It's all about Observation

I just started experimenting, but I'm certain the rest of you are coming or have come to the same conclusion.

For those of you still working at it and looking for insight, I can't say it can be replicated 100%, but there are priorities to consider that have been doing pretty well for me.

As a quick disclaimer - If you only want scrips, do something else.

If you care about the leaderboard ranking at all, though, experts are your only real choice.

Here is my lovely
https://i.imgur.com/d0Q90Gs.png?2

Here is my statcard (551 cp base, 632 CP with food and tea)
https://i.imgur.com/QpIQ7fs.png?1

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Tips
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1. Never use any ability CP cost above 40 without pliant
2. Consider everything in terms of CP. A useful baseline is Manipulation (10 Durability = 24 CP).
3. Get Progress to one-step completion
4. Innovation and Veneration are gambler mentality - only use it with CP you don't need. Byregots exception of course
5. Any durability that isn't 0 is too much. Sturdy allows for wonky durability cheating.
6. Specialist and Delineations help, but only if you care about this ranking system.
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Priorities on procs
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1. Centered - Hasty Touch > Rapid Synth

2. Pliant: Durability -> Waste Not 2. Overwrite at 2 steps remaining if needed. Delicate Synthesis if it won't overprog you.

3. Sturdy: This should be seen primarily as CP reduction (-7-24 CP cost). It's hard to list every example of good steps you can do with this, but my filler (if you have nothing else you can think of and won't break the craft) is Standard Synth for progress, Hasty Touch for quality. If coming off Observation, Focused Synth/Touch work as well.

4. Good: ToTT is lowest priority, but never a bad choice. Intensive Synth after Muscle Memory if it happens is mint. Precise Touch for stacks.

ToTT is +20 CP. Intensive Synth is -6 (-24 CP durability) for 300% Prog, making it stronger than 3 Standard Synths (-72 CP worth of durability), as strong as Groundwork (-18, -48 CP worth of durability).
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Game Plan
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Abuse observation. Your first 100 or so CP is fairly open to spend how you want.

I prefer Muscle Memory. If no procs, Veneration, then fish for a Good or Sturdy with Observation. My preference is

1. Good for Intensive
2. Sturdy for Groundwork
3. Centered for Rapid
4. None for Groundwork

As noted in tips, get Progress to almost complete. 1 or 2 steps based on your preference (I prefer 1, as it basically removes it from the rest of consideration)

Abuse observation and Sturdy/Center yourself down to near break status. Pliants should be spent on Manipulation. Keep riding those break limits. If your Pliant luck is exceedingly high, go down the list of High CP skills that will benefit your durability. Manipulation -> Waste2/MM -> MM/Waste2.

Given the nature of procs, it's kind of touch and go, but the end goal is all about the CP. It's all about CP retention and knowing the value of every action relative to the CP it costs you, not just the ability but durability as well.

Once your progress is near maxed, it's back to observation abuse. Wear down that hotkey. Pliant for durability, sturdy/centered for quality. Observation is -7cp, but every 10 durability is -24cp. The only seemingly uncommon proc is 'Good', so every naked action is potentially an action you can't take with more favorable returns.

If your WN2 and Manip are active at the same time, this is a great opportunity to use innovation and just spam Hasty Touch. If your CP is in exceedingly good condition (>300, 11 IQ stacks), you can spam your preferred Touch instead.

Recall you need at least 11 durability (Sturdy lol) and 74 CP to finish. If you have anything over this, when you're ready to finish you effectively wasted it.
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Well, I was spamming Observe because my durability was low... I didn't get a single Pliant proc until 44 steps in. The RNG is just too damn much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryaz

Well, I was spamming Observe because my durability was low... I didn't get a single Pliant proc until 44 steps in. The RNG is just too damn much.

So far I haven't had that bad of a string, but I will say that the closest I came to failing was a naked condition dive down to near breaking when i was trying another approach, and I regretted it. Barely finished that one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kabooa

So far I haven't had that bad of a string, but I will say that the closest I came to failing was a naked condition dive down to near breaking when i was trying another approach, and I regretted it. Barely finished that one.

Yeah, I have terrible luck with rng. Had 3 Rapid Synths with Centered fail in a row. Lol.

Finally crafted my first piece at around 60k... I just abused Hasty Touch, Basic Synth, Pliant and Tricks... so many steps, but I got it done.

Holy crap.... I am shock at how different our approaches are!!! I have completely gone for opposite choices that you picked! Wow, I guess there is actually a good amount of flexibility in how to do this! :o

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caimie_Tsukino

Holy crap.... I am shock at how different our approaches are!!! I have completely gone for opposite choices that you picked! Wow, I guess there is actually a good amount of flexibility in how to do this! :o

I have no doubt more experienced crafters will be able to trim this down, or find more efficient methods.