Tips on how to meld gear

[InjaEdoux]

So, I'm total novice into crafting, but got 170 HQ accesories, belt, BSM's MH & OH, and I'm now looking for the optimal meld to start producing tools for other crafters. Sadly, most guides I looked at were for 3.0 150-140 white gear.
Can anybody help with that?

[Shorty]

First, you can use a site like http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/ to help you plan out your melds. It'll tell you what the stat cap for each piece of gear is and the success percentages.

You can then decide how much you want to spend on materia. A lot of the rotations for successfully HQ'ing 2 star items can be done with bare minimum craftsmanship and control, so maxing out CP is always good. CP and control materia are also more expensive than craftsmanship (in my server at least) so look at the MB and decide which you want to meld in first (I meld the most expensive materia first but sometimes you'll find IV materia being even cheaper than III).

After that, just look at your progression rotation and your gear, get as much crafts to get the required progress with your preferred rotation, and rest into control.

Also, some gear cannot be maxed due to the high cap. If you're filthy rich, you can also buy some V materia and use those, and that might help you reach the caps. ^_^

I place crafts on the lowest priority since once you get the OH, you should have enough stats to finish any 2 star recipes, but this is rotation dependent (if you have too much crafts you may finish your synth too early. Use a simulator to check that). I always max CP because more juice = more/better moves. Control is bonus but a very nice bonus.

[Silverbane]

Step 1: CP is king, and CP materia tends to be expensive as a result. So first meld in as much CP as each piece will take (usually 4 or 8CP).

Step 2: Then I suggest looking at the threads here on rotations and seeing where the Craftsmanship breakpoints are. Choose a Craftsmanship point, meld to that.

Step 3: When you reach a happy place for Craftsmanship, add Control until you get sick of watching money drain away from failed melds. The chance of successfully overmelding 170 gear is much worse than the chances for 150 and less gear, so be prepared to lose a lot of Materia.

[Shadygrove]

Step 1: GP is king, and GP materia tends to be expensive as a result. So first meld in as much GP as each piece will take (usually 4 or 8GP).
....

Not necessarily.

For instance if a piece can only take +5 CPs the last two melds I will do in a pentameld is +3 and +2.

The first thing I do is go to http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/ and calculate my melds and the order to do them in.

[Silverbane]

Not necessarily.
For instance if a piece can only take +5 CPs ...

The OP asked about 170 HQ accessories, all of which take either an additional 4 CP (rings, belt) or an additional 8 CP (wrist, neck, ears).
At least, mine do.