Crafting Blah Blah

[UltrosHoneyBear]

I spent a lot of time in P3 learning the crafts, this was then followed by my insane crafting binge during P4. I'm going to list are a bunch of crafting tips, as organized as I can make them. My level is too low to finish my original post, more to come.

A few conceptual ideals first. Crafting in FFXIV is meant to be cross classed, much much more so than your basic DoW or DoM. Starting at level 1 you will have an additional action slot that can be used, and at level 10 and every 5 after that you will get another. Crafting is also important as it is what is required to meld any material, you can have others with the required skill meld material for you, but if you want to DIY you are going to have to skill crafts. Synthesis is the command group which pushes up your progress, Touch is the command group which increases HQ

[UltrosHoneyBear]

Crafting is measured during synthesis by two bars, progress and quality. Progress is your 'completion' score, when it reaches max your item will be generated, the quality bar determines your chance to create a HQ. The % to get an HQ works on a sliding scale, as you near completion of the quality bar the chance to get an HQ will begin to sky rocket. It is also important to know for leveling, that based off how much quality you add to an item you will receive a multiplier to your earned Exp for the craft (and this is even, going from +50% to +300%). Therefore HQ results are not only important for better items but also because it drastically reduces your expenditure in leveling a craft. Quick synthesis, available at level 10, is a fine way to craft items far below your skill however produces very few HQ, possibility for breakage, and obliterates any Exp

[UltrosHoneyBear]

(you receive 50% of base, to get some scale, a craft that would net 100 could be boosted for 400 by HQ level but of quick synched will only ever net 50 Exp).

Your craftsmanship score determines how much progress is completed per synthesis and is measured against an item's crafting difficulty, control determines how much a successful touch increases your HQ, CP is your power pool used up by various crafting skills. Durability come in 40/60/70 although there may be other values I have yet to see. Until modified by further effects, each attempt to alter either the progress or HQ bar will remove 10 durability, unless the last command colleges the project when it hits zero durability your craft is a failure and you risk the loss of materials.

[UltrosHoneyBear]

There is an entire line of equipment devoted to crafting, I make my own, but if any crafters from our alliance are starting up I can provide sets of HQ crafting gear for levels 1-20 (currently) for cost plus a small requested tip for time. These gears massively improve your ability, and when you find yourself just a couple points away from shaving off one more synth attempt or being just a few CP away from a craft, foods play heavily as options.

[UltrosHoneyBear]

Each craft has multiple cross class skills, the first being at level 15, the next at 37, and another at 50 although again the high level sections are still nebulous to me. The level 37 skills are elemental 'brands' which will come into play at crafts at high levels as the crafts begin to take on elemental properties and begin to spark magic. The level 15 skills are the main power that increases as you begin to cross class. I HIGHLY suggest the very first craft you learn to be cooking as it has the most powerful single ability, Hasty Touch.

[McWinning]

thanks for the info!

[UltrosHoneyBear]

In the beginning you won't have any Touch skills and this transfers without level requirement to any other craft. This skill allows you to increase the quality score of a craft without sacrificing any cp. Two other crafts come in close second, alchemy grants Tricks of the Trade which can be used to gain 20 cp every time your craft enters the 'good' condition. Weaving offers Careful Synthesis, which is a risk free synthesis tool.

[UltrosHoneyBear]

A bit on condition. Most of the time the item's condition will be normal, however it can randomly result in a GOOD or EXCELLENT condition, Good offers a 50% bonus to quality added, while excellent is much more rare and offers a 300% bonus. These conditions only last for one step, so you either immediately strike with a touch or pass, the POOR condition always follows the EXCELLENT condition and halves any HQ progress. There will be more to this once the elements begin to play into the craft at higher levels

[UltrosHoneyBear]

Tradecraft levels are special because you can turn in HQ results, and are significantly rewarded by doing so as both the Gil and exp rewards are tripled. Additionally, upon reaching level 20, 'repeatable' quests are available, wherein you are given the chance to turn in the requested craft not just once, but up to three times, resulting in a 9x yield of the basic tradecraft turn in.

[UltrosHoneyBear]

You will develop a 'pattern' when you are crafting based off your available skills, available CP and the difficulty of the craft, While doing higher level crafts do give more exp, it is much more efficient to craft an item at or 1-2 levels below your current skill as you will be able to focus on boosting the quality and multiplying your exp as opposed to simply finishing the craft. When spamming recipes your goal should be first - to craft something useful or sellable and then secondly to be as cheap as possible.