In the beginning I was crafting armor and weapons for several people in the guild everytime it was available, we all put great stones in them and out gew it within a day or two.
So suggestion: From level 1 to 40 ( some feel level 30 is a good spot to start just depends on how fast you level)use drop armor and do not stone them waist of gold unless you want to level slow.
Craft only to level up these 2 skills
At level 40 get your first official armor from military ranking level 1 this will carry you for awhile.
At level 60 time to think about making or buying armor to carry you to level 70.
At 70, leveling will slow down and mobs are getting harder, HH is available to you now and time to make the best you can. Many seek out HH armor at this point as it is a awsome armorand prestige follows it as well.
Crafting skills if you are developing tailoring skills will need to be level 4 here.
Level 80: HH armor here begins to be more expensive if your not making HH runs for mats, your 70 gear also gets torn down and is made into a esignarKa for one of the mat requirements.This armor will also stay with you for 10 levels.
Stay on top of your crafting skills or call on a guild member that has.
Level 90 gear from HH: mats are harder to get and prices go up be start gathering a soon as you hit 80 as this is what I did and just had it all when I turned. Here your tailor skills will need to be level 6 to craft this armor.
As these armors will stay with you so long use the highest grade stone available up to 8 in your 90 gear. A grade 8 Jargoon will cost 4.8 mil to synthesize so be ready to spend cash along the way.
Level 99 gear: OK here it gets very hard, although HH gear can be made these upper arenas are hard to get into with good parties and I hope to develope you all to make these runs together.
Crescent Valley mats are the preffered here but this arena is so hard a party of 6 level 100+ die in the first minutes of entry.
Weapons:
As with armor use award weapons along the wayutil level 40 and then use military.
At level 60 you can make your first HH weapons
Level 70 time to upgrade as it is at 80 and 90.
If you choose to not use the arena eq and craft yours here is a hint: Go to the tailor and blacksmith, make a list of mats for the weapons and armor needed and hord your mats, do not make one set and call it good but make up to 10 at a time.
As each item is crafted check the stats and when a good one comes up click cancel on crafting.
Crafting levels become available along the way of which level 6 can not be obtained until you turn level 80 and you will be stopped at 5.5 so don't bother trying to upgrade by crafting it will be a waist of mats.
My crafting in blacksmith and tailor is level 8 the mats to achieve this are found only in heaven and hell arenas you can not enter until after your FB 89.
For those who feel it is worth it mats can be subsidized by using cubi and I confess to using this route as one mat is a mob drop with a 1.0% drop rate. Using 1 cubi 80 cubi coin was cheaper than a hiero.
Have fun crafting and hope you all get 4 socket eq.
Iktae