FFXIV: 6.4 Crafting/Gathering Frenzy!
Posted on May 24, 2023 by Aywren
I’ve never been geared enough to care about patch day 1 crafting and gathering in FFXIV. But since I pentamelded my first set of crafting gear, I figured I may as well explore what the new patch has to bring crafters.
I knew we were getting a new set of crafted battle gear – the ilvl 640 Diadochos gear – which would be selling for big gil to the raiders who were getting ready for the Savage version of Panda.
I didn’t care so much about the raid, or even high quality gear. I’m more worried about my many alts who have not seen a gear upgrade since the previous set of crafted battle gear. In fact, three of my characters can’t even do the MSQ this time around because they don’t have the ilvl 615 it takes for the trial.
So, I set out to discover what I needed to do to work on getting this new gear crafted. I didn’t even care that it was normal quality (*gasp!* I know, I’m such a casual) since my goal was to merely outfit them without breaking the bank. And not having to wait until patch 6.5 when prices of the gear came down to be reasonable enough.
Can I Craft It?
Being somewhat new at this end game crafting thing, my first question was – with my pentamelded gear, do I have the stats to craft the Diadochos stuff?
Answer: Yes. But…
But only if I also have the Indagator's tools for the crafting job.
I’d put off picking up these tools on most of my crafting jobs, aside from Alchemist (using it for leves) and Carpenter (using it to craft the new relics) because they were so expensive. Well, guess what? I now needed those tools for just about every job if I wanted to reach the stats it took to make this new gear.
Bummer.
They were not cheap, but I had the gil to cover it. I hope eventually, I can make this gil back and start being a bit more self sufficient.
Can I Gather It?
Now that I tested it and determined I had the ability to normal quality craft the gear I wanted, it was time to figure out how to get the materials for the stuff.
I knew there were new gathering nodes out there, and a post on Reddit stated: 3850 Perception minimum.
Gathering gear was not something I’d spent time investing in – since I didn’t realize how much I was going to need it. I looked at my gear to determine if I could gather it and…
Answer: Well, no. Not even close.
So, I was back to the marketboard to pick up a new set of gathering gear and tools. Even then, I did not have the perception needed to even scratch the surface of this project. I did a quick search and found the suggested budget gathering melds list, and got to work.
Melding gathering gear is far more forgiving than crafting gear. You might notice that it’s not even pentamelded, which is fine with me. Thankfully, I have several gatherers, and it was reset day, so I just flung them all at the gathering custom deliveries for the scrips I needed for materia.
By mid-afternoon, I had the basic melds I needed to start gathering. Now I had to figure out what to gather.
I went through all of the recipes and made a list of the materials that were on timed nodes. Then I looked them all up to find out what time these nodes popped and at what location. Very soon, I was one of the flock of gatherers who were hopping from zone to zone, node to node in determination to get the materials needed for this gear.
When I say flock… it was more like a mob descending on the gathering nodes as they popped – so much that I had to hide names just to see the node to click!
As I said, I’d never been a part of day one gathering/crafting before, so this was new to me. We even had people from the outside asking – “Why so many people? What’s going on?”
To which one of the gatherers responded, “It’s morbing (mining) time!”
It was actually quite fun, though it was eating through my aetheryte tickets to jump from zone to zone so much.
First Gear Accomplished!
This gear doesn’t just require materials from timed nodes. It also requires materials you have to buy with the lesser Tomes, and with purple crafting and gathering scrips. So, once I got everything together, I began my journey of learning to craft sub-combines.
And finally, finally, by the end of the night, I had successfully crafted one (1) piece of gear for my alt!
I’ve got a long way to go with three alts to kit out, and I put a lot more gil into this than I wanted up front. But hopefully, I’ll be able to make a project out of it and eventually make some of my gil back in return on down the line.
It was a fun learning experience with high level crafting and gathering, for sure! Now I know, for the future, the things I need to focus on to stay relevant enough to make the items I want to make.
Note to self: Gathering gear is also important!