Did Crafting Skill Caps Change?

[Kraggy]

I've started leveling cooking again as my previous cook has retired and I've come across something odd with respect to recipe skill caps.

Hard-Boiled egg is listed in three different web sites as capping at skill level 6, yet I've just hit level 10.1 on it. It seems highly unlikely all three sites were wrong on this recipe so has SE adjusted recipe skill caps or done something else that let me hit this level on a supposed level 6 recipe?

This is the main site I'm using as reference: http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Cooking/Amateur where it says:

"Hard-Boiled Egg Fire Bird Egg Distilled Water Soft-Boiled Egg 6 "

[Nyarlko]

The way it works now (and has for at least several years) is that you "can" get skillups off of a recipe up to 10 levels above it. The further away your natural skill gets from the cap, the lower the skillup rate gets. Using your example of Hard-Boiled Egg (cap@6), then you can still get skillups off the recipe until your Cooking skill is 16, but you will get fewer skillups when you are 15 vs 8. It's awesomely amazing to be able to do this compared to the old days, since there are always stretches where there are no efficient recipes and you can stretch out a cheap/easy-mat recipe to get past the rough patches.

Below 70 though, you should always aim for recipes that are about +5 over your actual skill since skillups are guaranteed in that case. EX: If you are lv20, then you should get a skillup off every success for up to a 30cap recipe, but you will additionally get skillups off breaks if you are doing a 21-25 instead. You can still get skillups off of a 19cap recipe, but they won't be guaranteed anymore.

[Kraggy]

Thanks for that explanation, I have to admit that I was unaware of the '10 levels over' feature, maybe I missed it or the web sites I visited back in '05 when I first started didn't mention it, in the past I started a recipe when I was 6 levels below its cap and stopped making it when it capped, seems like I missed out on some easier skillups before.

LOL, I just checked the date on a couple of sites I'm using and one's 2005 and the other's 2006 so ... hmm. At least I do know SE debunked the myth about direction and moon phase. ;)

The other rule I used to reply on was that at +11, +21, and +31 (or something similar) you had increased chances of HQing, would those still apply? Sadly at the moment I can't find a bookmark I had which commented on that.

Thanks.

[Nyarlko]

Thanks for that explanation, I have to admit that I was unaware of the '10 levels over' feature, maybe I missed it or the web sites I visited back in '05 when I first started didn't mention it, in the past I started a recipe when I was 6 levels below its cap and stopped making it when it capped, seems like I missed out on some easier skillups before.

LOL, I just checked the date on a couple of sites I'm using and one's 2005 and the other's 2006 so ... hmm. At least I do know SE debunked the myth about direction and moon phase. ;)

The other rule I used to reply on was that at +11, +21, and +31 (or something similar) you had increased chances of HQing, would those still apply? Sadly at the moment I can't find a bookmark I had which commented on that.

Thanks.

Yeah, skillups didn't work like that originally, not sure exactly when it was changed. At least two years ago though, since that is when I came back. XD

HQ tiers are +11(1/16 HQ), +31(1/4 HQ), +51(1/2 HQ).
I'm gonna try to head off your next most likely question XD: Synths with subcrafts work a little differently.. Their HQ Tier is determined by the highest tier you can reach with ALL involved crafting skills, so something like "Leather90 Cloth60 Goldsmithing11" would be a T1 synth at best (even if you reach T2+ with leather/GS, you'd still only be able to reach T1 for cloth, so you'd have a T1 HQ rate.)

[Dragoy]

Yeah, skillups didn't work like that originally, not sure exactly when it was changed. At least two years ago though, since that is when I came back. XD

Almost. :]

See: May 14, 2015 (JST) Version Update

[Nyarlko]

Almost. :]

See: May 14, 2015 (JST) Version Update

Close enough. XD I came back in August.