Dawntrail Diary: Scrip Farmer

Tomorrow marks seven weeks of Final Fantasy XIV's Dawntrail expansion (not counting early access). I kind of skipped the final fight to do things I find more enjoyable, like crafting. I guess my activities line up with what others are doing in the game after completing the main story questline (MSQ), just without finishing the story and watching the credits roll down the screen.

The MSQ wasn't that good - If actions speak louder than words, then the Dawntrail MSQ was not that good. Once I faced the prospect of running the speedbump called The Interphos I started the process to gear up instead of proceeding with my iLvl 690 gear. But if the story had really been compelling like it was in Shadowbringers and Endwalker, I would have swallowed my pride and attempted to complete the story.

The retainer army is humming along - I've basically put my crew of retainers on cruise control, except for my lower level botanist. But the levelling has slowed down and I haven't needed to worry about upgrading their gear. I also have a white mage retainer whose gear I need to upgrade. I'll do so once I finish making the iLvl 710 white mage gear. Retainers usually get hand-me-downs.

For not really paying attention, my income is keeping up with expenses. Between expedition rewards and selling dyes I made around 600,000 gil last week. The big issue is ventures. I'm under 1000 so I have a few weeks worth of ventures. Still, getting more ventures is another incentive to start levelling up my Trust NPCs.

Crafting progress - Over the last week I crafted all 21 iLvl 690 gathering and crafting tools for the 8 crafting and 3 gathering classes. I also crafted the left side (head, chest, hands, legs, feet) for the crafting set. I decided to start farming orange crafting scrips to finish off the left side before crafting the 5 right-side (ear, neck, wrist, and two rings).  

For those wondering about my target gear, I am aiming for Teamcraft's 7.0 mid-tier crafting set.

I decided to craft Rarefied Tacos de Carne Asada to obtain the orange scrips. I initially just used a lot of grade 10 materia in my new left side gear to get my crafting level up high enough to craft the items. Once I had the materia I melded (and overmelded) my gear and continued farming for scrips. I also used spiritbond potion to get some additional materia.

I cobbled together two macros to make the crafting easier. I discovered back in Shadowbringers that using macros keeps my hand from becoming sore. And farming the scrips required hours of crafting. Here are my macros:

Orange Scrip Macro 1

/ac "Muscle Memory" <me><wait.3>
/ac "Waste Not II" <me><wait.3>
/ac Manipulation <me><wait.3>
/ac Veneration <me><wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <me><wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <me><wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <me><wait.3>
/ac Innovation <me><wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <me><wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <me><wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <me><wait.3>
/ac Innovation <me><wait.3>
/ac "Trained Perfection" <me><wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <me><wait.3>
/echo Macro 1 finished <se.2>

Orange Scrip Macro 2

/ac "Preparatory Touch" <me><wait.3>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <me><wait.3>
/ac Veneration <me><wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <me><wait.3>
/echo Craft finished <se.2>

Admittedly I did not fully test the minimum stat requirements, but I believe having 4870 craftsmanship, 4353 control, and 568 crafting points should run the macros successfully. That's without food or medicine so if a crafter is close go ahead and eat. I also used HQ Dark Rye Flour, which is an level 74 item so extremely easy to make for a level 100 crafter.

FFXIV macros only hold 15 lines so I had to split the macro in two. I do like the sound effects at the end to let me know to press the next button.

Next up is purple scrip farming. I'll need to do a lot of FATEs and other farming to get enough Alpaca Fillets to get enough purple scrips to get the grade 11 materia I'll need to finish off the crafting set. Once I purchase enough grade 11 materia I'll finish up making the rest of the set and pentameld the pieces.

A new crafting place - I decided I didn't want to grind the orange crafting scrips in either Tuliyollal or Gridania so I travelled to Solution Nine and set up shop in front of the vendors. I like the artwork and the music but the location was missing one thing: a market board. If the place was a little busier like Radz-at-Han in Endwalker I'd gladly sit in the location and craft all day.