Ideas on how much crafting costs to level?

[Hotpocket]

I'm at ~50 now and I've decided that I should work on trying to level to the point where I can make about ~28 gear (what handicrafting is this?).

Anyways, how much kinah should I expect to spend?

[Maugrem]

I wish you were on my server so i could have you farm premium weapon fluxs for me. Just level up and blow it out. You can make pretty nice orange items. There is a thread on the costs.

[MilaLove]

Its not too expensive, and once you start crafting some of the crit and magic boost jewelry, you'll start to make a profit. You will need 190p to be able to craft all the lvl 28 gear/jewelry.

[Brownshoe]

Granted that one may make a profit on level 28 items that proc...but, just how many of them would one need to sell to begin to justify just the costs of the entire levelling experience -- the investment, if you will, instead of just the variable costs?

[Siendel]

Originally Posted by Brownshoe

Granted that one may make a profit on level 28 items that proc...but, just how many of them would one need to sell to begin to justify just the costs of the entire levelling experience -- the investment, if you will, instead of just the variable costs?

Not very many actually, easy to make back your entire "investment" in an evening if you have enough resources to ensure enough procs. It really doesn't cost much to level (in time or money) to get to that skill level especially in comparison to the proc item selling prices.

Of course you must weigh the time to get to that point plus the time to make all these procs against what you could be doing to make money otherwise. If you were still in the 20's, you'd be hard-pressed to find something else that made as good of money per time spent. But even at level 38 it's not really worth making blue level 20 gear unless I were to sit down and make a bunch of them at one time and then sell them slowly over the course of the next several days. I can make as much if not more simply grinding certain mobs + certain repeatable quests and I get the added benefit of more experience.

Personally I find it most useful to do my crafting / craft leveling while I'm semi-afk doing things around the house. That way I'm still getting a benefit from time I'd otherwise be logged off.

[System]

From my experiences, Handicrafting isn't a money maker. If you have zero competition, sure, but with all of the undercutting going on it just doesn't justify the time invested. Other crafts and other Handicrafting experiences may differ.

[Hotpocket]

I haven't really bothered leveling extract vitality / extract aether. Is it still possible to make a profit crafting?

[Bradyarch]

Originally Posted by Hotpocket

I haven't really bothered leveling extract vitality / extract aether. Is it still possible to make a profit crafting?

You know, you can make money off of buying stuff but I HIGHLY recommend leveling Extract Vitality. It's probably the easiest part of getting mats. I'm currently workin on my Aether extract because it's like 500 a piece for Aether Crystals and more for High Grade.

So you can make money, if you proc non stop yes you will make your money back and more, but there's only a 20% chance of proccing.

[thrash242]

Originally Posted by Hotpocket

I haven't really bothered leveling extract vitality / extract aether. Is it still possible to make a profit crafting?

If you realize that harvesting things yourself doesn't make them "free", then yes, you can.

What I mean is that however you acquire something, it has a value. You can always sell materials on the broker for a value, and it doesn't matter if you bought them or if you harvested them--they have the same value.

If you turn materials worth 1000 into something work 2000, you've made a profit. If you turn materials worth 2000 into something work 1000, you've lost money. How you acquire materials shouldn't matter in the profit calculations--only what the materials are worth.

If you don't understand what I mean, think of it this way: If you spent an hour gathering titanium, and I asked for you to give it all to me for free, would you do so? After all, you didn't pay anything for that titanium--you got it for "free", right? No, you'd say "I spent an hour getting all this--it's not "free" at all! I could sell this on the broker for money!".

All of that said, there are many people who don't realize this basic concept of economics, and will sell finished products for below material value, and this makes it impossible to make a profit on some items, whether you buy the materials or gather them yourself. So if you can't make a profit on a certain item, blame people who don't understand basic economics and think that if they gather their own materials, whatever they make is "free".

[Barcode120x]

You make a much bigger profit if you gather the materials and aether yourself and have fluxes donated to you by friends or legionmates. I believe every crafter should at least max both of those or at least one of those to make some profit.

If you dont have fluxes donated or don't have aether or vitality gathering leveled, you wont make any profit, or hardly any IMO.

Crafting lower level gear may not be that costly and could get you a good amount of profit even if you dont have the above two mastered or high level but once you hit expert crafter, you might want to re-think and start maxing those out because blue and yellow materials are not easy to come by and they are very pricey.

[Ernesto]

Hehe, you can really separate who has a cling on economy like thrash and no idea at all like Barcode hehe.

No, you dont need (any of the) gathering at all to make profits and you won't "save" money by gathering it yourself. If you have tons of time on your hands, then levelling gathering could be good, but if you ask me, it's faster to kill monsters and buy the stuff, or buy things cheap and sell them expensively.

[Bradyarch]

Originally Posted by Ernesto

Hehe, you can really separate who has a cling on economy like thrash and no idea at all like Barcode hehe.

No, you dont need (any of the) gathering at all to make profits and you won't "save" money by gathering it yourself. If you have tons of time on your hands, then levelling gathering could be good, but if you ask me, it's faster to kill monsters and buy the stuff, or buy things cheap and sell them expensively.

Well Time IS Money in some cases but it's TECHNICALLY saving money when you gather it yourself. Especially at low levels.

But I believe this dude is high leveled so it doesn't count for him

So as Ernesto says, buy the mats if you are rich

[Jadn]

When he said he was "level ~50" I think he meant Handi level 50, not in game level 50.

[Zarifus]

Originally Posted by Bradyarch

Well Time IS Money in some cases but it's TECHNICALLY saving money when you gather it yourself. Especially at low levels.

But I believe this dude is high leveled so it doesn't count for him

So as Ernesto says, buy the mats if you are rich

...

Lets say you have 10k and you want a Ring that is 20k on the broker.

You find out that you can craft said ring through Handicraft, it requires 10 of material A.

Material A is sold for 2500kinah each on the broker. After heading out and gathering 10 of Material A, you come back and craft your ring. "I have saved myself money!" you say.

WRONG. If material cost > product cost, you will NEVER be saving money. Low level, high level, whether you're making 2 pennies an hour or rolling in kinah at 5 million an hour. You have just lost.

If you don't have the cash:
1. Gather mats
2. Sell mats on broker
3. Buy ring
4. PROFIT

I saw your other thread on making your bow. You LOST money, you never saved any. You made money by gathering mats, then LOST some by trying to make the bow yourself. (Unless you proc'd it on your first try, in which case you're just lucky.)

[Nemonia]

The costs will always depend on how lucky you are with the proc's. Getting expert is a pure nightmare for some and others get it on their first try.