Crafting 100% Success 100% HQ 2 Star Items

[Whitefall]

Added my Current Stat and Skill Rotation =D

[Cynthis]

I haven't got going on crafting yet but have a ton of Grade 3&4 cracked materia I hope to use for crafting and gathering. This thread is very helpful but talks mostly about CP. Is there a soft/hard cap on craftmanship or control? I'm trying to get an idea for when it is more useful to boost CP to be able to do more actions or just focus on craftmanship/control for more success/better results...

[Lilianne]

snippy

I did I'm the same with all 50's and could honestly HQ base mats, but I see no reason doing that if I can just do everything with NQ. I'll be adding in small amounts of control into my cul set until I can 100% with all normal conditions and the rotation.

Also to Whitefall, I meld my gear up to 350/351 for the possibility of new recipes. While it's great that I can HQ with lower numbers and an easy HQ mat, I don't want to be caught in the rush of buying materia if new recipes are added that are harder. Plus advertising all NQ mats and no chance of risk (Hasty touch strats) in HQ'n 2 stars is good for my advertisements

@Cynthis the gear has caps on it so most fully melded items will give everyone the same stats. Depending on the rotation you use depends on mainly what food and if you need more stats or not. Using HQ mats (twinthread, darksteel/rose gold nuggets, etc) can help with needing less control.

Right now I am using the rotation posted above by Aphraell as well as one a friend came up with. The other rotation I use needs 350/351 (Crafts/control) and 330 cp, HQ mahi and 1 HQ mat. Aph's rotation for me is eating HQ bouillabaisse and all NQ mats. I am thinking I will only need to get to around 330/335 control (Craftsmanship is in the 330's as well) to hit 100% HQ.

[PandaPause]

Very nice rotations! I will try using them tonight

[Crush3r07]

Also to Whitefall, I meld my gear up to 350/351 for the possibility of new recipes. While it's great that I can HQ with lower numbers and an easy HQ mat, I don't want to be caught in the rush of buying materia if new recipes are added that are harder.

Good plan. What are the stat caps (control) for each armor piece? I'm good on acceccories/ belt. Just give me offhand and other five main body parts. Thanks

[Lilianne]

Good plan. What are the stat caps (control) for each armor piece? I'm good on acceccories/ belt. Just give me offhand and other five main body parts. Thanks

Body pcs are 5 control, offhand is 9 I believe

[Whitefall]

Also to Whitefall, I meld my gear up to 350/351 for the possibility of new recipes. While it's great that I can HQ with lower numbers and an easy HQ mat, I don't want to be caught in the rush of buying materia if new recipes are added that are harder. Plus advertising all NQ mats and no chance of risk (Hasty touch strats) in HQ'n 2 stars is good for my advertisements

Well my guide is just to help starting crafters so that they can guarantee their selves an HQ 2 star craft w/out spending too much on materia setup and leveling all crafting class. I'm also not against using all NQ mats and using hasty touch on crafting 2 star because I also do that. I also use my current rotation that I stated for my CUL on crafting 2 star foods w/ normal mats but definitely I won't advice to use normal cheap mats on crafting 2 Star gear specially for those who have low control.

[RedMoko]

If you already have all lvl 50 crafting class, there's no need to boost your control. 347 Craft / 340 Control / 370 CP (w/ food) is enough to guarantee an HQ 2 Star. Besides, why would use all NQ materials if you can buy cheap HQ mats for crafting 2 Star gears. Even if you crafted a Normal Quality 40 Durability 2 Star item like Vanya Silk, you can still guarantee yourself an HQ 2 Star because the cheap HQ mats can already give you about 700+ Starting Quality.

Here's the skill rotation im currently using:
"Inner Quiet"
"Steady Hand II"
"Basic Touch"
"Basic Touch"
"Basic Touch"
"Basic Touch"
"Basic Touch"
"Manipulation"
"Steady Hand II"
"Basic Touch"
"Basic Touch"
"Great Strides"
"Ingenuity"
"Byregot's Blessing"
"Careful Synthesis II"
"Careful Synthesis II"
"Careful Synthesis II"

I just want to say if you have every craft at 50 why are you buying any hq mats.... I sure don't

Smart crafters will craft to offer the cheapest prices as things bottom out!

[Whitefall]

I just want to say if you have every craft at 50 why are you buying any hq mats.... I sure don't

Smart crafters will craft to offer the cheapest prices as things bottom out!

Well I guess I'm not smart like you, I just want to help starting crafters who don't have much gil and much time to level all crafting class.

[Crush3r07]

We have a winner for a mathematically sure bet.

100% HQ with all NQ Materials - Requires 370CP

Macro1
/ac "Comfort Zone" <me>
/wait 1.8
/ac "Inner Quiet" <me>
/wait 1.8
/ac "Waste Not" <me>
/wait 1.8
/ac "Steady Hand II" <me>
/wait 1.8
/ac "Basic Touch" <me>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Basic Touch" <me>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Basic Touch" <me>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Basic Touch" <me>

Macro2
/ac "Basic Touch" <me>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Great Strides" <me>
/wait 1.8
/ac "Steady Hand II" <me>
/wait 1.8
/ac "Standard Touch" <me>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Ingenuity II" <me>
/wait 1.8
/ac "Great Strides" <me>
/wait 1.8
/ac "Innovation" <me>
/wait 1.8
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <me>

Macro3
/ac "Careful Synthesis II" <me>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Careful Synthesis II" <me>
/wait 2.5
/ac "Careful Synthesis II" <me>

Aphrael Method will work with all normal qualities @ 370cp and 340 Control. I just calculated the necessary control through trial and error.

I just wrote down the quality gained for each touch used while in normal condition. Since sometimes you get good condition I took the value form alternate trial that didn't get good condition in same step.

Basic touch 1: 115
Basich touch 2: 134
basic touch 3: 153
Basic touch 4: 172
Basic touch 5: 192
Standard touch: 529
Blessing: 1626

Total: 2921/2921

Basically the bare minimum.

Alternative Cheaper methods:
Whitefalls method will get you 2805 @340 control and requiring at least 116 from hq item.
Aphraell method @ 320 controll will require you to get at least two good conditions between basic/standard touches. or 1 good condition on blessing, or 1 excellent condition. Also during the last two steps of Aphraell method should you get good conditions after great strides skip innovation and go for blessing. Normal condition Innovation + Blessing is less quality than Blessing with good condition. That goes for any touch to be honest. This is why I would recommend not using macros because it's all conditional.

**Disclaimer** Getting poor condition on first basic touch or standard touch will not guarantee success. However you will still be able to recover depending on our knowledge and experience E.g switching order of skills, using observe/ trick of trade, planning ahead.