[Dragonhope]

Blacksmithing!!!
Hello. I am currently a level 73 blacksmith(and 55 weaver, 37 carpenter, 21 leatherworker), and I thought I'd share some advice with the lower-level blacksmiths on how to raise skill as quickly and easily as possible. Also please note that at skill 50+, skill gain slows down by a LOT.

I would also advise that you craft on the day with the same element as your crystal or lightsday. Don't bother trying to make HQ items while gaining skill. And ALWAYS use Advanced Image Support!

I have included approximate cost of producing the item mentioned where possible, though ultimately, your costs will vary from server to server.

skill 0-2
bronze ingots
fire crystal + 3xcopper ore +1xtin ore(~178 gil)

Don't use beastcoins unless you have saved up a bunch of them on your own. They are expensive. Buy copper ore from the San D'Oria blacksmith's guild, blacksmith/goldsmith in Bastok, or
goldsmith in Mhaura.

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skill 2-4
bronze sheets
fire crystal + bronze ingot(~278 gil)

Just use the ingots you made getting to 2 skill. You should have about 2 stacks. That should be enough to get you to 4 skill. Go ahead and process your extra bronze ingots into sheets anyway, because you'll want them for . . .

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skill 4-6
bronze scales
wind crystal + bronze sheet(~378 gil)

You will likely not make any profit selling these, so save them up, or sell them to slightly more advanced smiths if you are desperate. If you save them up, you can use them later on scale armor suits.

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skill 6-10
bronze bolt heads
wind crystal + bronze ingot(~278 gil)

Easier just to buy bronze ingots off others for this, at least on Midgardsormr. Bronze bolt heads themselves are worthless, and the bronze bolts you can make with them don't sell very well, at least not on Midgardsormr. Your mileage may vary. I would advise selling these to the guild npc or a standard npc, taking the almost complete loss, and moving on with your life(and your craft)

I have heard one report that bronze scales can be made until 10 skill, but I was unable to get past 6 skill myself. It's possible something was changed in a patch, but I can not confirm this. Bronze bolt heads may also get you to 11 skill, but again, I can not confirm this.

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skill 10-15/16
scale mail suits OR tin ingots
Scale mail suit = earth crystal + cotton thread + sheep leather + leather vest + 2xbronze scales(~1800 gil)
Tin ingot = fire crystal + 4xtin ore(~220 gil)

Depending on your server's economy, one or the other may be more wise. On Midgardsormr, I could make scale mail suits at an average of 1800 gil per suit, which was okay, because I wound up selling them at about 2k per suit. Keep in mind that the overall frustration caused by this skill range can be mitigated by stopping your craft of scale mail and/or tin ingots at 15 skill, instead of 16(which is how high you can get off these items). Note that the new tin ingots apparently can be made from skill 10-16, or thereabouts. They are cheaper to make than scale mail, and are used in the production of various alchemical items(batteries, spark weapons).

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skill 15/16-20
iron ingots
4xiron ore + fire crystal(~2100 gil)

These can be made and sold at a profit if you buy ore from the AH on midgardsormr: Cost to produce in Midgardsormer: about 2100 gil(500 for ore, 90-100 for crystal). Cost to sell on Midgardsormer: varies between 26-30k for a stack of 12. In any case, iron ingots are useful anyway, so you won't be harmed by saving them up.

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skill 20- ~23
iron sheets
fire crystal + iron ingot(~2200 gil)

Trust me on this. Sheets sell well on their own, or can be used for . . .

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skill 23-26
iron scales
wind crystal + iron sheet(~2300 gil)

Just use the sheets you got getting to 23(or is it 22? I don't remember how far iron sheets will take you)

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skill 26-30: iron finger gauntlets OR iron visors OR iron scale greaves OR iron chains OR iron masks
gauntlets = earth crystal +2xiron scale + cotton thread + leather gloves
greaves = earth crystal +2xiron scale + cotton thread + leather highboots
iron visor = wind crystal + iron scale + iron sheet + sheep leather
iron chain = earth crystal + 2xiron ingot(~4200 gil)
iron mask = earth crystal + iron sheet + brass sheet

Depending on your server, these may or may not sell well. They do not sell well on Midgardsormr. Note that the iron scale pieces all sell well to the guild npcs if you can't sell them to players, though you will still take a loss. The loss is least severe on visors. You may also get a lot of failures if you try iron scale pieces at 26! Your other choices are to make iron chains or iron masks, but these do not sell well on the open market, at least not that I can tell. I made iron chains from 26-29 and got lucky by selling all my chains to one guy(Manapy rules). Some people make iron masks, but these seemed almost as bad economically as iron chains. Again, your mileage may vary.

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skill 31-36
steel sheets
fire crystal + steel ingot(~3300 gil)
Just buy the ingots off the AH. On Midgardsormr, it's only 37k-40k per stack. Er, was.

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skill 36-40
steel scales
wind crystal + steel sheet(~3400 gil)
These may or may not sell well to skill ~50 blacksmiths on your server. I had one customer(Negimaru rules!) who bought all my steel scales at 3500 gil apiece. I made a profit off those.

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skill 40-41
iron mittens
earth crystal + iron sheet + lizard skin
These require around 10 leatherworking. If you can manage that, this is an easy, cheap way to gain skill. You can sell them to the Bastok blacksmithing guild for up to 2700 gil apiece. Keep in mind that you probably won't be able to gain blacksmithing skill on these past 41. They seem to raise leatherworking too, up to 10, if you don't have it already(I did them with leatherworking 9).

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skill 41-45
iron subligars
earth crystal + iron sheet + lizard skin + cotton cloth
You can gain leatherworking up to 12 on these, too. These sell to the Bastok blacksmith's guild for 3560 odd gil, max. Keep in mind that the guild only buys around 18 of any one item per day(maybe only 16?), and that the price they pay will drop for a few days after you sell a lot of them(and will rise back to the max price later).

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skill 45-49
steel visors
wind crystal + iron scales + steel sheet + sheep leather
The only reason I advocate this synth is the fact that you can sell them to the San D'Oria Blacksmith's guild for 5040 gil apiece, max. That amounts to a decent return, but you are losing money doing it. Steel visors will sell in Jeuno to players sometimes(they're level 48 steel scale for crying out loud), but at least on Midgardsormr, they uh, don't sell all that swiftly. I would not advise skilling up steel finger gauntlets or greaves at this point.

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skill 49-52
Darksteel ingots
fire crystal + 3xiron ore + darksteel ore(~7000-8000 gil)
This is expensive, and you will scream in pain when you lose a chunk of darksteel ore. Well, nearly. These can be sold at a profit, however, and they do sell fairly well. Sell them to players, of course. You should be able to get at least 1k profit per ingot. Possibly more. Please note that after 50 skill, skill gain slows down a lot.

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skill 52-55
Darksteel sheets
fire crystal + darksteel ingot(~7100-8100 gil)
This is an easy synth if you have lots of darksteel ingots left over after getting to 52 skill. It's nice not having to juggle all that ore. Getting to 53 skill off this was very, very slow, but it picks up afterwards, and it turns out you can make these until 55 skill! What a deal! Skill AND you can sell them for a profit.

And . . . that's it for now!

I'll add more details to a message later in this thread.

On a side note . . . I have yet to see any sites listing the item requested for the tests given at 48 and 58 skill. They are:

48 skill: mythril pick(um, I think? 38 skill was war pick, so 48 is . . . ehh I'll stand by my story)

58 skill: darksteel falchion

Anyway, more crafting advice:

skill 55-56
steel greaves
earth crystal + 2xsteel scales + cotton thread + leather highboots

Joy, more steel scale crap. These cost about 7k per item on Midgardsormer to manufacture(will vary wildly from server to server), and sell to the guild in San D'Oria for 4200 apiece, at most. Can you say nearly 3k loss per synth? I knew you could. On the plus side, these will sell in limited numbers in Jeuno, depending on your server. Try not to over-saturate the market too badly. There might be something better to make at this skill level, but I don't really know what. Breastplates, gauntlets, and schlaegers are in this skill range, but they do not seem economically viable compared to steel greaves.

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skill 56-66
nodowa
earth crystal + iron sheet + silk thread

What a let-down. The Nodowa is a fountain of skill, but no fountain of gil. I was figuring I'd get 5k per nodawa selling to NPCs. No such luck! Players on Midgardsormr do not buy these, at all, and they sell to NPCs for about 2750, or to Tenshodo shops for just under 3k(and only in small quantities). However, the recipe is simple, you can make a lot of them, and you can skill up on them for a loooooong time. The losses are somewhat disappointing in light of all the failures I've gotten on them from 56-59, but one you hit 59, it seems to be easy-street. 58-59 is really rough. Tough it out, or pick a different synth(your choice) until you hit 59. Once you get up around 62 skill or so, expect to be making upwards of 40-50 nodowa per skill point. I kid you not.

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skill 66-73
darksteel pick
fire crystal + darksteel ingot + elm lumber

I got bummed out doing these until I tried selling them to a standard NPC vendor. Then all I could say was "whoa". 12,484 gil per pick with Hero-level fame. Cha-ching! Even with overpriced darksteel and elm, you can still do well. It is possible to make a profit selling these things to npcs, some of the time. Not all of the time. This is a good time to invest in Fire moghancement!

more to come later.

Well...here's the smithing guide people wanted. This was written by a member of crafting Linkshell and I received permission to post it here. Hope it helps.

PS: He's stopped at 73 for the moment but he'll update after he starts leveling it again. I'll update this as well then to keep it up to date.


PS2: He posted this on the FFXIonline forums in case you're wondering. If you want more information, you should go there. If I follow a different skillpath, i'll probably make my own little guide later on but he's the best i've met. Enjoy.

[Orca]

YAY Thank you so much Dragon!

[flyingweasel]

I'm in love with this post. I need to print this out for sure. Thank you very much for posting this. I am lvl 27 smithing, so this will be valuable info for a long time.

[wizv]

so how much money could i expect to write off as a loss to reach lvl 65 in blacksmithing?

[Rafiki]

What rank do u have to be to join the blacksmith guild?

They said my rank was too low..im rank 2..almost 3..

[Dragonhope]

Rafiki :
What rank do u have to be to join the blacksmith guild?

They said my rank was too low..im rank 2..almost 3..

Eh? You should be able to join at level 1, rank 1. Are you sure you're in the guild hall and not the guild shops?


As for how much money it'll take from 0-65...not really sure. I'm taking smithing slowly right now.

[Rafiki]

yeah i went to the guy in sandoria in the lower part of the shop,went thru some doors to the left and talked to a guy and he said somethin about my rank being lower than novice

[Rafiki]

ok thanks

[Dragonhope]

He should look like that and should be in the back of the bottom room. He's pretty much by the big table.

[Elysium]

really awesome guide but i need to ask, if i started blacksmithing with like 110k gil and put all that gil to blacksmithing would i be able to go far with blacksmithing and come out with more money than i started with???

[Dragonhope]

Depends...if you stop at making Iron Ingots and just sell Iron Ingot or Iron Sheet stacks...then maybe. Otherwise....i'm not really sure.

[Elysium]

k thx for fast reply but is there another job that is cheaper and still profitable?and that i could get pretty far with 110k?

[Dragonhope]

Woodworking or Cooking are both rather cheap to gain skill in. They should also take you a fair way with around 100k.

[Dragonlance]

Blacksmithing,

I will personally tell you all that do not pursue this craft if you easily get disheartened. If you think you have a big pay off, you are wrong. You will spend more time than anything, scrounging for money to fund this craft before it starts truly becoming profitable.

If you are someone who is aiming to get a sniper ring and thinks you can get money fast if you invest what money you have into smithing in hopes of a payoff, you should go farm or camp NMs instead and buy the item. Investing into smithing means you will inevitably extend the amount of time it will take you to get what item you need.

If you are thinking of investing into Smithing for "quick" cash, I urge you to think again.

[Mistasia]

I was just helping a friend of mine with smithing using this guide (playing gopher, doing the legwork on alternate recipies and price checks in various cities etc) and just thought I'd post a FYI on those wondering about how much smithing costs to get into.

Was able to get just over lvl 40 with one million gil. Have some stuff in the bank to sell back that can recoup some of the cost, but I think they will all be re-used on later synths instead of going into the Auction House.

Currently leveling leatherworking while waiting for the next full moon because it seems to go hand in hand with later levels of smithing...

Anyways, good luck with your efforts in this guild. It's a good craft and I actually enjoy this and goldsmithing quite a lot - even though I didn't do anything major with blacksmithing other than craft components for someone else to use to lvl on.


edit: by the way, thanks for the guide. It has proven to be very useful. I recomend it to anyone else getting into blacksmithing.

[Mistasia]

a twofold post, firstly to share experience and secondly to bump the guide again... thanks again! Still singing your praises for posting this, you saved me tons of research, although I look for other synths at every level anyways lol.

As I posted above, it took an investment of 1 million gil to get to lvl 40, at which point we left the craft for a couple of days to do other things while waiting for the full moon.

Full moon came and we did some more crafting, full moon went and we continued crafting... and ended up with a better skillup rate than during full moon. ?!?!? WTH ?!?!?! That was one "rumor" that I believed to be true = full moon is important for skillups. But now, after doing 2 full moons and 2 new moons we're finding that we consistantly get better skillups without it. : *sigh* oh well.

Onto my next tidbit. Level 40-49 used an investment of about 400k and actually netted a profit. We wera able to sell the steel visors to the merchant for more than it had cost us to make them... so that was a nice surprise lol.

Next we continued along the road with Darksteel ingots, which do net a bit of profit as well. You can sell them quite swiftly in Jeuno for about an 18-20k profit per stack, or more slowely in SdO (one sells every 2-3 days) for a 50-60k profit.

Now sitting at lvl 52 I'm finding that we've made back a good chunk of what we have invested (just over 1/3) and there is obviously the prospect of just sitting at 52 and making the slow 20k per stack profit now to gain the rest back, but I think for the sake of speed we'll continue our climb.

So, if you're looking at breaking 50 with this craft, you should be able to do that easily with 1.5million gil, and then with patience, make back what you've invested.

[Orca]

Dragonlance :
Blacksmithing,

I will personally tell you all that do not pursue this craft if you easily get disheartened. If you think you have a big pay off, you are wrong. You will spend more time than anything, scrounging for money to fund this craft before it starts truly becoming profitable.

If you are someone who is aiming to get a sniper ring and thinks you can get money fast if you invest what money you have into smithing in hopes of a payoff, you should go farm or camp NMs instead and buy the item. Investing into smithing means you will inevitably extend the amount of time it will take you to get what item you need.

If you are thinking of investing into Smithing for "quick" cash, I urge you to think again.

Then what craft do you propose i pursue in to get a profit?

[Mistasia]

I haven't pursued all crafts, but believe that you can make profit from any of them if you do your research in your servers AH. What craft you choose depends on what you are looking to get out of it and how much you have to invest at the beginning (in gil or in time farming/mining).

We chose smithing to take to 100 first because, as a ninja, I can more cost effectively supply myself with shuriken, and my friend, as an alchemist on main character, can use the smithed items in many cases in combines for higher level alchemy.

He speaks truth tho, if you are looking for a quick turnaround then crafting in general is the wrong place to look. I have been working on smithing with my friend for about a week now to get to lvl 52... we do other things still, so ya, we could have been through this much quicker had we gone all out. But in general, crafts take time and patience. And to make a real profit you will end up needing to farm some.

As far as smithing profits go... I see level 90 smithing as the good one for quick profit. Once you hit there you should be able to easily turn 500k profit in an average day from my estimates.

To get there tho... well, they arent kidding when they say that the skillups slow down after lvl 50. And from what I've seen in other crafts, they keep slowing down the farther you get.