Try and keep your gear somewhat up to date, but don't worry about gear too much early on. Biggest thing is keep doing those Evaluation leves as they give the biggest amount of experience. Use survival manuals from your grand company to help boost the XP you get from mining as well.
Good luck. Leveling gathering sucks.
Eh, it's a relaxing thing to do which makes it fun as long as you don't go too balls in. If you do nothing BUT leveling gathering then yeah, it sucks. I just relaxed and listened to music half the time with MIN/BTN and when I do FSH, I'll probably escalate it to "Watch TV" and fish lol.
I also highly recommend Cordials. They help a lot with evaluation leves, especially the ones where you only need 4 instead of 8 nodes. (Starts in Coerthas I believe). I usually do -> Sharp Vision 3 (node 1) -> Click on hardest item in the node -> Sharp Vision 3 -> Click on hardest item in the node -> Cordial -> Sharp Vision 3 -> Click on hardest item in the node.
Though when my GP got higher, II instead just waited the extra minute for my GP to restore. The evaluation bonus is FAR more important than the speed of completion bonus. I also always set the difficulty to the max no matter what.
Also do your provisional mission every day, that experience adds up. If possible, farm the items yourself, don't buy them on the MB. That way you get more XP.
My BTN is 2 levels away from 50 now I believe. I could have had it at 50 any day if not for my relaxing attitude towards it lol.
tl;dr: Cordials, use them. Provisional Missions, use them. Have fun and don't burn yourself out.
I don't think I'll have the time to be a master crafter so I figured this would be a nice way to generate a little income. I think. I hope? We'll see how the expansion affects prices and the new materials.
Clusters. (level 50 unspoiled nodes in Mor Dhona - use ffxivclock.com to help with that when you're at 50). Sell them. I sell Water/Lightning/Fire Clusters daily now. It helps me fund my crafting stuff (though I can now reduce the costs using my BTN/MIN and only have to buy FSH mats for my crafters)
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