Can you really guarantee an HQ synth using NQ materials

[monterrey4ever]

Start phase:
Comfort Zone > Inner Quiet (use tricks between these)
Quality phase:
Steady Hand II > Waste Not > Basic touch x4 > Steady hand II > Waste not > Hasty hand x4
During this phase you should aim to have around 120 CP and 40-50 Durability left, so you may need to use tricks of the trade once-twice ( I start with 333 cp so only need it once)
Finishing phase:
Depeding on recipe level and your stats you will need 1-3 steps to finish the synth but play with the remaining dura to increase quality one more time and do Byregot's blessing before finishing.
I usually just do Steady hand II > hasty/basic if enough dura/cp > Greater Tides > now we have 3 chances to fire byregots with double potency so I just do a combination of
Ingenuity II, Careful Synth 2, Observe and fire Byregoths whenever its most convenient. You will want to make sure you land your Careful Synth II while Ingenuity is up btw =P

I HQ anything up to iLvl 55 100% using NQ mats, I cant provide statistics for iLvl 70 items since I usually just use HQ cheap mats and NQ expensive mat so I usually start at 800~ quality with that and its a guaranteed HQ

Now I have all HQ iLvl 55 crafting gear including accesories, I have caped stats on accesories via melds, and have a combination of melds on the offhand and body to reach 348 craftmanship and 320+ control without food.

Now go spread the message, flood the market and dont forget to undercut everyone by more then 10% the going price =P ggwp

[TrystWildkey]

What I've seen so far, is that everyone has different methods they use, and the real determination in hq is the gear and materia you're wearing. Is this a fair conclusion?

[Nix]

What I've seen so far, is that everyone has different methods they use, and the real determination in hq is the gear and materia you're wearing. Is this a fair conclusion?

Yes, it's very helpful to have decent gear with a few melds, it doesn't need to be all capped but every little helps. If you feel yourself falling short there is food too^^

The biggest thing for me over gear is having a decent skillset to pull from ^^;

As an aside; if you're wanting to HQ iLV70 things, I always make sure as many of the mats are HQ. Things can go wrong and sometimes hasty touch doesn't want to proc as much as you'd like, even with Steady Hand II. I am not gutsy enough to attempt a reclaim (CUL50; 90% chance to reclaim your materials after a botched synth) because as we all know, SE's idea of 90% can oftentimes feel a lot less

It's best to give yourself as much of a boost as possible on these and not leave it to chance. iLV55 gear however is very easy to HQ with NQ mats.

[Pentt]

What I've seen so far, is that everyone has different methods they use, and the real determination in hq is the gear and materia you're wearing. Is this a fair conclusion?

Absolutely not, I HQ'd my own Weaver set using the method I posted on the first page. I was wearing nothing but 46~47 crafting gear at the time.

[AndrewN]

As others have said it is possible to HQ synths from non HQ mats. I can reliably (unless I am really unlucky, you don't need too many Hasty Touch failures and a few 'good''s for Tricks of the Trade) do 1 star recipes. The key is Hasty Touch when Steady Hand II is running, Tricks of the Trade to recover CP and a final buffed Byregot's Blessing (easily get 1600+ quality here).

What I've seen so far, is that everyone has different methods they use, and the real determination in hq is the gear and materia you're wearing. Is this a fair conclusion?

I have HQ gear for all my crafting and gathering classes (very little is materiaed) only because I made it all myself. The good gear only makes things a little easier, but I can do it in my old 48ish gear as well. The thing that is vital is a deep CP pool, 280 is about the minimum and at that point you need a bit more luck, 300+ is better.