Observe now 7 CP??!!

[Myon88]

Given that a single observe is still a net gain of CP when used inside CZ (two observes break even), it seems like it could be handy in situations where you have an awkward number of CZ steps left, and need to stall for time before proceeding to the next phase.

The most common scenario would be ending a MaMa phase with, say, 2 CZ steps left. If it was just 1, you would just stall with Inner Quiet and then reapply CZ cleanly before doing SH2 or WN2 or whatever else you plan to do in the next phase. If you were at 2 CZ steps it could be awkward as you'd have to choose between having the next CZ cast eat into a step of another valuable buff, or delay it to the next clean break in the rotation which could be quite far down the line (and potentially cost you a CZ use entirely over the course of the craft). Perhaps now you'll be able to utilize observe as an extra stall utility to smooth out weird CZ transitions like this.

[magnanimousCynic]

snip

While your scenario does make Observe have a good use, it's likely that Maker's Mark rotations will unfortunately be dead for 4.0 recipes and beyond. Due to the large amount of Progress needed, using MaMa instead of Muscle Memory makes crafting items take much longer than it should.

They could've avoided this issue by adding a Flawless Synthesis II that basically acts as 5 stacks at once with lower %chance, but unfortunately SE didn't give MaMa a higher level alternative.

If you want to make a 1-star 70 durability item, you would have 32 stacks of Maker's Mark! You'd need at least 3 macros JUST for Maker's Mark, and this is only 1-star! I think Muscle Memory will be the new 1st step for starred recipes unless Initial Preparations' reduced CP consumption is OP along with the Specialist actions.

EDIT #1: Just to add something unrelated; the Lakshmi Miniature is a 1-star level 70 GSM furnishing that requires 5668 Progress. If you wanted to use MaMa for that you'd have 57 stacks of Flawless Synthesis awaiting you. Of course you wouldn't use MaMa for furnitures but the scenario just felt funny enough to share.