Patch 7.05 Master Recipe 2-star crafting - Stategies and Rotations
Recently, I noticed some crafters going mad with pentamelding Tier XI & XII Command and Competence materia, while neglecting CP, and yet still struggling to do the new Master Recipe 2-star items.
It hurts! It really hurts when I see someone pentamelding Tier XII Control materia on mainhands and offhands that are going to be replaced soon, and yet they're still failing these simple 2-star recipes! So I just have to create this thread here! Hopefully, it can "reduce the damage"!
First, let me state this again... The Golden Rule of Crafting since A Realm Reborn in 2013 is:
CP>Control>Craftsmanship
Thus, you should NEVER neglect your CP.
Here are my melds:
https://i.imgur.com/V5eXKGt.jpeg
Caimie, are you a freaking NOOB? What's with all those Piety and Quickarm Materia?
Well, as we all know, with the exception of "Expert Recipes" (which will likely be added in later patches... these recipes cannot use HQ crafted mats, and will self-destruct if quality is not maxed), crafting anything from "Master Recipes" has been a BREEZE since Stormblood (thus, "Master Recipes" is nothing about mastery of crafting anyway). So we never needed much stats, especially during the beginning of an expansion. Our current i690 "white gear" will be replaced in no time. There's absolutely NO POINT to max meld this weak gear set, especially when Tier XI & XII materia are so precious and pricey.
I melded random materia just to finish the pentamelding process in order to speed up spiritbonding. This is a strategy we used for many years to spontaneously obtain precious materia while we craft.
As you can see, for left gear, I have only used mostly Tier X materia from Endwalker for my melds.
Keep in mind that one should always add CP to:
- Mainhand
- Offhand
- Pants
- Boots
- Accessories (right gear)
These items have significantly higher melding cap for CP. So one should always try to max out or near-max out CP on them.
As for right gear, I put in a bit more effort. I used Tier XII materia for the 1st in-slot meld only, and went on to pentameld with crafting materia till the end. This is because while our left gear will be replaced soon enough, our right gear may not (We are not sure. It's a speculation based on previous expansions.).
My final stats (without food/medicine) are:
https://i.imgur.com/mTTYWyd.jpeg
(left: non-specialist, right: specialist)
The food that I'm using is Jhinga Biryani HQ, and the medicine I am using is Cunning Craftsman's Draught HQ. Both are old stuff from Endwalker.
After food and med, my stats are:
https://i.imgur.com/qWCQUJX.jpeg
(left: non-specialist, right: specialist)
Here's my 2-part macro for 2-star 35 durab items:
2* 35dur p1 - 730cp
/ac "Reflect" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Waste Not II" <wait.2>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Standard Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Advanced Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>
2* 35dur p2 - 730cp
/ac "Veneration" <wait.2>
/ac "Waste Not" <wait.2>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Synthesis" <wait.3>
/echo DT 2* 35dur Part 2 - done <se.6>
With my lowly stats, the above macro can still give about 90-100% HQ rate. It doesn't matter if it sometimes fails in getting HQ, since we don't need every piece of mat to be HQ. In fact, most of the new 2-star mats can be made NQ quickly using the following macro:
/actionerror off
/ac "Muscle Memory" <wait.3>
/ac "Veneration" <wait.2>
/ac "Waste Not" <wait.2>
/ac "Intensive Synthesis"
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Intensive Synthesis"
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/echo Done <se.3>
/actionerror on
Here's my 2-part macro for 2-star 70 durab items:
2* 70dur p1 - 722cp
/ac "Muscle Memory" <wait.3>
/ac "Waste Not II" <wait.2>
/ac "Veneration" <wait.2>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Delicate Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Final Appraisal" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Refined Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Immaculate Mend" <wait.3>
/echo DT 2*_70dur Part1 722cp Done! <se.2>
2* 70dur p2 - 722cp
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Refined Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Refined Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Trained Perfection" <wait.3>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/echo DT 2*_70dur Part2 722cp Done! <se.6>
I omitted the last 3 actions, which are Innovation, Byregot's Blessing & Basic Synthesis. This is just to check condition to prevent the Byregot landing on a Poor. If I see an Excellent or a Good after the last Great Strides of the macro, I'd just skip Innovation and hit Byregot right away.
The Final Appraisal there is not necessary, but it's a safety guard just in case Specialist Classes with more craftsmanship (or anyone else with higher craftsmanship) pre-maturely complete the craft.
The final quality will be around:
12395/16500
...which leaves 4105 to be assisted by HQ mats.
For left gear, one needs 4 pieces of HQ mats to achieve 4095 quality.
For right gear, one just needs 2 pieces of HQ mats to achieve 4169 quality.
We always use ALC to make the Grade 2 Gemsap to be HQ anyway...
So for left gear, 2 out of the 4 pieces of HQ mats are going to be Gemsap.
While for right gear, 1 out of the 2 pieces of HQ mats are going to be Gemsap.
For non-star, regular 40 durab items, such as Gargantua Leather, one can easily use the following 1-part macro to quickly HQ them:
DT lvl 96-98 - 40dur
/ac "Reflect" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Waste Not II" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>
/ac "Veneration" <wait.2>
/ac "Waste Not" <wait.2>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/echo DT lvl 96-98_40dur 544cp Done! <se.3>
Crafting these lvl 96-98 items HQ can sometimes save time, as we can craft fewer 2-star 40 durab items HQ.
Btw, I am well-known for NOT able to develop the best macros in the game! If you see that my macros can be improved in any way or if you know any significantly better macros, please drop a note below and let me know! Thanks!
Here's a screenshot of the entire Casting Set made using the above strategies and rotations:
https://i.imgur.com/5xpYa6b.png
As you can see, even with my stupid lowly stats, I can still craft these with ease. So pleaseeeee DO NOT pentameld your white gear with Tier XI & XII materia!
Good luck!