Recommended cross-job crafting skills?

[Lyraele]

I've been plodding along with crafting (currently all crafters between 26 and 38) and the massive number of skills and cross-job skills is a tad overwhelming. My CUL is highest at 38, and I basically just slotted in every level 15 skill from the other crafter jobs. But since you get 10 cross-role skills, which 10 are recommended for jobs heard to 50? I assume the list then changes at 60? How about 70?

Thanks in advance!

[Lyraele]

And just to prime the pump a little, the 9 cross-job skills an FC of mine recommended were:
- Flawless Synthesis
- Careful Synthesis II
- Maker's Mark
- Hasty Touch
- Byregot's Blessing
- Tricks of the Trade
- Rumination
- Comfort Zone
- Steady Hand II

As I've been leveling through the 20's and 30's, I find I'm mainly using:
- Hasty Touch
- Careful Synthesis
- Tricks of the Trade
- Manipulation
- Steady Hand II
- Waste Not

[Silverbane]

And just to prime the pump a little, the 9 cross-job skills an FC of mine recommended were:
- Flawless Synthesis
- Careful Synthesis II
- Maker's Mark
- Hasty Touch
- Byregot's Blessing
- Tricks of the Trade
- Rumination
- Comfort Zone
- Steady Hand II

Most of these, I agree with. I hold a different opinion on a few points.

Until you get Manipulation II, either Manipulation or one of the Waste-Not skills is useful to cross-class in. I consider Manipulation easier to use. Sure, there is Master's Mend I and II, but the former is less efficient and the latter can't be used on Dur 40 and 35 crafts.

Maker's Mark and Flawless Synthesis have been rendered obsolete by the Stormblood expansion.
If you don't have SB, you might still want them for top-tier L60 crafting, although there's not much call for that anymore.
Once you hit L61, there's no need for them.

Rumination is of doubtful utility, and always has been in my opinion. It's only useful if you are using a bad "rotation" or one that is heavily luck based. Good rotations are easy to find on the Internet, and even before SB they didn't require much luck. After SB, they hardly rely on luck at all.

Innovation was always useful and still is, but it isn't required: my poor BSM, who had to cross-class a lot of skill sin for HW, managed without it.

Ingenuity II is useful when you are crafting above your level.

The name-of-Element/brand-of-element combos are very powerful, and those classes that don't have a native version can often benefit from cross-classing one in. Plus the animations are fun to watch.

One good way to explore what skills to use is the simulator at http://ffxiv-beta.lokyst.net/#/simulator -- a nearly universally lauded effort that's usually pretty close. I always like to give myself a margin for error on progress, though, just in case.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Pretty much what Silverbane said above.
My additional comment would be:

Please drop Rumination when you have acquired Byregot's Blessing. The two are pretty much mutually exclusive since they both use up the whole IQ stack. Rumination is "pretty good" before you have Blessing. But after Blessing, it's time to say byebye to Rum.

Muscle Memory (MuMe) is something to consider for replacing Maker's Mark & Flawless Syn. MuMe is weaker, but a crap load faster.

[Ksenia]

Once I have everything to 19 the focus is on accessories. 19 is when you can wear complete brass accessories and with HQ it gives you exactly enough CP to run a base rotation.


Careful Synthesis
Inner Quiet,
Steady Hand (II if you have it)
Waste Not,
Standard touch x 4
Careful Synthesis

Rumination is a good early skill but very specific in use. It returns enough CP to apply Steady Hand again and another standard touch or at 31, 2 x Standard Synthesis (150%) allowing you to finish higher level recipes. At 50 and up is inner quiet stacking for Byregot's Blessing and Rumination is obsolete.

Everything before level 50 it is possible to get the quality bar to 100% with just Touch skills, HQ mats, parts and gear. After 50 that's impossible even when you over level a recipe by many levels.

[Hasrat]

A few of your FC's list won't be available to you for some time, so as someone that spent some time at 50, I can try to offer a somewhat more accurate opinion.

Hasty Touc, Tricks of the Trade, Steady Hand II, and Manipulation/Waste Not are all good choices especially if you've developed that crafting strategy of "all Hasty Touch, ToT on Good, try to drag it out as long as possible." It's not a bad strategy. Personal experience, I had very few HQ failures once I got the swing of it. Previous poster mentioned an alternative strategy, not familiar with it myself, but also seems viable. The difference in these two strategy is probably in Manipulation/Waste Not usage. With Hasty Touch, I'm assuming you may be using primarily Manipulation, or you risk wasting a Waste Not using ToT on a Good or something, whereas the Waste Not strategy just pushes straight through. Personal opinion, which you use mainly comes down to whether you want to take advantage of Good/Excellent, or whether you've got the stats to ignore it anyway. I didn't use Waste Not through most of my leveling, I'll be honest. The Hasty Touch method, while a bit more tedious/time consuming, saw me through well enough.

Once you get to 50, Byregot's Blessing and Comfort Zone are nearly necessity. Their utility is just too good to pass up. And obviously when you get to it, Careful Synthesis II will outclass the first one, it's just a straight upgrade. Innovation also fits in around here, as it can help a bit with big bursts of quality (and probably other uses I haven't fully experienced).

Rumination has been discussed. You might be able to get some use out of it pre-50. For me, it was always nice to have for emergencies. Forgetting to leave enough steps to finish progress, or if I just need to push quality a little higher. This was often where Waste Not saw its only use for me, if Rumination recovered enough to use it. For a bit of your leveling, you'll probably have room enough for it, it's not a bad choice until better things are available.

Maker's Mark is post-50 skill, so you've got time enough to not worry about it (and thus also I can't offer any advice on it, hah). Flawless Synthesis, eh, haven't found a place for it myself.

Other considerations. Ingenuity. You might not get a whole lot of use out of this while leveling, unless you want to try pushing higher-level crafts to maybe speed things up a little bit, but not very necessary (and takes up a valuable skill slot while other better things are available). Ingenuity II, similar, but more useful if you intend at all to push some of the end-expansion crafting at- or near-level. I stalled at 50 to try out some of the master-ish recipes, and it's been fun, but if you keep leveling and gearing, Ingenuity may be less necessary.
Nobody's brought up Rapid Synthesis yet, and it can be nice for particularly intense recipes, but if you're just leveling, you might not really need it very much. If you're playing risky with Hasty Touch, sometimes you won't miss much by risking a Rapid Syn as well.
The elemental skills are pretty situational. Up to 50, I've really only seen them on "Vintage" recipes, and you can likely get by without them (and if your crafting is particularly good/lucky, you don't really need them anyway).

[Nerfworthy]

Once you get to 50, Byregot's Blessing and Comfort Zone are nearly necessity. Their utility is just too good to pass up.

To touch on this, are you saying CRP/ALC are the base necessary jobs to get to 50? I've heard CUL is best to get to at least 37. Looking for something to shoot for as well as OP.

[LineageRazor]

Maker's Mark and Flawless Synthesis have been rendered obsolete by the Stormblood expansion.

Can you go into detail on this? I so very much want it to be true, but having recently reached level 70 on Goldsmith, I still find it quite useful, if horrendously painful. During the nearly thirty free steps this ability grants, I can typically get myself three stacks of Inner Quiet and a quarter's worth of progress for the cost of zero CP and 10 Durability (between two helpings of Comfort Zone and numerous Good and Excellent conditions, Inner Quiet, Precise Touch, and a dose or two of Steady Hand II are all fully or mostly paid for).

Still working out for myself just which of the new skills are worthwhile, but it doesn't seem to me that any of them can do all that! Or are they obsolete simply because Stormblood recipes are so easy that they can be completed without having to bother with all that, so long as you're adequately geared? (I am decidedly not adequately geared, as of yet.) If they are obsolete due to ease of crafting, rather than due to new skills - isn't it likely that they may become necessary again as we gain three- and four-star recipes?

[Elamys]

To touch on this, are you saying CRP/ALC are the base necessary jobs to get to 50? I've heard CUL is best to get to at least 37. Looking for something to shoot for as well as OP.

CUL has the "most" skills but CRP and ALC are also very important. When someone asks me what to level first, those are always my three suggestions. However, with the new abilities Stormblood added, it's entirely possible to go all the way to crafting end game with only one class.

Can you go into detail on this? I so very much want it to be true, but having recently reached level 70 on Goldsmith, I still find it quite useful, if horrendously painful.

There's a couple reasons for it, but largely it's because it's entirely unnecessary to spend that much time on getting progress when Muscle Memory, Ingenuity, and Careful Synth 3/Rapid Synth 2/Focused Synthesis or whatever you prefer is much, much faster. There's a lot to be said for completing a craft quickly; it means less food used, and more items produced during a session.

It's also much easier to build IQ stacks with the inclusion of of Patient and Prudent Touch, so you shouldn't need to drag out that window.

[Silverbane]

Regarding Maker's mark and Flawless synthesis being obsolete:

Can you go into detail on this?

See this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...rafting-Macros

Of course, we don't know what SB 4-star will look like. But the new SB skills are pretty amazing.