Crafting 100% Success 100% HQ 2 Star Items

[Aphraell]

Newbie crafter here (most classes to 15 and Cooking to 37, slowly levelling Carpenter!)

Can I ask what is probably a silly question... why do you need to use 1x 'Standard Synthesis' + 2x 'Careful Synthesis I' at the end if you have 10 spare durability...?
Why not just 4x 'Careful Synthesis I'? Wouldn't that save 15 CP, for 355 instead of 370?

(The only other thing I can see would be to level 50 Alchemy and use Comfort Zone at the start to drop the CP requirement to 341 CP... but obviously that'd involve leveling yet another class to 50)
I'm trying to pin down a good "100% HQ" rotation for endgame that requires as few forbidden melds as possible, so every little -CP helps!

That rotation is not 100%

[Maelwys]

That rotation is not 100%

Ah. I'm assuming that Good/Poor Condition Randomness is to blame in certain situations?

(I did try to run it through at least one Crafting Rotation planner utility, and it got close to but not quite at 100% - I put the difference down to the "Byregot's Blessing" caveat listed in the OP...)

I've done a little background reading/research into optimal melds for HQ AF and the various abilities and endgame recipes... and I sort of understand the link between the limits of Craftsmanship and the various Synthesis steps, but I'm still not quite sure about Control and the effect of the various random conditions on Touches...

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Craftsmanship : determines the amount of Progress added.
Control : determines the amount of Quality added.

Normal condition is the base, you get the full 100% Quality added that you would expect on a given Touch.
Poor condition cuts the Quality added that turn to 50%.
Good condition raises the Quality added that turn to 150%.
Excellent condition raises the Quality added that turn to about 400%, and guarantees a Poor next turn.

This is what makes Inner Quiet so valuable, even before you get Byregot's. If you have Inner Quiet up, one Basic/Hasty Touch might get you 100 Quality, and the next time you use it, 116 Quality, then 133 Quality, and so on.

Hasty and Basic Touch are both 100% Efficiency. Just consider them to be the "base" for Quality added.
Standard Touch is 125% Efficiency. That means it adds about 25% more Quality than Basic/Hasty Touch.
Advanced Touch is 150% Efficiency. That means it adds about 50% more Quality than Basic/Hasty Touch.
Great Strides doubles the Quality added on the next Touch (as long as it is within the 3 turn time limit).

Condition works multiplicatively with the Touches. If you hit Great Strides on an Excellent, and then just hit Basic Touch on the Poor that follows, you get 100% Efficiency * 2 (Great Strides) * 0.5 (Poor) = 100% Efficiency, as though you had hit the Basic on a Normal Condition without great Strides! Conversely, if you hit Great Strides and then get an Excellent, and you hit Advanced Touch on that Excellent, you are doing the equivalent of 12 Basic/Hasty Touches in one move! Of course, because it is only one move, it costs a lot less Durability, but you also only get the one move boost to Control from Inner Quiet, too, so there are always some tradeoffs.

[FreakinZMartin]

CP +1 isn't going to work with the fith meld.

Since I ended up buying 40 or more CP+1 materia's + 99 stack of G1 Carbonized Matter and wasting my gil on your guide that you obviously didn't test fully I decided to try melding some more CP +1 to see if it was only the Aetheryte Rings+ that it didn't work on and well it looks like it wont work at all on other pieces of gear so It's most likely not going to work with the Belt/Necklace/Earring/Bracelet either, (I don't want to bother testing that.)

I was extremely lucky while welding CP+1 materia as I was able to attach materia to two pieces only using one materia for both of them while the first melding e.g. the ring was 5-10 materia used

I know you're trying to help people but the lack of testing as well as wasting people's gil isn't helpful at all and extremely aggravating, thanks for wasting a lot of my time and my gil.. -_-

[Ksenia]

Ah. I'm assuming that Good/Poor Condition Randomness is to blame in certain situations?

(I did try to run it through at least one Crafting Rotation planner utility, and it got close to but not quite at 100% - I put the difference down to the "Byregot's Blessing" caveat listed in the OP...)

I've done a little background reading/research into optimal melds for HQ AF and the various abilities and endgame recipes... and I sort of understand the link between the limits of Craftsmanship and the various Synthesis steps, but I'm still not quite sure about Control and the effect of the various random conditions on Touches...

Without going back and looking I will speculate and say the Careful Synthesis are being used in the absence of steady Hand. Standard is 90% base and if you need to apply SH II again it's 25 rather than 15 CP.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

CP +1 isn't going to work with the fith meld. (stuff)

You have to look at the stat caps. There's information floating around on these boards about what the stat caps are, and how much you can meld onto the gear. For the class specific HQ crafting level 50 gear :

Head : 4 Craft, 5 Ctrl, 0 CP
Body : 16 Craft, 5 Ctrl, 0 CP
Hands : 4 Craft, 5 Ctrl, 0 CP
Legs : 1 Craft, 5 Ctrl, 3 CP
Feet : 1 Craft, 5 Ctrl, 3 CP
Waist : 3 Craft, 5 Ctrl, 3 CP
Neck : 3 Craft, 3 Ctrl, 5 CP
Ear : 3 Craft, 3 Ctrl, 6 CP
Wrist : 4 Craft, 4 Ctrl, 6 CP
Rings : 4 Craft, 4 Ctrl, 3 CP
Offhand : 19 Craft, 11 Ctrl, 3 CP

It is important to know how much you can meld something! For the MOST part, you are going to be able to cap all 3 stats on any given piece of gear. The exceptions are the chest piece and the off hand; other than CP you can almost meld them as you see fit (the real question being how much Control you want on it, and how much craftsmanship you are willing to give up for that Control).

[Hekla]

Why would you go through the meld when it gave 0 CP? It tells you on the meld screen that it will give you 0 before you even click to go through with the meld!

[FreakinZMartin]

Where do you see if it's not going to work or not? I did this extremely late at night so I was sleepy and I'm new to welding and stuff lol :P

-edit- found out derp

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Why would you go through the meld when it gave 0 CP? It tells you on the meld screen that it will give you 0 before you even click to go through with the meld!

Honestly? The only reason I could see for going through with a meld that does not give full stats is for the precise thing he did : to screenshot it and demonstrate just what the cap on that stat is. By doing that, he demonstrated (although it was already known and he didn't have to prove it to anyone but himself) that the CP cap on those three pieces is 3, and that if the base piece was under 3 CP you could meld up to 3 CP onto it.

Unless, of course, he merely missed the way it tells you that you won't get full stats ...

[scarebearz]

You can prove it with a screenshot on the screen you have open to meld that says +0 lol xD

No reason at all to actually meld them