My take away from Ishgard restoration Part II Season I

[Kuro_Mao]

There is no TLDR- #DWII

I Ranked first on my server for Armorer. At first I was committed to hit to 500k for Armorer initially and didnt' sare about the comp. I did not feel I had a chance in hell to win. Top 100 maybe. Win... I thought I had no chance. Please note I didn't really get into this until 5 days before it was over. The last week days I also did not sleep more than 3.5 hours a day. I didn't do it over the event, I'm just used to it is all I can say. Please note I have a full time job, and the first week of this competition I logged 77 hours at work. Then the real challenge began.

8 Retainers, 2 chocobo saddlebags Premium Companion app. When I realized turning in 500 the night before 700 when I got up on the last day I that had a shot I busted my tail to make another 400, I stopped to eat full home cooked meals do did dishes and ice up my hand. Yeah it bothered me on the last day.

I realized my 1 friend as a support team wasn't going to cut it. I had contacted a a few friends that were competing for Miner and asked for the items. We agreed on a set price. TBH, I felt hosed until the last day. See I knew I could not compete and mine, so the idea of what I paid per day was less than they were going to through away as their retainers were full, and all sales slots full, with their FC chest full. On the last day they were all complaining as they could have sold what they sent me on the last day alone for close to 9 mil. But I felt like I got took 3 days before.

If you don't have a big wallet for the MB, you better have friends or an agreement, or you Better Sandbag... I did all three. It takes a team to put yourself on that board as a crafter. It takes good sense to secure your goods. And it takes more sense to put your cards on the table at the right time.

Before I go further, I have NEVER claimed to be a top tier crafter, and always try to talk crafters into not being a top tier crafter. I have made fortunes in the past to give 40+ people/FC's the gil they needed to get houses when the servers had open plots. I have made more than better crafters on volume via the market board and 8 retainer system selling to them the items they need. Whether its buy/resell, etc. I have given away more than I have spent.

For my oddly melded crafter:

Craft 2515/ Control 2441 / CP 544
Then Use Blood Bouillabaisse HQ and Commanding Crafter's Syrup HQ

You WILL break 2-10 an hour Guaranteed.

You will need to hit 60 of 13 buttons depending on the current craft conditions to save CP, make progress via human logic. You can macro groups of things, but its not wise as you may want to trigger a tricks of the trade or observe.

Each craft will take you 120 to 140 seconds. (it took me 6 hours of practice to get this good.) If you take longer than that you will get left in the dust by other participants.

[Kuro_Mao]

II of III
Now time for the human logic

Please not when you see a / that means use human logic to do one of the listed.

Muscle Memory
Rapid Synthesis
veneration
Rapid Synthesis
Inner quiet
Waste not II (in future on pliant when you can during observe.)
Manipulation (I try to below 20 dur if not active and on pliant when you need it) [Get smart with max number of stacks, use observe to get durability back.]
*Proccing tricks of the trade when it makes sence
Observe/Hasty Touch Based on condition
Observe/Hasty Touch Based on condition
Observe/Hasty Touch Based on condition
Observe/Hasty Touch Based on condition
Observe/Hasty Touch Based on condition
Observe/Hasty Touch Based on condition
Observe/Hasty Touch Based on condition
Observe/Prudent Touch Based on condition
Observe/Prudent Touch Based on condition
Observe/Prudent Touch Based on condition
Observe/Prudent Touch Based on condition
Observe/Prudent Touch Based on condition
Observe/Prudent Touch Based on condition
Observe/Prudent Touch Based on condition
innovation
great strides
Observer/Hasty/prudent depending on cp save enough for next step
Byregot's Blessing
Basic Synth

I know that's only 28, but when you add in the manipulations, Tricks of the trades observes, etc... Its between 50-60 total.

TBH, the is like 50-60 steps and after you get used to it, you can do it in 2 min to 2 min 20 sec. I'm watching several crafters when I tun stuff in and they are all doing similar, but they were not doing it within 3 minutes.

This is what many bring to the competition. We know we're potentially wasting 20 minutes an hour on this alone. Even after this you're going to get 1-3 every two hours not even worth turning in. Less than 10% are on initial collectible stage. 30 to 60% are are the 2nd grade,(This is actually what you are aiming for as for the Remainder of the percentage.... that magical third Tier is luck. It happens a lot more than you think. You have to be on your game with human logic and be willing to learn it.

[Kuro_Mao]

PS.... There are better ways than mine out there, but It worked this time.

[Kuro_Mao]

III of III
Suggestions I have for SE for the next one:
Change Recipes and add items to the ingredients list.
Change the Procs or include a negative forcing people into an observe or forcing them to use delineations. - FYI Several of the crafters that were really into the event are already out stockpiling ALL Mats for the turn ins due to the randomness of the the splendors timers.

To stop sandbagging overall
Put a decay rate on Diadem farm items before appraise.
Put a decay rate on collectible crafts specific to the event to stop sandbagging.
Put in a chance to choose first house in ishgard for 1 gil/ (even transfer,) lottery and give us a specific day when the Ishgard ward opens.
Lastly if SE wanted to make all hell break free, Put expired items that we can't get, say the the FFXV car and the make it rain haircut Or Special Crafter gear with better than anything that can be bought maid, and allow ALL penta meld slots on top of that with no restriction to it. - let the winners reap the reward of being the best crafter/gatherer.


I don't feel based on the fact they want people to excel in the mainstream game that 2-3 macro crafting will be eliminated based on the basic we don't want it to be too tough design. I do feel that even winning events like these... The rewards are going to go to the people who can think through a 60 steps process and action 60+ times in just over 2 minutes. If you can't handle the fact... There are several us that are capable of doing it for 18 hour sprints on 3-4 hours of sleep that can do it without complaint. This post is a 4-1-1. We have time to learn and adapt, as well as overcome.

After all that, I feel most the other crafters on the board are better crafters than I am overall. I spent that last hour or so next to the person I thought I was going to lose to. I'm watching his procs as I ice my hand and I see he's turning out perfect tier 3 turn-ins. He is a better crafter than I. But I was turning out 4-5 to his 2-3 for the better part of 3 days. Diminishing gains is where I won. I really thought I was 2nd place when I went to bed at post buzzer.

This competition was about who could output the most on a + or - chart. SE knew it. They wanted to know who could craft quickly and as efficiently as possible without Macros. I'm sure they were shocked when they seen a few people who adopted this rate. I was underwhelmed by the number of people who stagnated in specifically the American server farms. If the cost to move wasn't so high, and I'm not talking what I lose....

DOH & DOL are #GOAT The die-hards and hardcore folk are its backbone. This game is finally better than FFXI was in its hay day on ALL Fronts. FFXIV ShadowBringers > FFXI ToAU and we aren't even on 5.3 yet. IT took 14 years for SE to up itself as an MMO, but they finally did it.

[Kuro_Mao]

I just found a better way after watching this video. Wish I had seen it sooner....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUOXwMcYRdo

This guy is really onto something, he just needs to have faith and learn confidence in his human logic.

Just did a timed run. No careful Observations used as we'd only do that to push quality further, no macros, no anxiety, etc: I ran a 100 run. I started at 8:06 am EST to Completion at 0:51 EST 4/100 failures. The run contained 22/100 Tier III, (26/100,) 57 Tier II, (83/100) 17 Tier I (100/100.) I was lucky to have 0 breaks, if there were a such thing as an all crafts crafted this was it. This is the best run I have ever had. It took me 4 minutes to hand in. and mog cards took me 3 minutes to run through mid turn in. That's 54795 point in 172 Minutes, 8 minutes shy of 3 hours folks.) 165 minutes to craft, 4 Minutes to turn in and 3 minutes to go through the mog cards. I want people to know what they're up against in the next competition. Suddenly, those 400k to 500k/day per last three contest days doesn't seem that far off especially with sandbagging. They almost seem lackluster to us non macro crafting die-hards.

This was on Goldsmith with starting stats of 2515 Craft/2529 Control /556 CP then Add Blood Bouillabaisse HQ and Commanding Craftsman's Syrup HQ. I'm not going to say my differences to the video, but I am going to say this is humanly possible. Can I keep up at this rate for 3 hours absolutely, but if you can't do the monotonous task its completely understandable. That said after 3 hours I gotta ice up my hand as its swelling.

I post this as I'd like a closer crafter's race on the next one.

[tymora]

To offer something different...

Now that the race is over, and I bet the next one won't come till the next upgrade installment...

There is a macro actually, which would give you a Tier 1 fairly reliably (2500+ Craft/Control, 610+ CP with food). (Thanks to a friend who pointed out someone else's video for it)
After a couple sessions, I started improving on this with manual crafting to push for Tier 2/3, using pretty much the same logic on what to use with each different colored status as everyone else.
- Macroed at first (not good enough)
- Then did a manual finish (still not good enough)
- Then full manual (all is good - Looks pretty different from the macro I started with)

At full manual and a lot of practice later...rates are around 2-3 min per item, with tier rates at roughly 30/50/20.
- No observe spam, on average <30 steps
- No sleep lost but it is still an abominable amount of time spent. 3 to 6 hours a day and this is only to keep rank 12.

(What I started with..., not taking credit for this)
/ac Reflect <wait.3>
/ac Manipulation <wait.2>
/ac Innovation <wait.2>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac Manipulation <wait.2>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac Innovation <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>
/ac Veneration <wait.2>
/ac "Intensive Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Intensive Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Rapid Synthesis" <wait.3>

TBH this is not a good event. People lost sleep and it is an extreme time-drain.
- Should set a number that is within normal playtime limits and have anyone who achieve that be given the titles. In this case, 150K (roughly 2 hours/day for 5 days) across any craft is probably a decent number. (Coincides with the 2nd achievement number). Granted, I don't think SE even expected people to hit anywhere close to 500k and above for this...They are probably going to use this to decide what to do for the next one.
- Unfair on heavily populated servers
- Unfair on which craft you pick
- Encourages gathering bots
- People with commitments just can't compete with those who don't or have less, even with a lot of people stuck WFH nowadays.

Case in point - Those CUL on Balmung has to almost hit 500k points just to stay in top 12.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

TBH this is not a good event. People lost sleep and it is an extreme time-drain.

Because people are.. weird. Honestly, OP could have made top 12 easily with only half that many points and without losing sleep over it. And even top 12 is only a title. But if you want to spend all your time just to compete for the glory of being nr. 1 then it's your own thing and responsibility, as you have nothing to gain from and noone to blame for it.

[Kuro_Mao]

I like what you have going on, but, after 6 hours to get good and not use a macro at all..... I don't want to go back to being dependent upon macros at all. I needed to make some more syrup, grabbed mats and just went to town. Its kind of Forged in my brain now. But my hand and controller are sort of forcing me into it. I bought this one at Christmas, and I am feeling the the right trigger is already not perfect. Torn in two worlds I guess. I support a 3 hour session with DF daily or trusts and desynths. I feel my turnover on sales is about one 3 hour crafting run or 100 expert finals crafts.

[tymora]

I would just wait for the next equip update to do the rest...

[KageTokage]

They need to do something to address both sandbagging and botting, because those were issues on both the DoL and DoH side of things.

DoH could be fixed by having a turn-in deadline on collectables and raising the collectability cap on the Expert recipes higher to make it even more efficient to actually put thought into the crafts instead of macro/bot spamming them enmass.

DoL could similarly have a deadline on turn-ins to stop the sandbagging, but there's not much that can be done about the bots outside of having a functional enforcement team.