While I am not going to be going over the crafting system in general, I will illustrate a few key reasons you should learn a craft today. That being said, let us briefly stow away our weapons, and pick up the crafting utensils of choice!
Crafting Leves are Great for Leveling
The experience provided by crafting leves are simply way too good to pass up. For example, I decided to pick up Alchemy earlier this week. The first crafting levequest I received was one called Right as Rubber. Needless to say, I was immediately blown away by the experience gained during just one crafting sequence.
During the course of this levequest, I nearly gained a Physical Level, and also achieved Rank 3 with my Alchemist. With all this experience added to the mix, you will be able to acquire more Allocation Points as a direct result of your Physical Level. On top of this, you will also quickly rise through the the ranks as a Discipline of the Hand whenever you succeed in crafting levequests.
Anyways, you shouldn't be too concerned about results early on. While failing a crafting sequence doesn't reward you Physical Experience, it does give you discipline points regardless. That being said, make sure you consume all the materials provided before handing them into the associated levequests NPC.
Materials are Provided by NPC's in Crafting Levequests
Each crafting leve in FFXIV either gives you the materials on the spot, or requires you travel to a NPC who will have them ready upon arrival. Either way you look at it, the NPC's are giving you the perfect opportunity to progress through the crafting ranks without wasting lots of money early-on. On top of this, completion of a crafting leve will give you a nice little reward.
In the end, the only thing that the levequests cost is time, but that is far from a big deal. With all the experience, skill points and money earned, doing these levequests is time well spent and then some.
The Rewards are Great
Once you finish the levequest, it is time to turn in the rewards. In FF14, the rewards usually depends on the performance rating during the levequest. The better you perform during a particular levequest, the better the rewards will be.
The difference in rewards are quite marginal in the early levels, so don't get over your head as you attempt to complete the levequests. The name of the game is simply passing it, and performing Bold Syntheses in attempt to improve quality is a recipe for disaster. Just remember to keep your feet on the ground, and you will do fine.
Crafting Leves are Local
Due to their 'local' nature, the crafting levequests are on a separate timer than their Battlecraft/Fieldcraft counterparts. In essence, this gives you access to 8 more levequests within a given 36 hour period. Anyways, the rewards speak for themselves, so might I suggest you get started?
If you are ready to give crafting a try, you might want to read A Crafter's how-to in FFXIV, by none other than Dunador.
Anyways, our Guides/Videos Contest ends on 10/14/2010, so you better start writing if you want to win the awesome prizes.
