HQ Crafting Help!

[Xavios]

So basically I have leveled my crafters a bit through grinding and am now at the point where I want to do HQ Leve hand ins to get the best exp, however I am not sure on the rotation I should be using to do this when crafting, looking for some help with this. Levels as follows: ARM and BSM Level 40, ALC, LTW, CRP and WVR Level 35, CUL and GSM Level 15. I am looking to get ARM, BSM, ALC, LTW, CRP and WVR to 50, CUL and GSM another time, but as said above , I am not sure on the rotation I should be using to create HQ Items for the Hand in, any help would be brilliant, and thanks. Sorry I should also add I have been trying to look for information but any macros or advice I have found its over a year old, if anyone has a macro which would help me, would be great thanks.

[ChameleonMS]

You need to get CUL to 15 for Hasty Touch; the single most useful skill for HQ crafting. HT allows you to make more touches with the same CP because it costs 0 CP; you will use the CP on skills like Waste Not, Master's Mend, Manipulation, etc... to conserve durability while you advance quality.
At CUL 37 you get Steady Hand II which increases the reliability of all RNG skills by an additional 10% above the regular Steady Hand.

As for rotations, low level rotations usually go like this for 80 Dur. This rotation assumes somewhere around 200 CP, it has been a long time but I recall that being a reasonable number back then.
Inner Quiet
Steady Hand / II
Waste Not
Hasty Touch x4
Steady Hand / II
Hasty Touch
Hasty Touch
Steady Hand
Great Strides
Standard/Advanced Touch depending on CP.
Careful Synthesis x3 to finish the craft

[Frizze]

Are you using the Ixali quests? Good source of extra crafting exp at your levels. If you can, try to push CRP to be your first level 50(or if not first, as soon as you can). The skill you get for that is super-useful in finishing HQ end products. It burns off your Inner Quiet stack for a quality increasing touch. The larger your stack the more it gives(it can also be enhanced with great strides and the like). The other "best" level 50 skills are from ALC, BSM, GSM, and WVR(in some order - this order happens to be alphabetical). And ill +1 everything Chamelion said as well. Steady Hand 2 is worth the effort, and that looks like a solid rotation. If you're a little short on CP(or any other stat) you can find a crafting food to use to help. Theres one at the saucer for like 17 gil that gives about an extra skills-worth of CP.

[Xavios]

Hey Thanks for the advice above from both of you, I took the advice and used the rotation suggested, and it doesnt work, I have enough CP, well more in fact than the total needed for it, and I am lucky if I get half way up the bar for HQ, and also Careful Synthesis, just does the NQ Bar not HQ, looking for any further advice thanks.

[PandAlt]

Caimie Tsukino did a great guide and it would be helpful to you maybe. She no longer plays but she wrote very extensive guides on crafting in the game pre HW and some after but just for general knowledge it is great.
http://ffxivrealm.com/xz-articles/ff...ie-tsukino.39/

[Frizze]

Hey Thanks for the advice above from both of you, I took the advice and used the rotation suggested, and it doesnt work, I have enough CP, well more in fact than the total needed for it, and I am lucky if I get half way up the bar for HQ, and also Careful Synthesis, just does the NQ Bar not HQ, looking for any further advice thanks.

How much more CP are we talking? Do you have enough to get in a repair action(masters mend/manip)? Are you using tricks of the trade for extra cp? Is using some HQ mats an option(all hq mats starts you with a half full bar afterall)? How is your crafting gear reletive to your level?

At some point when i was leveling crafting i read Caimie's guide that Panda linked to help me get my head around the things i didnt automatically understand, and it helped a lot. Worth a shot. Oh, and on the rotation that chameleon put together up top the careful synthesis wasnt supposed to change the HQ rating, it was just to finish craft.

[Gemina]

Hey Thanks for the advice above from both of you, I took the advice and used the rotation suggested, and it doesnt work, I have enough CP, well more in fact than the total needed for it, and I am lucky if I get half way up the bar for HQ, and also Careful Synthesis, just does the NQ Bar not HQ, looking for any further advice thanks.

Without Steady Hand II, Hasty Touch is only going to have a 70% success rate, and every fail means a loss in durability and no increase in quality. If you are trying to HQ items your level or higher without HQ mats, you can't afford too many of those. The above rotation also does not take condition changes into account, but that's because doing so creates this rather large 'case scenario' chart. But anytime you get a 'poor/good/excellent' condition your faced with making a decision that may deviate from the current rotation.

It's also important to know how much durability you need to complete a synthesis, that way you can increase quality as much as possible until you get to this point. Keep in mind that abilities like Waste Not conserves durability, and abilities like Master's Mend/II restores durability. Be careful not to cut yourself short when using Waste Not.

I also recommend this rotation for 70 durability, with Master's Mend II (Lv25) and x4 careful synthesis to complete. It requires 272 - 292 CP, which should be obtainable with updated gear, food, and melds:

Inner Quiet (18cp)
Steady Hand/II (22/25cp)
Hasty Touch x5
Careful synthesis
Master's Mend II (160cp)
Steady Hand/II (22/25cp)
Hasty Touch x3
Great strides (32cp)
Basic/Standard Touch (18/32cp)
Careful Synthesis x3

Unless you have a bad streak of fails, which WILL happen, this should get you pretty close, if not all the way to 100%. HQ mats and Steady Hand II make this rotation overkill when it comes to clearing your crafting log, or leve/GC turn-ins during the leveling stages.

[cgbspender]

Without byregot, don't forget to use rumination at the end, after stacking up inner quiet, it will recover some CP (hopefully enough for another "touch" or buff)

[LineageRazor]

Here's a formula I used early in my crafting career which served me quite well. It uses only level 15 cross-class skills. I could HQ pretty reliably using it!

1. “Inner Quiet”.
2. If “Good” condition, “Tricks of the Trade”, then “Steady Hand”. Otherwise, “Steady Hand”.
3. “Hasty Touch” until “Steady Hand” runs out, or Durability is at 20. Anytime a “Good” condition appears during this stage, “Tricks of the Trade” instead of “Hasty Touch”.
4. If “Good” condition, “Tricks of the Trade”, then “Manipulation”. Otherwise, “Manipulation”.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until your store of CP is too low to do another “Manipulation” and still have enough CP leftover to do the following steps.
6. If “Good” condition, “Tricks of the Trade”, then “Great Strides”. Otherwise, “Great Strides”.
7. If “Steady Hand” isn’t up, use it, then “Advanced Touch”. Otherwise, “Advanced Touch”. Optionally, if CP allows, use “Observation” to try to hold out for a “Good” or “Excellent” condition before using “Advanced Touch”.
8. If “Good” condition, “Tricks of the Trade”, then “Rumination”. Otherwise, “Rumination”. This will give you plenty of CP to finish the synth.
9. If “Steady Hand” isn’t up, use it, then “Standard Synthesis” until the recipe is complete.

Basically, eat every Good you can to recover CP, and use that CP to fuel more Manipulations (durability restoration).

Some things to consider:
- If the recipe is above your current level, it will be MUCH harder to HQ. Stick to recipes of your level or less.
- Keep your gear current, and HQ if at all reasonable to do. If you're leveling every class, making your own gear is an option. Start with your tools (generally Blacksmith makes these), then make the rest.
- Sell everything you make that you're not turning in for leves or whatever. You can make quite a lot of money, even selling NQ gear, which you can then funnel back into your craft. Crafting materials (ingots, lumber, etc) sell particularly quickly and well.

[Ksenia]

Is using some HQ mats an option

This is my Pre-50 crafting policy. I can HQ 3 levels above my own level with all HQ gear and mats. The only cross class I 'need' is careful synth and that can be worked around with food. Once you hit 50 and demimateria and other absolute NQ mats are inserted it collapses so you are wise to find an RnG rotation you can make work because it becomes required after a point.