[Venting]: Lack of HQ Blue Scrip Materials

[Hayward]

Is there a reason we can't get HQ versions of Blue Scrip materials? Are the devs that eager to force RNG on crafters (Like Rapid Synthesis and Hasty Touch aren't annoying enough) regardless of rotation?

Let's not even get into the Demimateria issue. That seems to be a naked attempt to pander to insecure raiders.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Can't speak to the lack of HQ BCS crafting materials. But, look at the Specialist moves. Do you really think, given those moves, that SE is interested in removing RNG from crafting?

[Ksenia]

From 21 to 50 I can 'completely' remove RnG from crafting and as such I can see patterns where the condition proc's will heckle my rotation in vain attempts to inject RnG in to them.

Inner Quiet, Great strides, Steady Hand, Waste Not. 4 standard touch, 2 Careful synthesis. I can't count the number of times good procs on Steady hand or worse I have an excellent come up on the Steady Hand, leaving a poor on the great strides backed, Standard touch. Add to that, if I remove the Great strides, the good, Excellent will move with it to proc on Steady hand anyway.

So to answer your initial question, yes they desperately, desperately need to jam RnG down our throat. Even when it's futile, it's built in to the game logic to milk us for a few more clicks by gorfing a rotation.

It's almost ironic. 4 star 60 rotation has 11 Hasty touch and 3 Hasty Synth. 14 ways to fail in fail farm 14. Also, I don't want to sound like I'm not appreciating the content issues they face. Without decay and no demand to complete after completion, with success as progress based leveling they need to force fail on us. It's unfortunate that this is what we ended up with but I don't see them adding decay and gear stays done once, done forever dilemma. Also, blue scrip collectability starts at 2600 and that became the HW 'bar' if you will. Even with all HQ mats and gear, you will not get 100% on an at level recipe in HW. You need to have the next set of gear over the recipe to get the stats required to do that. The point being, even if they added all HQ mats we wouldn't be out from under the RnG pendulum.

[Silverbane]

Crafting without RNG would be boring and easy to automate.
Count me out.

[FoxyAreku]

Can't speak to the lack of HQ BCS crafting materials. But, look at the Specialist moves. Do you really think, given those moves, that SE is interested in removing RNG from crafting?

It's kinda funny because for the most part specialist actions actually remove more RNG than your standard rotation, with heart all but guaranteeing you good procs and whistle giving you CP and durability back to make it easier.

Only sucks when you get that rare occurrence that don't have a delineation and don't get a single good proc in 70 steps. ;(

As for topic I'm still upset that culinarian has to use blue scrip materials for food. But at least it's just food, HQ or not your profit won't be that different.

[magnanimousCynic]

It's kinda funny because for the most part specialist actions actually remove more RNG than your standard rotation, with heart all but guaranteeing you good procs and whistle giving you CP and durability back to make it easier.

Only sucks when you get that rare occurrence that don't have a delineation and don't get a single good proc in 70 steps. ;(

Really? I have a hard time finding any good times to use the Specialist skills in the level 60 Starred crafts. Most of them seem to be either underwhelming/hard to use (Innovative Touch, Trained Hand), or rely on RNG to use (WWYK/Satisfaction, Innovative Touch, Nymeia's Wheel, Trained Hand, Heart of the X).If you're doing any recipe past level 56, the point where you get Good/Excellent procs less often, using Specialism Skills tend to complicate your Rotation since you NEED to rely on the RNG for you to be able to use those skills.

• WWYK needs 2 Goods minimum to be a net gain. Satisfaction can only be used on the 9th, 6th, and 3rd stacks of WWYK.

• Innovative Touch is 8 CP a 40% success rate for 100% efficiency in Quality with the benefit of Innovation I. Hasty Touch is 0 CP and has a 50% success rate, already making it better cost-wise and chance-wise. The benefit of the Innovation buff seems off-placed, as it seems that the Specialism system wants you to swap between using touch and synthesis skills, when a majority of people don't do this.

• Nymeia's Wheel needs enough good procs to be more efficient than the other Durability Restoration skills, even then it's only 10-30 durability restored depending on how low your stacks get, needing 1-3 Whistles. Depending on the level of the craft you're doing, getting to 3 whistle stacks for the best restoration is going to take a while...

• Byregot's Miracle is VERY weak. Not only does it need a Steady Hand II to be 100%, while Byregot's Blessing only needs Steady Hand I, but it maxes out at 210% efficiency compared to Byregot's Blessing's 320%. The effect of using only half your IQ stacks seems mostly pointless, since the Byregot skills are mainly used as the final touch to max out the HQ meter.

• Trained Hand and the hybrid nature of it seems to be very niche. It needs IQ and WWYK stacks to be identical. It also boosts both Progress AND Quality, meaning you can't use it if you need Quality but another synthesis would finish the craft. This means you can only use it once per craft if you don't use Byregot's Miracle. Sure it costs less CP and Durability than using Advanced Touch + Standard Synthesis, but you can't control when you use this skill.

• Heart of the X is simply a gamble. Not only does it need 3 goods to be a net gain in terms of CP, but you need to spend Blue Scrips on an item to use this ability instead of other things like Master Books and crafting materials for either use or profit. Due to how the proc system works, you ONLY have up to 4 chances of a proc during the duration. And if you have to keep using Heart of the X to make these skills useful, then you have to ask how worthwhile it is to spend those blue scrips just to make a craft easier.

Also something to note, Square Enix has buffed/nerfed NONE of these skills since release besides making the Delineations for the Heart of the X easier to purchase. I'm fairly sure they know that the Specialism abilities were a failure and had to keep it relevant by giving it the 20 Craftsmanship/Control buff and allowing Specialists the ability to make Specialists-only items until the next patch removes the requirement for Specialism.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

I've actually found a use for Innovative Touch. On rotations where you SH2->WN->HTx4, replace that first HT with IT. If it fails, it hurts. If it succeeds, you're getting roughly five HT's worth of Quality between the IT and the following HT's (assuming THEY succeed, that is).

I'd done some tests recently. Innovation is most often used at the end to provide an additional boost to the BB finisher. But, when used earlier on, over the next three Touches provides roughly one more 100% Efficiency Touch worth of Quality. It also, oddly enough, increases based on your IQ stack. When my 4 star spec GSM was making Platinum Ingots, I was getting 200 (IQ 10) to 262 (IQ 11) additional Quality on 100% Efficiency Touches due to Innovation. A few tests making Seafood Stew (NOT a specialist of mine, so slightly lower stats) showed the gain was around 4 per IQ stack rather than 6 per IQ stack.

Innovative Touch provides a low-cost (high cost compared to HT) higher risk means of getting Innovation in. The only real problems I see with it are the low success rate, and finding a spot within a rotation where you actually are going to make Touches for the following three moves.

[FoxyAreku]

snip

I use them almost every synth I do for 3 star and above (and have used them for the highest starred crafts at the time since HW launched). Never had an issue, sometimes there are synths where I don't get a single good and that's annoying, but it happens so rarely when you use makers mark it's barely worth mentioning.
Also-the specialist skills save you so much CP that using heart isn't a problem, you don't need 3 goods, just being able to do precise touch from it is helpful enough. Think of it like this: Nymeai's wheel+heart of the crafter, vs using Waste Not II. You get more out of the former for less CP 90% of the time.
Here's a video of my rotation if you are curious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoTNviRaI_Q

[Deathgiver]

Really? I have a hard time finding any good times to use the Specialist skills in the level 60 Starred crafts.

I am quite certain the specialist skills were designed for people who didn't want to be omni-crafters. They give less powerful options for most of the "must-have" skills For people who don't have every class to 50 or 60.

[FoxyAreku]

I am quite certain the specialist skills were designed for people who didn't want to be omni-crafters. They give less powerful options for most of the "must-have" skills For people who don't have every class to 50 or 60.

Only really true for innovative touch and byregot's miracle, but more or less yeah.

Though I do find byregot's miracle is rarely pretty good if you get an excellent proc but aren't quite done, because then you can take maximum use of the excellent and still use BB at the end, though I haven't mathed it out to see how much of a gain that is.