The stats requirements for the new 2 star stuff are just sooooo low! I thought I'd run into some trouble with my silly "Piety pentamelds", but I'm actually doing just fine!
I thought I'd need at least Blood Bouillabaisse, but no, I actually just needed Match HQ! LOL!
Below are my current stats for my non-spec, and also my "pentamelds" which emphasizes on Piety (just kidding... it's for spiritbonding! But it still works fine to craft these things!):
(To be fair, I did use 2 pieces of Grade 10 materia on my choker and bracelet in-slot melds, and I did some minimal overmelded with Grade 9 materia on these 2 pieces of accessories as well. But apart from these, I used ONLY Grade 7 / 8 materia for my melds.)
Note that I still CANNOT effectively macro the 2-star 70 durab items from 0 to max quality with these silly melds (I need 2 pieces of HQ mats if I macro). But I CAN effectively macro the 2-star 35 durab items from 0 to max, and I only needed to use Matcha HQ without any kind of med. And with a few pieces of HQ mat, the final 70 durab item is nothing difficult.
My macro just needed 602 CP, and it's below:
/ac "Reflect" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Veneration" <wait.2>
/ac "Waste Not" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Prudent Touch" <wait.3>
/echo EW 2* 35dur #1 602cp Done! <se.2>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Basic Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Standard Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Advanced Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Tricks of the Trade" <wait.3>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Synthesis"
/echo EW 2* 35dur #2 602cp Complete! <se.6>
The Trick of Trade is there to prevent Poor condition on Byregot. Just ignore the error message.
If you need a bit more extra power for quality. Easily add a line of...
/ac "Trained Finesse" <wait.3>
...after the Advanced Touch. It will cost you and extra 32 CP. So the macro becomes 637cp.
I am on 3247 craft / 3219 control (after food). If you have too much craft, you will actually prematurely complete the item with this macro. So just add a line of...
/ac "Final Appraisal" <wait.3>
...before your final Groundwork.
If you are one of those who spent millions of gil pentamelding with Grade X materia. Well, you should have sufficient stats to effectively macro the 70 durab items from 0 to max!!! So you can just NQ all your intermediate mats to save time! Please make the best use of your stats, fellow crafters!
As for the 70 durab items, I do need Chili Crab HQ and Craftsman's Cunning Tea HQ to perform my macro.
Here's my rotation in summary:
...pretty sure every veteran crafter would arrive at something similar anyway, so I don't wanna call it my rotation. I like humorous names, so I just call it the "Why need finesse" rotation since it doesn't need Trained Finesse! LOL!
Here's the macro for it... Good lord, we don't even need to fully utilize all 30 lines of these macros to do it:
/ac "Muscle Memory" <wait.3>
/ac "Manipulation" <wait.2>
/ac "Veneration" <wait.2>
/ac "Waste Not II" <wait.2>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Groundwork" <wait.3>
/ac "Delicate Synthesis" <wait.3>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/ac "Preparatory Touch" <wait.3>
/echo EW 2* 70dur #1 656cp Done! <se.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 "Great Strides" <wait.2>
/ac "Tricks of the Trade" <wait.3>
/ac "Innovation" <wait.2>
/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>
/ac "Basic Synthesis"
/echo EW 2* 70dur #2 656cp Complete! <se.6>
Again, if you have too much craft, you will actually prematurely complete the item with this macro. So just add a line of...
/ac "Final Appraisal" <wait.3>
...before Delicate Syn.
It needs 2 pieces of HQ mat to guarantee HQ. However, if I manual craft with this rotation and tweak it on the spot, then I pretty much do not need any HQ mat. Perhaps just 1 piece of HQ mat to be safe.
Yeah, it's pretty stupid, isn't it? I'm a PIETY CRAFTER! And I'm not even using the latest Tsai tou Vounou HQ that I prepared... and I can still effectively macro everything in 6.05!
Crafting is, once again, in ultra-breeze mode at the moment! I don't think I need to update my crafting guide for now... People won't need it!
I'm just gonna continue using my spiritbonding gear set like this, and keep collecting free Grade 9/10 materia until I actually need them later.