Goldsmithing from 63+ and general advice

[Waef]

I had an urge to level leatherworking, so I looked up prices for everything on ffxiah. I found that 90% of the time, assuming you didn't have horrible break rates, you could just about break even, or even profit while skilling up. However, you'd have to be patient and wait for things to sell, some of which sold somewhat rarely.

[Mafai]

Back when I did Gold (main purpose of synthing beads to support my 100ww main), it was worth it just to save the money on buying ore instead of beads. Still might be worth it depending how often you actually synth staves. On my server its 30k more for a bead then ore, so that adds up pretty quickly.

After getting past the gold and platinum stages, it was a breeze. Ended up finishing it with the money I made HQ'ing staves while skilling up gold on beads (also Flame Rings were profit at this point also). Considering Orichalcum is used in many more things now (salvage), it is a loss.
Here is what i did:

64-67 Hydro Patas
pure loss and a pain, hopefully you can find a bonecrafter who wants to skillup on bone patas (unlike me who has a 100 bone mule that HQ'd too many of these which cant be used). NPC or desynth for more tries

67-70 Platinum Ring
save these for 90+, or sell to a 100 GS'er (even tho no one uses HQ 72 rings these days)

70-73 Shrimp Lantern
a pain once again, but extremely cheap (cheap means only buyable ingredients in bazzaars / items people dont farm), see below for alts.

70-76 Gold Patas
hopefully you dinged at least 71 on Lanterns, cause these suck.

76-80 Gold Buckler
Don't recall doing this, but didnt see much else here.

80-87 Elemental Ores
Pretty Large gap, but with GP Items and Support should be fine. Profit in most cases. One poster had WW'ing leveled, will be nice for him.

87-92 Muscle Belts
Pure loss, just desynth or NPC.

92-95 Level 72 Rings
Another pretty big hit, if your lucky you will HQ one. Hopefully its not a crappy one you were just spamming for skillups. I personally stuck to angel and ruby rings. These days I would just do ruby rings, since angelstones are used in a quest now the price is high.

95-97 Cursed Schaller
Optional, could start 74 rings. I did not do this personally, but it could be profit depending on server. Wish I did this now that I look at it.

95-97 Koenig Shield
Optional, could start 74 rings. I did this just because I had access to a smithing character and it was profit.

95-100 Level 74 Rings
Cap is 102, so support always. Will be loss most likely, but not too bad.

[Mizango]

I hated the Muscle belt phase so much.

[grantlogan]

Years ago I wanted to take GS to 100 and invested a shitload of GP for eventual apron but to date my GS is only 52. After reading this thread it looks like it's all been a waste of time.

[Silpha]

I hated the Muscle belt phase so much.

I'm right in it with my 91GS and i hate it too >.>
At least after that i'll be able to snatch some skills up on manteels for ls and attempts to cursed schaller-1 for a friend.

[warrior2582]

There are a few other items to consider after capping beads at 87.

Personally I would do:
Orichalcum ingots 89
Orichalcum Ring 93
Cursed Schaller 97/Koenig Shield 97/Scintillant Ingot98
74 Rings that sells for a profit on your server 100

O Ingots should be decent profit due to people doing salvage.
O rings are needed for the 74 rings.
Cursed Schaller if you want to try and hq one while skilling up.
Koenig Shield maybe profit on your server. Can also try for an HQ or if you lvled off Generals from smithing.
Scintillant ingots are pretty cheap to make and can sell for a profit.
74 rings seems like the only good way to hit 100.

[Mizango]

Yeah on most server O. Ingots are profitable to the tune of 10-25k depending on where you are located. Any profit at this level is a gigantic plus.

I'm right in it with my 91GS and i hate it too >.>
At least after that i'll be able to snatch some skills up on manteels for ls and attempts to cursed schaller-1 for a friend.

Yeah once you're over that hump you're good.

[Arkanna]

I leveled Goldsmithing to 67~ years ago but it fucking broke me. I gave up and leveled Alchemy instead, which was break-even or small profit the whole way up.

I actually didn't lose out on leveling my Goldsmithing past 60 though, because I was able to bang out stacks of silver bullets for nice profit back when there was still some profit to be had.

[Vxsote]

Hosodachis can be profitable and cap at 64, as an alternative to platinum ingots/sheets. After that, I did mostly platinum earrings and rings to 70, with a few PUP attachments mixed in, but that was when they were still relatively new and in higher demand. I also made a few Shotels, which didn't hurt too much. I got to 73 with a mix of shrimp lanterns, hammermills, Ashuras, and a handful of moonring blades, but took quite a long time to do that.

From 73 is where the real pain started for me, with gold bucklers straight through to 78. This cost about 5M. Depending on the availability of AU brass, you might be able to use Brass Jadagnas for a bit. From 78, I moved on to elemental beads. A couple years ago, that would have been a huge risk with the high break rate, but these days, ice ores are dirt cheap. My losses from synthing ice beads at 78+2 (plus adv. support) were far less than throwing away gold ingots making more damn bucklers. After a few levels of beads, you'll find yourself squarely back into profit territory.