Best Materia Setup for Crafters (Updated for 2.3)

[Moonfyah]

With the recent release of the new i55 crafting accessories, I wanted to update the new 2.3 BIS materia set up for crafters. I noticed that Raldo Volca hasn’t updated his post yet, so I decided to.

This is a continuation of http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...80#post1273980

Due to materia stat caps, you have little actual choice in what you meld onto your gear. I only care about the best-of-the-best, so here's the materia stat cap list for DoH HQ AF (and the best HQ accessories).

Note: If you plan on professing in several DoH classes, I highly suggest you start by melding your belt + accessories. This is because these items can be used across all DoH classes, whereas any melds you do to your DoH AF (or offhand) will apply to that DoH class only.

Mainhand: All Lvl 50 mainhand tools, cannot be melded.

Upgrade Path: i55 Class Quest Tool -> i70 Artisan Tool -> i75 Supra Tool [Possible to skip i70 Tool! Details below]

*i70 Artisan Tool: You must first acquire a master recipe book via 5x HQ 2 Star Material Turn Ins and then turn in 50 HQ 3-Star Material items from that book. More information can be found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...aster_recipes/
-- Suggested rotations can be found here to easily HQ turn ins: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...tely-NO-RNG%21

*i75 Supra Tools: Requires i55 Class weapon, 3x Mastercraft Demimateria (acquired through desynthesis of i70 gear like Artisan Spectacles), and 5x 3-Star Turn Ins (that require previous 3 star materials and 2x Fieldcraft Demimateria III each).
NOTE: Thanks to Eliroo (please shower him in karma), I have discovered that it is indeed possible to go directly from the i55 tool to an i75 tool. More details can be found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...5_to_i75_tool/

Offhand (HQ Militia): 19 Craftsmanship; 11 Control; 3 CP
It is impossible to reach all the stat caps on this, so it's your pick what you meld.

Head (HQ AF): 4 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 0 CP
Optimum meld: Control III, Craftsmanship II, Control II
UPDATE: I no longer suggest melding onto your head, since there's an i70 all-DoH hat that's is better than this.
NOTE: Tip to acquire Artisan Spectacles for Cheap (Requires Culinarian 50): http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?foru...71641307276690

Body (HQ AF): 16 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 0 CP
*Optimum meld option 1: Craftsmanship IV, Control III, Craftsmanship III, Craftsmanship III, Control II
--The above option has less reliance on Tier-4 materia
*Optimum meld option 2: Craftsmanship IV, Craftsmanship IV, Control III, Control II, Craftsmanship II
--The above option has less expensive forbidden melds

Hands (HQ AF): 4 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 0 CP
Optimum meld: Control III, Craftsmanship II, Control II

Legs (HQ AF): 1 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 3 CP
Optimum meld: Control III, CP III, Control II, Craftsmanship I

Feet (HQ AF): 1 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 3 CP
Optimum meld: Control III, CP III, Control II, Craftsmanship I

[NEW] Waist (HQ Dodore Belt): 4 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 3 CP
Optimum meld: Control III, CP III, Control II, Craftsmanship II
YOLO Meld: Control III, CP III, Craftmanship II, Control I, Control I

[NEW] Neck (HQ Rose Gold Choker): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 6 CP
Optimum Meld: Control IV, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Alternative Meld: Control III, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II, Control I (your pick which tier-3 materia comes first)

[NEW] Ears (HQ Mosshorn Earrings): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 6 CP
Optimum Meld: Control IV, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Alternative Meld: Control III, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II, Control I (your pick which tier-3 materia comes first)

Wrists (HQ Militia Wristlets): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 6 CP
Optimum Meld: Control IV, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Alternative Meld: Control IV, CP IV, Craftsmanship II, CP II
I used the alternative meld since CP IV materia has literally no use except for this gear slot (or melds onto NQ gear), so it's generally cheaper than any other T4 crafting materia.

Rings (HQ Aetheryte Ring): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 3 CP
Optimum Meld: Control IV, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Alternative Meld: Control III, CP III, Craftsmanship II, Control I

Tips for melding:

-Since every server has different prices for materia, these “optimal melds” might not be the most cost effective way to meld you gear! So be sure to check materia prices! I suggest buying materia on weekends, the prices seem to be much cheaper since everyone and their mom is spirit bonding on weekends. This often equates to ridiculous undercutting.

-Some times, the cost of Materia III will be cheaper than Materia II! This is often the case for Craftsman's Competence Materia III vs. II. The price of Materia II will often be 2x or 3x as expensive as the Materia III! But remember, using higher level materia in forbidden slots will mean a lower success rate!

-CP IV material is often extremely cheap, on my server it’s often below 20k.

-Each item has 5 materia slots! Feel free to use them all! The caps aren’t very high and its very easy to hit with 5 materia, via spamming Materia I in later slots. Also Materia I is very easy to obtain. Buy a full set of vendor crafting lvl 1~16 gear. Quick synth like 99x Silver Ingots, AFK, come back and convert them all.

-You can map out your future melds via: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/N96D. Very helpful for planning ahead and to avoid missing stat caps!

[Rennah]

Militia wristlets don't have a CP cap increase, at any rate - was the only crafting materia I had on hand to check with. Thanks for the updates, though! Good to know what to expect for Dodore/Mosshorn.

Edit: Just checked for craftsmanship and control, old melds are officially still caps on the wrists.

[Moonfyah]

Thank you so much for this information!

[Thaliss]

Hi,
Great post been using for a while.
Just to note the visual help I made for me and my FC to distinguish when you start forbidden meld :

Body (HQ AF): 16 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 0 CP
*Optimum meld option 1: Craftsmanship IV, Control III, Craftsmanship III, Craftsmanship III, Control II
--The above option has less reliance on Tier-4 materia
*Optimum meld option 2: Craftsmanship IV, Craftsmanship IV, Control III, Control II, Craftsmanship II
--The above option has less expensive forbidden melds

Hands (HQ AF): 4 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 0 CP
Optimum meld: Control III, Craftsmanship II, Control II

Legs (HQ AF): 1 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 3 CP
Optimum meld: Control III, CP III, Control II, Craftsmanship I

Feet (HQ AF): 1 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 3 CP
Optimum meld: Control III, CP III, Control II, Craftsmanship I

[NEW] Waist (HQ Dodore Belt): 4 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 3 CP
Optimum meld: Control III, CP III, Control II, Craftsmanship II
YOLO Meld: Control III, CP III, Craftmanship II, Control I, Control I

[NEW] Neck (HQ Rose Gold Choker): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 6 CP
Optimum Meld: Control IV, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Alternative Meld: Control III, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II, Control I (your pick which tier-3 materia comes first)

[NEW] Ears (HQ Mosshorn Earrings): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 6 CP
Optimum Meld: Control IV, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Alternative Meld: Control III, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II, Control I (your pick which tier-3 materia comes first)

Wrists (HQ Militia Wristlets): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 6 CP
Optimum Meld: Control IV, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Alternative Meld: Control IV, CP IV, Craftsmanship II, CP II
I used the alternative meld since CP IV materia has literally no use except for this gear slot (or melds onto NQ gear), so it's generally cheaper than any other T4 crafting materia.

Rings (HQ Aetheryte Ring): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 3 CP
Optimum Meld: Control IV, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Alternative Meld: Control III, CP III, Craftsmanship II, Control I

[Raldo]

I noticed that Raldo Volca hasn’t updated his post yet, so I decided to.

Thanks for the initiative. I wasn't going to update it any further because it was buried deep in someone else's thread.

I'll throw in my 2 cents about what you have here.

1) The new neck and ears match the stats and stat caps of the existing HQ Militia Wristlets. I would probably lump them together.
2) Despite having the same stat caps, you have different meld listings for the wristlets vs the other ones. (i.e. my old 'alternative meld' option differs from yours)

I would probably do something like this:

[NEW] Neck (HQ Rose Gold Choker): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 6 CP
[NEW] Ears (HQ Mosshorn Earrings): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 6 CP
Wrists (HQ Militia Wristlets): 4 Craftsmanship; 4 Control; 6 CP
Meld Suggestion 1: Control IV, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II
Meld Suggestion 2: Control III, CP III, CP III, Craftsmanship II, Control I (your pick which tier-3 materia comes first)
Meld Suggestion 3: Control IV, CP IV, Craftsmanship II, CP II
I used meld 3 since CP IV materia has literally no use except for these gear slots (or melds onto NQ gear), so it's generally cheaper than any other T4 crafting materia.

3) I'd probably change "Optimum/Alternative Melds" to "Meld Suggestion #" or something similar, since the one labeled "optimum" isn't really any more optimum than any of the other melds.

4) I also agree with the above poster that colors would be a neat addition.

[Kalandros]

Offhand melds I've noticed that you can get full Crafts and +3 CP or full Control and +3 CP, so it seems you can have one of each if you wanted, though I think more control is always better to get that lil bit more toward 100% HQ on i90 stuff~ and you could have the craft one for furniture maybe.
I wonder if they'll ever add things that require close to perfect crafts/control

I'm perfectly melded in everything for all 8 crafts now and I like it. 3 of 8(11) supras too, doing the artisan skip.

I used CPIV in some cases instead of CPIII because I either ran out of CPIII or just because they're both the same price on MB...
Same with Control III - I had 80 of those and 0 Control II, both same price on market boards. 1% chance drop didn't really matter, 12% or 11%, its gonna take a bunch of attempts anyway~

Also, without FC buff, you can never do the Artisan Skip. With maxed out Control on the offhand, I have 372 Control, 374 required for the skip.
You need the food for +crafting and there is no combi-food like there is for gathering ]: