First craft around

[Ralliare]

I've been speaking to my friend about crafting and gotten some useful info. However some thins have fallen down. He almost has every craft at 46+ so he has access to extremely powerful skills.

I currently have every craft at 10, working on Blacksmithing 19+

I have a full set of gear going mad on Control due to some arcing problems at lower leveles. but I'm still having issues.

How high above my lv should I craft?
What food is best for low lv?
What crafting stat should I push?
Is it worth going for lower lv crafts that I can quality+ on for the EXP?
What skills are best from my low lv pool? I'm currently using makers muse and the 50% quality bonus skill.

[Endless]

Craftsmanship and M. Craftsmanship, Control reduces the chance of unstable elements.

For lover levels with minimal abilities Maker's Muse is your friend what I do is Maker's Muse at the start to get to 50-60 progress, then use careful. You need to gauge how much durability you have left so you don't break it.

Standards are between 10-12 durability loss per use
Careful are 8-10 durability loss per use
Rapids are 20+ if you fail but 0 in successful (low chance of success)

You want to do 5 levels above, that will give you good xp and wont be too hard to complete also always get crafting support from the corresponding guild.

This might not be the most effective way to do it but it works for me and I have been using it for a long time.

[Mikita]

Very good advice from Endless.

If you are having elemental instability problems, try to stack Control to reduce this. In addition to clothing and tools, a little Control can also be gained from Seafood dishes.

When leveling up a craft at lower levels I think the main thing is to go for a recipe 5 levels higher and make sure you can complete the synthesis first. Quality bonuses are a nice extra. Rested Bonus and Engineering Manuals are also great. ^^

Once you have more abilities to ensure you can complete the synthesis you can start going for recipes about 10 levels higher. But it really helps to have abilities like Meticulous Mind (Goldsmith L30) or Comfort Zone (Alchemist L36) and ultimately Greater Calling (Blacksmith L45); or any of the durability restoration abilities at your disposal to make sure you don't fail.

[Ralliare]

Thanks for the info, pretty much everything I've been doing, good to know I am not missing anything major.

Though just to check, control helps reduce the little round lightning halo that goes around the orb yes?

[Raldo]

That, and it reduces the chances of aetherial sparking (sparks flying out of your synth -- reduces success).

[Ralliare]

Ahh right, Unless I'm missing something obvious I don;t think I've had sparking since the revamp to the crafting system.

Manage to get BSM to 30, I now see how much easier going around crafts the second time could be. The BSM 30 skill to lower the craft to my lv and makers muse combined, I could do crafts way above my lv. All the quality + ones combined must make EXPing easy as sin.

[Mikita]

Ahh right, Unless I'm missing something obvious I don;t think I've had sparking since the revamp to the crafting system.

Manage to get BSM to 30, I now see how much easier going around crafts the second time could be. The BSM 30 skill to lower the craft to my lv and makers muse combined, I could do crafts way above my lv. All the quality + ones combined must make EXPing easy as sin.

You do get a lot more EXP as you use abilities to raise the Quality. With Rested Bonus and Engineering Manuals, 2000+ per synth is very common. 5000+ per synth is also possible when the stars align in your favor. ^^

But of course the amount needed to go up to the next level also goes up, so it's still quite a grind.

I think Aetherial sparking only happens as a visual cue that your synth is in trouble... I haven't noticed any negative effect on the synthesis process even when it is sparking. But usually at that point I'm just trying to raise the Quality as much as possible before finishing it off.

[Loony_BoB]

For abilities...

For the early levels...
1. Maker's Muse
2. Sure and Steady (or Fulfillment - same thing)
3 and 4. Aspect Balance if you're having trouble with the elements/sparking, Make the Most if elements are fine but you run out of durability often, Masterpiece or Pride of Labor if you're doing just fine. Alternatively, use whichever of Sure & Steady / Fulfillment you haven't already got in place.
5. Brand of ____

Level 25+
When you get things to 25+, you'll be able to use five skills. When you get things to 30+, you can get access to the better skills. Personally, I prefer going for something like this...
1. (Quality). Something that increases quality for the next three turns.
2. (Progress). Something that increases progress for the next three turns.
3. (Advance). Something that increases progress with no loss of durability.
4. (Durability). Something that increases durability.
5. (Brand). Brand of [Element], as when I craft to level, I like to push careful a lot and it usually results in elemental instability at some point. This can be a life saver in such cases, and sometimes can boost quality by 100 if you play your elements right for the craft. Some might say that Brand is a waste of another ability, but when I craft I find that elements go unstable often enough when focusing on quality that it warrants this. Perhaps when at L50 it's not required, but when you are doing crafts 5-10 levels over your crafter level, it's likely you'll need this on every few crafts.

Level 40+
If you get to the 40+ levels, I don't think you'll need any more help from us - you should be able to look at the skills you have unlocked and know exactly what you need and when.

Progress Targets
For me, I like to keep in mind a couple of progres targets. The initial target relies on the final target, so I'll explain them 'backwards'.

The final target is key - it's 100% minus whatever you can get out of (Advance). So if you have a skill that advances your progress by 20%, your final target is 80%, because you can just advance the rest should you run out of durability. Your main aim will be to get to 80% before you get your durability below 10-12.

Your initial target is generally around 30-40% before your final target - basically, this is where you want to get to and feel comfortable that you can just use careful for the rest of the craft.

How I Craft

I'm by no means an expert at all, but I do manage 250+ quality on almost all my crafts, even those 8-10 levels above my crafter's level. Crafts around 5 levels up I hope for 300+ quality without question (so basically all leve crafts). I like to think I do okay!

Firstly, I use my quality bonuses on thre carefuls early because I hate not having used them later on should I come into trouble with elemental instability or just really poor luck with standards. Secondly, I progress via standards to my initial target, at which point I know that I should be able to use carefuls exclusively from that point onwards (assuming elemental stability). Thirdly, I do those non-stop carefuls knowing I'll pass the final target. Then I do what carefuls I still can before (if neccessary) using the advancing ability to finish the craft.

In detail...

Stage One: Make Use of Quality Before It's Too Late
1. Start off with (Quality) and do careful for three turns - even if it goes unstable.
2. If element does go unstable, use (Brand) after the three turns.
3. If the colour is red or rainbow, use (Durability), should you have something that does this. Hopefully it changes to white or yellow, which I find to be better. If you don't use this now, you can use it later,

Stage Two: Get to a Reasonable Position
4. Use (Progress). How you play the next three steps depends on the individual, but basically you are looking to get to your intial target (something like 30-40% less than your final target) using Standard, and then use Careful after that. How far you go depends mostly on your skillset - you should get a feeling for how far you can push your luck on this end.
5. If element is unstable, still do standard or careful for the three steps as you don't want to waste them. Use (Brand) if you still have it afterwards. If it's a rare occasion that it's gone unstable twice, then consider yourself unlucky and just play things out as best as you can, because there's not much you can do but pray for good luck!
6. If you haven't used (Durability) yet, do it now, or whenever a red/rainbow colour next turns up.

Stage Three: Careful Does It
7. This is where I spam on Careful. Keep a close eye on your durability. Over time you should have a good idea how much durability each careful/standard will use up, and predict when you need to switch from carefuls to standards should your durability be heading down. Your intention is to reach your final target (and hopefully beyond, if you have spare durability) using careful synthesis. If your durability is too low or your craft goes unstable, switch to standards if you need faster progression.
8. It probably goes without saying, but if you come into elemental instability at any point from now and you still have (Brand) available, make use of it.
9. Once you reach your final target, if you have durability, use it up. If you don't have the required durability, use (Advance). Personally, my durability goes down by around 10 max for each standard or careful synthesis action. So if I have 11 durability left, I know I can keep going. If I have 10 durability left, it's a risk I'm not personally willing to take, and I use (Advance).
10. Don't Double Down. It's never worth the risk in my experience.

[Ralliare]

Pretty much what I've been doing. but ... what;s this I hear about the stars?

There was so much compass BS in FFXI about the stars, did we actually work it out in FFXIV? if so link meeeee!

[Raldo]

Pretty sure that "when the stars align in your favor" was merely an expression, not to be taken literally.

Unless you're referring to something else; I just did Ctrl+F for "stars".