The Crafting 101

[Naunet]

Fantastic guide, and as someone entirely new to FF crafting, this was immensely helpful. One thing I'm still not sure of is how one gets HQ items. Do you have to fill the bottom bar up entirely?

 

Also, do you mind if I cross-post this onto my FC's page with credit and linking to your post? I feel like it would be really useful.

[Akki-Chan]

Err, sure, if you give credit go ahead! *laughs*

 

As for the HQ items.. the bar fills with a % number. The higher the number, the higher the chance the item willt urn out to be HQ. It really is "that" simpal.

[Naunet]

As for the HQ items.. the bar fills with a % number. The higher the number, the higher the chance the item willt urn out to be HQ. It really is "that" simpal.

 

Aah okay, so whether or not it's HQ isn't determined until you actually finish the craft, but it could potentially turn out HQ even if you don't fill up the bar. Thanks! This complex crafting is very foreign to me hehe.

 

And thank you for the permission. I will definitely credit you and link back to this original post.

[Karhu Katsu]

Loved you're guide on Eorzea Reborn, glad to see you bring out over here. ^.^

[Naunet]

One more question:

 

You said you would talk about the Observe ability when we learn about conditions, but after reading chapter 2, I still don't really understand what this ability does. Can you elaborate?

[Akki-Chan]

Hum, okay, I thought that would be self explaining eventually.

 

But alright.. 

 

Well, let's have an example here.

 

So let's say your item stands on 50% quality.

You have 36 CP left.

The items condition stands on Normal.

You have 30 Stability left.

 

So if you want the 10 stability safety to not endanger your work piece, you have one working step left before you have to finish your piece.

 

 

Now we gamble a bit.

 

You spend 12 CP on Observe.

 

And voilá, the items Condiion jumps on "Good"!

You use the remaining 24 CP to perform Basic Touch and bring your piece on 78% quality before finishing up with a synthesis skill.

 

 

Another example.

 

You have cracked the jackpot and got an Excellent success with a touch skill. But now your items quality stands on Poor. You are on the final steps of improving quality, but usign a Touch skill on a poor quality step is nothing short but a waste of time and CP. So you use Observe to bring the condition back to normal.

 

Makes sense?

[Naunet]

Aaah, so Observe is basically an RNG step that could change the condition (poor, good, etc)? I didn't realize those would change without you doing anything to the gear.

 

Sorry, it wasn't self-explanatory to me. x.x

[Karhu Katsu]

Aaah, so Observe is basically an RNG step that could change the condition (poor, good, etc)? I didn't realize those would change without you doing anything to the gear.

 

Sorry, it wasn't self-explanatory to me. x.x

I had wondered the same thing.  The highest i'd gotten any crafters too was 15, and I hadn't seen observe yet, nor had condition change.  Does that only come up at the higher levels I wonder?

[Pells]

Every step is an RNG between normal, good and excellent.  Poor always follows an excellent step. Observe is just a way to pass a step without doing anything, except spending the 12cp to use it. Later on, you will also get buffs that last a set number of turns, and then you also need to consider if you want to waste the turn.

 

So if conditions aren't favorable, it's usually better to wait. Strike while the iron's hot.

[Vlll]

Another note is Observe will also count as a step for other effects you have active, like the one that improves success for 5 steps.

 

I managed to level Leatherworking to 16, Carpenter to 20 and Goldsmithing to 25, and also tried the rest of the crafts for 5-10 levels to see what they create and what the use. Overall I found that the Leatherworking skill (Waste Not, 53 CP - Halves the durability loss for 4 steps) is really, really good. It allows to perform harder synths since you can effectively double the times you improve progress, and also allows to put some quality on things you normally could not. I am considering taking Leather to 15 just for it.

 

From all the guilds, at the moment I think I'll go Goldsmithing. I liked the items crafted (jewelry, headpieces, THM weapons) and the recipes in general are fairly simple.

[Apoc1216]

*bookmarked* I will definitely need this when I can devote a lot of time to crafting, thank you so much for this info! :thumbsup:

[oleum]

@VIII

 

 

A question for you, you say you managed to level goldsmith to 25? Is the level cap not in place for crafting? It probably won't make any difference for me as I've been locked out for 13 hours with error 3102.

 

----

 

@Hiname

 

Firstly thankyou so much

 

The CP needed are now modified to 92 for Masters Mend and 88 for Manipulation. Manipulation now restores 10 CP after each of the next 3 steps. Previously at 150 CP it was pretty worthless restoring 5CP after the next 5 steps.

 

As a (cross class skill?) manipulation was letting me achieve something like 700XP per synth of bronze plate level 3 at level 5-8. 

 

Start with Manipulation 

then use remaining CP on increasing quality with Basic Touch 

and finish off with Basic Synthesis.

 

The increase in EXP for quality seems to level out after around 15% quality but still increases slowly. At 8% its 150% at 20% about 250% and 28% about 280% so aiming safely at about 10-15% HQ for skillup increases seems a good place to be.

 

The rapid synthesis seems to give around 50% of the EXP of a standard synth where you just hit basic synth each time. Very poor return for levelling up considering that the basic amount of EXP can easily be doubled once you hit level 5, but much less soul destroying than making stacks of ingots manually.

[Bishok Raquel]

This is my first post and the reason is to just THANK YOU for the wonderful guide.

[Chakha Malqir]

Absolutely wonderful guide!

 

*bookmarked*

[doctorgalactic]

Has anyone found a weaving leve that leads to and extended contract?  I've not been able to find one, including 1~2 of the lvl 20 ones.

[Aleister]

Great guide. I personally had no idea crafting would be difficult.. Trying to get my blacksmithing up to 50 and its dreadful.. Requires so much of the other gathering classes and what not.

[raindrops]

Has anyone found a weaving leve that leads to and extended contract?  I've not been able to find one, including 1~2 of the lvl 20 ones.

 

There's a level 20 one in Ul'Dah - the one that needs three pairs of breeches - that leads to an extended contract. It also awards incredibly useful Diremite Webs, which are nice because there's always a level 50 farming the banemites that drop them on some servers (and while they have the right to do that/I'm sure some of them are very nice, nearly all the ones I've seen have responded to a lower level character trying to farm anything at all with a flurry of quite nasty tells).

 

I prefer 'Don't Sash Me' myself for the amount of EXP/rewards you get compared to effort put in for a HQ produce, since you can make cotton cloth HQ pretty much effortlessly by level 20 and a HQ turn-in nets you 30000 Exp and something like 700 Gil on top of those precious webs, but that's because I've not really been using my leves so I can afford to burn them on non-extended contracts.

[BlessedSilence]

Would you or anyone be interested in some examples of how to craft?

 

Meaning if there is a particular skill progress to do or anything?

 

Like what do you do to keep your Excellent condition from disappearing?

[LiadansWhisper]

Would you or anyone be interested in some examples of how to craft?

 

Meaning if there is a particular skill progress to do or anything?

 

Like what do you do to keep your Excellent condition from disappearing?

 

You either use it or lose it.

[BlessedSilence]

Would you or anyone be interested in some examples of how to craft?

 

Meaning if there is a particular skill progress to do or anything?

 

Like what do you do to keep your Excellent condition from disappearing?

 

You either use it or lose it.

 

Oookay ...

 

Sorry this is very confusing.

 

I was able to at least make a HQ leather so I think I can figure out the teeny basics with a level 1 item.

[Asyria]

Condition, whatever it is , only lasts for one single action.

 

If you get Excellent and have the Durability to spare, you damn better touch up and raise that Quality through the roof!

 

If it's Good, it's probably a good idea to do that too. (unless you have Great Strides, since it doubles the increase.. Good doesn't seem to double it, I think it's more of a 25% bonus thing...)

 

If it's Poor... either Observe or Careful Synth or use a buff for your next move.

 

 

Example...

 

Weaver 11 making Hempen Yarn (because HQ mats give better chances of HQ products!)

Knowing a single Basic Synth will complete the process...

Knowing I hav e 40 Durability and that Synth will use up 10... I have 30 to spare on Touches.

1- Inner Quiet (to have better quality increases every time)

2- Steady Hand (to ensure success!)

3- Basic Touch (Dur 30/40)

4- Basic Touch (Dur 20/40)

5- Basic Touch (Dur 10/40)

6-  Basic Synth (Dur 0/40, but complete!)

 

Later on you get cool things like Great Strides (doubles next Touch efficiency) or Waste not (Next 4 actions cost 5 Durablity instead of 10) so you get to toy around with those too.

 

As a Weaver, I use Great Strides before every Touch (gotta have those +CP jewelries though!) but another possibility is to use a Mend to restore that Durability and do some more stuff (again, be sure to have those +CP jewelries! They start at level 15-18 depending on the exact piece)

[BlessedSilence]

Okay that makes more sense.  So when you see the change in condition you want to use a touch action.

 

I'm getting abilities that aren't covered here, so I will be asking questions on them very soon (once I get all crafting to 15 /phew)

[Suisei'to]

Shared Skills are incredibly important!

 

 

All of the basic Shared Skills are earned at level 15 between all the crafting classes. To be as efficient as possible with the highest quality it's necessary to to level all crafting classes to 15. However, there are a handful of classes you want to get to level 15 first:

 

Culinarian: At level 15 Culinarians earn the Hasty Touch ability. Hasty Touch is 100% Efficiency at 50% Success Rate but costs no CP. The appeal in this ability is the No CP cost. When combined with Steady Hand it's as effective as Basic Touch but at a heavily reduced cost.

 

Weaver: At level 15 Weavers earn the Careful Synthesis ability. Careful Synthesis is 90% Efficiency at 100% Success Rate with no CP cost. The appeal here is that it will always succeed with a very small decrease in durability gain.

 

Leather Worker: At level 15 Leather Workers earn the Waste Not ability. Waste Not halves the Durability cost of the next 4 actions. The appeal here is getting more durability from your CP. 

 

Carpentry: At level 15 Carpenters earn the Rumination ability. Rumination restores CP based on Inner Quiet stacks.

 

Alchemy: At level 15 Alchemists earn the Tricks of the Trade ability. Tricks of the Trade restores 20 CP but can only be used on Good quality procs. This ability is completely broken powerful but takes very careful manipulation of your item to be effective. I won't be touching on this during the example.

 

The magic of these three abilities is shown when they work together with your basic abilities. A common 40 quality item (basic material) goes like this:

 

Inner Quiet,

Steady Hand,

Waste Not,

Hasty Touch,

Hasty Touch,

Hasty Touch,

Hasty Touch,

 

 

Now, normally your item would be 'complete' after 4 touch or synthesis actions but thanks to Waste Not we only used half the durability we would normally use. We also saved 52 CP thanks to Hasty Touch yet still increased the Quality of the item. This leaves us with 20 Durability

 

Steady Hand,

Waste Not,

Hasty Touch,

Hasty Touch,

Hasty Touch,

Rumination,

Master's Mend

 

Again, we are only using half the durability with Waste Not but before we use the rest of the Durability available we use Rumination. Rumination refunds us CP based on how many Inner Quiet stacks we have, effectively refunding us 30 or more CP. We should also still have enough CP available to use Master's Mend refunding 30 Durability back to us, leaving us with 35 Durability or 4 more actions.

 

Steady Hand,

Hasty Touch,

Hasty Touch,

Hasty Touch or Careful Synthesis,

Careful Synthesis

 

 

We use the last of our CP here to Steady Hand one more time. From here we keep increasing our Quality with Hasty Touch and finish up with as many Careful Synthesis we need to complete the item. In the end we end up with 12 actions instead of 4 for a basic material recipe.

 

This is just a basic rotation, not taking into account Good quality procs that Tricks of the Trade can use to extend the life of your item even further. In the end, outside of using Good Quality as fuel for Tricks of the Trade the quality level doesn't have much impact on your process. Excellent is always a great surprise but Poor isn't going to hurt you as you'll be using Poor to give you more CP in the long run which gives you more Durability.

 

Remember: CP is more valuable than DURABILITY as CP can restore your DURABILITY

[Asyria]

You've just convinced me to level all DoH classes to 15. o_O

[Suisei'to]

You've just convinced me to level all DoH classes to 15. o_O

It's totally worth it.

 

Another fun fact about gear in general:

 

All normal equipment can be bought from vendors. Often times they will be cheaper on the Markets, but at time they can be VERY expensive compared to their vendor versions. Rule of Thumb is: Buy Level Appropriate gear from level appropriate zones. East Shroud has level 15-20 Btn, Crp and Ltw gear.