Waste Not & Waste Not II are skills available to crafters in Final Fantasy XIV. They become available at levels 15 and 47, and these skills reduce loss of durability in the crafting process.
More specifically, Waste Not/Waste Not II reduces the loss of item durability during the crafting process by 50%.
What does this mean in practical terms? Well, the item will lose half the durability it would normally, potentially extending the amount of time you can spend working on it. This could give you the opportunity to increase the item’s quality.
Crafting in Final Fantasy XIV is a delicate balancing game.
You’ve got to do your best to juggle the item’s durability with its progress and quality. Several factors can influence this process. The quality of the crafting components, the gear you’re wearing, the direction the wind’s blowing (alright, maybe not that one).
It’s basically a world apart from crafting systems in other MMOs, which usually involve amassing materials and standing in one spot making them for hours at a time.
But in Final Fantasy XIV, you can stand in one spot crafting for hours at a time while pressing buttons. If that sounds dull, that’s because it definitely can be.
Thanks to the immense amount of content in the form of individual crafting storylines, gear upgrades, and “endgame” crafting activities like The Firmament, you can totally abandon that whole Warrior of Light thing.
If you want to live out your days making clothes, you can!
Waste Not and Waste Not II are part of the repertoire of skills you’ll develop over your crafting career. Skills like these, used effectively, give you the power to tip the scales in your favor during crafting.
Knowing which skills to use (and when) can make a massive difference.
It’s not as easy as just gathering the best ingredients and getting a guaranteed great item every time.
No, if you want to make high quality items, you need to know your skill rotation. High quality items will typically have significantly better stats than their normal quality counterpoints, and as a result they’ll sell for much more on the Market Board.
If making gil is the main reason you want to craft, you need to shoot for high quality.
Differences Between Waste Not & Waste Not II
Waste Not is unlocked at level 15 regardless of which crafting class you’re playing.
It reduces the durability items lose by 50% for the next four steps you take.
Waste Not II unlocks at 47, and reduces durability lost by 50% for the next eight steps.
So Waste Not II has the same effect as Waste Not, just for longer.
But Waste Not II isn’t necessarily better because it lasts for longer. XIV’s crafting system is quite nuanced, and there are plenty of little tricks you’ll discover along the way that might even make it redundant.
This is a skill that unlocks regardless of whether you’re leveling a Culinarian, Blacksmith, Weaver etc.
Think of it like role actions for the combat classes – every tank gets basic actions which mitigate damage, DPS classes get a basic self-heal in the form of Second Wind, etc.
They’re basically just abilities not deemed specific enough to be restricted to a single class, more like generally useful features that anyone could make use of.
Is Waste Not/Waste Not II Worth Using?
This is actually a topic of mildly fervent debate in the community.
Waste Not is somewhat useful for mitigating durability loss at certain points in the crafting process, but Waste Not II just has too many charges (proving that more isn’t always better) to be an efficient use of your CP.
Basically, by the time you unlock Waste Not II, you’ll have more useful options for the point in the crafting process where you could use it.
There’s never really a time you can make use of the eight charges it offers, because by that time you’ll be using other skills that don’t reduce durability anyway.
It simply doesn’t make sense to spend the CP necessary for Waste Not II, when you’re not going to use the full eight steps – especially not when there are other options better suited for the purpose.
Whether you’re a casual crafter or have dreams of making millions, it’s important you understand your individual job’s optimum crafting rotation if you want to get the most out of it.
Going into something like that is beyond the scope of this article, but I’d really recommend checking out a resource like FFXIV Guild for specifics.
You’ll need to know the most effective way from 1-80, and good guides will go into detail about your rotation and how it impacts item quality.
