WTB UP TO DATE CRAFTING GUIDE!

[Mortechai]

As the title says, I want a crafting guide that is for the current game and not for shortly after retail release. Tired of turning to most of the "crafting guides" out there and finding data that's like a year and a half old. Anyone have access to a guide that was made about how crafting works in 2012's version of this game(Patch 1.22)? What the different lights mean, whats the best action to choose for what light and when etc?

[Raldo]

No one really knows exactly what the lights mean. White glow has the highest success rate. Yellow/red are assumed to be slightly lower success rates. Prismatic is assumed to be lowest success rate, but highest quality yield if success occurs.

I wrote this crafting "guide" up for someone just before 1.22 hit. Some of it will be invalid due to 1.22 changes.

Crafting actions
Standard
• Highest chance of success
• Up to 25% progress gain
• ~10+ durability loss per attempt (Up to ~20 loss on failure)
Rapid
• Zero durability loss on success (~20 durability loss on failure)
• Up to 35% progress gain
Careful
• 7~10 durability loss per action (success or failure)
• 3%~5% progress gain (success or failure)
• Heavy quality gains, even on failure
Wait
• Durability loss of [# of consecutive waits]
• Rerolls the orb color

Quality exp bonus
• You gain +8% exp bonus for every 10 quality you add
• Your starting quality does not factor into the exp bonus, it is only calculated off of what you add to the initial quality.

Crafting abilities
• Your crafting abilities are now always available for use (until you use them, of course)
• If you have more than 5 crafting abilities available for use, it will randomly select 5 to display at the start of a synth and those are all you have to choose from, so never set more than 5 abilities (yes, this is stupid)

HQ/NQ mats
• Using all HQ mats will start you with 100 durability and 500 quality
• Using all NQ mats will start you with 100 durability and 0 quality
• Using a mashup of HQ/NQ will start you with 100 durability and 0~500 quality (see below for details)
Starting quality is weighted by optimal level of a material except when it is below 10. In that case, the optimal level is treated as 10 regardless of what it is.
InitialQuality = FLOOR(500 * (SumHQLevels / TotalLevels) )
SumHQLevels = Sum of HQ Material's Optimal Levels
TotalLevels = Sum of all Material's Optimal Levels

HQ rate
• HQ rate increases exponentially as your quality increases and is indicated at the bottom-right of the crafting window
• 300 quality = 1% HQ rate
• 500 quality = 7% HQ rate
• 750 quality = ~50% HQ rate
• 850 quality = ~75% HQ rate
• 1000 quality = 100% HQ rate

DoH stats
Base attributes for Disciples of the Hand will increase the resulting product's quality.
• Carpenter
- Main Hand: VIT / Off Hand: DEX
• Blacksmith
- Main Hand: STR / Off Hand: MND
• Armorer
- Main Hand: VIT / Off Hand: STR
• Goldsmith
- Main Hand: DEX / Off Hand: INT
• Leatherworker
- Main Hand: VIT / Off Hand: INT
• Weaver
- Main Hand: DEX / Off Hand: MND
• Alchemist
- Main Hand: INT / Off Hand: PIE
• Culinarian
- Main Hand: MND / Off Hand: PIE

Double Down
• "Touch Up" is gone, as has been replaced by "Double Down"
• You can Double Down on any synth (yes, even materials) that reaches an HQ rate of 2% or greater
• You can only Double Down once, and the result is either an HQ or a break
• Your ending HQ percentage is cut in half (rounded down), and you can get another attempt at HQ

Synthesis Interruption
• In order to combat people from using bots or turbo controllers to craft while afk, if you craft 50 synths in one sitting, you will automatically stand up after the 50th. You can kneel right back down and continue crafting again right away with no penalties; it's just there to fight simple automated systems.

Deprecated stuff
• Non-dated synths no longer use crafting support
• Non-dated synths no longer use any of the treatises
• Non-dated synths no longer use sub-crafts (no recipe relies on multiple crafts anymore)

Old, but mostly still relevant official crafting info
Ask the Devs: Synthesis
This details craftsmanship, magic craftsmanship, control, which elemental instabilities do what, crafting orb colors, and aetherial sparks.

General Advice
The best way to grind now is to get something several levels above you and push the quality as high as you can without failing. Don't feel too bad if your exp gains don't match what some people claim to get; having a bunch of different crafts' abilities makes a world of difference. With a synth 8~10 levels above you and a bunch of crafting abilities at your disposal, it's easy to get ~2k exp per synth. All foods give +3% exp bonus now, so don't forget to eat while you're grinding. There are also exp manuals from Grand Companies (+50% exp) and rested exp (+50% exp).

[Shosasosa]

you can actually get up to 40% progress on Rapids now, and you can get up to 25 dura loss on fails

[Estellios]

Err.. we do know exactly what the lights mean Raldo, it's exactly like you said, higher success chance has lower progress/quality gains and vice versa >.> Devs told us ages ago.

From safest to riskiest is White > Yellow > Red > Rainbow.

Lodestone has a page on crafting that looks like it is up to date, and has info on the lights at the bottom. Raldo's information is much more in-depth but you might find the lodestone page less overwhelming.

[tymora]

you can actually get up to 40% progress on Rapids now, and you can get up to 25 dura loss on fails

35% max on Great Success only.
20% on Success.

[Zdenka]

There have been major changes from 1.21 to 1.22 on how the crafting system works besides just the abilities.

Recap 1.21
-Quality Gained was lowered as Durability lowered.
-STATs (DEX etc) had a fairly sized impact on Quality gained.
-M.Craft and Craftmanship affected success rates and crit success rates.
-On a synth 5 levels lower than you (45 synth at 50) it was possible to gain 850 quality using abilities in the correct order, with some luck.


NEW 1.22

Quality
-Quality gained is now lowered as quality increases.
-Craftmanship and M.Craftmanship now increase quality gained per synth.
-STATs (DEX etc) now have minimal affect on quality (estimate +100 stat = +2 quality per synth)
-On a synth 5 levels lower (45 at 50) you can gain around 750 quality now with a LOT of luck due to how much quality lowers after gaining ~400 quality on a synth.

Success Rates:
-DLVL now is the primary (if only) factor in success. This is easily verified by crafting synths nakid at L50 using L1 tool.

Progress Gains:
-Craftmanship and M.Craftmanship influence how much Progress is gained on synths.

-Control is assumed to do the same it always has.

Special
-As according to 1.22 Patch Notes your Craftmanship/MCraft/Control stats are determined to be the higher of your MH and OH tool, regardless of which you use. This, along with how stats have changed, make all Luminary tools pretty useless other than showcase items since its possible to beat all 3 of thier stats with MH, OH and Craft/Mcraft/Control materia socketed into both. They were marginal at best even in 1.21 when HQ tools with +STR/DEX etc materia socketed gave much higher quality returns.

A member of our LS did extensive testing on this (since he was trying to figure out best way to HQ off NQ mats now, which seems to be a waste of time with how they changed the system because you can't get to 800+ anymore).

+Quality tests were done w/Perfection on flashing orbs at the start of synths at 0 quality (using Rapid's Master mends etc to force it to change)

Feel free to verify but we think this is pretty close to how stats changed in 1.22

[Shosasosa]

35% max on Great Success only.
20% on Success.

Try it again, i open most of my synths with culmination rapid and get 40%

[Mortechai]

Some very nice info in these replies, much appreciated, now if only it could all be gathered up, put in one spot, and all of the old information was removed XD.

[Meatdawg]

-Craftmanship and M.Craftmanship now increase quality gained per synth.

Progress Gains:
-Craftmanship and M.Craftmanship influence how much Progress is gained on synths.

Do you believe there is still a distinction between the 2?

Or is the new practice just to stack both as high as you can with that thought process that the total somehow controls quality gains?

[Jin_]

Wind fire earth craft
Water lightning ice shards m.craft

So some is both, I know my GSM has no m.craft equipped, about 175craft and 110control. HQ crafting gear ftw.


I have no proof, but I like and now follow this theory, which I definately take zero claim for.