sell in a day, you cant just look at the left side number, its not reflective of the actual sales at all. So no, im not exaggerating. More than 20 sell in a single 24 hour period.

Edited, Jan 5th 2010 4:13am by Zenshinzenrei

And the 40k anima synthesis, and 70k alch wep, 100k alch body, and 150k alch furnishing.

And I've totally made every gil I've spent on that back.