HQing stuff

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Yes, BB was a blessing pre-HW. Now, when I use rumination, I'm forced to use it long before I get even to 20%. I also use it when I have zero CP so even when I save it, I'm not able to pair it up with other skills (SH2 not withstanding, cause having BB fail makes me cry. .___.)

Hi Alisi,

There are a number of issues that you're not doing it quite right, and there are a number of things which you have not optimized yet:

(1) Firstly, your Innovation should not be there. You should not use Innovation that early on Hasty Touches when IQ was only 1. It's a waste of CP with very minimal effect. In contrast, it should be used as late as possible to span over your Byregot's Blessing, and if possible, the last touch before BB as well.

(2) Now that you have Byregot's Blessing, you should NEVER go back to Rumination. I think you underestimated Byregot's power because you do not realize how to set up your finisher phase of your rotation. Great Strides + Byregot is a minimal MUST. You should never use Byregot alone. If possible, you even want Innovation in there, or even Ingenuity II. You should always plan a SH or SH II to cover it as well to make sure it's 100% secure. Examples of different kinds of Byregot finisher phases can be found in my original crafting guide Part 1 - Ch12A (http://ffxivrealm.com/guides/ff14-ad...ie-tsukino.39/). The basic concept of end-game crafting is to use the most CP efficient way to build up a formidable IQ stack, and then use all your CP to buff up your Byregot for one final blow. Even if you're only sitting at 12% HQ rate before the Byregot, the Byregot will immediately send you to 100%. If you're not realizing the power of this yet, you really gotta try it out!

(3) If you're crafting a 70 or 80 durab item, you should NOT be repairing it at around 40 durab. I assume when you said "repair", you meant Master's Mend (92 CP)? If this is the case, you're using the worst possible way to repair. Our of all 3 "repair" skills (Manipulation, Master's Mend, Master's Mend II), MM is least CP efficient skill. In contrast, MM2 is the most CP efficient skill of all. If you're dealing with 70/80 durab items, you should try to reduce durab down to 10/20, and use MM2 to recover 60. This will save you 24 CP comparing to using 2x MM. If you still have extra CP to spare, you can throw down a Waste Not to touch 2 more times. If you're crafting a 40 or 35 durab item, you should be using Manipulation. For 40/35 durab items, please visit Ch46 of my Heavensward Craft Guide (http://ffxivrealm.com/guides/ff14-ad...e-tsukino.156/).

(4) Ingenuity II can greatly assist in "progress". No one should be using more than 4 steps to craft any 70/80 durab items below level 60. If you find yourself using more than 4x CS II, then you need to make use of Ingenuity II. If you plan to use Ingen2, you should plan to have it spans across your Byregot as well. Thus, the final phase should be something like this:
SH
Great Strides
Ingen2
Byregot
CS II
CS II
CS II

By reducing the number of CS II used for completion, you can use those steps for Hasty Touches to build up a even higher IQ stack for the Byregot.

(5) You should be using either Stone Soup, Bouillabaisse or Baked Onion Soup when you're crafting. Stone Soup adds 17 CP, and cost only 37 gil from Gold Saucer. Do not underestimate 17 CP. It's A LOT that can change the whole world for you if you know how to utilize it.

With the above methods, unless you're vastly undergeared, you should be reaching 100% HQ rate most of the times (even if you use all pure NQ mats to craft) especially when you have all lvl 50 cross class skills to help you out.

Good luck!

[Alisi]

There are a number of issues that you're not doing it quite right, and there are a number of things which you have not optimized yet:

Thanks! <333 I'll try it out. I don't think I'm vastly under geared. It's not HQ stuff but it's all the current level I'm at.

#1 Aha! I thought using it at the beginning when I had CZ up was best for CP. lol. ops! Stupid question: Is it, erm, bad to use tricks when Inno is up though?
#2 I was always told to use BB at 50%+ (better around 60%+). So 12% is okay? I rarely get it to 50% HQ. I'll try that with GS and Inno.
#3 I don't use MM for a 70/80 step thing. I use the 160 one. Sorry for not making that clear.
#4 Should I be getting the item as fast to complete before going for HQ or the other way around?
#5 Will do. Been using control foods. Ha.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Thanks! <333 I'll try it out. I don't think I'm vastly under geared. It's not HQ stuff but it's all the current level I'm at.

#1 Aha! I thought using it at the beginning when I had CZ up was best for CP. lol. ops! Stupid question: Is it, erm, bad to use tricks when Inno is up though?
#2 I was always told to use BB at 50%+ (better around 60%+). So 12% is okay? I rarely get it to 50% HQ. I'll try that with GS and Inno.
#3 I don't use MM for a 70/80 step thing. I use the 160 one. Sorry for not making that clear.
#4 Should I be getting the item as fast to complete before going for HQ or the other way around?
#5 Will do. Been using control foods. Ha.

@1: Yes, usually, don't take Tricks when Innov is active. You should normally only use Innov ONCE in a rotation, and that's somewhere near the end, spanning across the Byregot. Thus, any "Good" there in the Byregot phase should be made use of on the Byregot anyway! Put the Byregot ON the "Good" to gain 1.5x more quality (as long as you have Great Strides activated, because GS is 2x... even more important than a "good" condition)! That's way way wayyy better than taking 20 CP!
@2: It doesn't matter what % you have before the Byregot phase. You just need to do your best on building up a strong IQ stack. If you have only IQ6 or 7, your final Byregot's power will be quite limited. If you have IQ9 or above, then it's pretty save to HQ almost anything as long as you still have enough CP for a Byregot's finsher phase.
@3: Ok good! I misunderstood you! XD
@4: What do you mean by this? Can you please explain this?
@5: Control food isn't bad, but I found CP food to be just better, provided you know how to utilize that CP.... e.g. if you're 1 touch away from your Byregot, and You have enough CP for the finsher phase already, you might as well use Basic / Standard / Advanced Touch on the last touch to securely get 1 extra IQ stack. Each IQ stack is a gigantic difference in the end.

[Alisi]

@4: What do you mean by this? Can you please explain this?

I mean, using CS2 to get the thing up to the point where one more would finish it and then go back and try to get the HQ up or the other way around.

[MN_14]

I mean, using CS2 to get the thing up to the point where one more would finish it and then go back and try to get the HQ up or the other way around.

That's the standard order if you use any RNG based ability to take care of progress (progress first, then quality). If your method of handling progress is RNG free, it technically doesn't matter the order they're done unless ingenuity is being used to buff both quality and progress.

I'd avoid the overuse of CS2 for progress, however. It's RNG free, but if used too liberally, it will waste a ton of durability.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

I mean, using CS2 to get the thing up to the point where one more would finish it and then go back and try to get the HQ up or the other way around.

That will totally depend on the situation.

Example 1:
If you plan to use 2x CZ in your rotation, you need to do 2 things - (i) immediately re-activate CZ when the first CZ falls off, so that you have more steps on the 2nd CZ to get back the invested CP, (ii) delay your Byregot phase as much as possible to buy more steps to recover the CP from your 2nd CZ. Thus, in this case, naked CS II's can become "fillers" and be very, very useful! When the first CZ is only 1 or 2 steps away from falling off, using CS II to help finish off the CZ, then activating 2nd CZ can be a very nice choice. Alternatively, before using MM2, you have like 20 durab left... Activating SH II there for a Hasty would not be ideal. Thus, using a naked CS II can bring down durab to 10 before you use MM2. Alternatively, after using MM2, maybe you still have a lot of steps before you can get back the invested CP from the 2nd CZ, so using some CS II first could be a very nice choice to grab back the necessary CP for the final Byregot phase... and then finally wrap up with a single CS II.

Example 2:
Let's say you were in a Waste Not phase - you just did SH II, WN, and is about to push 4x Hasty Touches. Then an EXCELLENT suddenly popped up! Of course you can't miss it! Use Precise Touch immediately! But now the next step is on Poor condition. So to avoid it, you can now use CS II on progress instead!

Ultimately, you must know exactly how many CS II you need to complete your item. And in both examples above, Ingen2 was NOT planned to be used at all. If Ingen2 was to be used to help progress, there will less flexibility with naked CS II's.

But like I said before, if it takes more than 4 CS II to complete the item, then you should not be using naked CS II anymore. Take MN_14's advice, and use something else... Muscle Memory, Rapid Syn, Name+Brand of elements, or CS II under Ingen2 (which will cluster your CS II at the end) etc etc

[Katlyna]

There are a number of issues that you're not doing it quite right, and there are a number of things which you have not optimized yet:

Huggles to the awesome Camie for giving the awesome full detailed answer. She's 100% spot on. And Ksenia answer confused me too? I'm still not sure what to make out of reading it.