Can someone help me understand HQ crafting?

So I'm an up and coming crafter trying to get to a respectable rank and I've really found little chance to gain a quality number high enough to HQ so I figured this was the place to run to for asking how everything works.

1. Do the moon phases have a dramatic effect on HQ crafting?

2. Is there a set quality number that, once exceeded, will gaurantee an HQ?

3. Does quality essentially increase the chance of getting an HQ and nothing more?

4. Is HQing really only possible with +1-+3 materials to jump start the quality really high?

This is really all I can think of to ask so far, but I really hope that I can figure this all out because someday I'd like to craft my on HQ gear for maybe around rank 50 and really make a difference for my stats =). Thanks for the help in advance ^_^!

1. Depends on how well im doing during that session.
2. No
3. Maybe
4. HQ mats just increase quality at the start.

It looks like you want to hit 1-200 for +1, 200-300 for +2, and anything above if you want a +3. The higher the quality the better the chances, but its not a good chance no matter what. I think you can get any of them with any amount of quality, you just have a better chance of winning the lottery.

I feel it is very, very random.

Q1. This is still up for debate. Moon phase seems to affect general success rates, but not sure if it affects HQ.
Q2. Not at all.
Q3. Not really. I often end up with NQ even with high Quality numbers, and sometimes get HQ when using Hasty Hand with Quality around 5.
Q4. HQ materials give you higher starting numbers for Durability and Quality.


Just as one recent example:

The other night I was making a Bone Ring with a Bone Chip +3. I am at Rank 29 for Goldsmithing and it is a Rank 4 recipe. Using Bold Synthesis the entire time, I got Quality to 543 and did 12 Retouches, and ended up with a Bone Ring +1.

My friend is a Rank 22 Goldsmith and got a Bone Ring +3 from Quality at about 240.


Another example:

I asked a friend who is a Rank 46 Goldsmith to upgrade my Horn Staff +1 to a Decorated Horn Staff.
I gave him +3 Blue Yarzon Legs, a Bone Chip +3, a NQ Wing Glue and the original Horn Staff was a +1.

Despite his best effort at getting an HQ, I ended up with a NQ Decorated Horn Staff.


It can be quite frustrating, but at the same time it makes +2 and +3 items very valuable -- which is probably the way it should be... ?

1. Hot topic of debate in my LS and many others i know in the crafting circles. Personally I don't give it much thought, have HQ'ed under every lunar phase. Conversely I have also NQ'ed under lunar phases RNG......

2. No, it is all RNG it seems. I had the same crafter make me up a batch of Crab Bows. All the attempts were 320+ quality/110+ durability before touch up... and all went nq. The next day i had someone burn some nq mats and i got a +1.

3. For finished items i would say yes this is true, for parts i haven't found this to be true.

4. If you want +2/3 finished items then yes using some or all HQ parts is the way to go. The exception to this would be on items that you (the crafter) severely outrank. Think a gold smith R50 making Bone Rings etc(rank 1 synth)...

The basic idea is the higher the quality the better your chances for an HQ result

note it is "better chances" not "guarenteed HQ"

so you still wont always get it, but it does help alot

basicaly, if you want hq, quality, quality, quality

The whole system is so random that the only thing quality effectively does is tell you what you won't be getting.
You won't be getting an aeolian +3 unless you have a HQ blunt sword or buffalo grip or the level cap is raised. What you WILL be getting...who knows.

well I can say for #1 that I've seen too much evidence that it effects to ignore. New moon seems to give better HQ results. It was the same formula in 11. Besides, if it is a HQ you really want, and you have spent time to gather +3 mats, why even chance it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Peregrine

The whole system is so random that the only thing quality effectively does is tell you what you won't be getting.
You won't be getting an aeolian +3 unless you have a HQ blunt sword or buffalo grip or the level cap is raised. What you WILL be getting...who knows.

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Yes, so random that the effects of stacking quality are easily researched and proved, not to mention the difference is substantial.

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...KzM1CS-naU.png

But no worries- even for being so hilariously wrong this is still your best Post of the Month. Congrats.

As far as the moon is concerned, we got a tidbit of info in the gathering Q&A that I think sheds some light on it.

When asked if the moon phases affected gathering, they said something along the lines of "neat idea, we'll think about adding that." So in other words, it has no effect on gathering, not even fishing.

This leads me to believe that it has no effect at all currently. Now, it's by no means concrete as gathering is obviously quite different. I just feel that if something that fundamental was left out for fishing (which was affected by moon phase in XI) then it was probably something that was left out entirely. I mean...we still don't even have a sort function, yet people think they incorporated this?

Personal experience makes me lean towards saying it has little to no effect as well. I went back and forth on it for a while, but the past couple of months my HQs have been coming with the same frequency regardless of moon phase. Placebo imo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

Yes, so random that the effects of stacking quality are easily researched and proved, not to mention the difference is substantial.

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...KzM1CS-naU.png

But no worries- even for being so hilariously wrong this is still your best Post of the Month. Congrats.

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Is this chart taking into account finished items with touch ups, or just parts, or everything together? Or is there a translated version. Better yet would be a chart that separated the +3's from 200-500 quality. +1-2's are so easy to get the only thing that matters is to see if it effects the +3 rate in any noticeable way.

The increase from 300-500 quality is so negligible it still seems the theory of stopping near 290-300 and saving the rest for durability touch ups and/or finishing the part is the best way to go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

Yes, so random that the effects of stacking quality are easily researched and proved, not to mention the difference is substantial.

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...KzM1CS-naU.png

But no worries- even for being so hilariously wrong this is still your best Post of the Month. Congrats.

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I hope you are aware how miniscule of a test base that is without any details of how the results were achieved and what HQ was even reached. What was said is still solid that you won't be getting a Aeolian +3 without HQ materials.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tiraelina

I hope you are aware how miniscule of a test base that is without any details of how the results were achieved and what HQ was even reached. What was said is still solid that you won't be getting a Aeolian +3 without HQ materials.

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Obviously the blog the pic is from contains a lot more information than that.. but I don't want to be getting on the way of "I eyeballed my synths today and saw NO DIFFARENCE OMFGBBQ"-posts too much.

why don't you post a link to the blog?

There have been several HP players who have tested, not just the one that was posted there. In all three of the charts that I saw, there was a HUGE spike in HQ 2 @ just over 300 quality, and another huge spike @ just over 500 quality for +3. While the sample sizes have been small (in the multiple hundreds instead of the multiple thousands) one cannot ignore the consistency with which the result occur.

SE has said that quality helps, but that level over the synth is the primary factory. Most of the people that I play with believe that New Moon increases chance of HQ. Yes, this is anecdotal, however when large numbers of people "Feel" the same thing, it is frequently (admittedly not always) true. Certainly it wouldn't hurt.

Im pretty sure HQ mats increase chance of HQ outcomes regardless of the quality.... why i think so? because i did this: Yew log +2 -> Yew Lumber +2 ... HASTY HANDED. and yet again Yew log +1 -> Yew lumber +1 hasty handed again, those 2 synth 1 after the other. So it might be just luck or it might be not

But regardless of everyone data and studies, there is too many factor involved in a synth to make a solid database. You would have to make 500 synth on every moon phase, with every kind of initial material (nq,+1,+2,+3), with different quality.

The only way players could crack the synth system would to make a website where crafter would imput every of those variables and the outcome of their synthesis

But it wouldnt matter anyway since all in all, all you have to do is to look for the best mats possible, find the best crafter possilbe... and the most important of all cross your fingers XD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

Yes, so random that the effects of stacking quality are easily researched and proved, not to mention the difference is substantial.

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...KzM1CS-naU.png

But no worries- even for being so hilariously wrong this is still your best Post of the Month. Congrats.

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Lol what irrelevant affect we have up in here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tiraelina

What was said is still solid that you won't be getting a Aeolian +3 without HQ materials.

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Ba-ding.

Next time someone gets the urge to correct me, gonna have to come at me with more than "I don't like you" as your premise just because I knocked you down in another topic. That's that. This is this. I don't even remember why you don't like me. And I really don't care.