6.51 Splendorous Tools Final Upgrade - Lodestar Crafting Tools

Just got my first final upgrade of the Splendorous tool - Lodestar crafting tools.

Once again, there are 2 steps of enhancement. Both involves 20 crafts on Expert Recipes. You can't macro these. However, anyone who has been keeping up with the latest crafting game of Expert Recipes would find these to be quite easy. I did fail 3 times out of the total 40 crafts in my journey for the Lodestar Saw, mostly due to some crazy 8+ Hasty/Rapid failure streaks. But otherwise, nothing too challenging, especially the first enhancement, which is very lenient to failed actions.

Regarding the stats and the appearance, I am not that impressed with both, but at least they are not bad.
https://i.imgur.com/ixXfOh2.jpg
i640 with a ton of stats including 7 CP but no slots for melds. The bonus effect remains at 1.75x on Good... no further improvement.

When sheathed, it's not on our back, but on our side only.
It has a transition in color - from gold to blue and back to gold, and has some special glow, which is quite nice. But overall, it's rather subtle in the glow.
https://i.imgur.com/qRkbTpv.png
https://i.imgur.com/Idl1fdf.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9n3qzME.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bK5JXXB.jpg

Despite the tools with no pleasant surprises, the Grenoldt and Rowen's story was actually LOVABLE! <3
They had some really heart-warming cutscenes which I am not gonna spoil here. So make sure you don't skip those! Enjoy! :)

I had prepared a number of those lv 90 crafted materials (chondrite ingots, Integral Lumber etc) in anticipation of the upgrades, only for the materials to be raw. Nice trolling SE.

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Originally Posted by Caimie_Tsukino

Just got my first final upgrade of the Splendorous tool - Lodestar crafting tools.

Once again, there are 2 steps of enhancement. Both involves 20 crafts on Expert Recipes. You can't macro these.

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First step can be macro'd to at least minimum rating with fully melded Afflatus (plus Brilliant main hand) or better and HQ Tsai/Cunning Draught (draught can be NQ).

I played around a bit and created a set with 3874 Craftsmanship (2 Competence X), 3626 Control (9 Command X) and 561 CP (5 Cunning X - use on legs, feet, earring, neck, bracelet). After using HQ Tsai and HQ Cunning Draught, total stats were 3874/3702/660.

/ac "Muscle Memory" <wait.3>
/ac Manipulation <wait.2>
/ac "Waste Not II" <wait.2>
/ac Veneration <wait.2>
/ac Groundwork <wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Standard Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Advanced Touch" <wait.3>
/ac Manipulation <wait.2>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac Innovation <wait.2>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Standard Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Advanced Touch" <wait.3>
/ac Innovation <wait.2>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Synthesis" <wait.3>

Without playing with conditions, the craft ended at Progress 6637/6600, quality/rating 7836/15368 with 6 CP left over (or 2 left if NQ draught). Someone over 4190 Craftsmanship would need to insert Final Appraisal before the 4th Groundwork to keep it from finishing too soon.

I haven't gotten around to playing with the final step yet but I imagine it should also be possible to macro for minimum required rating using Afflatus with the Vrandic tool though the melds might need to be tweaked a little compared to what I used.

edit: on the Final Step I keep coming up a Careful Synthesis short of minimum rating after switching from Tsai to Biryani and changing melds a bit to get more CP. Considering that's with no Conditions assumed, there's a decent chance of still being able to finish the craft if any of the following occurred:

lucky Rapid Synthesis (possible 2 attempts at end)
have 25 durability and 14 CP left (2 Careful Synth plus 1 Basic Synth)
have 35 durability and 7 CP left (1 Careful Synth plus 3 Basic Synth)
have 15 Durability and 32 CP left (Veneration plus 2 Careful Synth)

For this situation, the stats before HQ Biryani and draught were 3820/3590/583, or 3820/3680/690 after

/ac "Muscle Memory" <wait.3>
/ac Manipulation <wait.2>
/ac "Waste Not II" <wait.2>
/ac Veneration <wait.2>
/ac Groundwork <wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <wait.3>
/ac Groundwork <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Standard Touch" <wait.3>
/ac Manipulation <wait.2>
/ac Innovation <wait.2>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac Innovation <wait.2>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Standard Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>

Note that ends at Byregot so the final synthesis can be chosen to fit the remaining CP and Durability. There should be a minimum of 7 CP and 15 Durability remaining after Byregot.

The sticking point for the final step is you must get 10 IQ stacks for Byregot to get you to the minimum needed rating if you have no Good procs and less than 4060 Control after food/draught. Even then it could take 1-4 Goods to reach minimum depending on which Touch step they occurred.

All of the above assumes the crafter is only using Afflatus plus the needed tool and has no desire to swap out a couple of pieces for HQ Indagator to overmeld.

Just completed the ALC one. RNGesus really had it out for me towards the end with the many fail streaks and conditions that I could do nothing with without booming it.

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Originally Posted by IHOJ

I had prepared a number of those lv 90 crafted materials (chondrite ingots, Integral Lumber etc) in anticipation of the upgrades, only for the materials to be raw. Nice trolling SE.

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Yup! I was also preparing some HQ mats earlier, but I didn't excessively do it, so it was fine...
And to think about it more deeply, I guess one could say it's not a troll... After all, ALL expert recipes do not allow the use of HQ mats in the first place, right? So if we expected Expert Recipes here, we would have expected not to be able to use our HQ mats. Although, I thought they would at least allow HQ mats for the 5th enhancement, and only doing Expert Recipes for the final enhancement... I didn't expect BOTH steps to be Expert Recipes...

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

SNIP

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Thanks, Jojo. But with so little collectability, I think I'll just stick to manual crafting for now...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EgilTheStressedMage

Just completed the ALC one. RNGesus really had it out for me towards the end with the many fail streaks and conditions that I could do nothing with without booming it.

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Yeah it happens... I just had 1 run with 14 fails... Nothing I could do to help it. But otherwise, it seems to me that manual crafting is still more efficient than macro crafting... total time is less and fewer mats are needed. But, you gotta manually do it, which to some ppl is a hassle comparing to macro. I'm fine with manual crafting though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Caimie_Tsukino

Thanks, Jojo. But with so little collectability, I think I'll just stick to manual crafting for now...

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Oh, definitely. That's for the benefit of players who aren't comfortable with Expert but still want to complete the tools.

So I found a bit of a happy medium between macro and manual crafting that has me getting mostly 2nd tier result with more 3rd tier than 1st tier. On average, I'm needing about 28 select materials per tool.

TLDR;
Macro up until the "finisher" when you'd use Innovation->(some other stuff)->Great Strides-> Byregots. Then bait for Good Omen by burning your extra CP/durability.

Slightly more detail:
When you are up to what your macro would assume is your last Innovation, look at your CP/Durability. If you had any luck with Pliants and Sturdies and Malleables, you likely will either have extra steps to use (from having more durability) and/or the ability to use a few more touches. All of this adds not only to your quality but also to the odds that you'll see a Good Omen while Innovation is up. Use Great Strides during Good Omen and enjoy getting to 3rd tier more often with a "mostly macro'd" rotation.

Another thing is... if you are going to try and utilize the extra CP... then actually get the extra CP. Take, for example, the rotation listed above for the last tool. Add Tricks of the Trade (ToT) in certain steps:

MM
ToT
Manipulation
WN2
Veneration
GNDWx2
Final Appraisal (in case a Malleable has shown up)
GNDWx2
Preparatory Touch
Basic Touch
Standard Touch
ToT
Manipulation
ToT
Innovation
Basic Touch
Standard Touch
Advanced Touch
Prudent Touch
Prudent Touch
ToT
--- Innovation would be here ---
The idea is to only use those Goods for ToT on a step when your macro would only be using a buff such as Manipulation, Innovation, etc. So nothing is "lost." Goods that land on touches is great.

When I do that macro with crafting stats roughly at 4100/4100/716 with food, at the bare minimum, I get to the end of that macro with 114 CP, effectively 30 durability and 640 progress short.

With 110 CP, I'm going to use Innovation (18) Basic Touch (18), Great Strides (32), and Byregot's (24) - leaving 18 for Prudent Synthesis and Basic Synthesis. That leaves me with only 4CP to spare.

If I get to 18 CP extra, I can insert another Basic Touch in there. If I get to 36 CP extra, that's two Basic Touches in there. If I get to 68 CP extra (which is quite possible with Pliants and ToT usage... I wind up using a Basic Touch before using Innovation. Then Basic Touch, Trained Finesse (since I don't have durability to spare).

There's the other possibility that you only need 1 Basic Synthesis to finish (any Malleable in the Groundwork steps results in that). If that's the case, you can even burn that extra durability on a Hasty Touch if you don't have any CP to spare.

Another thing that I found very handy to do:

If you are on a specialist, you can use some Careful Observations to bait a Good/Good Omen. Depending on how many steps you have left of Innovation/Great Strides, you could also burn CP on Observe to try and get there.

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Originally Posted by dspguy

The idea is to only use those Goods for ToT on a step when your macro would only be using a buff such as Manipulation, Innovation, etc. So nothing is "lost." Goods that land on touches is great.

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That's great suggestion for those who prefer to rely on a macro for most of the process. Thanks for adding!

Dear SE:

Why isn't there a title for completing all of these tools like the Skysteel tools from last expansion? It was a bit of a let-down.

Well... for the first time in my life, I decided to record videos of myself doing Expert Recipes...
So I google searched, and found Windows 10 actually has a thing called "Game Bar", and I decided to give it a shot...

I then created a channel on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@CaimieTsukino), and posted those videos there...

Caimie Tsukino doing Expert Recipes in Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.51 2023-11-05 (Part 1) (5th enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNral3njbHw

Part 2 (5th enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLqE6KV8cao

Part 3 (Final enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFH9H6bb46U

Part 4 (Final enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iMO41APJUc

Part 5 (Final enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD-ayYl5PKM

I guess the problem is, I didn't include any explanations to how to made my decisions on the buttons... Also, every time when I opened my calculator on the screen to do math, the calculator didn't show up in the videos...

It'd be great if I can add some words on the screen during the video to explain how I arrived at this decisions, and perhaps if I play around Game Bar a bit more, I'll figure out how to display the calculator too. If you guys can give me some pointers, that'd be great! Thanks! :)

Here! I decided to type out my thoughts on the chat box in the game while I do the Expert Recipes.
It makes the videos much longer, but it helps a lot in explaining my decisions on what buttons to press in under different circumstances.

Caimie Tsukino vs Expert Recipes! [EXPLANATIONS ON CHAT BOX] 2023-11-06
Part 1 (5th enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3px6yFqIWsQ

Part 2 (final enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHsAql2ohL0

Part 3 (final enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaY3l2IFjt0

Part 4 (final enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3rBS7vgKo

P.S. Just got all 8 Lodestar crafting tools :) Now onto the gathering tools.
https://i.imgur.com/dGgpEvl.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dspguy

Dear SE:

Why isn't there a title for completing all of these tools like the Skysteel tools from last expansion? It was a bit of a let-down.

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Skysteel tools never had a title for completing all the tools. You're thinking of the title from completing all the Resplendent tools, which were unrelated to the Skysteel ones.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nezerius

Skysteel tools never had a title for completing all the tools. You're thinking of the title from completing all the Resplendent tools, which were unrelated to the Skysteel ones.

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That's right. It's been a while. I probably just thought it was the same thing.

You clearly don’t know how good they are if you aren’t impressed with the stats. It has 46 more craftsmanship, 7 more CP, and 34 more control. That’s having 3 tier X materia, 2 tier IX materia, and a tier VII CP materia at no additional cost with a little extra stats on the side as a tiny bonus. Plus icing on the cake for it all is the good quality buff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asdrubael

You clearly don’t know how good they are if you aren’t impressed with the stats. It has 46 more craftsmanship, 7 more CP, and 34 more control. That’s having 3 tier X materia, 2 tier IX materia, and a tier VII CP materia at no additional cost with a little extra stats on the side as a tiny bonus. Plus icing on the cake for it all is the good quality buff.

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A better way to put it would be to say that the Lodestar tool gives us an extra Materia IX of stats over fully pentamelded HQ Indagator. Your math is slightly off if you think it's the equivalent of 3 Xs and 2 IXs plus the CP. If that were the case, it would be +54 Craftsmanship and +42 Control instead of +46 and +34.

The real benefit is the additional .25 multiplier on Good procs.

My complaint with the Lodestar is the same one I had with the Skybuilder - the additional Craftsmanship on the tool isn't sufficient for me to drop a Synthesis step while I lose Control compared to my pentamelded HQ Indagators. In order to benefit from the pure stats, I would have to remeld my other gear to bring my Craftsmanship back to current levels and regain the lost Control. Doing that would force me to commit to grinding all the Lodestar crafting tools, not just a select one or two. If they would give it the same base stats as HQ Indagator plus 5 materia sockets, I'd be a lot happier with it. That would allow me to meld them as I need to fit in with the stats I already have.

Considering I've been crafting hundreds of Diadochos gear pieces since 6.4, switching to Lodestar isn't necessary to continue crafting those. I've been "meh" on Expert this expansion because it's only there to make gil and I've already got plenty of gil. I've been doing some for myself and friends who want the IS landmarks but quickly stopped selling the parts on the marketboard.

I miss the long term achievements Expert was given in Shadowbringers and would still prefer Expert recipes for creating a variety of glamour items. Shiny tools aren't what I'm interested in when it comes to glamour.

So despite the Lodestar tools being technically better, I have no compelling reason to put in the effort to grind them out. They might ease leveling in Dawntrail by a tiny amount but I suspect that the multiplier bonus will be disabled on level 100 recipes (if not 91) and even then most of the bonus could be offset by the superior stats that level 100 tools will have.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asdrubael

You clearly don’t know how good they are if you aren’t impressed with the stats. It has 46 more craftsmanship, 7 more CP, and 34 more control. That’s having 3 tier X materia, 2 tier IX materia, and a tier VII CP materia at no additional cost with a little extra stats on the side as a tiny bonus. Plus icing on the cake for it all is the good quality buff.

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I cannot agree with what you said though... It would be unfair to compare the unmelded Indagator's to Lodestar. The Indagator's were released such a long time ago... Most people would have pentamelded them ages ago to do Master Recipes for gear or Expert Recipes for Island Sanctuary stuff (for gil).

Most people would have pentamelded their Indagator's with Control and CP, so the final stats would be "Craft 1208, Control 698, CP 7".
Let's take a closer look:
https://i.imgur.com/dIreZso.jpg
Thus, if you're comparing the stats of Lodestar vs pentamelded Indagator's, the Lodestar actually has 47 more craftsmanship, 26 less control, and same amount of CP... 47 more crafts sounds great, but 26 less control is very undesirable for a lot of ppl who rely on macros to massively produce battle gear.

Personally, I had thrown away all my Indagator's when I had my Crystalline Tools already. The extra 0.25x on quality on Good condition proved to be too good when crafting Expert Recipes, and I didn't craft that much battle gear anyway. Thus, I've been having that extra 0.25x on quality on Goods since ages ago with the Crystalline Tools. Now that we've gone through 2 rounds of evolution for our relic tools, and yet it stays on that extra 0.25x on quality. That's disappointing. I was hoping it'd give something like, an extra 0.35x (so 1.85x instead of 1.75x)... That little bit would have made quite a big difference.

Since I had thrown away all my Indagator's and living with Brilliant Tools before the patch, the actual stats increase for me after all that work in this new Patch 6.51 were: 23+ craft & 17+ control... It really doesn't make that much of a difference when one is crafting Expert Recipes. It's definitely a bit better, but not by that much... Anyway who has been doing these since their introduction in ShB would agree that ultimately, 3 to 4 more fails on Rapid/Hasty or a few more Pliants or Goods would be the ultimate determinant of success or failure on the craft.

In summary, the real benefit of these Lodestar Tools are still just glamour... which even that I'm a bit disappointed... The Lodestar's base designs are quite cool, and I love the color transition... But they're quite subtle with their glow comparing to the Skybuilders' Tools... The only better part is that the Lodestar is dyeable while the Skybuilders' were not. As to why so small on our sides instead of being huge on our backs, I think it's because the Skybuilders' Tools were also like that... I think the game plans on releasing a equivalent of the ShB Resplendent Tools later, which will be huge on our backs.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

SNIP

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Yep, what you said is exactly how I felt!

People actually did these manually? Why? There are some very nice bots to assist with this.

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Originally Posted by recommendations

People actually did these manually? Why? There are some very nice bots to assist with this.

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Well, just imagine the "very nice bots" doing all the work for you to win your ultimate trials. What's the fun for that?

Some people like battles, some people like crafting. That's all.

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Originally Posted by Caimie_Tsukino

Well, just imagine the "very nice bots" doing all the work for you to win your ultimate trials. What's the fun for that?

Some people like battles, some people like crafting. That's all.

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No complaints there. If you enjoy, you enjoy. I will take my sparkling tools (and weapons) via automated means. Square doesn't care anyway (this is just me bringing attention to bots - nothing personal).

ugh please lets not turn this thread into another mods argument and have it closed. we don't need that here.

Does the bonus on "good" cobdition made otter fountain components easiler to make with these tools ? The foubtain components felt impossible to make unless rng is in my favor.

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Originally Posted by IHOJ

Does the bonus on "good" cobdition made otter fountain components easiler to make with these tools ? The foubtain components felt impossible to make unless rng is in my favor.

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The bonus on "Good" is basically the KEY to getting these components done :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asdrubael

You clearly don’t know how good they are if you aren’t impressed with the stats. It has 46 more craftsmanship, 7 more CP, and 34 more control. That’s having 3 tier X materia, 2 tier IX materia, and a tier VII CP materia at no additional cost with a little extra stats on the side as a tiny bonus. Plus icing on the cake for it all is the good quality buff.

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It depends what you already had and how you were melded. I lost 7 craft and gained 10 control. I already had 7 CP melded. These are a fanstatic upgrade if you don't already have a penta-melded tool, and it's been a bit but I remember the Skybuilder tools being a little bit more of a boost even if you had a fully melded tool. I'm still using them since the 10 control is nice and losing 7 craft won't affect me hugely, but I was hoping for a bit more of a boost. They seem to have sacrificed stats for the effect and the effect has a more niche usage.

Malleable effect pops up way to often, such a useless buff (imo). Other buffs get pushed by this quite often. Expert crafting is not fun (for me).
Also please remove soul crystal weekly lockout. I dont understand the idea behind it.

after doing skysteel tools on a crafter, i decided to do splendorous tools on a gatherer. good decision. expert crafting sucks.