Help me understand 'Brand of Ice/Lighting/Fire' etc..

[Deolus]

I'm trying to get my head round how these brands work:

For example my armorer has Brand of Ice which is supposed to give me 200% efficiency to progress if I use it on a recipe that has ice affinity, or 100% otherwise..

So, I try it on the recipe for Mythril Ingot which (for amorer) uses ice shards..

But it only gives me 50 progress as compared with Standard Sythesis (150% efficiency) which gives me 71 progress and for the same CP cost!

So is the affinity of the recipe NOT dependent upon the crystals it uses?

[Roez]

They exist for special combines as far as I can tell.

Weaver was the first I have seen where they were useful. For example, Vintage Chef's Hat requires 1 lightning crystal (not shard) and a dungeon dropped component, "Ripped Chef's Hat". When you start the synthesis your character gets a lightning aura, and using Brand of Lightning actually doubles progress attempts like it says--and it's needed to be honest to get HQ easier, to save durability. A few other weaver recipes which require dungeon dropped components are the same way.

I haven't done any of the two star synthesis, and there might be more I'm missing.

[Deolus]

Ah, now I understand. It's for the recipes which use a special item as a component. I never noticed the aura before but I usually concentrate on the UI.

Funny because even though I have made quite a few of those special combines, I have only ever failed one even though I haven't used the Brand and I usually acheive HQ.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

I ... still do not see the use of those skills. Mainly, because of another skill called Flawless Synthesis. For 15 CP you get a guaranteed 40 Progress on the item. When you would be looking at 15 Progress on a Careful Synthesis and 17 Progress on a Basic Synthesis, getting that doubled (I presume that's the impact that doubling your Efficiency for a few turns would have) does not provide as much guaranteed progress as Flawless Synthesis.

In working on the Crafting Log for each craft (except Culinary and Alchemy) so far, in going from 30 to 40, I have used Flawless Synthesis to great effect, always HQ'ing those special recipes, and I've not used those Brands once.

[Roez]

I ... still do not see the use of those skills. Mainly, because of another skill called Flawless Synthesis. For 15 CP you get a guaranteed 40 Progress on the item. When you would be looking at 15 Progress on a Careful Synthesis and 17 Progress on a Basic Synthesis, getting that doubled (I presume that's the impact that doubling your Efficiency for a few turns would have) does not provide as much guaranteed progress as Flawless Synthesis.

Depends on the level of the combine compared to your own level, as well as your craftsmanship number (it's higher with better gear and food). This is why Ingenuity I & II are so important (they reduce the level of the synthesis to at or below your own level). edit: what I mean is the amount of progress you get varies for basic and standard synthesis, depending on those things mentioned.

The Brands give you 200% efficiency, so when they work they provide more progress than the others.

[Lemon8or]

You have to look for the Aspect : Element line on the recipe window, not what crystal it use.

[Kyana]

Some recipes have a element aspect which is listed in the lower part of the crafting log window.
It's common for vintage stuff to have such a special elemental aspect.

The difference is that your progress is much higher if you use the brand skill with the right element while the normal synthesis actions effectiveness is lowered.
Flawless Synthesis might be ok for low levels but 40 progress is not even half of what you want to see on higher level synths.

[ApolloGenX]

I noticed a problem with this last night. I was making the chef's hat... got the lightning aura.. used brand of lightning and it whiffed.

Then I noticed in the skill description- Brand of lightning doubles progress when the affinity is WIND? How does this make sense? Was this changed or is this a skill bug?

[Raldo]

I noticed a problem with this last night. I was making the chef's hat... got the lightning aura.. used brand of lightning and it whiffed.

Then I noticed in the skill description- Brand of lightning doubles progress when the affinity is WIND? How does this make sense? Was this changed or is this a skill bug?

1) Brands only have a 90% success rate, so what were you expecting?
2) It's a bug. (probably just a text bug, instead of a functional bug)

[Phonz]

Right now the 'Brand' abilities only have use for 'DAMAGED' items found in dungeons and sometimes leve rewards. The idea is that the 'vintage' items they produce provide a slight stat upgrade above the regular stuff in the crafting log. The items are not that useful as by the time you can HQ them you have already leveled past and are probably getting your iLvl55 crafting gear (HQ1star).

I'd imagine that SE is going to have further use for these brand abilities as the game develops in the next few months, with recipes that are actually worth crafting aside from filling up your log.