Advice for spiritbonding?

[Denver_Max]

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[nidlo]

Advice for the spiritbond grind for profit:

Optimally, and for the sake of self sufficiency, you will need a max level DoH. I have all DoH maxed, however, I utilize GSM for the hella spiritbond/conversion process. Basically, whatever your DoW/M, you make a corresponding jewelry set, HQ of course, and socket each twice with some materia, generally a level I. For a caster for example, I make a full set of Black Pearl jewlery, and meld each with 2 Savage Might I's. Then commence the grind. Key points to note: a piece of equipment gains X spiritbond based on the enemies you kill/grind on. HQ gear gives you X+20%, and each melded materia in a piece gives you an additonal 20% bind rate, per meld. Making a HQ piece of jewelery with 2x melds bind 60% faster. This is best for cost efficiency. Then, assuming you are level 50, you can dungeon crawl or flat out grind on 43+ mobs. If you are solo, get out your Chocobo and commence. Primo spots are the water elementals SE of Quarry Mill at Urths Font (pardon the spelling, as i am not in game). Also, any of the garlean fortresses are great to grind. If you dungeon crawl, you get about 50% bond on an afforementioned setup running CT, or about 37% in a WP speedrun. If you have a friend that can heavily AOE, Urths Font is the best. I go as a SMN and my wife goes WHM, and we can bind a set of jewelery in about 10 mins there, but it takes practice and a bit of finesse. Hope this helps.

[Raldo]

A few extra things to add to the above advice:
• Whatever you're killing (or gathering node / synth level) must be no more than 10~15 levels below the iLv of the items you're spiritbonding, otherwise they won't gain any spiritbond at all. (i.e. killing lv1 monsters won't spiritbond your lv50 gear at all)
• If you're spiritbonding as a DoH or DoL, DO IT SOLO! Being in a party, even if they're not in the same zone, lowers the amount of spiritbond you gain. This applies to DoW/M as well (not sure if chocobo affects it), but the added kill speed (assuming they're helping you) generally makes up for the reduced gains.


and one minor nitpick to the above post...
• HQ/Aetherial(pink) gear, and every materia socketed to the gear (regardless of type/grade) will increase your spiritbond rate by 25%, not 20% (unless 2.1 changed things). This means that HQ gear socketed with three materia will spiritbond exactly twice as fast as something that is NQ with no materia.
• The tier-1 FC spiritbond buff is also +25%. I assume the tier-2 FC buff is 50%, but I haven't tested it.

[waca]

• Whatever you're killing (or gathering node / synth level) must be no more than 10~15 levels below the iLv of the items you're spiritbonding, otherwise they won't gain any spiritbond at all. (i.e. killing lv1 monsters won't spiritbond your lv50 gear at all)

Actually this is a misconception - I farmed ornery karakul (level 36) for more than an hour today, and my HQ 1-meld Imperial Operative Choker (ilvl 55) gained 2% of spirit bonding. So for monsters outside of 15 lvl range, they do bond, but too little that you won't notice with a couple of kills.


Edit: to add in a few examples,
1. I'm sure you'd noticed your Darklight gears (ilvl 70), 2 stars crafting gears (ilvl 70), CT gears (ilvl 80) can be 100% spirit bonded, even though the highest monsters level in game currently is 50;
2. Your relic weapon (ilvl 90) is 1% spirit bonded killing lvl 50 monsters, not 0%.

[Raminax]

Aetherial(pink) gear

I think there's something more to it than just being marked as Aetherial. I noticed this behaviour a while ago where my Aetherial rings with a higher amount of stats were bonding faster than the ones with a lesser amount, but forgot bringing it up until I saw your post. <_< Anyway, screenies following.

Example 1
Early on: Weaker ring and stronger ring.
Almost finished: Weaker ring and stronger ring.

Example 2
Early on: Weaker ring and stronger ring.
Almost finished: Weaker ring and stronger ring.

Perhaps each additional stat behaves as if a Materia was melded onto the item? Sadly, my inner mathematician is lacking, and I suppose a whopping sample size of two comparisons is hardly conclusive, but...

[TomTom1968]

Another option is to use a DOH and to make a mass synthesis. Take care that the item level is not too far away from the item you want to bind. Then sit down and watch your items getting spiritbond without you have to do something. For each 2nd synthesis you get 1% of binding so 2x 99 mass synthesis brings your items to 100% while you can take a shower.

You can also use your DOL to spirit bind. It is not the quickest way but if you need to harvest the one or other item anyways, you can get it and spiritbond at the same time. Just take care you don't wear too much so you lose your HQ availability or don't hit anymore.

Another nice way to spiritbond since 2.1 for me is to form a group in our FC and make the treasure hunt together. 8 people, each of them brings a map (maps for 8 people) results in 30-40% spirit bond rate and I just love to take advantage of synergy effects. Getting gil and items while spirit bonding rocks. :P

And one last information: to obtain Materia III (or IV if you are lucky, dunno the percentage rate) you need an item Level 45+. Everything below will result in Materia II or I depending on the item level.

[nidlo]

yes, it is completely possible, but there are variations in server costs vs returns. lol

[tymora]

You need to kill mobs within 15 levels of the item level to get SB %. And SB rate is capped at +15 levels. (Well its is a gradual change but 15 is more or less the level where it becomes unnoticeable)
E.g.
For a iLvl 25 item, you won't get SB on mobs below lvl 10 and you won't get any further reduction in rates on mobs above lvl 40.

Don't bother SBing on DoL or DoH. Wear the gear on a DoW and go kill mobs.

[joshsecret]

if i may add a question here...
i have gotten back in to SB'ing but my element materia ratio has gone threw the roof since i last did this (a few months ago)
the only thing that i can see that i may have done differently is that i put random materia on my jewlery to speed up SB'ing now, where as last time i used gear that was appropriate to the job i was on.

ie. before i had a dex ring HQ w a vit materia on it and i would receive elemental every now and then. now i put a mind materia on a dex HQ ring and i get alot of elemental. i only put the random on it due to refusing to spend gil on materia when i have tons of useless materia laying around.

dont know if this is just bad luck or if anyone has figured out any kind of formula for conversion??