HQ Camlet

[GenJoe]

Okay.. I'll stop yanking your chains..
OP, the only reason I can see for your failures on hq'ing lucis tokens is your crafting rotation. I just uploaded a video, 3 crafts of armorer lucis tokens with 451 craftsmanship and 422 control.

Look it over, then see what you and I are doing differently, if I had to guess you're probably using Waste Not and missing the Tricks of the Trade procs so you're CP starved, and it sounds like you may not even be baiting for good condition on byregots..

If after watching the video, you still think it's all RNG, you're entitled to your opinion, I admit it's such a small sample (still took me an hour to upload a 6 minute clip) that it may appear to be just my good luck, but I assure you, I usually average 70%+ on lucis tokens and it's not all RNG. I've done 6 lucis tools so far (120 hq) so I have the data..

Anyway, hope you can see what we do differently and make use of it.

Vid:
https://vid.me/4I9c

[LineageRazor]

Kori, your stats are better than what mine were, at least in terms of Craftmanship and Control. You didn't list your CP, which is probably the most important stat, though (I had 349, raised to 382 with HQ Bouillabiase). If you had similar levels of CP, and if you were using crafting rotations similar to mine, your low success rate is statistically improbable. You should not expect similar results in the future. You simply had a streak of bad luck.

If you're not using a rotation similar to mine, here's a couple rules that worked for me and that may help you out:

- Do pretty much anything you can to get more CP. CP is love. CP is life. Eat CP food. Meld CP materia. Pounce on any Tricks of the Trade opportunity you see, even if Steady Hand II is up. You waste a turn of Steady Hand II, but the CP returns are almost enough to pay for a whole new Steady Hand. Think of it this way: If Steady Hand II costs 25 CP, then each step of Steady Hand costs 5 CP. Tricks of the Trade returns 20 CP. Trading 5 CP for 20 CP is a good deal! Also, Comfort Zone. Use it at the start for certain, and there's a pretty good chance you'll be able to use it a second time, as well. If you think the synth is going to take you 10 more steps, DO IT. As with Tricks, using this during Steady Hand II is still a valid option, with a net gain of 11 CP, but you have a little more flexibility with Comfort Zone if you prefer to wait for Steady Hand to be down.

- Never use Waste Not or Waste Not II. You want to pounce on Tricks of the Trade, but the CP tradeoff against Waste Not (costs 14 CP per turn) and Waste Not II (12.25 CP per turn) becomes negligable if you're losing turns of Steady Hand II AND Waste Not every time you use it. Waste Not may be more efficient on the surface than Manipulation or Master's Mend, but when you factor in the Tricks you have to skip, they tend to fall short.

- Anything goes, as long as you keep 56 CP in reserve (remember to factor in any remaining tics of Comfort Zone!), along with enough Durability to use Byregot's Blessing and finish the synth with Careful Synthesis II. 56 CP is the magic number; it is the cost of Great Strides and Byregot's Blessing. Continue using your CP to maintain Steady Hand, use Touches, and recover Durability until anything further will take you below this number. But what about Steady Hand? Shouldn't you reserve CP for that as well, to make sure BB is 100% successful?

- Don't be afraid to use Byergot's Blessing without Steady Hand for Lucis trade-ins. It may fail - but it probably won't. It has a 90% success rate, which is pretty darned reliable. It's great if you happen to line things up so that Steady Hand is up once you reach Byergot's time, but if it doesn't happen, don't sweat it. It's simply not worth saving 22-25 CP that could be used elsewhere. That 90% WILL fail sometimes - but even when it does you may still get lucky. Even if you don't you can just trade in the NQ to get your mats back. But even more startling:

- Don't be afraid to use Hasty Touch without Steady Hand. If you're low on CP, but still have durability left, go ahead and mash out a few Hasties. Only a 50/50 shot at success, but what else are you going to do with that durability? Your synth should always end with your final Synthesis step taking you to 0 Durability. If you have leftover durability, then you wasted some opportunities for Touches. Some people are REALLY sensitive about that horrible "failed step" sound. Don't be - failures are going to happen. Just roll with them.

- Ignore Excellents. Don't spend the CP to use Basic Touch - it's not worth it. You may quadruple the amount of quality from that one touch, but Touches are very weak on their own, and quadrupling them still isn't great. Their purpose is to pump up your Inner Quiet. Don't think of them as anything beyond that. If an Excellent pops up, use a Hasty Touch, just like you would on any other condition. Similarly, use Hasty Touch on Poor conditions, don't try to skip them by dropping a new Steady Hand early, or anything like that.

When I synthed my Lucis items, I'd always start with Comfort Zone and Steady Hand. I'd then Rapid Synthesis until I got one success (usually happened on the first try), and then Hasty Touch until 20 Durability. Then, Manipulation, Hasty til 20, Manipulation, Hasty til 20, and so on, until I was down to 56 CP with 30 Durability left. During all of this, whenever a Good popped, I'd use Tricks of the Trade. If Comfort Zone wore and I felt like I had at least ten steps left in the synth (generally the case if I was under 5 stacks of IQ), I'd pop a new one.

I was generally able to recycle enough CP to use 12-13 Hasty Touches in this fashion, which would typically leave me with 9 to 11 stacks of Inner Quiet at that point - but even if I wasn't I'd continue as if I was. (Less than 9 stacks? An Excellent can still save the day if you're lucky! Which I was - exactly ONE time out of all the trade-ins for eight Lucis tools. But hey, that's better than nothing, and even when it didn't save the day I'd still occasionally succeed on a 15%-30% quality.) Next, I'd pop BB, and try to hold out for a Good or Excellent proc. If I had the CP, I'd use things like Innovation or Observation, to hold out, and if I didn't I'd use one of my two remaining Careful Synthesis steps. If I got a Good or Excellent, great - I'd generally be at 80%-100% quality, depending on IQ stacks. If not, I could usually still count on 45%-80% quality, still not bad at all.

In spite of what people may tell you. 80% success rate is not a "lie". While you might come to the forum and find pages of people ranting about how they failed eleventy-six synths at 80% success, for every one that does there's plenty of people who do just fine and don't bother to post to the forums (because - why would you? Everything is normal!).

[Darra]

I actually used a combination of Waste Not and Manipulation for all of mine. 5/8 Lucis tools I had approx 60-70%% HQ rate, 2 were closer to 45% and the final was around 30%, this one annoyed the hell out of me with 11 failed attempts at 52% + HQ chance (2 failed at 84% and 2 above 90% chance), but then, as annoying as that was, I did have several succeed with a 20% chance. There are ways to mitigate RNG, and sometimes, you're just very unlucky and better off stopping for a few hours.

[moudoka]

With food, my CP is 385ish, with the Boubalaise. I don't use the waste nots either. Thank RNGesus, I did finally manage to obtain the Lucis tool. But my fail rates are astronomical. Other crafters in my FC can't believe the fail rates I achieve, as they've sat there and watched it happen. 80% success rate might as well be 20%, 90% is roughly 30. RNG devastates my crafting on a continuous basis, and really kills me in duties too. I can't say I understand why, but when it takes the "average" crafter x amount of tries to obtain an item, mine is at least double, if not triple. Even if our stats are identical, and the rotations are identical. I've wondered if RNG is severely flawed for my game, because I've seen others pull things off I can't hope to achieve. The camlets were a focal point, as they were proving my hatred of RNG is solid.

Once again, I thank everyone for their responses, I've read them all, and will continue to craft, despite RNG hating me with a passion.

[Yumi_umi]

And then the masterbook 2 thugs will come and kick you while ur down. Prepare for total bs fest!

[MN_14]

And then the masterbook 2 thugs will come and kick you while ur down. Prepare for total bs fest!

Well, the lucis tools should make those master book 2 turn-ins considerably easier. You'll want to boost craftsmanship to around 500 though.

[GenJoe]

And then the masterbook 2 thugs will come and kick you while ur down. Prepare for total bs fest!

Not really, it's pretty much in the same vein..
If you pull an average of 70% on lucis tokens, you'll be pulling an average of ~40% with 11 stack Good Byregot's landing you above 80% iirc..
But the thing with masterbook tokens is, you only need 3 hq out of a total of 8 (5nq for supra) so you really don't need that high of a % for it. Barring any horrible bad luck, worst I've lost was 5 nq on Weaver tokens, I did 4 without losing a single one and the other 3 I lost one or two attempts.. It's really not as bad as people make it out to be.

What it is, is that it's a very sudden change going from being able to hq 100% to now having a little less control over your fate, but you still have a lot of control over them.

[MN_14]

It's a lot easier if a lucis tool is used, which the OP now has. I've done some tests using my WVR lucis (501 craftsmanship and 436 control using both fc buffs).

Progress can be completed in 5 steps using 2xPbP, 2xRS, and 1 CS2, allowing for one extra touch attempt.

Most importantly, however, the tokens can be easily HQed without ever landing Byregot's on a good. During my test, I came up with 74% at IQ11 (10 successful touches only, no touches on any excellents or goods) with a gs, inn, and ingen2 buffed byregot's landing on normal. According to the simulator, I'd get 65% if I buffed byregot's with GS+Innovation, and only 33% with great strides alone. Buffing byregot's with both innovation and ingenuity 2 might be difficult, but innovation alone is almost always achievable.

In order to get 3 HQs, all you have to do is get IQ11 and buff Byregot's with GS+innovation for a guaranteed minimum of 65%. Then do that a few more times.

[moudoka]

I actually got my 2nd master book far easier than I did my Lucis tool. In far less time too. The intricate silver brocade was pretty daunting, but you had more to work with, at least that's kinda how I looked at it.

[Yumi_umi]

I actually got my 2nd master book far easier than I did my Lucis tool. In far less time too. The intricate silver brocade was pretty daunting, but you had more to work with, at least that's kinda how I looked at it.

Maybe all u need during ur hq camlets were some faith and trust in ur rotation lol
But thts good to hear cuz them masterbooks can get expensive if u keep blowing em up or nqing them q_q