Quote Originally Posted by Kaurhz View Post
Late..

But for me nope, because the craftsmanship gain outweighs the control loss.. So I can go from 26 > 20 steps without reducing quality, even factoring in the control loss too. They are bad if you look at them in a vacuum, but it's not that simple.

Comes down to the simple question of.. Does the craftsmanship gain allow you to reach an important breakpoint, and is it a breakpoint that you will regularly make use of (2735, 2754, and 2797), 20-step, Experts, and 19-step respectively. Can slate the control loss as much as people like, but if that control isn't the difference between 1 HQ mat and 2 HQ mats, then it's an irrelevant loss. Similarly for the craftsmanship.. If you don't reach one of those breakpoints then the gain is irrelevant
I would love to see a sample situation where you were able to reduce a level 80 Master recipe from 26 to 20 steps solely by increasing Craftsmanship 48 without the original rotation being inefficient in the first place.

HQ materials are obviously better to use, reducing control and/or number of touch steps needed. SE clearly expects us to be using them even if some players want to stick to only NQ materials.

But then we have Expert without any HQ materials. If the gain in Craftsmanship won't be enough to replace a synthesis step with a touch step, better to have the control to offset touch RNG and increase rating as high as possible.

There's a reason why Aesthete gear ends up BIS over the Handsaint gear despite being 10 ilvls lower. SE should have followed suit with the Skybuilder tools.