Submitted by sam on Sun, 09/26/2004 - 18:46.

Woodworking is, IMHO, the most fun and immediately profitable/useful tradeskill I personally have tried in the game. Even at very low levels you can pull a mediocre profit (which is a rare thing) and as you raise you can pull in more and more profit as well as craft items to help you and your friends out. For anyone wanting a cheap and simple craft to try out, woodworking is for you.



Powerlevelling Woodworking or Logging


Other tradeskills are often best when powerlevelled (i.e., you already have tons of money ready to just plunk down for levellig a skill). This is typically because you can't really pull much of a profit early on (cooking, I'm looking at you), or because you can't really farm the items you need for it (goldsmithing, buddy, you need help), or because they can be terribly boring to level (hello blacksmithing).



But woodworking (and, to a certain extent, clothcraft, as was pointed out by RapRot) is something that works best when you farm your own items.



This means, before you begin, you really should invest in the following items:

• Full field gear (tunic, gloves, etc).
• A few stacks of hatchets.
• A few stacks of Wind Crystals.

The field gear is really quite important (as it is for any type of harvesting, logging, or mining). You can technically get away with not having it at first, but it should be the first thing you buy when you earn money from logging and woodworking.



The Wind Crystals can be bought or farmed. If you're high enough, Air Elementals should be your friends (or, worst enemies) as farming them will give you oodles of Wind Clusters. For much of our woodworking work, Wind Crystals will be our staple.



The hatchets are a no brainer. Unless you want to throw your money away buying cheap logs that you can easily log yourself, you really have to have them. At higher levels it used to be cheaper to just synth your own hatchets, but those days seem long gone (especially considering that, as you raise your fame, your regional hatchet selling NPC will sell them for cheaper and cheaper).



One final thing: Gobbiebags are very important. They allow you to carry more items and thus, farm more things to sell and synth ;-)



Basic Strategy


The basic strategy we will be following is to log for... uh... logs and then use the Wind Crystals to turn them into lumber. Every log we will be getting can be turned into lumber with Wind Crystals.



Understand that logs do not stack, but lumber does. So synthing logs into lumber will get them to take up less room in our inventory. For many logs, stacks of their lumber sell enough to turn some decent profit from.



The Walkthrough : Part I - Sand'Oria, My Home Sweet Home


For our first levels, we will move to the wonderful city of Sand'Oria on the Quon continent. This mountainous clime is home to the woodworking guild and the highest concentration of logging points I've found in the game. Set your HP here and get ready to get down to business.



Some people will tell you to get synth support from the guild, but don't. Since we will be farming most of what we will be synthing having synth support would require us to make way too many trips back to Sandy.



For our first groups of logs we will logging either in Fort Ghelsba or in East/West Ronfaure. Fort Ghelsba has a cluster of trees near the exit to West Ronfaure to log from, and the two Ronfaures have logging points spread all over them.



Because Gelsba has all its points concentrated into a small area, it is easier to find points there. However, Gelsba is also the most logged area in the game, meaning that the competition is fierce. Because of this, my prefered area is log is East and West Ronfaure. Spend some time running around the areas mapping out all the logging points on your map. Once you know where the logging points are, you can run through the areas quickly, get just as many logs as from Gelsbah, and yet have little or no competition.



Levels 0 - 3 : Arrowwood Lumber

These logs are by far the most common logs you will find in the game. You will find them all over Vana'Diel. Synth them up to level 3 for skillups, and then continue to synth them to pay for your hatchets. Arrowwood lumber sells well in stacks at the AH and will in turn continue to bankroll your hatchets throughout the entire game. This means you will be synthing them for the rest of your life.. just don't expect skillups after 3.

Levels 3 - 6 : Maple Lumber

These logs sell very poorly and the lumber isn't much better. Once you get past level 6 or so, stop keeping them unless you really need them for some higher level synth later on.

Levels 6 - 9 : Ash Lumber

Again, another poor seller. Even synthing them into Ash staves and stuff like that wont net you any real profit. Get to 8 or 9 and then drop the rest of your Ash logs.

Levels 8 - 13 : Holly Lumber

Alright! Another profitable log! Holly Lumber typically goes for 5000 a stack at the AH and will be another lumber you will be synthing for the rest of your career like Arrowwood. At first, you will get a lot of breaks (which will be painful considering the logs individually go for 500 gil) but its worth it once you can synth them regularily (and even get exceptionals!)

Levels 8 - 13 (alternative) : Willow Lumber

You can also level using the Willow you get here, so feel free to do it. The problem is Willow sells for crap. I would personally drop it and not waste the crystal until you hit Jugner.

You will also get other logs in these areas. The ones you really want to keep are Elm Logs. You won't be able to synth them yet, so don't even try. But they sell for 3000 a piece at the AH, so keep them to sell.



Once you get to 12 or so, you will want to leave Sandy (at least for a bit).



The Walkthrough : Part II - Welcome to the Jugner!


Next, we head to Jugner Forest. If your region controls the area, then set your HP here. Otherwise, you're free to keep it in Sandy. It's best to be at least level 35 before logging here as to avoid aggro.



The logging points are all over Jugner, just like the Ronfaures, so I would recommend mapping it out before hand.



Levels 13 - 15 : Willow Lumber

Okay, you aren't going to pull a profit from these. But synth them anyway until 15.

Levels 15 - 18 : Walnut Lumber

Walnut Logs are 2000 each at the AH, but since we are so close to the level for Walnut we can synth them into lumber that can go for up to 10k a stack! It may be painful to lose these logs on breaks, but it more than makes up for it in the long run.

Levels 13 - 22 : Yew Lumber

These don't sell terribly well, but they are all over the place out here. You can start synthing them as early as 13 if you don't mind breaks. In fact, it's better to have breaks on Yew than Walnut, so I'd synth these every chance I get to level without wasting Walnut.

Other items you will get that are worthwhile to keep are Dryad Roots (stacks sell very well in Bastok), Oak Logs (don't synth them yet, but they sell for 6000 each) and Acorns (about 2k a stack).



More coming soon....