Sometimes the South Wins
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 336,080 EXP, which places it 2nd of the 6 Lv 54 Armorer tradecraft leves that record EXP. The best of them, Someone Put Dung in My Helmet, returns 473,220 EXP for the same allowance, 41% more.
Across that rung the return runs from 56,014 EXP to 473,220 EXP per allowance — 6 distinct figures spanning 745%, so the wrong pick leaves 417,206 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 56 Armorer tradecraft leve returns 534,960 EXP per allowance, 13% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 52 rung behind tops out at 555,260 EXP.
At Lv 54 this data holds 54 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 296,533 EXP per allowance, the 6 Fieldcraft ones 622,778 EXP, which puts this leve 13% above its own category's average.
Gil ranks it differently: 338 gil per allowance is 5th of 6 on the same rung against 2nd on EXP, with the best there paying 874 gil.
Titanium Mail of Fending ×1 is a Lv 55 Armorer recipe, 3 steps deep through 6 intermediates, costing 34 units of raw material and 33 crystals.
Handing that in returns 9,885 EXP and 10 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows, and the tree needs Armorer, Blacksmith, Goldsmith, Leatherworker and Weaver.