HQ ability guide Post 1.21

While I am loving the new crafting system for HQ's in 1.21 I notice that some skills make a very large impact on quality gains. I wanted to highlight some of the things I do to get the most out of a synth and give a newer crafter some insight into which sub crafts might be best to help with HQ in the future. I'll break down the skills in groups for usefulness below.

Top Tier (these are the best of the best)
-R36 ALC Hand of the Gods (3~4 turns of no durability loss)
-R36 GSM Inspiration (3~4 turns Reduce success in order to increase quality gains)
-R30 BSM Ingenuity (3~4 turns Reduce synthesis difficulty)
-R30 LTW Manipulation(dex)/R30 BSM Sublimation(str)/R30 ARM Resolution(vit)/R36 ALC Extrapolation(R36) (Increase influence of XYZ(STAT) on quality)

Honorable mention (good skills to have each with a purpose)
-R45 BSM Greating Calling (3~4 turns Increase chance of success)
-R36 CRP Perfection (1 turn Guarantee success of next action)
-R30 WVR Immersion (1 turn Increase quality gains)
-R30 GSM Epiphany (1 turn Increase quality gains)
-R30 LTW Inner Quiet (1 turn Increase quality gains)
-R30 CUL Life's Purpose (1 turn Increase chance of success)
-R30 CRP Grandmastery (1 turn Increase chance of success)

Application:
-Inspiration (stack with Perfection/Life's Purpose/Grandmastery) 80~150Q gain per action on success
-Ingenuity (stack with Immersion/Epiphany/Inner Quiet) 80~100Q gains per action on success
-Increase influence of XYZ(STAT) skills (no stacking needed) Q gains vary depending on how much of the needed stat you have, use melds and proper gear to max out gains in the 100~150Q per action range on success
-Hand of the Gods (best way to advance progress w/o durr loss, Standard spam)
-Perfection (can be used solo as a great way to Rapid for 30%+ progress and zero loss of durr)
-Greater Calling (stack with Immersion/Epiphany/Inner Quiet on R49 and below synths) 80~100Q gains per action on success, can also be applied with (Life's Purpose/Grandmastery) and a rapid.

Tips:
-Use stat melded proper gear
-Use stat jewelry
-Rapid once or twice on easy synths to hit the highest quality gains possible (800Q+ total per synth), by using rapid you give yourself the ability to use carefull as many times as possible (10-15 times)
-Stack the skills to get the most as stated above
-Mix HQ/NQ mats on lower synths to maximize HQ yeilds

Quote:

---

Attributes for Disciples of the Hand will increase the resulting product's quality.
Carpenter
Main Hand: VIT / Off Hand: DEX
Blacksmith
Main Hand: STR / Off Hand: MND
Armorer
Main Hand: VIT / Off Hand: STR
Goldsmith
Main Hand: DEX / Off Hand: INT
Leatherworker
Main Hand: VIT / Off Hand: INT
Weaver
Main Hand: DEX / Off Hand: MND
Alchemist
Main Hand: INT / Off Hand: PIE
Culinarian
Main Hand: MND / Off Hand: PIE

---

Post me any tips you have that I might not have listed.

Assemble/Grand Design are very useful. They give 30% progress (-5dura) when successful and only -5dura when fails which makes it much better than a rapid synth attempt.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sigmakan

Assemble/Grand Design are very useful. They give 30% progress -5dura) when successful and only -5dura when fails which makes it much better than a rapid synth attempt.

---

How effective are they? A skill that has never been very useful to me is "Bold Endeavor" It seems to fail to take effect 70%+ of the time so I left it out. Do these have a high fail rate? What is your best guess at proc rate 75%/50%/25% etc.?

Assemble has been pretty successful when I use it (maybe 80% success rate)

Unless we're playing different games, Inspiration is a 1 turn ability now rather than a 3-4 turn one and Manipulation is gained as a Lv30 GSM, not LTW.

Also, it would help to provide what type of synthesis the skills are effective for as the ones tailored towards finished items are desirable in this case.

Also, Masterpiece (WVR 10) and Assemble (CRP 30) are useful as well.

Overall, nice consolidation of useful abilities. Just fix the errors and add some missing info and I can see myself looking back here for reference.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NoctisUmbra

Unless we're playing different games, Inspiration is a 1 turn ability now rather than a 3-4 turn one and Manipulation is gained as a Lv30 GSM, not LTW.

Also, it would help to provide what type of synthesis the skills are effective for as the ones tailored towards finished items are desirable in this case.

Also, Masterpiece (WVR 10) and Assemble (CRP 30) are useful as well.

Overall, nice consolidation of useful abilities. Just fix the errors and add some missing info and I can see myself looking back here for reference.

---

Inspiration is 3-4 turns. Innovation is 1 turn.

I just realized this.

/derp

oooooooooo I forgot about masterpiece, I'll test this out tonight doing some felt trousers and they are always the hardest synth for me to HQ consistently even with full HQ sets of mats. I'll fix the errors tomorrow.

1. Has anyone figured out if there are any stat caps for crafting yet?
2. Which one of the three stats (craftsmanship, magic craftsmanship, control) are best to meld if you're going for HQ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tango

oooooooooo I forgot about masterpiece, I'll test this out tonight doing some felt trousers and they are always the hardest synth for me to HQ consistently even with full HQ sets of mats. I'll fix the errors tomorrow.

---

Lol I was gonna say how can Masterpiece *not* get an honorable mention. And its effective too!

I'd like to throw Innovation in as a nice ability. If you're going to set one of the 1-turn quality+ abilities, I like this one the most. Unlike the rest of them, this one doesn't say there's a "chance" of increased quality, it just gives it to you (albeit at the cost of decreased success rate).

Probably not the best choice however, if you're making super hard stuff.

By also using tender touch, and Less is more(I think 30 cul) instead of innovation and inspiration, you gain about another 8 to 10 percent progress in the durability saved. I can typically do the entire synth with all careful synth and finish off with a single Perfection + rapid synth at the end for a guarenteed 30-35 percent progress, maximizing the amount of careful synths I can do per synth, and saving the need to waste durability on standard synth.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mister-Wonderful

By also using tender touch, and Less is more(I think 30 cul) instead of innovation and inspiration, you gain about another 8 to 10 percent progress in the durability saved. I can typically do the entire synth with all careful synth and finish off with a single Perfection + rapid synth at the end for a guarenteed 30-35 percent progress, maximizing the amount of careful synths I can do per synth, and saving the need to waste durability on standard synth.

---

And you are assuming Perfection will always go off. I prefer to do it earlier so that I have a backup plan.

And Perfection should belong to "Top Tier" imo.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tymora

And you are assuming Perfection will always go off. I prefer to do it earlier so that I have a backup plan.

And Perfection should belong to "Top Tier" imo.

---

With lower level mats Rapid synth is quite reliable even when perfection fails and pretty successful on finished items without it as well. And on finished items I don't think I've had it not work, seeing as how it is most effective on finished items, it probably does not fail or I have extraordinarily high luck.

If you want to play it safe do perfection near the end, then finish with hand of the gods.

Yup that's what I do.

If a one-shot ability is "most effective for finished items" for example, then it will never fail when used in the creation of a finished item. I don't have Perfection, so not sure how I would use it. I always finish up with Hand of the Gods.

For Weaver I use Determination (increases influence of MND on quality) which you don't have listed.

I've found the 30 progress abilities like Assemble and Piece by Piece very useful because they are highly reliable (orb colour seems to affect this significantly, though) and give a ton of progress for little or no durability loss. This lets you careful synth much more.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raldo

I'd like to throw Innovation in as a nice ability. If you're going to set one of the 1-turn quality+ abilities, I like this one the most. Unlike the rest of them, this one doesn't say there's a "chance" of increased quality, it just gives it to you (albeit at the cost of decreased success rate).

Probably not the best choice however, if you're making super hard stuff.

---

I like innovation as well, and it stacks with Inspiration.

I really do not like Masterpiece as it seems to produce low quality gains.

I also like tender touch and you can do the same things you are doing with Ingenuity.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mwlodar

1. Has anyone figured out if there are any stat caps for crafting yet?
2. Which one of the three stats (craftsmanship, magic craftsmanship, control) are best to meld if you're going for HQ?

---

Increase Craftsmanship as high as you can now. Next I would look to raise control but if your going for quality you want more craftsmanship. You can also eat rollenberry cheese.

i use ingenuity>pride of labor>piece by piece alot. This combo if it succeeds(and it usually does) puts my at 60% complete with 100 dura which gives me a lot more chances to careful synth. When i do this i can usually get 90%+ chance of HQ on lvl 51+ synths.

if i get to close to finishing and still have plenty of dura i use ease the burden to remove 10%completion and raise chances of success.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by syntaxlies

i use ingenuity>pride of labor>piece by piece alot. This combo if it succeeds(and it usually does) puts my at 60% complete with 100 dura which gives me a lot more chances to careful synth. When i do this i can usually get 90%+ chance of HQ on lvl 51+ synths.

if i get to close to finishing and still have plenty of dura i use ease the burden to remove 10%completion and raise chances of success.

---

I don't really understand what you are saying here....

Pride of Labor and Piece by Piece are the same thing.... One is for decorations and one is for parts.

They both, if succeed, will advance the synth like a rapid, but each has better success if you are synthing what it is good for. They defiantly don't stack.

Using Ingenuity with either of these makes no sense either... I would rather just carefull synth when Ingenuity is active.

The only way to increase the chance of the 30 progress abilities working is using the one that corresponds with the synth you are doing, or using then when the orb is unstable/chatoic.

Assemble - Finished (should be used the most)
Mass Production - (more then 1 yeild, etc ingots/leather/cloth)
Grand Design - (materials)
Pride of Labor - (finished items, there is so few)
Piece by Piece - (parts)

use ingenuity first, it helps both of those skills succeed. Its like starting a synth with 60%complete and 100 dura plus you have 1 turn left of ing to use for whatever. It may not be the best strat but i made it myself cause i never got any help crafting and its been working for me.

also even though they say part and decorations they work on everything, i use them all the time.

and they do stack on ingenuity.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by syntaxlies

use ingenuity first, it helps both of those skills succeed. Its like starting a synth with 60%complete and 100 dura plus you have 1 turn left of ing to use for whatever. It may not be the best strat but i made it myself cause i never got any help crafting and its been working for me.

also even though they say part and decorations they work on everything, i use them all the time.

and they do stack on ingenuity.

---

Any 1 time use ability and a duration stack, but I feel like your wasting a turn of Ingenuity here. I am not convinced it helps the 30% one succeed either.

Also using them at the beginning increases your risk I believe.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meatdawg

Any 1 time use ability and a duration stack, but I feel like your wasting a turn of Ingenuity here. I am not convinced it helps the 30% one succeed either.

Also using them at the beginning increases your risk I believe.

---

i uasually go ingenutiy 30%skill careful synth 30% skill just cause i dont like using them back to back. Ing def increases chances of success for them cause on a lvl 51+ skill they will always fail for me without ing.

By doing this im starting the synth at 60%complete and max dura so i have alot more wiggle room. I dont have as many crafts as you i dont think(gsm 50 arm50 bsm45 and lth31) so i wont have the same setup as you.

Ive been doing this for a long time now and if both succeed i normally get 90+%HQ by the time im done(very often ill get 100%hq)

Note:these skills dont give me any HQ they just just allow me to have more dura to careful syth with.

I'm guessing you don't have Hands of the Gods, Syntax?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NoctisUmbra

I'm guessing you don't have Hands of the Gods, Syntax?

---

no i wanna get it but i fear if i go out of my way as soon as i get it they revamp the skills,lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by syntaxlies

no i wanna get it but i fear if i go out of my way as soon as i get it they revamp the skills,lol.

---

A legitimate fear lol. Though from what i understand, they'll primarily be revamping the less useful ones... but who really knows?

Just thought that 60% progress with 100 dura is way too late in the synth to start Carefuls. Being that I have Tender Touch and Hands of the Gods, I use a single 30% skill and do the rest of the synthesis (70%) in Carefuls.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NoctisUmbra

A legitimate fear lol. Though from what i understand, they'll primarily be revamping the less useful ones... but who really knows?

Just thought that 60% progress with 100 dura is way too late in the synth to start Carefuls. Being that I have Tender Touch and Hands of the Gods, I use a single 30% skill and do the rest of the synthesis (70%) in Carefuls.

---

if im at like 95% with 3o+dura i use ease the burden which will reduce synth by 10% and control risk. I save that skill for last all the time.

Assemble needs to be added. Chance to progress 30% at a loss of 10 durability at most on fail (0 with perfect use), not affected by aetherial sparking. If you are at 6 durability remaining and 99% progress, might as well chance it with Assemble.

I use Perfection, Hand of the Gods, Immersion, Epiphany, Innovation, Determination, Masterpiece, Tender Touch, and a couple others (Culmination? Grandmastery?)...idr what on Weaver for my HQ attempts...consistantly get 80% HQ chance or higher on the highest level synths using all HQ materials. Anything 40 and below I consistantly get 1000 quality (or damn near close to it...950+) I'd say for 30 and below...I don't even bother using HQ mats to try and HQ anymore. It is just too easy.

setting up a 60% 100 durability is perfect for doing the rest careful and getting to 1000 quality...
follow the 4/9 careful rate it takes 90 durability to get 40 % done,
If assemble hits and Pride of Labor doesn't, you can still pop Hands of the Gods and standard once and careful 2-3 times to get to the 90 60% careful start setup.
Try it, it works the best.

HQ Weaving:

1) Use Determination.
2) Use Careful Synthesis (first popping either Innovation, Immersion, or Epiphany)
3) Use Careful Synthesis (first popping either Innovation, Immersion, or Epiphany)
4) Use Careful Synthesis (first popping either Innovation, Immersion, or Epiphany)
5) Use Masterpiece, followed by 3(or 4) Careful Synthesis.
6) Use Tender Touch, continue using Careful Synthesis until Tender Touch wears off.
6) Continue using Careful Synthesis until Durability is equal to or less than 10. (If you have other abilities work them in somehow. I have a couple one-time use abilities at the moment for here but nothing really notable.)
7) Use Perfection + Rapid Synthesis.
8) Use Hand of the Gods + a mixture of Careful Synthesis and Standard Synthesis to maximize remaining chances for quality gains while still securing a successful completion.

That about wraps up my HQing process (for now). It may change as I unlock more abilities.

Obviously sometimes everything doesn;t come up in the exact order like this, but it is easily tweaked to accomidate with a little common sense. (Oh and btw, even if Perfection fails to activate, which it rarely ever does for me, you can still finish off the synth with just Hand of the Gods 95%+ of the time.)

Using this process I average over 80% HQ chance on 51-60 level synths when attempting with all HQ materials.

I actually considered using Clean Slate in conjunction with Hand of the Gods to get 3-4 free Careful Synthesis at the beginning of the synth, since with HotG you will lose 0 durability and Clean Slate will reset Progress to 0. I do not have CS yet so I have been unable to test this to see if I can squeeze out a higher average HQ %.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Green_and_a_Half

setting up a 60% 100 durability is perfect for doing the rest careful and getting to 1000 quality...
follow the 4/9 careful rate it takes 90 durability to get 40 % done,
If assemble hits and Pride of Labor doesn't, you can still pop Hands of the Gods and standard once and careful 2-3 times to get to the 90 60% careful start setup.
Try it, it works the best.

---

I'll take getting to 30% progress with 100 durability and doing almost double the amount of carefuls, thank you. Been working wonders for me.

In my opinion, anything beyond 50% progress for 100 durability is overkill in terms of safety. Depends on what abilities you have of course, but if you have a 30% skill, hands of the gods and tender touch, I don't see any reason to get progress that far.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NoctisUmbra

I'll take getting to 30% progress with 100 durability and doing almost double the amount of carefuls, thank you. Been working wonders for me.

In my opinion, anything beyond 50% progress for 100 durability is overkill in terms of safety. Depends on what abilities you have of course, but if you have a 30% skill, hands of the gods and tender touch, I don't see any reason to get progress that far.

---

I see how you can see progress +3% +4% and +5% and durability -7% -8% and -9% = 1/2 or anything beyond 50% progress for 100 durability is overkill in terms of safety. but having some leeway for when you hit +3 -9 a few times is needed IMO that's Why I follow 4/9 and not 4/8 or 1/2. OUTIE 5000

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Green_and_a_Half

I see how you can see progress +3% +4% and +5% and durability -7% -8% and -9% = 1/2 or anything beyond 50% progress for 100 durability is overkill in terms of safety. but having some leeway for when you hit +3 -9 a few times is needed IMO that's Why I follow 4/9 and not 4/8 or 1/2. OUTIE 5000

---

Right, but when I have access to skills like Hands of the Gods and Tender Touch, they provide all the leeway I need. I havent blown up a single synth yet doing this, except of course double downs when attempting to HQ with NQ mats, but to each his own I guess. Whatever works for you.

I didn't realize crafting had its own lingo now. What the heck do these fractions you guys are spouting off about mean?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raldo

I didn't realize crafting had its own lingo now. What the heck do these fractions you guys are spouting off about mean?

---

Progress/Durability.

Clean Slate will be hard to use. Even without it, I am already getting durability down to single digits.