Cobalt Aforethought
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 75,570 EXP, which places it 4th of the 6 Lv 45 Armorer tradecraft leves that record EXP — a figure 1 other leve on the rung matches exactly. The best of them, Parasitic Win, returns 152,230 EXP for the same allowance, 101% more.
Across that rung the return runs from 26,790 EXP to 152,230 EXP per allowance — 5 distinct figures spanning 468%, so the wrong pick leaves 125,440 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 50 Armorer tradecraft leve returns 211,350 EXP per allowance, 39% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 40 rung behind tops out at 102,600 EXP.
At Lv 45 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 98,250 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 733,026 EXP, which puts this leve 23% below its own category's average.
Cobalt Plate ×1 is a Lv 43 Armorer recipe, 2 steps deep through 1 intermediate, costing 6 units of raw material and 15 crystals.
Handing that in returns 12,595 EXP and 81 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows, and the tree needs Armorer and Blacksmith.