Ixali Story Quests: WTH?

I have started to lvl my Culinarian to 37. It is now at lvl 25. All my culinary crafting gear is at or a little below lvl. 25 and I have all the CS's from other crafting classes (up to lvl 20 each).

PLEASE tell me that the Ixali story quests (the ones that you do after reaching max reputation level or every 5 crafting levels maybe) are not directly tied into your current crafting level. I am doing the "lvl. 15" quest with a lvl 25 Culinarian and there is NO way I'm gonna be able to make these 4 HQ Helm Components.

Either I am doing something wrong or these quests are severely unbalanced. Hell, in the description it only says "Recommend level 15 crafting class..". Huh? There is NO way a lvl 15 could accomplish these HQ tasks!

P.S. Do the reputation points that you receive for completing the daily quests carry over if you have reached maximum for your level and still have not completed the story quest? Or are those lost?

The story quests are not tied to your current level, so the higher you are, the better. You are slightly throttled during the course of the craft, because of your forced usage of their gloves, and you may end up with a reduced CP, but thats about it.

I too have noticed that with the recommended level. No way can a L15 pull off the quest items, not without a LOT of luck. I am L36 Alc, and only now comfortably getting HQs for the quests that have a L16 and L17 requirement.

Rep points do NOT carry over to the next rank. If you hand in a quest when your rank is maxed, you will get a message "your reputation is at its maximum". The next storyline quest is made available as soon as you hit the max on your current reputation.

sorry to say I was already a 3* crafter when these came around and although the majority was really easy to accomplish there was afew later on that takes a fair bit of knowledge in crafting to accomplish with minimal effort due to the reduced stats and conditions applied.

I think the overall design of the ixal quests was good because they force you to think about your crafts when they start needing hq turn ins.

having the best gear for your current level will make these crafts a fair bit easier, even throwing n a few low level melds for extra cp or control will help I guess even craft if it will reduce a step from the process. wouldn't spend too much on this though since you'll level out of range pretty quickly.

tbh, my highest crafter when I started this was 45. and I've been able to hq all the stuff easily.

my 'rotation' is as follows: Inner Quiet, Steady Hand, Great Strides, Standard touch, (repeat those last two if not 100%) then standard synth (15 cp for 150%) 1 or 2 times to finish.

This has worked for me every time. Now that I have two 50's (weaver, ltw) I substitute Careful Synth 2 for standard snyth.

I was also near 3* when I started these and never had a problems with any of the quests, however, I remember a friend telling me he was having trouble making the quest items HQ. I'll tell you what I told him: these are free to make (minus the shard cost of course) so try to run the % as high as you can. If you can get it to 50% or a bit higher, take the gamble and just finish the craft. Of course this is RNG dependant, but eventually you will get the item. If you don't want to do this, only other option is to level and get better gear. Also if you don't have your other crafts to 15, level them, the cross-class skill will help you.

I agree, 3* is needed to breeze through. It can be done with lower skill but you'll be repeating a lot of quests due to failures.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crystallin

tbh, my highest crafter when I started this was 45. and I've been able to hq all the stuff easily.

my 'rotation' is as follows: Inner Quiet, Steady Hand, Great Strides, Standard touch, (repeat those last two if not 100%) then standard synth (15 cp for 150%) 1 or 2 times to finish.

This has worked for me every time. Now that I have two 50's (weaver, ltw) I substitute Careful Synth 2 for standard snyth.

---

Maybe I'm a tad over my lvl 25 CUL ability to do the lvl 15 Helm Components. My Quality only goes up 2% using this rotation.

What are your stats? If you let me know, I can see what I can do for a rotation. It should be possible since you have all the other classes at 15, which really does help. All of the level 15 skills can be really useful in the right circumstance, especially Hasty Touch (CUL 15) and Tricks of the Trade (ALC 15).

Just let me know an item you're having trouble with, your Craftsmanship, Control, and CP with the gloves equipped but without any food, and I'll see what I can do using a simulator to craft a rotation. Chances are, to get a good chance, you'll have to buy food, but likely just food that costs 10 gil from an NPC (frumenty (+10 CP) is a popular choice).

Sounds great! I'm not on the game right now but I'll get those stats to you tonight. I really appreciate it!

So, just because I felt like it, I mathed out what your stats should be at level 26 with all HQ gear:
- Craftsmanship: 163
- Control: 153
- CP: 265 (or 262 without the level 26 wrist)

A few notes about this - you said you have the best items and are level 25. According to the crafting simulator I'm using (since I can't test this out myself since I'm not level 25/26), the extra progress you gain from being level 26 over level 25 (the higher level you are over a recipe, the more progress bonus you get) pushes your Basic Synthesis from 49 Progress to 50 Progress. The synth you mentioned (Helm Component) requires 99 progress. This means that at level 25, you need three progress actions to finish, but at level 26, you only need two. That's a big difference.

There are only two new items available at level 26, a chestpiece and a wristlet. If you've been using the level 25 GC chest, the level 26 crafted chest has the same stats. The new wristlet would get you +3 CP, but that should really change anything with the rotation I came up with. So, you don't even need new gear, just to hit level 26 (if this crafting simulator is correct).

Of course, until you hit level 26, you could just eat any food with +Craftsmanship on it, any at all. Just 2 points is all you need (165 total), according to the simulator. NQ Mint Lassis (+8 Craftsmanship) are 11 gil from city vendors.

Here is the best crafting gear at level 25/26:

• Head: HQ Silver Maginfiers
• Body: level 25 GC chest (or HQ Velveteen Coatee of Crafting)
• Arms: Ehcatl Wristgloves
• Legs: HQ Velveteen Chausses
• Feet: HQ Elm Pattens
• Belt: HQ Goatskin Tool Belt
• Neck: HQ Brass Choker
• Ears: HQ Horn Earrings
• Wrist: HQ Brass Wristlets of Crafting (or level 26 HQ Silver Wristlets of Crafting, either work fine)
• Ring: HQ Brass Ring of Crafting
• Ring: HQ Brass Ring of Crafting

Here is the best rotation I came up with for Helm Components with that gear and all level 15 cross-class skills (with no level 37/50 skills). Note: this rotation is really absurd and fairly non-sequitor, but it's the best I could come up with:

1. Inner Quiet *%
2. Steady Hand *
3. Hasty Touch *
4. Hasty Touch *
5. Hasty Touch *
6. Hasty Touch *
7. Hasty Touch *#
8. Manipulation *
9. Steady Hand *
10. Hasty Touch #
11. Great Strides *
12. Hasty Touch *
13. Hasty Touch *
14. Hasty Touch *
15. Great Strides *
16. Steady Hand
17. Standard Touch
18. Rumination
19. Waste Not
20. Basic Synthesis
21. Basic Synthesis

• * = If the condition after the indicated move is Good, use Tricks of the Trade, max of once only.
• # = Only do one of these two moves. If the first Good condition comes while the first Steady Hand is active, do only the second # move and ignore the first. If the Good condition comes before or after the first Steady Hand buff, do only the first # move. In other words, don't use HT while SH is down.
• % = If you ToT here, you waste 2 CP, but that's fine because +18 CP is plenty.

Rumination will restore a variable amount of CP based on the number of Hasty Touch successes. If four succeed, you will get 45 CP back. If all eight succeed, you will get 59 CP back. The thing is, only 42 is required for this rotation, so you can fail half of the Hasty Touches and still finish it (you can fail 5 of the 8 and still finish with the level 26 Silver Wristlets).

It might seem like a waste to use Waste Not where I do, but you have to consider Rumination. You only have two non-Touch actions in the craft. If you Ruminate before you finish with Touch actions, you lose a large amount of Quality (after just 4 successful touches, the buff from IQ is +50%). Moving three of the touches to the end so you can get the full benefit of the Waste Not that you funded with Ruminate is essentially throwing away one touch action's worth of Quality, not to mention the hit to your Great Strides-powered Touches. Thus, though you gain 1 more action by Ruminating early, you waste way more than 1 action's worth of quality by doing so.

So, look at it this way: Ruminate restores 45+ CP. Waste Not costs 56 CP. Therefore, (Ruminate + Waste Not) taken as a single action costs 11 CP and grants 1 extra move. 11 CP for +1 actions is insanely cheap! Waste Not is normally 28 CP per extra action, Manipulation is 29.33 CP per action, Master's Mend is 30.67 CP per action, and Master's Mend II is 26.67 CP per action. So, spending 11 CP for 1 extra action isn't just good, it's amazing!


Results:

• 0 HT fails: 100%
• 1 HT fail: 96%
• 2 HT fails: 78%
• 3 HT fails: 30% (worse if all three were the ones after the first Great Strides)
• 4 HT fails: 19% (worse if three were the ones after the first Great Strides)
• 5 HT fails: 14% (worse if three were the ones after the first Great Strides)

With 8 70% actions, on average, you will fail 2.4 of them. This will put your success rate somewhere between 78% and 30%. This means that you should only need ~8 attempts to get 4 HQ items.

Here's a link to the rotation in a simulator. The quality shown assumes all Hasty Touches succeed, and obviously the Tricks of the Trade can happen anywhere indicated above.


Please let me know how this goes, or if your stats are very different from what I listed here.


Also, if you're using NQ gear or don't want to wait until level 26, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Oh, and here's the rotation at level 25 (or with Crafts under 163):

1. Inner Quiet *%
2. Steady Hand *
3. Hasty Touch *
4. Hasty Touch *
5. Hasty Touch *
6. Hasty Touch *
7. Manipulation *
8. Steady Hand *
9. Great Strides *
10. Hasty Touch *
11. Hasty Touch *
12. Hasty Touch *
13. Great Strides *
14. Steady Hand *
15. Standard Touch
16. Rumination
17. Waste Not
18. Hasty Touch
19. Careful Synthesis
20. Careful Synthesis
21. Careful Synthesis

This rotation gives worse results and can handle fewer failures:

• 0 HT fails: 100%
• 1 HT fail: 86%
• 2 HT fails: 64%
• 3 HT fails: 24% (worse if all three were the ones after the first Great Strides)

Simulator link

Wow. Natalia I am truly grateful for this input! You are right about my current stats and I will lvl to 26 as well. I'll let you know the outcome of my attempts at these helm components!

Thx to everyone who replied to this thread reassuring me that I wasn't just derping out as a crafter!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Caoihmin

You are right about my current stats and I will lvl to 26 as well.

---

Simulators often have one-off errors in their calculations. Before taking the time to level to 26, I'd test out Basic Synthesis on the craft and see if it gives 49 progress like the simulator says, or 50. If it gives 50, go ahead and do the rotation now, no need to wait. If it gives 48, then just getting to 26 won't be enough. At 26, it may only give 49 progress if the simulator is off. Simulators tend to be great at the 1* to 3* levels, but I don't know how much testing is done on their formula at lower levels (and I know the simulators are all a bit off on 4*s).

If it's off and level 26 isn't enough, just use NQ Mint Lassis bought from city vendors. The food is only 11 gil and gives you a 3% exp bonus on top of the craftsmanship, like all food does. Heck, why wait? Just use the Mint Lassis and try the craft now :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kael_Raiju

I agree, 3* is needed to breeze through. It can be done with lower skill but you'll be repeating a lot of quests due to failures.

---

Disagree with that. Did all (apart from the final story quest, havent unlocked it yet) as a new level 50 weaver. Only for a single item (forgot which one, think its one of components in mor dhona) did I have to use something other then some quick Great Strides+ random touches.

I can definately see it being a lot harder for lower levels, due to having fewer skills and CP. However people seem to forget that the recipe level is scaled down to your current level; as such your level of craftmanship/control wont effect much.

I've noticed you don't always have to have 100% for it to become an HQ item. Is this just random or is there a way to tell so you can stop at a certain % and have HQ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aeyis

However people seem to forget that the recipe level is scaled down to your current level; as such your level of craftmanship/control wont effect much.

---

First of all, the level of the recipe being different doesn't change craftsmanship/control helping. Second, this effect makes no sense. Look at the recipe the OP is talking about - Helm Component, level 15. The OP is level 25. Does the recipe get "lowered" from 15 to 25, or does it stay at 15? I can't imagine anyone doing one of these synths while level than level 15 in their current craft. It just makes zero sense to me. What's the point of that "buff" (Facility Access: Production: "Making use of local crafting facilities to synthesize special items. Recipe level is lowered to current level.")?


While the crafts are harder at lower levels, they're not impossible. Pre-nerf, "A Highwind in Ishgard" was for all intents and purposes impossible for a non-2* crafter, but post-nerf, it's just as easy as the rest of the level 16s. Endgame crafters can BS their way through the crafts with GS+Adv Touch x1-3 followed by CS2 x1-2 and HQ 100% every single item without actually trying. Lower level crafts can't do that, but that doesn't mean they can't do the synth. They just need to get creative with their skills and possibly take a bunch of chances. You don't lose any mats when you fail (only shard), so the real cost is time.

Nyalia. Mission accomplished! Oh, plz read my previous post and let me know your thoughts.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Caoihmin

I've noticed you don't always have to have 100% for it to become an HQ item. Is this just random or is there a way to tell so you can stop at a certain % and have HQ?

---

The % is the chance that it will become HQ. So, if you have a 30% HQ chance, then there is a 30% chance the item will be HQ and a 70% chance that it will be NQ. That's why, in my post, I said you'd likely hit either 70% or 30% (looking at average Hasty Touch failure rates), and thus have to do about 8 synths to get 4 HQ items. It's really nice to get 100%, which means you have no chance of the item being NQ, but it's not required. Heck, I've (very, very occasionally) obtained HQ items with a Quality rating of 0 (the 1% chance it shows is not a lie).

For expensive crafts that you really need to be HQ, such as a Wootz weapon or a Artisan's Apron, you may not want any chance of getting an NQ item. For instance, you might consider Reclaiming the synth if you have an 70% HQ rate on one of those synths because that's a 30% chance you'll get garbage that no one will pay enough for to make up the material costs. Instead, the 90% chance of getting all your materials back from the Reclaim skill may be preferred, though you still have a 10% chance of losing everything.

I think their intent was that you could essentially finish the craft at the recommended level of 15 or 16, but yes, they really missed the mark on that one as no one wants to to recreate and item over and over with a 1-5% chance to HQ until they magically have it work out. As Nyalia mentioned, the real cost is time. (Though with a good rotation as mentioned in this threat, you can get this higher).

I also just wanted to confirm, you can breeze through fairly easy once you have your first fresh 50. (At least this was my case with a VERY fresh level 50 weaver). For anyone reading that doens't know: Swap to your highest crafting job to create the materials, then swap back to your wanted job for the turn-in. I don't feel its worth it to struggle to try and create the items on the job you're looking to level... it's just not worth the headache.

Don't think I saw anything mentioned here about this. If you turn in more than 1 item to NPC to begin craft you will be hit with multiple buffs. Might be another reason for not having enough CP in some cases. Not saying to not do all 3, just do them one at a time. Made this mistake myself a while ago.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Regart

Don't think I saw anything mentioned here about this. If you turn in more than 1 item to NPC to begin craft you will be hit with multiple buffs. Might be another reason for not having enough CP in some cases. Not saying to not do all 3, just do them one at a time. Made this mistake myself a while ago.

---

Only true for Rank 6 quests. This was about Rank 5 quests, and more specifically, the Ixali story quests, which do not have such a debuff. But yeah, when doing the Coerthas-based quests (the rank 6 ones), only do one at a time and cancel the buff before taking the next quest.

There are two different debuffs in Coethas. You do NOT want them both active at once.

Listen to Nyalia. Only the Spinner knows more about crafting than she.