718 Crafts/695 Control

[aerolol]

You can pretty much totally avoid grade IV materia if you want.

Use lv60HQ crafted gear (item level 150 iirc), all you need is to meld 1 Craftmanship III materia and 1 Craftmanship 1 materia (for head/hands/legs/feet) to meet the craftmanship cap for melds (it's only +8).
CP IV materia if you want.
Body you can put one or two Craftmanship IV.

If you have the old ilv55 HQ accessories melded to max (not hard, Craftmanship II/Control II materia is enough to reach the cap), you should have the minimum craftmanship for 60**.
To get the min control needed, eat that new food that gives a lot of control and a few extra CP. (Clam Chowder, preferably HQ)

I did not meld any main or off hand and I can craft 60** stuff.

[Mature]

Another thing, if you trying to craft something 60** AND you have specialists you don't need so much CP at all. Just have the require control and enough craftman and a boulle food and the specialist action will cover the entra control and extra durability.

[Sibyll]

Another thing, if you trying to craft something 60** AND you have specialists you don't need so much CP at all. Just have the require control and enough craftman and a boulle food and the specialist action will cover the entra control and extra durability.

Who uses specialist actions? They require too much rng on good procs to be useful.

[Alexiell]

Who uses specialist actions? They require too much rng on good procs to be useful.

i used them with Maker's Mark. I use Whistle and Comfort Zone at the beginning, wasting 2 stacks of MM but it highly increases your chance to get your whistle stacks low enough for it to be worth it.

[KagatoAC]

I'm really not too worried about playing with the 2 Star HQ stuff tbh, I'm not a High end bleeding edge crafter it will probably be weeks before I even bother with more than the basic melds, and longer before I worry about Red Scrip crafting. if anything I'll collect red script casually and use it to buy the Upgraded tools. Since I fully expect SE to decide to make an omni gear set again in a few months anyway.

As far as Food goes atm, I'm sort of addicted to the Onion Soup HQ

I intend to craft my own jewelry shortly as well, but I will farm most if not all my own materia for over melds, so its sort of a gradual process

while I'm on the subject, does Craft get high enough on current gear so you can do the 320 progress items in one shot, ever?

[Katlyna]

I posted all the optimal melds on http://xivdb.com/
Basically you max control/CP/And drop in one crafting IV materia into everything to get the optimal stats. The exceptions to this rule being rings, chest, mainhand and offhand.

You can look at my gear here:
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/R59U

Note the set listed there does not use V materia, and is BIS for everything except Chest/Main/Offhand (which you can't max). This puts me at Craftsman 722, Control 700 and 402 CP. The extra CP is for a very specific macro which basically lets me macro craft new one start items HQ.

[Mature]

Who uses specialist actions? They require too much rng on good procs to be useful.

I do and it works like wonders for me. I worked out that having a good craft and control you won't need that colossal Cp extra required. so far I haven't had a single issue with it.

[Sibyll]

I do and it works like wonders for me. I worked out that having a good craft and control you won't need that colossal Cp extra required. so far I haven't had a single issue with it.

In theory, yes. However, I've had several synths that had 1 or less condition changes over 45+ steps. I've used Heart of the Crafter and seen 1 good proc during the duration. These both cost 36 and 45 CP to take advantage of. The nature of those costs combined with them potential providing zero return is reason enough not to use them.

The skills are great in concept, but poorly executed in my opinion.