Synthesis Guide Part 2 Done (with link)

[Madruk]

Risk goes up regardless of whether you succeed at the synth or fail it. I've hard sparks occur after a successful synth, but had a few fails prior to that. You just accumulate more risk for failures, especially careful/rapid failures. You won't see sparking very much unless you are attempting to make higher level parts with an offhand or have alot of consecutive rapid/bold failures with a synth close to your level. If you are much higher level over the synth, the risk is greatly reduced per success or fail.

This is why it's good to use harmonize towards the end of a finished item, or even in the middle of it to reduce the risk and increase chances of success. It also enables you to get more touch ups because that is directly correlated to risk. This is all from close to your level or higher point of view. Low level items it doesn't matter as much.