6.51 Splendorous Tools Final Upgrade - Lodestar Crafting Tools

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Here! I decided to type out my thoughts on the chat box in the game while I do the Expert Recipes.
It makes the videos much longer, but it helps a lot in explaining my decisions on what buttons to press in under different circumstances.

Caimie Tsukino vs Expert Recipes! [EXPLANATIONS ON CHAT BOX] 2023-11-06
Part 1 (5th enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3px6yFqIWsQ

Part 2 (final enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHsAql2ohL0

Part 3 (final enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaY3l2IFjt0

Part 4 (final enhancement):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3rBS7vgKo

P.S. Just got all 8 Lodestar crafting tools Now onto the gathering tools.

[Nezerius]

Dear SE:

Why isn't there a title for completing all of these tools like the Skysteel tools from last expansion? It was a bit of a let-down.

Skysteel tools never had a title for completing all the tools. You're thinking of the title from completing all the Resplendent tools, which were unrelated to the Skysteel ones.

[dspguy]

Skysteel tools never had a title for completing all the tools. You're thinking of the title from completing all the Resplendent tools, which were unrelated to the Skysteel ones.

That's right. It's been a while. I probably just thought it was the same thing.

[Asdrubael]

You clearly don’t know how good they are if you aren’t impressed with the stats. It has 46 more craftsmanship, 7 more CP, and 34 more control. That’s having 3 tier X materia, 2 tier IX materia, and a tier VII CP materia at no additional cost with a little extra stats on the side as a tiny bonus. Plus icing on the cake for it all is the good quality buff.

[Jojoya]

You clearly don’t know how good they are if you aren’t impressed with the stats. It has 46 more craftsmanship, 7 more CP, and 34 more control. That’s having 3 tier X materia, 2 tier IX materia, and a tier VII CP materia at no additional cost with a little extra stats on the side as a tiny bonus. Plus icing on the cake for it all is the good quality buff.

A better way to put it would be to say that the Lodestar tool gives us an extra Materia IX of stats over fully pentamelded HQ Indagator. Your math is slightly off if you think it's the equivalent of 3 Xs and 2 IXs plus the CP. If that were the case, it would be +54 Craftsmanship and +42 Control instead of +46 and +34.

The real benefit is the additional .25 multiplier on Good procs.

My complaint with the Lodestar is the same one I had with the Skybuilder - the additional Craftsmanship on the tool isn't sufficient for me to drop a Synthesis step while I lose Control compared to my pentamelded HQ Indagators. In order to benefit from the pure stats, I would have to remeld my other gear to bring my Craftsmanship back to current levels and regain the lost Control. Doing that would force me to commit to grinding all the Lodestar crafting tools, not just a select one or two. If they would give it the same base stats as HQ Indagator plus 5 materia sockets, I'd be a lot happier with it. That would allow me to meld them as I need to fit in with the stats I already have.

Considering I've been crafting hundreds of Diadochos gear pieces since 6.4, switching to Lodestar isn't necessary to continue crafting those. I've been "meh" on Expert this expansion because it's only there to make gil and I've already got plenty of gil. I've been doing some for myself and friends who want the IS landmarks but quickly stopped selling the parts on the marketboard.

I miss the long term achievements Expert was given in Shadowbringers and would still prefer Expert recipes for creating a variety of glamour items. Shiny tools aren't what I'm interested in when it comes to glamour.

So despite the Lodestar tools being technically better, I have no compelling reason to put in the effort to grind them out. They might ease leveling in Dawntrail by a tiny amount but I suspect that the multiplier bonus will be disabled on level 100 recipes (if not 91) and even then most of the bonus could be offset by the superior stats that level 100 tools will have.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

You clearly don’t know how good they are if you aren’t impressed with the stats. It has 46 more craftsmanship, 7 more CP, and 34 more control. That’s having 3 tier X materia, 2 tier IX materia, and a tier VII CP materia at no additional cost with a little extra stats on the side as a tiny bonus. Plus icing on the cake for it all is the good quality buff.

I cannot agree with what you said though... It would be unfair to compare the unmelded Indagator's to Lodestar. The Indagator's were released such a long time ago... Most people would have pentamelded them ages ago to do Master Recipes for gear or Expert Recipes for Island Sanctuary stuff (for gil).

Most people would have pentamelded their Indagator's with Control and CP, so the final stats would be "Craft 1208, Control 698, CP 7".
Let's take a closer look:

Thus, if you're comparing the stats of Lodestar vs pentamelded Indagator's, the Lodestar actually has 47 more craftsmanship, 26 less control, and same amount of CP... 47 more crafts sounds great, but 26 less control is very undesirable for a lot of ppl who rely on macros to massively produce battle gear.

Personally, I had thrown away all my Indagator's when I had my Crystalline Tools already. The extra 0.25x on quality on Good condition proved to be too good when crafting Expert Recipes, and I didn't craft that much battle gear anyway. Thus, I've been having that extra 0.25x on quality on Goods since ages ago with the Crystalline Tools. Now that we've gone through 2 rounds of evolution for our relic tools, and yet it stays on that extra 0.25x on quality. That's disappointing. I was hoping it'd give something like, an extra 0.35x (so 1.85x instead of 1.75x)... That little bit would have made quite a big difference.

Since I had thrown away all my Indagator's and living with Brilliant Tools before the patch, the actual stats increase for me after all that work in this new Patch 6.51 were: 23+ craft & 17+ control... It really doesn't make that much of a difference when one is crafting Expert Recipes. It's definitely a bit better, but not by that much... Anyway who has been doing these since their introduction in ShB would agree that ultimately, 3 to 4 more fails on Rapid/Hasty or a few more Pliants or Goods would be the ultimate determinant of success or failure on the craft.

In summary, the real benefit of these Lodestar Tools are still just glamour... which even that I'm a bit disappointed... The Lodestar's base designs are quite cool, and I love the color transition... But they're quite subtle with their glow comparing to the Skybuilders' Tools... The only better part is that the Lodestar is dyeable while the Skybuilders' were not. As to why so small on our sides instead of being huge on our backs, I think it's because the Skybuilders' Tools were also like that... I think the game plans on releasing a equivalent of the ShB Resplendent Tools later, which will be huge on our backs.

SNIP

Yep, what you said is exactly how I felt!

[recommendations]

People actually did these manually? Why? There are some very nice bots to assist with this.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

People actually did these manually? Why? There are some very nice bots to assist with this.

Well, just imagine the "very nice bots" doing all the work for you to win your ultimate trials. What's the fun for that?

Some people like battles, some people like crafting. That's all.

[recommendations]

Well, just imagine the "very nice bots" doing all the work for you to win your ultimate trials. What's the fun for that?

Some people like battles, some people like crafting. That's all.

No complaints there. If you enjoy, you enjoy. I will take my sparkling tools (and weapons) via automated means. Square doesn't care anyway (this is just me bringing attention to bots - nothing personal).

[DrWho2010]

ugh please lets not turn this thread into another mods argument and have it closed. we don't need that here.