Help on HQing Items!

[lBurnquist]

Hey guys, so I finally went for crafting and Im about lvl 30-ish Goldsmith, but still need some tips on how to High Quality items fast.
Well I use the Hasty Touch method, its simply:
I usually increase the progress bar so that it only requires another basic synthesis or whatever synthesis u want and then i go for Inner Quiet > Steady Hand > Spam Hasty Touch > Master's Mend 2 > reapply Steady Hand > spam Hasty Touch > finishing with a normal synthesis.
Now, I know its useful this method but, I can only HQ items that has lower level than me. I mean even if I use this on items with the same level as Im atm (30) I get like 70% of the quality bar, and the lower lvl ones I always get 100%.
So, saying that, I need help on other methods, just need to get HQ items that are the same lvl as me, I dont really need higher lvl than Iam.
So any tips, guides, rotation or whatever u guys know would be cool, so anyway,
Thanks!

[Nenin]

If you want a guarantee of HQing something hasty touch spam is the right way to go but that method kinda sucks without Waste Not (15 leatherworking, half durability loss for 4 turns) and Tricks of the Trade (15 alchemy, can use it to gain 20 CP on a turn with good condition).

To be honest when I'm leveling a new craft I never have the patience to max out quality on each synth. I'll use as few moves as possible to get it to a decent level then just finish it. My standard leveling rotation for quality involves Innovation (50 goldsmithing, +50% control for 3 turns) but you can do something like this:

Inner Quiet->Great Strides->Steady Hand->if good condition: strongest quality move available, if normal increase progress then use quality move on the next turn->more great strides + strongest touch until out of CP.



If you have the patience to pick up those two moves I mentioned earlier the easiest rotation is:

Inner Quiet->Waste Not->Hasty Touch spam->if durability is above 20 reapply Waste Not and resume spamming Hasty Touch->when durability gets low enough use Master's Mend or an equivalent move and keep going. The idea is to build up as many inner quiet charges as possible and then finish with a Great Strides + strong touch move. You use Tricks of the Trade EVERY time a good condition pops up before this point. It doesn't matter if Waste Not is up, use it anyway. Increase the progress when Waste Not is up as well. You might notice I don't use Steady Hand for this. I might if I had Steady Hand II but it's up to you.

With some extra moves to throw into the rotation like Comfort Zone and Rumination, and a bit of luck, you can turn a 40 durability craft into 40+ steps and end with 100% HQ and CP to spare. If you haven't already pick up some CP food from camp drybone for something like 35 gil each. It gives a 3% XP boost for 30 mins and extra CP means more mending.

http://i.imgur.com/N8fwAgA.jpg?1

[lBurnquist]

Yeah thats what I as looking for, thanks a lot man going for tests now!

[Kyra]

Get carp to 50 for bygrots blessing. That's all im going to say.

[gamersince1976]

Wow Kyra... so, you've been playing a while then, huh?

That's really REALLY impressive! Wow.

I had to look on the Lodestone just to see all those level 50's. How in the world did you keep the game interesting long enough to get all those? Just the Botany alone is starting to put me into a coma - and I LOVE this game!

[Cromax]

I'm going to have to completely disagree with Nenin here. Waste Not is very situation and not very good most of the time. Anytime you have to use an ability that doesn't use up durability, you're wasting a proc (such as using Tricks of the Trade on a "good"). For 40 durability synths, Manipulation is much better as its durability/cp value is never wasted. For higher durability synths, you're better of sticking with master's mend I/II to restore your durability.

The best advice I can give you is to get everything to 15 for those cross-class skills. They are all good in the right situation, but some are just amazing all the time. MVPs are Hasty Touch, Tricks of the Trade, Rumination, and Manipulation. I'm currently working on getting culinary to 37 for Steady Hand 2 because it seems amazing as well.

[Kyana]

The most important class for me is ALC for Tricks of Trade and Comfort Zone.
Blacksmith for Ingenuity II is great for reciepes at, or above your level (although it reduces effectiveness of Careful Synthesis on lower level reciepes which is strange)
Culinarian for Hasty Touch (don't use without Steady Hands if possible)
Goldsmithing for Innovation (this together with Inner Quiet, Ingenuity II and Great Strides creates some amazing quality numbers)
Weaver for Careful Synthesis I/II (100% success rate and 120% efficiency for Careful Synthesis II are great)

With these, Inner Quiet, Great Strides and Master's Mend I/II and Steady Hand I/II even HQing Twinthread, Darksteel, Rosegold,... becomes rather easy.

[Kyana]

For your level you are doing everything right.
Just don't rely on Hasty Touch and Master's Mend too much. It requires alot of CP to get high quality this way.
I did this too for quiet some time but you need some luck to get HQ like that.

It's better if you try to find a sweet spot for using Inner Quiet+Hasty Touch+Steady Hand and then topping it with a Great Strides+Standard/Advanced Touch for a big quality boost.

1. Grab all +CP items you can equip.
2. Inner Quiet+Steady Hand+Hasty Touch -> use Tricks of Trade as often as you can to get CP back.
3. Do 5-10 successful Hasty Touches with a Master's Mend in between.
4. Use Great Strides and try to get a "Good" item condition by doing 1-2 Careful Synthesis/Basic Systhesis.
5. Use the highest Touch ability you got for a big quality boost.
6. Repeat 4.+5. till you have 100% quality or run out of CP or durability.
7. Use Rumination to get CP back and use them for finishing the synth.

[Kyana]

After some tries you will know how many Careful/Basic Synthesis actions you will need to finish and what's a good number of Hasty Touches for the Inner Quiet boost.
Whenever you get excellent item condition, use the highest Touch ability you have. It's a big chunk of quality, even more if you have the Inner Quiet buff.

Don't get discouraged if you have problems HQing materials. The 40 durability make it harder to get high quality without the right abilities.
Finished items are easier to HQ, even with NQ materials.

I barely used HQ materials for any of my HQs. I think it makes crafting more interesting if it's not too easy...and the profits are better too ^^


EDIT: Stupid 1000 character limit ><

[Aceill]

Blacksmith for Ingenuity II is great for reciepes at, or above your level (although it reduces effectiveness of Careful Synthesis on lower level reciepes which is strange)

Can't say it's strange, as the recipe forces the equipment to a certain level regardless of its current level, so lower level recipes will increase in level. Works as intended.

If you're short on money, I recommend that you only level Carpentry to 50, Blacksmith to 15, Weaving to 15, Alchemy to 15, Goldsmith to 50, Culinarian to 37. Obviously you would aim to max as many of these as possible, but generally Byregot's Blessing, Ingenuity, Careful Synth I, Tricks of the Trade, Innovation, Manipulation, Hasty Touch and Steady Hand II are the most important cross class abilities to get to do the basic craft rotations.