[jutetrea]

As long as you have your pretender at level 4 (a lot of times even level 3) in a school he can usually itemize to higher levels if he has the slots - maybe needing the very rare empowerment. Takes time and effort though which can usually be better spent on sites or as an SC, but all dependent.

SP vs MP is different as well, in SP there will usually be a lot more time for construction help, using your pretender to fashion items/summon for those jumps from 2-3, 3-4. I'm pretty much an MP noob with only a few games, but it seems the timing is a lot tighter. i.e having your pretender churn out 1 item/turn isn't necessarily that efficient.