Quote Originally Posted by Phireblast View Post
Alright so, as someone who doesn't craft, how easy will it be to get into crafting now provided that I have a 150 set that someone gave me?
Upon hearing the extremely vexing news of specialist-specific recipes actually being implemented despite being the worst idea ever in the history of the universe (BOO SE, BOOOOO), I went and melded my alts to be 2-star capable. It was actually amazingly simple, safe, and cheap if you *only* care about hitting the stat requirements and don't care about CP. It can be done with ZERO overmelds, ZERO grade IV materia, and relatively cheap and easy to make food.

My alts, in the full HQ i150 set with i150 mainhand and offhand with zero melds, have 641 Craftsmanship and 608 Control. By using exactly 9 Craftsmanship III materia and 7 Control III materia in the 16 100% materia slots on my universal gear that brings me up to 686 Craftsmanship and 619 Control. Using HQ Beet Soup (level 54 recipe, 2 Loaghtan Chump, 2 Pearl Sprout, 2 Magma Beet, 2 Sprigs of Mist Dill, 1 Sour cream, 1 Abalathian Rock Salt), that brings me up to 715 Craftsmanship and 697 Control. One Craftsmanship I materia will do the job and bring the total to 718 Craftsmanship, wherever you decide to put it. Overmelding it onto an accessory at 45% chance is a relatively simple affair, but you can put it on your mainhand or offhand's 100% slot if you really want to avoid even the slightest overmelding.

This of course leaves you with only 345 CP, which is a big problem if you want to craft HQ gear, but not a problem at all for glamours or housing items (which I assume is all specialization recipes will be for now).