What good ways are there to spiritbond crafting gear?

[Espon]

I usually just replace all my accessories with crafting ones and then go run WP a few times. Doesn't even affect you all that much since majority of your stats come from your weapon and armor.

[tymora]

Just did another test on iLv55 crafting gear, just to double-check.
...

Base * (0.8 if HQ) * (0.85)^(# of materia)
I used number of mobs killed to get my answer.

Using synths are inaccurate because each synth yields a different amount of experience points based on quality gained. I believe that would change the results somewhat.
Mobs on the other hand, always give the same exp.

Oh one more thing, you forgot to count the +1 SB bonus on the rings. That will shift your results by a little.

[Raldo]

Using synths are inaccurate because each synth yields a different amount of experience points based on quality gained. I believe that would change the results somewhat.

Quality does not affect the amount of spiritbond gained (hence the "quick synth gives the same amount of spiritbond" tip). I already ran tests for that long ago, and it took me the same amount of synths to increase by 1 bind point when I did quick-synth, progress-only synth, and 100% HQ synth. Also, I didn't waste my time pushing quality for these tests; progress only.

It is true, however, that I did forget that I was wearing +2 spiritbond.

You are saying that HQ gives a different bonus than materia though; that is odd and I didn't factor that in as a possibility, I'll have to run more tests then. I'll do it like you did, and use monsters, because spiritbond crafting is mind-numbingly boring.

[Raldo]

I have performed a test with the following gear...



(+# indicates the number of materia on the gear)
HQ+0 - Wrists
HQ+1 - Ears
HQ+2 - Neck
HQ+3 - Head
NQ+0 - Hands
NQ+1 - Feet
NQ+2 - Legs
NQ+3 - Body

I just hit 20% on the hands (NQ+0), and all the rest of the gear lines up as if HQ and each materia were worth +25% rate each (25% for NQ+1 and HQ+0, 30% for NQ+2 and HQ+1, etc.). I will update this post when the hat hits 100%, but I fully expect the hands to be at 50%, and everything else to line up similarly to a 25% increase per HQ/materia.

I can only assume there was something wrong with your test. Either you killed different types of monsters, different level monsters, different amounts of party members, etc. This is why I test based solely on the spiritbond%, and not the number of monsters (also because I'm not running a parser, so I end up screwing up my manual count).

Update: My hands just hit 40%, and since the data is lining up nicely, and I'm about to break to do a WP group; I'll stop here for now. Current state:
NQ+0 - Hands (40%)
HQ+0 - Wrists (50%)
NQ+1 - Feet (50%)
HQ+1 - Ears (60%)
NQ+2 - Legs (60%)
HQ+2 - Neck (71%)
NQ+3 - Body (70%)
HQ+3 - Head (81%)

I'm going to chalk the random 1% difference up to rounding error, and say everything is a +25% increase.

I will update my earlier post to now state that every bonus is +25% instead of +20%.

Update2: The above data was enough to solidify that it's +25% for everything in my opinion, but for those curious, when my hat hit 100% everything lined up within 1~2% of where you would expect it to be if everything gave a +25% bonus (100/87/86/74/73/61/61/49).

[tymora]

Level 50 water elementals, solo with chocobo. Always.

Anyway, looks like our definition of % are different.
Using your numbers, my 15% came from...86/100, 74/86, 61/73.

To put it in words, I will say 15% reduction in required synths or mobs killed. Same thing for HQ bonus. Mine will be 20% reduction.
- I previously said "Adds 15% bonus" so I was wrong there.

While yours, 25% bonus in Spirit-bond gain.

Interesting how math works sometimes.

[Raldo]

Unfortunately, it's been far too long since I've had the appropriate math classes to cook up a proper formula, so hopefully someone more mathematically inclined can amend your earlier formula.

That was supposed to be an edit... not a post. I'll delete the above post.

Edit: I figured it out; the formula should be...

[Base] / (1 + .25 * [# of materia (+1 if HQ)])

It looks like your 20% and 15% numbers came froooom....
The difference between NQ+0 and HQ+0/NQ+1 is 20% fewer actions
The difference between HQ+0/NQ+1 and HQ+1/NQ+2 is approx. 15% fewer actions (actually 16.6667%)
The difference between HQ+1/NQ+2 and HQ+2/NQ+3 is approx. 15% fewer actions (actually 14.4286%)
The difference between HQ+2/NQ+3 and HQ+3/NQ+4 is 12.5% fewer actions
...and so on.

[tymora]

Didn't have data on materia #4, #5 and assumed the variations were within reasonable round-off or counting error range.
But yes, your way of counting might be more accurate.

[Raminax]

Am I a bad person for liking your post simply because of how silly your getup looks, rather than it being useful, Raldo?

I'll also chip in and say it seems like 25% increase per materia/quality level. Was doing some spiritbinding today, with a HQ+3 Melds hat reaching 100% while the HQ+2 Meld items were 88-89% and the sole HQ+1 Meld item at 75%. I'd imagine there were hidden decimals at plays, and the fact that I murder enemies en masse in packs of 8-10 means that the hat might've been fully spiritbound before finishing off the entire pack. Maybe I'll try something more systematic/controlled next time.

[Raldo]

Update: I can now confirm that the +Spiritbond FC buff gives the same bonus as an extra materia on everything, so another +25%

[Amnesia]

So I understand that if you're trying to SB level 50 gear (to make tier III/IV materia) and you attempt to do level 20 synths, it will take a very, very long time to SB.
But what about the other way around?

What if you're trying to make some tier II materia? Could you make some level 30 gear and then do level 45-50 synths? Would that be faster or slower than doing level 30 synths?