Leathercrafting to 100 (FFXI)

[thistlechaser]

Oh my, oh my, oh my. Depressed by goldsmithing, I took a look at leathercrafting from 88 to 100. Prices have seriously changed (many new drops from the expansion areas?).



* Tiger Mask, caps 95, Ice, Tiger Hide x2, Wyvern Skin, Wool Thread, Ram Leather

Wyvern skins used to be amazingly expensive, but are under 5K now. WTF? Oh my god. This is reasonable to do!


* Griffon Leather, caps 97, Dark, Windurstian Tea Leaves, Griffon Hide, Distilled Water

Griffon hides are like 20K each, but still! Basically 20K per synth at this level? Amazing! (Edit: Ha ha ha ha ha. I never ever would have said 'Basically 20K per synth at this level? Amazing!' pre-goldsmithing skilling!)Supplies are limited though. (But I can ask if people would spread the word to ShadowBane and let me buy any drops directly from people.)

* Panther Mask, caps 103, Ice, Wool Thread, Ram Leather, High-Quality Coeurl Hide x2, Wyvern Skin

High-Quality Coeurl Hides are about 8K each, supply looks okay (not tons of them up, but not limited numbers).

I'd likely do both the panther mask and griffon leather until 97, as materials are available.



I'm boggling that I can actually do this. I'll have to drop alchemy, woodworking, and (something else?) back down to 60, but that's no big deal, just a couple of levels I got by mistake.

(Notice I'm not addressing the "leather is useless, I never use it, why should I level it?" issue. I can finally get it to 100! That's more important! Oh my god!)

I'm SO SO SO SO SO SO not working on goldsmithing tonight. Leather ho! I really want to start skiling right away, but I should farm for what I can (tiger hides, wool thread). I can start stockpiling the wyvern skins, though they don't stack...

Oh my god!

Comments

[kelen.livejournal.com]

So glad you can. o.o Really, since you have goldsmithing to 59, why worry about it any more?
I've been thinking I too should work on leather. That before Gold, but I'm at a very different level. ;) Only 36. Want to get to 60 since I'll be farming a LOT of tiger fangs, and since those drop hides too.. might as well be able to synth the damn things.

Oh, likely you already know, but the Gigas in Tavnazia, or however you spell it, drop socks really well. I normally come out with a stack or three of wool for an hour or two of farming. Noticed a lot of the recipes you mentioned need wool.

[kelen.livejournal.com]

And speaking of tiger hides.. want me to send them if I get them?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Only if you let me buy them from you~! :D

[kelen.livejournal.com]

Noooo.. you just hurt your wallet, remember? ;)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Need I remind you that you're skilling a craft, too? Our wallets can suffer together!

[kelen.livejournal.com]

I'm not bankrupting myself to do it though. ;) Got smithing to 56, but stopped there to take a break and earn some gil. Just thinking of picking up leather again on account of the tiger farming aspect. My bone leveling will need tiger fangs soon. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Don't confuse the argument with facts! :P How about we compromise? I'm buying tiger hides at 1K each in all cities other than Sandy, and up to 3K in Sandy. I'll give you 2K each?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm boggling that I can. I can't believe the change in prices! (And now I'm panicing that prices will go back up before I'm finished!)

And yep! That's where I get my wool from. I loved farming there but haven't in ages; it's going to be nice to have an "excuse" to go back there and do it again!

[iniadelphinae.livejournal.com]

You can make some really nice gil with any craft at 100. Just have to pray for those HQs.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's just that I have a bad history with leather HQs. (On my LS, we have a theory floating around that some crafts are better for some people -- based on race? starting city? random? many things?). For me, alchemy was amazing. I skilled 1-60 in two days and made profit/HQs under cap all the way; two other LS people were skilling it at the same time, and had a much harder time. A LS friend and I skilled smithing together last week, and had a totally different experience (same skill items, same time, etc).

If gardening results can vary by city (and I strongly suspect they do), I would put money on crafting varying by... something. Person, race, place, hell even letters in your name or something crazy like that.

So that's a long way of saying that it doesn't feel like I'm "naturally" good with leather. I'm leather 88 now, and have a really hard time even HQing pre-10 synths (rabbit mantles! Ugh!). But it's way too late to give up and change to something else. :P

[iniadelphinae.livejournal.com]

I agree that crafts seem to be associated with different elements.

Smithing and goldsmithing are obviously fire based crafts. I'm certainly hindered by all the water energy in my MH on fire-based synths. Have a terrible time with skillups and am more likely to have a critical failure with a fire crystal than any other, whereas I can break 6 lightning crystals in a row on the same synth or desynth and not lose a single mat.

Even though the bulk of leathercraft synths are actually done with earth crystals, my guess is that it's dark based since that's what you use to make actual leather itself. If (big huge theoretical IF!) that's the case, part of your trouble might be the light-based mannequins.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That's a really interesting idea. Right now I have powerful fire energy. I was hoping to sell off the darned 100K bookcases once I finished gold, but maybe I'll leave them in and see if it affects leathercrafting at all. (Plus, while I thought they were ugly in the beginning, they've kind of grown on me.)

[onionkiri.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere the three starter cities were associated with different elements and different seeds, so you'd get better crops if you used those. I don't remember the specifics, but I know the Sandy flag is fire and Windy wind, so I guess that makes sense. o.o

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, makes sense to me!

[genomeffxi.livejournal.com]

You should revoke your 60+ on other guilds asap, judging from what they say when you do it might hurt your chances of skillup.
Here is what they told me, from an older entry on my LJ
http://genomeffxi.livejournal.com/3542.html


The wyvern skins are cheap because of the uninvited guests quest I always do. Wyverns in Riverne drop giant scales that people need to go through, and also wyvern skin and wyvern something else that aso became really cheap once its supplies stopped being only from ifrit's cauldron dangerous farming sessions.

By the way, you have an evil twin on Bahamut...
here's you:
http://www.ffxiah.com/player.php?id=259889&sid=29
and here's your evil twin:
http://www.ffxiah.com/player.php?id=33680&sid=1

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ugh, wow. That's a good idea. I'll do it before I start skilling tonight.

And hmm, wonder if that Bahamut Thistle is a mithra? Someone tells me there's a mithra named Thistle on their server, and it always reminds them of me. :)

[kelen.livejournal.com]

Do you have to be over the level of another craft to get this option? I've been wanting to drop rankings in other crafts for a while, but never get the option when talking to the guild.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

At least in the leather guild, the NPC handles three different things (beastman hat quest, support, and lowering of caps). I had to talk to her a bunch of times before she gave me the option. Maybe something like that is happening to you?

[onionkiri.livejournal.com]

I remember quite a while back, a lot of leathercrafters wouldn't cap leather to be able to HQ byrnies (99 leather + skill items, 61 smithing + smithing support + skill item = breaking tier 2 on both crafts), so you might want to consider that. Of course this was like... a year ago, and I have no idea of the current profit on byrnie +1s or if any other items have been released that you might want to get 100 leather for... but just saying. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but if I got to 99, there's no way I'd stop, no matter what I could HQ. I want 100! :D

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

Doh, I had a Griffon hide just the other day too. I'll keep any ones I get for you. As for HQ Couerl Hides; Mer, Mako, and I can help you there. We've been doing Wild Wild Whiskers a lot lately and that always drops 3x of that hide. Usually we just let them drop 'cause they don't stack and we don't have enough room for them ^^; If you want them I'll keep ahold of them for you.

PS: I want a signed Panther Mask :3b

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Doh, I had a Griffon hide just the other day too.

No worries! There will be others. :)

We've been doing Wild Wild Whiskers a lot lately and that always drops 3x of that hide. Usually we just let them drop 'cause they don't stack and we don't have enough room for them ^^; If you want them I'll keep ahold of them for you.

Woo! If you have room, sure! I'll buy them at AH price!

PS: I want a signed Panther Mask :3b

You got it! :D