Woodworking Guide by Godofgods

Woodworking guide 
1-100 
by Godofgods <Odin> 
The following guide is what worked best for me. I'm currently 80 on Woodworking and planning to take it to 100. I'll update the later recipes as I do them. I hate farming materials, so most will be focused on easily farmable materials or materials bought from Npc's/Ah. All my research was done either on ffxiah.com or San d'Oria Ah. Also all prices listed were current prices at the time i leveled this craft. (Mostly 2008)
== Woodworking Tips ==
1. Ctownwoody: This man is.. well, a synthing God lol. He has leveled an incredible amount of crafts, and has guides for most of them. They are ALWAYS worth checking. Check his Woodworking guide here - I also used the same format from his guide.
2. Logging. This can be a major waste of time for power crafters. Especially in the 1-60 range. While it might be useful for some in the later levels to save gil, you should be staying away form this.
3. Lumberjack, is a must have if you intend to save gil. It's only 10k Guild Points, and allows you to synth 3 logs at once with only one crystal. And since you'll need an unprecedented amount of lumber later, you either have to buy on AH for a marked up price, or make your own. (Making your own is very easy, but can be time consuming)
3. Norvallen. Norvallen regional vendors can come in handy for making lumber. Unlike the guild shops, Norvallen regional vendors have no waiting time between purchases and a much higher supply. A great place to get your Arrowwood Logs and Ash Logs from.
4. Obviously, be sure to check all relevant AH's before buying materials. Certain cites have certain items cheaper. Generally, the pattern will follow the guilds in the city or farmable mobs right outside the city. Most supplies will be bought at the woodworking guild shop in sandy or sandy/jeuno AH.
5. Conquest Be sure to watch the conquest tallies each week. The nation in first place will have the quiver NPC Nokkhi Jinjahl. She is invaluable to you woodworking success. NOTE: She does not appear during a tie for first place.
6. Gil. Woodworking will have long stretches of being able to make gil back, and lose gil during your synthesis. Learn what items make you some gil back and use it to your advantage.
7. Arrows. That being said, arrows are a woodworkers best friend. I always use these when I can. It's a great power/multi synth. (Generally 99 synths of 33+ arrows each) And they usually sell well, which means you'll gain several levels while making gil back, if not profit. NOTE Each synth requires a piece of lumber. Hence the importance of lumberjack and norvallen. Use them to your advantage.
8 Basic FYI, if you haven't realized yet, the more room in your gobbie bag the better.
9. Sub crafts - While I generally tried to do this with as few subcraft synths as possible, two of them become vital and will speed your crafting up immensely (as well as save you gil) And of course, the more sub crafts you have done the better, especially in the higher levels.
The main two you'll want are Smithing 14 (minimum) and Alchemy 29 if going to 60 : and 60 if going to ww100. I had 14 and 55 at the time I went through WW. The Alchemy is only used in one synth pre 60, but a good one so you'll want it, plus it's not that hard to level. Smithing 14 should be more then simple enough to get. 
10 Trainee Axe - Dont be fooled by this item. Pay attention to it's Latent effect. For it to be effective, you must be under level 40 Woodworking with NO synthesis support. So if your skilling, this item is useless. Use the advanced imaging support. 
11 Synthing Direction - Their are many beliefs about synthing. One of which is the direction you face while synthing. It's believed that you should face the direction of the constellation of the corresponding element to your crystal. The good thing about this is it only take about two seconds to face the right direction, so even if it is something made up, your not losing any time really. And if its true, its well worth it. 
 Crystal ----- Direction
 
 Water ------- West
 Wind -------- SouthEast
 Lightning --- SouthWest
 Ice --------- East
 Fire -------- NorthWest
 Earth ------- South
 Dark -------- North
 Light ------- NorthEast
== Guide ==
Note: any synth that you can use to level, and then use the resulting item to level again is a great plan! This goes for most lumber.
==== 0-10 ====
*Arrowwood Lumber (2)-Wind Crystal, Arrowwood Log— Make them till you're capped, and save them. This will probably be the single most used synth in leveling woodworking.
*Maple Lumber (5)-Wind Crystal, Maple Log—Make up to cap, it’s cheap. And be sure to save four of them for the test item.
*Ash Lumber (8)-Wind Crystal, Ash Log—Make these to cap and save
TEST ITEM:Workbench (8)--Earth Crystal, Lauan Lumber x4: Get lumber from the guild shop. Not a widely used lumber so should be cheap.
==== 11-20 ====
*Holly Lumber (12)-Wind Crystal, Holly Log-- use these or Willow lumber below. Whatever sells faster/more. These are really just a bridge till you have enough skill to do bolts.
*Willow Lumber (13)-Wind Crystal, Willow Log— use these or Holly lumber below. Whatever sells faster/more. These are really just a bridge till you have enough 
*Bolts (15/16)-Earth Crystal, Bolthead, Ash Lumber— There are many types of bolt heads you can use. If you have a preference, by all means. The cheapest is probably Bronze Bolt Heads. Plus at a smithing skill of 14 you can always make your own. Or if you know a higher lvl smither you can have him HQ them for you cheaply. - Take to cap and sell.
TEST ITEM: Maple Table (16)--Earth Crystal, Maple Lumber x4— Now it's time to use those Maple Lumbers you've made. These are supposedly great for gardeners, so if you know any be sure to ask if they'd like to buy them. 
==== 21-30 ====
*Maple Sugar (21)-Lightning Crystal, Maple Log—Usually profitable at AHs, you want to take this to 21. It is pretty profitable when Sandy is in last place (or else Raimbroy’s Grocery sells them) and even more so when no one controls Fauregandi, limiting the supply of maple logs.
*Yew Lumber (22)-Wind Crystal, Yew Log— Make them to cap and save for next synth. The logs are around 300 each
*Yew Wand (23)-Wind Crystal, Yew Lumber, Yagudo Feather-- Use that lumber up here. The Yagudo Feathers are about 40 gil each. So total is about 350 gil per synth. Yew Wands AH for about 1k or Npc for about 270. So it's well worth it. This combo is mainly a bridge for Shihei
*Chestnut Lumber (28)-Wind Crystal, Chestnut Log— I debated adding these. But it can serve as an alternative if shihei is to expensive. These are also very price sensitive though, so check cost vs selling before starting. If its acceptable go ahead.
*Shihei (29)-Wind Crystal, Black Ink, Bast Parchment x2--These are the ninja tools for Utsusemi, and the first real higher costing synth for its level. Black Ink is around 5k on AH and Bast Parchment is 6k, except you need two stacks for each stack of Ink. So a full 12 synth runs about 17k. Assuming you don't fail any (use Adv. Synth Support to help, adds +3 to your ww skill temporarily) you can make 4 stacks of shihei from 12 synths. On odin at least, they sell for around 4-5k per stack. It can fluctuate with the market/server, but you can probably make your money back on these. They are in very high demand at all times however high crafters (80+) HQ these and flood the market.
TEST ITEM: Harp (27)--Earth Crystal, Coeurl Whisker, Chestnut Lumber x2: Probably cheaper to simply buy one off the AH. They run about 3-4k. 
== Congratulations ==
Congrats on making 30. This is the first step in your woodworking adventure. You can now trade items at the guild for Guild Points The guilds do one item per day. The item can change, however, if you advance in rank. Some synths can be expensive, and some may not be well worth it. It depends on your time and budget. But turn in all that you can for points. You'll definitely be needing lumberjack soon. Plus you'll want to start working towards getting the Carpenter's Gloves and the Carpenter's Apron. Both give +1 to your woodworking skill. Combined with Adv Synth Support you can have +5 right there.
You have also reached the rank where you will be starting to get into Arrow territory. My personal favorite all around synth. How far you want to be away form cap when you start these is entirely up to the crafter. But the further away the higher the risk of failing the synth. I have done them up to 10 levels short with Adv Sup. (Ex 49+3 Cap 59) Many fails however. The good thing is you'll do arrows in groups of 99 synths at a time. So you'll have a lot of them to do. You'll need to develop a feel for these. Arrows also sell well generally. I'll include some bridges and various synths to help, but they're completely optional depending on the crafter nature.
UPDATE: Since the creation of this guide, ffxi has witnessed the intoduction of the campaing system. Part of the reward they give are arrow quivers. (single quiver) While their not overly present, ppl will take them and sell them on AH therefor increasing supply.
==== 31-40 ====
*Book Holder (31)-Earth Crystal, Holly Lumber, Lauan Lumber-- May be worth the cost, may not be. Lauan Logs are around 40g and the book holders Npc around 200g. So it really depends on the Holly cost. Remember you can always synth a log if lumber is to high.
*Mizu-Deppo (34)-Earth Crystal, Chestnut Lumber, Bronze Sheet, Distilled Water--Another ninja tool. Ah these or npc at 10g each (990 stack). Distilled water you can get at Raimbroy's Groceries in Southern San d'Oria for about 11g each. Bronze sheets at the smithing guild; usually cheap. The chestnut lumber will be the determining factor here. Check it's price, if profitable go for it. Note: each synth yields 33 Mizu-Deppo. 99 to a stack
*Beetle Arrow (39)-Earth Crystal, Beetle Arrowheads, Arrowwood Lumber, Chocobo Fletchings— Congratulations on reaching Arrow synthesis!! Believe me, you'll get tired of 'em quick lol If you haven't acquired lumberjack yet, shame on you. Arrowheads are sold in stacks of 99, so that means you need a piece of arrowwood lumber for each and every one. - Each synth yields 33 arrows, so NHQ can yield 33 stacks. Be sure to quiver them. Saves a lot of room when you're done and helps sell faster. (To quiver, trade a carnation and 99 arrows to the quiver lady. Max 7 carnations and 7 stacks of arrows per trade.) You can stack quivers up to 12 (12x99) To avoid confusion, A SINGLE quiver is the same as 99 arrows.
TEST ITEM: Traversiere (37)--Wind Crystal, Oak Lumber, Parchment: Simple enough. Check the AH price vs supply cost. Go with what ever is cheaper.
==== 41-50 ====
Note: Their are many synths available to use as a bridge if needed. Though several can cost a fair amount. So I'm only including one. However you can go straight from beetle arrows (39) to horn arrows (49) with Adv Synth Support. There will most likely be several breaks due to gap which is why I'm including one bridge. Both ways can be beneficial depending on your current needs.
*Bast Parchment (45)-Lightning Crystal, Elm Log, Distilled Water, Moko Grass-- Not a bad synth actually. Requires Alchemy 29 as a sub skill. Distilled Water again at Raimbroy's Groceries in Southern San d'Oria 11g each. Moko Grass is in port sandy right after you enter the airship dock. 15-22 gil. (plus price to enter dock) If you don't have an airship pass, ask a friend or find someone else waiting inside and ask them to buy it and send it to you when they reach Jeuno in exchange for the gil. The main item here is the Elm Log. Search around to find the best price you can, and see if its worth it. Can be bought from AH or guild shop. 
Note: Bast Parchment is also used in many other synths including Shihei. You can sell these or use them to craft other items. 
 
*Horn Arrow (49)-Earth Crystal, Arrowwood Lumber, Horn Arrowheads, Bird Fletchings- If you can find or know someone making Bird fletchings, they will probably be grateful to sell them to you cheaper than AH. AH usaly aint bad in terms of price, but supply is limited to crafters leveling on them. May end up having to farm the bird feathers and shout for a clothcrafter to synth them into fletchings for you. Of course if you find one near but below cap, they may do it for you for free since they're getting the free skill off of it. And of course you get the privilege of making more arrowwood lumber again. Good news is you should be starting to HQ that lumber, making it cheaper and faster. Quiver as you go. Cap these out and sell.
TEST ITEM: Rose Wand (47)-- Wind Crystal, Rosewood Lumber, Black Chocobo Feather- Get lumber from AH or guild. The feather can be a pain though. The citizens of the first-place Nation in Conquest Rankings will have these available at the Chocobo Stables, in case the AH doesn't have any singles.
==== 51-60 ====
Their are very few good bridges in this range, so I have excluded them from this guide and went straight to the next Arrow. Again using Adv Syn Support you should be ok.
*Scorpion Arrow (59)-Earth Crystal, Scorpion Arrowheads, Arrowwood Lumber, Insect Fletchings— These are a great synth period. However may take up to 4 stacks of arrowheads. (See why lumberjack is so important? Imagine doing them singly lol) Unfortionitly these arrow heads are generally in a shorter supply. Quiver and go!
*Chest (61)-Earth Crystal, Rattan Lumber x3, Lauan Lumber x2- Pretty cheap for it's level. Can be troublesome if the Elshimo regions are under beastmen control, however. Cap it out. If you're only taking woodworking to 60 then it's a great way to end it, and congratulations!
TEST ITEM: Kaman (57)-- Wind Crystal, Elm Lumber, Bamboo Stick, Silk Thread, Wool Cloth-As are many test items, check price on AH vs materials and go with the cheaper of the two. ONLY turn one in if you are going beyond 60 to 100.
== POST 60 GUIDE ==
This is only for those taking woodworking past 60. I can see taking it to 69 for the Demon Arrows but that's it. This section can also be very hard on the wallet, so proceed with care.
NOTE: If you've taken a look at Ctownwoody's guide you'll notice a distinct similarity up to this point. And I give him all the credit for his long work. But it was the post 60 guild that I strayed off course with, which is why I wanted to make a separate guide. A lot of synth's require massive sub-skills or fishing; neither of which I had, so I had to find a different route.
==== 61-70 ====
*Demon Arrow (69)-Earth Crystal, Demon Arrowheads, Black Chocobo Fletchings, Arrowwood Lumber Another arrow synth.. and probably your last major one. (See why I said you'd get tired of them quickly lol) And again, may take several stacks. These arrowheads will probably be a lot more expencive compared to the others you have used. But you should make all your gil back. Take to cap as always.
TEST ITEM: Ebony Wand (66)--Wind Crystal, Ebony Lumber, Giant Bird Feather-Make or buy, whichever is cheaper.
==== 71-80 ====
-Warning- Now it can start getting expensive.
*Hume Fishing Rod (72)-Light Crystal, Broken Hume Rod-- If you have a good fishing skill and are capable of breaking these, by all means. It's basically a free synth with the exception of the crystals. But can be very hard to do.
*Hume Fishing Rod (74)- Wind Crystal, Rosewood Lumber, Silver Thread-- This is an annoying synth to say the least but one I was forced to do since I can't stand fishing. Rosewood lumber on AH ran about 20k a stack, Silver Thread (NOT SILK THREAD) ran about 12k a stack. Totaling 32k for 12 rods. AH in sandy for 2k each. So it was a 8k loss per stack = 666g/synth loss. Not too bad in face of what came next. Problem with this is they don't stack, and may only sell 1 or 2 a day. So it can take a long time to sell these off. Or you can NPC them for around 1100, which is even more of a loss so AH if you can. Remember to check prices.
*Ebony Pole (79)- Wind Crystal, Ebony Lumber x2 -- I had spent a long time sifting through trying to find the best item to synth in terms of cost. Unfortunately this was actually the best at the time considering our market. The lumber was around 38k a stack in sandy AH : 38-40k jeuno, so I was waiting till they were on sandy's mostly. The pole NPCs for around 4400. You get 6 poles per stack of lumber. So it's around an 11k loss per stack = 2k/synth loss. Like I said, the later levels can get expensive. (Use adv syn support to minimize breaks. Markets change, so if you can find a better bridge, be sure to take it.
TEST ITEM: Commode (77)--Earth Crystal, Rosewood Lumber x5 -- Make or buy, whichever is cheaper. Can also be used as a skill item if lumber is cheap enough.
As many know, at this point (80) i had taken a long break at the start of 2009. I had completed all main subcrafts to 60 (except 50 GS). We have also seen the introduction of the three add-on senerios; as well as Vision of abyssea, and Scares of abyssea, with Heros of abyssea still to come. Were also in the process of raiseing the level cap from 75 to 99. Also odins 100 year lock out (server closed, no new players) has finaly ended with the massive server merge. The combind effect of all this has sent the econamy crazy. Items that used to cost a fourtion are now becomeing cheap. And other items are sky rocketing. Since we still have HoA to come i imagin that will continue. It was the notice of price changes that actuly got my back to woodworking earlier then i entended. So on that note... its nearing the end of 2010; lets get this guide finished!
 
==== 81-90 ====
*Mega Pump (84)- Earth Crystal, Bamboo Stick, Chestnut Lumber, Coeurl Whisker x3, Carbon Fiber, Animal Glue, Water Cluster - Requires Alch 54 
This can be a very long synth >< however, depending on the time put into it, a good one. Whether or not you'll profit, break even, or lose on this entirely depends on how you obtain these materials. If you get all of it off the AH you will lose big. If you're able to farm and HQ a lot, you can profit on these. Bamboo Sticks can be bought at the guild. Chestnut Lumber - Buy logs at guild and HQ (28) Coeurl Whisker I bought these on AH which can add up quickly seeing as they were 3k a stack. Seeing as you need three stacks of these for one stack of synths, that makes it 9k+ per stack. So I would suggest farming them if you're able to. 
UPDATE: Whiskers that were once around 3k a stack are now like 8-12k a stack, makeing farming these nessacery if you dont want to lose gill. 
Carbon Fiber Farm/buy Bomb Ash to synth your own. Animal Glue Buy the materials and synth your own. This is a lvl 7 alch synth so HQ should be good. Do NOT buy Animal Glue off the AH!! Lots of people use this to make gil, thus a very high mark up. Water Cluster This is very easy to farm at Pashhow Marshlands. Head to E/F-5. It rains a lot here so you shouldn't have to wait long. People use this area to farm Beastman blood a lot from the leeches. NOTE: If you know any high lvl crafters that can help synth your materials for a better chance at HQ then ask them! Especially the alchemy components! More HQ means more gil in your wallet! The Mega Pumps npc for about 51 gil each. That's 5k+ per stack. 
*Teak Lumber (85)-Wind Crystal, Teak Log--Can be a good alternitive or a good bridge, depends on the price of the log. Teak lumber npc's for about 2k. This is much easier then mega pumps, however the problem is supply. Their only Logged in the past, which makes supply rare.
*Mythic Harp (90)-Earth Crystal, Coeurl Whisker, Ancient Lumber x2 - With the prices having gone down this actuly became a break even synth depends in your servers prices. Both from AH altho you can farm the whiskers if you like. Npc's for about 7100. I personaly started these at 80 with +2equip +3 ad sup. Fail rate was very high for the first 2-3 lvls. First lvl was roughtly 50% break. The key to this is hopeing your dont loes your meterials on a break. If your server currently has the artisans advantage Kupo power, that will help.
==== 91-99 ====
*Bloodwood Lumber (95)-Wind Crystal, Bloodwood Log - This has become a decent synthing option since the prices have fallen. It will however take a lot of logs to cap from 90 to 95. Having a mule to store these logs will defenitly help you out. The lumber itsself doesnt sell very much now because of abyssea equipment. However it doesnt npc for to much of a loss if you dont go crazy with what you pay for the logs. Sell a stack now and then to cover any loss and you should be fine. This is the last 'decent' synth on the road to 100 so take it to cap.
*Lacquer Tree Sap (96)-Water Crystal, Lacquer Tree Log - Same deal as bloodwood lumber. The sap doesnt sell at all, so youll be NPC'ing it. One sap NPC's for 875. Each synth yeilds four saps so your getting 3500 per log synthed back. Diffrence this time however, is Laquer logs are in much less suply then bloodwood. If you have a mule you might want to buy Laqure when you can and sotre them before reaching this point that way you have an ample suppy when u hit 95. Fourtionitly you only have to compete for logs for one level. That being said, still take it to cap.
*Divine Sap (97)-Water Crystal, Divine Log - Another synth the abyssea release has provided. Divine logs have come down in price enough to make this an option. The sap npc's for about 725. Each log yeilds 4 saps, so your getting back almost 3k from npcs. A slight loss, but not to bad. And nothing compared to whats coming up next. Also worth noteing, the sap is used for Cursed Beverage. Its a lvl 99 cooking recipie. So if you no anyone near that mark, they might just be willing to buy it off ya! Deffenitly, absolutly, unquestionably, undeniably.. cap on this!
Welcome to the final streatchs of Woodworking! And please except my condolences! I hope you have some gill to loss, cause your going to need it from here on out. At this point your pretty screwed. You options are all horrible. And they will all be major gill sinks. So be prepaired.
*Cythara Anglica (98)-Earth Crystal, Ebony Lumber x2, Ancient Lumber x2, Coeurl Whisker - I cant say i recomend this option. Its about the same loss overall as the Lancewood Lumber next; but it requires a LOT more time and effort. Gathering these mets can be troublesome. If your lucky and HQ the woods it will help with cost, but dont count on it to much. These npc for about 5700. But while the next option is much simpler, supply can be an issue; which is the one thing that might make these seem appealing.
*Lancewood Lumber (99)-Wind Crystal, Lancewood Log - These logs drop from dynamis. (only windy that iv seen, but possibly more) So their not in a great supply. Logs are currenlty around 10k a peice, and only npc for around 2k. So you will be spending a fourtion to cap out on this. And if your hopeing it will get better... dont!
== 100+ Synths ==
*Jacaranda Lumber (101)-Wind Crystal, Jacaranda Log - This is one option to cap out to 100 on. Its exactly the same deal as lancewood lumber, tho these MIGHT be in slightly better supply.
I finished off WW with the jacaranda, but i will include a few other 100+ options. And to give you an idea of what to look forward to with lance/jac ill list my personal results.
Took me 52 Lancewood logs to get from 97 to 98 
31 lancewood logs from 98 to 98.8 
11 Jacaranda from 98.8 to 90 
63 Jacaranda from 99 to 100 
Also worth noting, Jacaranda has a much higher fail rate then lancewood. Failed 10/63 
*Iron-splitter (100)-Wind Crystal, Walnut Lumber x2, Adaman Ingot - Requires Smithing 60. This is a two part synth. As this item is used in the next item. Your gain/loss on this will realy depend on the cost of the adaman ingot.
*Steel-splitter (100)-Wind Crystal, Steel Walnut Lumber, Iron-splitter - Also requires smithing 60. Uses the Iron Splinter you just made in the last recipie. Theirfor you can get an extra synth out of it for one additional item. The Steel walnut Lumber is a ww19 recipie so you can HQ it. However it does require the Key Item Wood Ensorcellment. The steel splinter npcs for 3.8k
*Primate Staff (99) Wind Crystal, Darksteel Ingot, Cassia Lumber x2, Yellow Rock x2, Gold Ingot, Mercury, Vermilion Lacquer - Have fun getting all those items. Requires Smithing 47 and Goldsmithing 53. Also another two part synth. Note that this part only goes to 99.
*Kinkobo (102) Wind Crystal, Primate Staff, Ethereal Vermilion Lacquer - Requires Alch 21. Uses the item in the last recipie. You can get a second synth by adding Ethereal Vermilion Lacquer. The lacque is an alch recpie that requires a Key Item of its own. Kinkobo npcs for about 5.8k
So feel free to chose what ever recipie that happenes to work best for you! And Congratulations on acheaving Woodworking 100!!!!
Godofgods 20:57, May 14, 2011 (UTC) Odin
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