FF14 Advanced Crafting Guide by Caimie Tsukino - Being Re-vamped in 2021

[Caimie_Tsukino]

With the recent sudden influx of new players to FFXIV, I decided that it's a good time to undertake the gigantic project of re-vamping my prehistoric original crafting guide from 2014. This reconstruction is still unfinished, and will take awhile to complete. But I have already done a bit in the past 5 days, and is happy to share what's ready here.

I hope my work will continue to inspire more people to take up and enjoy crafting in FFXIV!

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EDIT (12 Oct 2021): ffxivrealm.com appears to be down. Please visit the links below instead:

FF14 Advanced Crafting Guide by Caimie Tsukino (Re-vamped 2021)
http://ffxivrealm.com/guides/ff14-ad...ie-tsukino.39/ (no longer works)
OR
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16ko...ZxqXm_5VD/view
OR
https://tinyurl.com/nrbczxvn
OR
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6bei4nb39w...ached.pdf?dl=0

Caimie Tsukino's Guide for Expert Recipes and Skybuilders' Tools
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wzw37vl07f...ached.pdf?dl=0
OR
https://tinyurl.com/yxftb8wx

Mining and Botany Guide for the Pteranodon mount by Caimie Tsukino
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wyoi7hawkx...ached.pdf?dl=0
OR
https://tinyurl.com/vm65yvm7
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EDIT (5 Jul 2022): The guide is now re-vamped for Endwalker!

EDIT (15 Oct 2022): FFXIV Realm is down again! Apparently every year in October, it expires and the web master needs to renew the contract. Please use the following PDF version for now:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k5ta7lc7bb...04%29.pdf?dl=0
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FF14 Advanced Crafting Guide by Caimie Tsukino (Re-vamped 2022 for Endwalker)

-= A Tribute to All my Fellow Crafters =-
“The best crafter is not the one with the best stats, but the one who makes the best use of one’s stats” – Caimie Tsukino


Preface: Re-Vamping A Blast from the Past

This guide was a massive hit in 2014-2017, which inspired many people to take up crafting and changed the world of crafting for many people. It was referred to as the "Bible" by some fellow crafters, and had even attracted many players to world-transfer to Zalera and join our FC.

It is 2021 right now, and the guide is completely outdated. Crafting has been made 10x easier since Stormblood and continued that way through Shadowbringers. That had discouraged me from writing up any crafting guides for Shadowbringers. However, I recently saw a post on Facebook -- someone was asking for help with learning Weaver, and one of the answers I heard from a fellow crafter was: "Crafting is all about stats and macros", and shockingly the comment received a "like". This hurt me so much. Has my beloved crafting game really deteriorated and fallen so much in FFXIV? Surely, stats are important, but crafting is much more than just about stats, and definitely not just about macros. In my opinion, the most important part of crafting is about how to make the best use of the stats (a.k.a. how to craft). This prompted me to start re-vamping on this prehistoric, ancient crafting guide again.

Just like 6 years ago, this guide will be slightly different from most basic crafting guides. Apart from some basic information & mechanics, this guide is intended to be a "Crafting Wikipedia" -- to inspire rising crafters to achieve a higher level of understanding in crafting. It may be longer & wordier, but in the end I hope someone can benefit from my experience, avoid the mistakes that I made, and able to succeed and enjoy endgame crafting in FFXIV.

Warmest hugs,
Caimie
20-Aug-2021

P.S. Our FC house of AoT is on Zalera, Goblet, Ward 1 Plot 5. Please feel free to drop by and say hello / drop a note on our message boards!

My Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011135982662
Feel free to add!
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Ch1: A Reason to Craft
Ch2: Leveling All Crafting Classes Together
Ch3: The Importance of WVR & BSM to Crafting
Ch4: Gathering Classes to Support Crafting
Ch5: Retainers to Support Crafting
Ch6: Inventory Space Management
Ch7: Craftsmanship, Control, CP and the Basic Mechanics of Crafting
Ch8: Crafting Actions
Ch9: Crafting Conditions
Ch10: Generating a Crafting Rotation
Ch11: Common Mistakes that Novice Crafters Make
Ch12: Learn to Modify Rotations According to Conditions
Ch13: Macro-crafting
Ch14: Methods of Leveling
--------Ch14A: Leveling via Crafting Log
--------Ch14B: Ishgard Restoration - The Firmament
--------Ch14C: Tradecraft Leves
--------Ch14D : Grand Company Supply/Provisioning Missions
--------Ch14E: Collectables
--------Ch14F : Beast Tribes
--------Ch14G: Massively macro-crafting ingots/lumber/cloths
Ch15: Buffs for EXP & Stats
--------Ch15A: Engineering Manuals
--------Ch15B: Food & Medicine
--------Ch15C: Free Company Buffs
--------Ch15D : Crafting Facilities
--------Ch15E: Resting Bonus EXP
Ch16: Leveling Gear Sets to Bridge Over Expansions
Ch17: The Specialist System
Ch18: White/Purple Scrips & the Scrip Exchange NPC
Ch19: Custom Deliveries
Ch20: Rowena's Representative (Sundry Splendor)
Ch21: The True Beginning of a Crafter
Ch22: Master Recipe Books
Ch23: Materia
--------Ch23A: Materia Overmelds
--------Ch23B: Melding Cap
--------Ch23C: Materia Retrieval
--------Ch23D : Materia Extraction
--------Ch23E: Melding Strategies for Leveling Crafters
--------Ch23F: Overmelding Strategies for Endgame Crafters
--------Ch23G: Materia Transmution
--------Ch23H: Spiritbonding to Produce Materia
Ch24: Endgame BiS Gear Set
Ch25: Skysteel Tool Saga (crafting "relic" tools from Shadowbringers)
Ch26: Expert Recipes
--------Ch26A: Skybuilders' Expert Recipes for Skybuilders' Tools
--------Ch26B: Restoration(4) Expert Recipes for Skyward Pts
--------Ch26C: Resplendent Expert Recipes for Resplendent Crafting Tools
Ch27: Endgame Rotations & Macro Collections
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Ch1: A Reason to Craft

What is the point of crafting? Why should I take up a crafting job?

(1) I want to be able to make my own gear/weapons that benefit my main DoW/DoM jobs!
(2) I want to make more gil and be rich! $$$
(3) I want to make my own glamor gear, cute minions & beautiful furniture for my FC house! <3
(4) I want to be able to repair my own gear (and my friends' gear) anywhere & any time (including during instanced duties).
(5) It seems fun! I think I'll like it!

All these are valid reasons, but each will lead you to a different path...

If (1) is your reason, you need to understand that, most crafted gear are not as powerful as those obtained from loot-rolling in dungeons. Almost any green/pink (background color) gear will slightly outmatch a HQ (high quality) crafted gear of the same level. But since all the loots in dungeons have to be "rolled", you can’t expect to get everything from dungeons! Therefore, at lower levels, HQ crafted gear becomes a wonderful supplement for items you cannot obtain from dungeons. At endgame, gear that are exchanged using "tomes" are usually stronger than crafted gear. However, collecting tomes can be a very slow process. Thus, crafted gear can speed up the process by a lot, allowing faster increase of average item level (avg ilvl), which in turn allowing you to proceed quicker to higher dungeons and trials. Another cool feature about endgame crafted gear is that they can attach "materia" to tweak your stats.

If (2) is your reason, you need to understand that, although crafting can make gil, it can also drain your gil. It’s like an investment… the more time & gil you put into crafting, the better stats you’ll acquire and the more expensive items you can craft to sell. The investment you need to make at endgame is in the amount of millions, but the gil return is also in the amount of millions. So think about this carefully, because along the way, you could be very poor depending on how much gil you spend on powering your crafting. If you stop investing gil at a point, you will have a very stable income, but your stats & income will stop increasing. A common mistake that people make is by over-investing gil to level up. This should not happen! There are many ways to level up that will earn you gil instead of drain your gil.

If (3) is your reason, then you can pretty much ignore the word “HQ” in crafting. For minions & furniture, there is no difference between HQ vs NQ. All you need is just completing the item. It is similar for glamour gear as well, because they are usually glamoured over gear for stats, so people can't actually tell if the glamour gear was made HQ or not. However, glamour gear / furniture of the highest level are still quite hard to make if you lack the knowledge of what your buttons do. If you’re careless, you can lose a lot of precious crafting materials (as much as millions of gil!). It is recommended that you at least know how to make use of Manipulation, Veneration, Waste Not, Groundwork etc. before you attempt a very difficult minion/furniture.


- The Dalmascan Draped Top is a glamour item crafted by the Weaver class.


If (4) is your reason, then I assume you do a lot endgame (lv 90) raiding activities. This means you will need lv 90 for almost every crafting class (Weaver, Leatherworker & Armorer for gear, Blacksmith, Carpenter & Alchemist for weapons, Goldsmith for accessories etc.). Just keep in mind that you will need to carry Grade 8 Dark Matter to repair any level 90 gear/weapons. Apart from being able to repairing your own gear and your friends' gear inside duties, another advantage of using crafting classes for repair is that it results in over 100% status. E.g. a gear at 30% will be repaired to 130% instead of 100%. So it won't require attention from you for quite some time.

If (5) is your reason, then, WRONG! It’s not “it seems fun”! Crafting IS fun!!! And you will LOVE IT! Why? Because crafting is like puzzle-solving. You get a lot of satisfaction when you beat a tough puzzle, right? Crafting is also solely dependent on just yourself. You don’t need to rely on anyone else in the game. It’s all in YOU! Furthermore, when you finished crafting an item, your name is imprinted at the bottom of the item. So having a HQ difficult item with your name on can make you feel very proud. You can keep it, you can wear it, you can give it to someone, or you can sell it! The person who wears the gear will forever be seeing your name there, knowing that YOU are the magnificent crafter who made that gear/weapon.


- Pride of a crafter: a crafter's name is forever imprinted on a crafted gear/ tool/ weapon (circled in green).



Ch2: Leveling All Crafting Classes Together

Even if you’re only interested in 1 or 2 crafting classes, the best way to level crafting is really to take up ALL crafting classes at once, and level them ALL together.

Reason 1: One class helps another, be self-sufficient to save gil
The game is designed that all crafting classes are inter-dependent on each other at certain stage (except CUL, which is independent). So by taking up all crafting classes, the crafted products from one class will support another. E.g. metal ingots from BSM/ARM are constantly used by LTW/CRP, lumbers from CRP are frequently used by BSM, pieces of cloth from WVR are often used by LTW etc. So having more classes is always beneficial. This allows you to become SELF-SUFFICIENT, and avoid the need of buying ingots/lumbers/cloths from the marketboard (MB), which is the place where people rip off people. (Most of the times, you wanna be the person to rip off people on the MB, not the one being ripped off!)

But of course, leveling all crafting classes at the same time is almost impossible at higher levels (unless you’re oh-so-patient). So when you reached a point where you just can’t level them all, you will have to just focus down on a few classes, and buy stuff from MB to support your main crafting classes.

Reason 2: Sharing gear, saving armory inventory space
All crafting jobs can share most of the gear sets. If you level your jobs one after another, that means even if you acquire new gear set approx every 15 levels, you will still end up with many many gear sets in your armory inventory (assuming that you are not destroying them, but saving them for every class). By the time you reached max level on your first class, your armory inventory would be exploded already. By contrast, if you level everything together, all your jobs can share gear sets of the same level at the same time, so after everything has climbed up another 15 levels or so, you can craft a new set of gear, extract/retrieve materias from the old gear set, and desynthesize the old gear set to retrieve some crafting materials while leveling desynthesis as well. This in turn frees up your armory inventory. (Note: Desynthesis is an action that allows you to break down crafted products to retrieve some materials, or to obtain "demimateria" for crafting some special items. For more info, please visit: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Desynthesis)

The only drawback of leveling everything together is the problem of inventory space and retainer inventory space. For more retainers, please see "Ch5: Retainers to Support Crafting" below, as well as acquiring the Chocobo Saddlebag (see Ch6: Inventory Space Management).



Ch3: The Importance of WVR & BSM to Crafting

The main sources of a crafting class's "craftsmanship" stats come from your mainhand tool (MH), offhand tool (OH) & chest piece. "Craftsmanship" stats facilitates the completion of a craft (Insufficient craftsmanship will forbid you from initiating a craft, so it is quite essential to a new crafter, but keep in mind that craftsmanship is actually the least important out of the 3 crafting stats to an endgame crafter). WVR makes most of the chest pieces & pants for most of the crafting classes & gathering classes, and some hats & gloves too. Having a good WVR just makes life so much easier for crafting. Similarly, BSM makes all kinds of mainhand/offhand tools, and it’s just so beneficial to all crafting & gathering classes. I’m not saying the other classes are not important (GSM makes accessories, ARM makes CUL & ALC mainhand tools, CRP makes some offhand tools & boots, LTW makes some boots, clothes, hats & accessories), but WVR & BSM are just wonderful to have.



Ch4: Gathering Classes to Support Crafting

Unless you are already a billionaire, it is quite important that you take up at least 1 gathering class to support your crafting classes. Instead of buying all your mats (crafting materials) from the market board, you can get mats for free if you have gathering classes.

Miner (MIN) supports mainly ----- GSM, LTW, ARM, BSM
Botanist (BTN) supports mainly -- CRP, ALC, WVR, CUL
Fisher (FSH) supports ------------- CUL
(There will be some overlapping, and some weird crosstalks at higher levels. But this is the basic idea.)

It’s a lot of work, but if you think you can handle, feel free to take up more than 1 gathering class. Having a gathering class also means that you can have a gathering retainer to do the work for you using ventures, which will also benefit your crafting & income too (see next chapter below).



- Maxing out your gathering classes is a huge advantage for crafting. Shown here are my MIN and BTN with lvl 80 Resplendent Tools.



Ch5: Retainers to Support Crafting

The major functions of retainers are:
(1) provide storage space,
(2) sell items on the market, and
(3) gather raw mats to empower our crafting via "ventures".
It is very beneficial to own max level retainers as they can help gather a great variety of crafting mats including elemental shards & crystals for crafting.

The game provides us with 2 FREE retainers. But we need to set them up ourselves at the beginning of the game. To set up retainers, please visit ANY Retainer Vocate NPC in ANY big city:
Ul'dah - Steps of Thal (x:13.4, y:9.8) (Closest Aetheryte: Ul'dah - Steps of Nald → Sapphire Avenue Exchange)
Old Gridania - Shaded Bower (x:14.6, y:9) (Closest Aetheryte: New Gridania → Leatherworkers' Guild)
Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks - East Hawkers' Alley (x:8.3, y:11.5) (Closest Aetheryte: Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks )
Foundation (Heavensward region) - The Pillars (x:8.2, y:10.9) (Closest Aetheryte: Foundation → The Jeweled Crozier)
Kugane (Stormblood region) - Kugane Ofunakura (x:11.7, y:12.2) (Closest Aetheryte: Kugane → Kogane Dori Markets)
The Crystarium (Shadowbringers region) - Musica Universalis (x:10.5, y:13.2) (Closest Aetheryte: The Crystarium → Musica Universalis Markets)
Old Sharlayan (Endwalker region) (x12.6, y:10.8)

Retainers can be assigned as either a battle job (DoW/DoM, Disciple of War/Magic) or a gatherer's job (DoL, Disciple of the Land).

I highly recommend setting up your 1st retainer as the same job as your MAIN battle job. Keep in mind that your retainers' levels can only be as high as you in that specific job. E.g. if your main is a level 73 Paladin and your Dragoon is currently at level 1, don't try to set up a Dragoon retainer, else your Dragoon retainer will be stuck at level 1 forever! Setting up your 1st retainer same as your main job is also great, because every time you upgrade your own gear, you can actually pass your old gear to your retainer to wear, which mean your retainer keeps getting upgrades on gear.

For your 2nd retainer, I recommend setting it up as either Miner (MIN) or Botanist (BTN). Fisher (FSH) is good, but for crafting FSH is not as essential as MIN & BTN.

We can have 2 retainers for FREE in the game. But we can all have many more retainers if we just pay an extra ~$2 per month in our Square-Enix subscription.

To acquire more retainers, visit the Mog Station website (just Google it), select the 1st button, "Your Account". After that, click "Retainer Service", and you will be able to buy more retainers.

- Additional retainers can be acquired via the Mog Station website.

Personally, I have a total of 9 retainers:
- 3 maxed battle retainers (WAR, WHM & BRD... because I main these jobs),
- 2 maxed MIN retainers,
- 2 maxed BTN retainers, and
- 2 maxed FSH retainers.
You don't have to get as many retainers as I do, but more retainers certainly helps with acquiring more mats, selling more items, earning more gil, and more storage space.


Stats that are important for retainers
For battle retainers (Disciple of War - DoW / Disciple of Magic - DoM), their average ilevel is what that matters. The higher are their ilevels, the more items they will return from ventures (in terms of crafting mats). This increase in quantity stops at 15 items at max.

For MIN/ BTN/ FSH, the stats "gathering" and "perception" are both important. "GP" does not seem to matter at all. For "gathering", there is a "threshold" for every item. Once the gatherer retainers passes certain thresholds, they will be allowed to gather those crafting mats. Extra gathering has no impact at all once you have passed the threshold. "Perception" affects the number of item that the retainers returns with.

As of Endwalker (23 Dec 2021), the current magic number for perception for retainers is 3420 (see https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/451857-I-FOUND-IT!-3420-is-the-Perception-you-want-for-your-MIN-BTN-retainers!). This number will continue to grow higher with new gear being gradually introduced to the game every few patches.

Venture coins are what you pay your retainers for them to acquire crafting mats for you.

To unlock the venture function of retainers and details of how to do ventures, please see:
http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wi...ainer_Ventures or
http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Retainer_Ventures

Venture coins can be purchased from at least 3 sources (there are more):

- Venture coins are available from your Grand Company (GC). Speak to the Quartermaster NPC, and use GC seals to purchase Venture coins.


- The Hunt Billmaster NPC at your GC also sells Venture coins for your Allied Seals. In addition, he also sells Aethryte Tickets, which provides you with FREE teleportation. Allied Seals are acquired from lvl 50 A-rank and S-rank Hunt Marks from ARR (A Realm Reborn) (see: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/The_Hunt).


- The NPC Ardolain at the Forgotten Knight at Ishgard (Foundation) (x13.0, y11.8) also sells Venture coins for your Centurio seals. In addition, he also sells Aethryte Tickets, which provides you with FREE teleportation. Centurio Seals are acquired from lvl 60 & lvl 70 A-rank and S-rank Hunt Marks from HW (Heavensward) & SB (Stormblood) (see: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/The_Hunt).



Ch6: Inventory Space Management

Managing your inventory will always be a pain for you in this game. But there are some tricks to help. For instance, many have asked me how to open up the inventory like I did shown in the picture below. This is called the "Open All" style of inventory interface that can be accessed from Character Config -> Inventory Settings -> Inventory Interface. This "Open All" interface makes it a lot easier to find and choose items from your inventory.


- Shown here is the "Open All" style of inventory interface that can be chosen from Character Configuration.


- Inventory settings can be accessed from System -> Character Configuration (or "K" on keyboard).


- Then click Inventory Settings on left, select "Inventory Interface", and use the pull down menu to select "Open All".

Inventory space has always been, and will always be a problem. Each retainer provides 175 spaces. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. If you're a crafter, space is an everyday problem. Below, I'm listing 2 temporary solutions that may help with alleviating the problem.

(1) Chocobo Saddlebag
The Chocobo Saddlebag is an additional storage location for you to utilize once you have a chocobo companion and have completed the My Feisty Little Chocobo quest. It can be opened under the the Character menu, or by pressing the hotkey Ctrl+Shift+I. The saddlebag contains 70 slots for items.


- Chocobo Saddlebag can be access from Character -> Chocobo Saddlebag (or Ctrl+Shift+I). Drag the text "Chocobo Saddlebag" onto your hotbar to create a shortcut button.


- The Chocobo Saddlebag button on my hotbar is shown here. When clicked, 70 additional inventory space will be shown.

(2) Listing Items on the Market for Sale as a Mean to Store Things
Sometimes you may see items on the marketboard (MB) listed as 99,999,999 million gil. It is clear that someone is just trying to use this as a mean of storage.

Each of your retainer can list up to 20 items on the market for sale. If you have 5 or more retainers, it is hard to imagine you will have over 100 items to sell simultaneously. So in this case, you may list some items at an unreasonably high price as a mean of storage. However, I usually do NOT list anything at prices that are unaffordable. I would list an item 2 folds, or even 4 folds higher than the usual price, and let it sit on the market. If someone decided to take it, he/she can have it, and I'll gladly take the gil. Otherwise, my items will just safely sit there.

If you do NOT access your retainer for a long time, the listed items will no longer be on the market, as they are "expired". But you won't lose anything. The moment you access your retainer again, those items will immediately be listed back onto the market.


- This is an example of how I use one of my retainers listing ability to store some additional items. I set prices that are much higher than the market price, but are still affordable by people. The Zonure Skin is usually around 200-800 gil each on the market. The Vampire Vine Sap is usually around 400-900 on the market. Sometimes, people do pay this higher price for the sake of convenience as they need a large amount of something.



Ch7: Craftsmanship, Control, CP, and the Basic Mechanics of Crafting

The 3 Crafting Stats
Crafting is simply: Within a given amount of durability (durab), use "touch" actions to hit 100% on the quality bar & use "synthesis" actions to hit 100% on the progress bar to complete the craft. 100% quality bar will guarantee you an HQ item (high quality), which has better stats than an NQ one (normal quality).

A crafter has 3 kinds of stats: "Craftsmanship" contributes to the strength of your synthesis actions, "Control" contributes to the strength of your touch actions, and "CP" (Crafting Points) allows you to perform different crafting actions. The RNG (random number generator) of FF14 is your greatest enemy. You can hit 96% HQ rate, and it can sometimes still give you NQ products more often than you expect. So you should always try your best to hit 100% on the quality bar.

At low levels, Craftsmanship & Control seem more important, because you don't have many actions to utilize anyway. However, soon, the truth will come out:

The Golden Rule of Crafting:
CP > Control > Craftsmanship

...CP is actually the most important stats out of all 3!

Think this way: if you have just a few more CP, perhaps you can already substitute 1 Hasty Touch with 1 Basic Touch. Instead of blowing up an unlucky Hasty Touch, you can now secure a chunk of quality, and an extra Inner Quiet stack. And it means significantly more power in your Finisher Phase of a rotation. This is just 1 simple example of how a little bit more CP could change the world!


The Inner Quiet stack (IQ stack)
Every time you perform a "touch" action (quality-increasing action), it increases your Inner Quiet stack (IQ stack) by 1. Each additional IQ stack gives you bonus control stats. Thus, the higher is your IQ stack, the stronger your touch actions become. The IQ stack is basically the "backbone" of crafting. The whole stack is eventually consumed when you execute "Byregot's Blessing" (lv 50), which is your most powerful, ultimate quality-increasing action in the crafting game.


- Your IQ stack is shown at the top of your screen, as well as right next to your name on the party list.


Crafting Log
The "N" button on your keyboard is your shortcut to open your crafting log (which you will be using everyday!). Each time you complete an item on your crafting log, you will get a "check mark" next to the item. This indicates that the item has been completed at least once, which unlocks the option of Quick Synthesis of that item.


- The check marks (shown by red arrows) indicate that the item has been completed at least once, which unlocks the option of Quick Synthesis of that item.

Pay attention to the "Recipe Level". Avoid taking on recipes higher than your own levels. You need to learn how to distinguish "Recipe Level" from "Item Level". There are 3 kinds of "levels" you have to deal with. "Recipe Level" is listed on the crafting log but NOT on the item itself. It indicates the difficulty of the recipe for the crafter (i.e. how difficult it is to craft that item). "Item Level" (a.k.a. ilvl) is listed ON the item. It contributes to the final "average ilevel" when the item is being worn, and each ilvl has its own melding cap for materia. Finally, the "level" number listed below the "class" ON the item refers to the "Minimum level of that class to wear the item". When I said pay attention to "Recipe Level", I mean the information on the crafting log, not the item itself. E.g. if the Recipe Level is 56, then you should not be attempting to make it when you're only a level 53 crafter. You can do it, but it'll be very difficult to HQ it. A level 53 crafter should be able to take on a level 53 recipe with ease, and perhaps level 54 too if you are a skilled crafter.


- Avoid recipes with higher Recipe Levels than your current crafting class's level.

[ICountFrom0]

Shiny. I currently use your method for passing expert crafting, in fact...

https://ffxivrealm.com/guides/caimie...ers-tools.201/

This editon, if you remember it. Not sure it can be improved mind you, but I am curious.

*hits the topic with a great strides, innovation, observe, Focused touch, prudent touch, prudent touch on his way out*

[Illmaeran]

I'm looking forward to this as I'll be getting all my DoH to 70 in the next couple of days and could use some help to power through 70-80 over the weekend.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Shiny. I currently use your method for passing expert crafting, in fact...

https://ffxivrealm.com/guides/caimie...ers-tools.201/

This editon, if you remember it. Not sure it can be improved mind you, but I am curious.

*hits the topic with a great strides, innovation, observe, Focused touch, prudent touch, prudent touch on his way out*

That guide was written for the acquisition of Skybuilders' Tools, which is the last step of the Skysteel tools (crafting relics). The Expert Recipes strategy described there is still fine as it is, but it was written specifically for Expert Recipes involving the "Centered" condition. For the current Restoration(4) Expert Recipes and the Expert Recipes for the acquisition of Resplendent Tools (in particular the 2nd recipe involving Material B), the strategy can be slightly different as they involve "Malleable" and "Primed" conditions instead of "Centered".

Basically, for those recipes with Malleable and Primed, we want to prioritize IQ stacks over progress. Thus, instead of prioritizing Intensive Syn on early Goods, it's actually better to prioritize Precise Touches. Also, Patient Touches are much less effective due to the lack of Centered. So at IQ3, we can still gamble, but if an early Precise comes, then might as well NOT do any gamble at all, and rely on more Precise to build up IQ stacks. As for progress, I'll usually try to start off with a Veneration, but if luck doesn't come my way, then I don't push out another Vene too early, but will rely on Malleable to try my luck on Rapid Syns later. Primed, on the other hand, can sometimes be used on Manip as well. And it's also a wonderful condition for Innov. So sometimes I change my "Touch Combo" from "GS, Innov, Obs, FocT, Prud, Prud" to "Innov, GS, Obs, FocT, Prud, Prud" if I see a Primed coming on before I hit GS. The conditions adds 2 extra steps on my Innov, which means I will earn an extra step of Innov after my 2nd Prud anyway. It's a great way to save CP.

I will includes tips in regards to these different Expert Recipes in the new, re-vamped crafting guide later.

[ICountFrom0]

Sorry, but I read every word you said, and all I got out of it was a headache. Since the only expert crafting I am working on right now IS getting the relics to the final step, I guess I just have to be glad that it works for what I'm working on.

Maybe when you have the resplendent part done, I'll test it and see if I understand it at all...

Still, I wanted to say thank you, and since you replied, thank you twice.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Sorry, but I read every word you said, and all I got out of it was a headache.

Well, that's because at first, I wanna say they're very similar and there are only some subtle differences, but then more and more little differences came to my mind, and I just threw them all out at you one after another without much organization XD That's why I confused you! My apologies! I'll try to explain it better when I mention these differences in the re-vamped "old" general crafting guide later.

The harder Expert Recipes are not anything people need these days anyway. The "easier" Expert Recipes for the Skybuilders' tools are still worth doing because Skybuilders' tools are pretty good with stats, and are just beautiful. But all the other "harder" Expert Recipes don't come with a good cause to do them anymore. Ranking is long over, so there's not much point doing Restoration(4) Expert Recipes unless you're after the Pteranodon mount. Similarly, the Expert Recipes for the Resplendent Tools are merely for glamor (and it's a really big effort just to get glamor... might as well take Skybuilders' instead). So it makes more sense for most people to just do the Expert Recipes for the Skybuilders' Tools ONLY.

Still, I wanted to say thank you, and since you replied, thank you twice.

No, thank YOU!

[Caimie_Tsukino]

The re-vamping of the guide is complete!

Here's the new TABLE OF CONTENT:

Ch1: A Reason to Craft
Ch2: Leveling All Crafting Classes Together
Ch3: The Importance of WVR & BSM to Crafting
Ch4: Gathering Classes to Support Crafting
Ch5: Retainers to Support Crafting
Ch6: Inventory Space Management
Ch7: Craftsmanship, Control, CP and the Basic Mechanics of Crafting
Ch8: Crafting Actions
Ch9: Crafting Conditions
Ch10: Generating a Crafting Rotation
Ch11: Common Mistakes that Novice Crafters Make
Ch12: Learn to Modify Rotations According to Conditions
Ch13: Macro-crafting
Ch14: Methods of Leveling
--------Ch14A: Leveling via Crafting Log
--------Ch14B: Ishgard Restoration - The Firmament
--------Ch14C: Tradecraft Leves
--------Ch14D : Grand Company Supply/Provisioning Missions
--------Ch14E: Collectables
--------Ch14F : Beast Tribes
--------Ch14G: Massively macro-crafting ingots/lumber/cloths
Ch15: Buffs for EXP & Stats
--------Ch15A: Engineering Manuals
--------Ch15B: Food & Medicine
--------Ch15C: Free Company Buffs
--------Ch15D : Crafting Facilities
--------Ch15E: Resting Bonus EXP
Ch16: The Specialist System
Ch17: Yellow Scrips & White Scrips
Ch18: Custom Delivery
Ch19: The True Beginning of a Crafter
Ch20: Master Recipe Books
Ch21: Materia
--------Ch21A: Materia Overmelds
--------Ch21B: Melding Cap
--------Ch21C: Materia Retrieval
--------Ch21D : Materia Extraction
--------Ch15E: Melding Strategies for Leveling Crafters
--------Ch15E: Materia Transmution
--------Ch15E: Spiritbonding to Produce Materia
Ch22: Endgame BiS Gear Set
Ch23: Skysteel Tool Saga
Ch24: Expert Recipes
--------Ch24A: Skybuilders' Expert Recipes for Skybuilders' Tools
--------Ch24B: Restoration(4) Expert Recipes for Skyward Pts
--------Ch24C: Resplendent Expert Recipes for Resplendent Crafting Tools
Ch25: Endgame Rotations & Macro Collections

The guide covers pretty much EVERYTHING I know about crafting! It's been difficult to put so much information altogether in a logical way. But I think I did ok. Further polishing can be done later. But even right now, I'm quite happy with it. As this is a HUGE wall of text and pictures, so it's not easy to avoid mistakes. If you happen to catch some errors, please let me know so I can fix them. Thanks!

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Chapter 21G … you say that HQ and NQ have the same spiritbond rate.

When did that change? IIRC each Materia adds 20%(?) to the points gained towards Spiritbinding, and HQ adds another 20%(?). I am not positive about the 20% number but I do remember that HQ bonded faster than NQ, as though HQ status was another Materia melded to the item.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Chapter 21G … you say that HQ and NQ have the same spiritbond rate.

When did that change? IIRC each Materia adds 20%(?) to the points gained towards Spiritbinding, and HQ adds another 20%(?). I am not positive about the 20% number but I do remember that HQ bonded faster than NQ, as though HQ status was another Materia melded to the item.

Hi Roth! I so happy that you're reading my guide, and even picked up a part to question about it! I feel so honored to have it coming from someone of your caliber!
From what I remember, HQ and NQ had always had the same spiritbonding rate since ARR. However, HQ has always had a higher % of overmeld success rate, and more overmelds obviously means faster spiritbonding rate. For the sake of science, I shall look into this in the next 24 hours (got work right now, but will do this as soon as I can), and determine the truth. Thank you for raising this question!

[ICountFrom0]

wasn't it the pink items that had a boost to spiritbond rate, the ones that are being phazed out?