FF14 Advanced Crafting Guide (Part 4 Stormblood) by Caimie Tsukino

[Kalayel]

Ok then :/
I can meet the CP by buying some IV CP materia I think, but I'll have to try the rotation a bit. I tried one that was similar, but ended up failing the craft. I can HQ with lower stats with a MaMa rotation I know but it's just... so long. that's why I tried to find a macro. I think I'll try to make the oils with your macro and some more materia that I can retrieve after and then manual craft the tools.
Thanks a lot for your help!

[Caimie_Tsukino]

SNIP

I take back what I said. Maybe you can develop a macro that works best for your own! Don't give up the fight! Nothing wrong with adding a bit more CP though. :3

[HaoA]

SNIP

I've been a macro crafter and rarely craft manually so I'm still not a very experienced crafter in terms of craft skills knowledge.

From what I can understand, the reason that manual crafting is better because you can use less cp, get HQ efficiently due to skills like precise touch and tricks of trade. Since those skills depend on procs while obviously macro can't because they can't determine condition.

Is that right?

[Kalayel]

I'll try! Except maybe not with this macro, I just noticed from the screenshot you added that it is meant to be used for the new 35 durab (well, I think, I might be wrong). I think that if I try it on the fish oils and tools, it'll fail.

[Elamys]

I was just popping in with a quick question (again, because I have issues with Ariyala) but I had heard a rumor that you need to overmeld some VI materia to meet or surpass the stats from augmented scrip, is that actually true? Because I JUST finished doing my melds and I'm going to die if I have to overmeld VIs. I have VIs in every open slot and then mostly all V overmelds atm.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

I've been a macro crafter and rarely craft manually so I'm still not a very experienced crafter in terms of craft skills knowledge.

From what I can understand, the reason that manual crafting is better because you can use less cp, get HQ efficiently due to skills like precise touch and tricks of trade. Since those skills depend on procs while obviously macro can't because they can't determine condition.

Is that right?

That is correct. Most of that extra quality from manual crafting comes from better utilization of Goods and Excellents. With the intake of extra CP from Tricks (ToT), you can do so much more in your rotation... e.g. In the past, it'll mostly be for swapping out Hasty Touches with Basic Touches to secure IQ stacks; Nowadays, it can be for extra Ingen1 to buff a whole round of Prudents, or even for a whole extra Manip2 to add a lot more touches. The decision of taking a ToT or Touching can also be made on the spot while manual crafting. So you can work your rotation around to fit the conditions. Two examples I gave back in my prehistoric guide was for Manipulation and Waste Not:

Take this as an example:
SH II
Basic Touch
Manip
Basic Touch
Basic Touch

If a Good happened to pop on the 3rd step (which you supposed to use Manip), you could easily do the 4th step's Basic Touch first, and then do Manip on the 4th step instead. This will render the quality gain on that touch to be 1.5x. In fact, you can even use a Precise Touch there if you have it. If it's not a Good, but an Excellent, your Precise Touch will give 4x the quality gain from a regular touch, and an extra IQ stack too.

Take this as another example:
SH II
WN
Hasty Touch
Hasty Touch
Hasty Touch
Hasty Touch

If a Good happened to pop on the 3rd step, you could take a ToT, and then continue and do 3 more Hasty Touches. At the end, you would have consumed only 15 durab, with an extra 5 durab overhanging. Thus, you gained 20 CP, but you didn't lose any durab at all. You can still do another Hasty Touch later to make up the missing Hasty, and do other things with your 20 extra CP.

It is because of such flexibility that allows manual crafting to be so much more powerful than macro crafting. Macro crafting does have better speed and consistency though, since you're unlikely to make any "wrong decisions".

Other flexibility that come from manual crafting include things like mending a shxtty sitation... For instance, if you got really unlucky with Hasty Touches, and you foresee the item going NQ soon, you can "gamble"... take some even further risks to try to mend the situation. e.g. if you have 20 durab left and 58 CP left before your final blessing phase, but you know you need at least 3 more touches to reach enough IQ for the blessing, then perhaps instead of SH, BT, HT, you could use a WN and then just do naked Hasty Touches x4. This will also lengthen the process a bit, so you might be able to pick up a Good along the way. Of course, getting into these situations is not desirable in the first place. But when shxt happens, more risks could mean more rewards. And when it works out, you can really get some satisfaction out of it.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

I was just popping in with a quick question (again, because I have issues with Ariyala) but I had heard a rumor that you need to overmeld some VI materia to meet or surpass the stats from augmented scrip, is that actually true? Because I JUST finished doing my melds and I'm going to die if I have to overmeld VIs. I have VIs in every open slot and then mostly all V overmelds atm.

Firstly, don't fret! You're probably fine! Honestly, you don't necessarily need to surpass the i330 to do well in crafting.
Secondly, can you please tell us your current 3 stats? I can probably tell you whether you're ok or not.

I'll try! Except maybe not with this macro, I just noticed from the screenshot you added that it is meant to be used for the new 35 durab (well, I think, I might be wrong). I think that if I try it on the fish oils and tools, it'll fail.

Oh ok, maybe you or maybe me got mixed up with something during our conversation, LOL! Let's be clear from this point that what we're discussing is the same recipe. LMAOO XD

[Ziggyzapps]

I was just popping in with a quick question (again, because I have issues with Ariyala) but I had heard a rumor that you need to overmeld some VI materia to meet or surpass the stats from augmented scrip, is that actually true?

No, you don't need to use any VI at all and it will still be better than augmented gear.

[Elamys]

Firstly, don't fret! You're probably fine! Honestly, you don't necessarily need to surpass the i330 to do well in crafting.
Secondly, can you please tell us your current 3 stats? I can probably tell you whether you're ok or not.

I haven't melded my tools at all but I'm currently at 1547 craft, 1147 control, and 471 CP without food or anything else.

No, you don't need to use any VI at all and it will still be better than augmented gear.

I had a feeling this was the case...but I've been pretty out of the loop on crafting and it feels so much harder to gear up this time than it was in Heavensward lol.

[HaoA]

SNIP

Thanks Caimie. It's also your guide on FFXIVrealm that I found crafting to be interesting and got them all to 70 but being a lazy fool I am, I just use all your macros and didn't really learn all the skills and craft mechanics to craft efficiently.

I need to learn manual craft now as my current resource only allow me to meld the minimum requirement for master book VI.
Working on this melds myself http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/159BE.