Craft Theories

I wanted to have a place to talk about this since nobody is 100% sure exactly how crafting works. I think we could all greatly improve our skill ups and hq's by posting here and tring to come to a general consensus on how the world of crafting spins.

Something that I personally want to get a good disscussion on is how facing a certain star constellation helps improve crafting AND exactly how it helps improve crafting.

While it is commonly believed that facing the constellation of the element helps crafting in general, I wonder if it only helps skill ups and not HQ. I will explain.

When crafting on the day of the crystal element it is thought to help skillups, and help hq on the day the crystal is weak too. That leads me to believe the same applys for the constellations.

Another thing I wanted to talk about is that if you get Advance Synth Support, and lets say it adds 2 to your skill, would it then not allow you to skill up if the + 2 puts you above your skill cap. Samething applys with crafting equipment.

The reason this is important is because if you are crafting an item for skill points and you get advance synth while you are only 5-6 from capping the item, then your chances for skill points would greatly deminish.

This is an issue we really need to tackle because crafters tend to get advanced synth support as long as they are skilling up, without questioning if this is actually in someway hurting them. ( i'm very guilty of this )

One way we could test this for sure is to get to one level from capping an item and getting advanced synth and paying attention to see if it give you skill points. This will however take several crafters to test because of simple mistakes that could be made.

Another thing I wanted to talk about is if crafting in a zone that has the same weather element as your crystal do you have a better chance to skill up, and if so, would crafting in a zone opposite to your crystal give you a better chance for hq. Which is the more important question I think.

Some or all of this could be true or completely false, but i think we need to work on some of these things and pay close attention to how they affect our crafting, since crafting seems to be the driving force for most of us. ( me included )

Another one that i'm still not sure of is the HQ on New Moon and Skill/success on full moon or vice versa. This is the theory that people have been telling me so far. But from my own experiences, i've had more HQs during the full moon phases instead of the new moon phases.

As for this one, I can only speak from my own experience again. I don't remember if it'll still let you gain skill with advanced image support or not, but I did notice a bigger decrease in the amount of skillgains if I were to use Advanced Image support near the cap of the item.

Exactly DH,

That is exactly what i am talking about. I am wondering if we are kicking ourselves in the arse when we get advanced synth support close to the cap.

Thanks for the feedback, I hope others will post up as well or I wil be forced to mean mug you -->

When i was getting from 58-60 Goldsmithing, i didnt use synth support for platinum ingots, and my skill points went up pretty quickly. The only problem was that i had a lot more fails, but at the time, i didnt care how much money i was losing, i just wanted 60 so badly.

For most stuff though, i'll use skill support up until 3-5 lvls before the cap. An obvious exampe is Mythril Cuisses. Starting these at 52 is 9 under the cap, so this make Synth support a necessity in my opinion. But i noticed that as my lvls went up, my skill gains became less.

Also, i noticed that the amount of 0.2 and 0.3 skill gains greatly diminishes when synth support is up. Has anyone else noticed this at all?

I know that feeling all to well brotha.

Yeah I noticed this, thats one of the reasons I brought all this up.

to address 1 specific point: I never craft without my apron (+1.0). I'm working on a recipe which caps at 80.0. I've gotten myself up to 79.6, while I had my apron on all the time. So that implies that I've been crafting with a modified skill of up to 80.6 but getting 0.6 points of skillgain.

this isn't to say that apron bonuses work exactly the same way as imagery support, but just a concrete example.

Ugh. I don't even GET 0.2s anymore in Leather. It's either 0.1 or nothing >.>

I don't think I have ever ever gotten a 0.3 increase, and I count myself lucky if I get 0.2 increases.

-bastiches

I always stop using synth support about 4 levels before cap, I notice it helps get skillups a bit more often.

However, I used to always use synth support, and still could take items to cap with them, it just took a bit longer. (I don't have any crafting gear yet, so I can't say on those).

This tends to imply that synth support doesn't necessarily make your skill a few levels higher (As I still capped with it) but that it increases your success rate at the cost of your skillup rate.

When your 9 below cap, synth support is necessary to even have a chance of success, but as you get closer you don't need it to succeed. Since you can succeed without it, it's more beneficial (I find) to stop using support at this point.

Fixed, for i am bored, tired, and not thinking straight yar haar

Er..oh yea... 0.0 fits better:p

I've noticed a few things. For skill gains and HQ I always craft on the weak day. With Woodworking where I'm looking at a guaranteed loss no matter what, I'll take a few more breaks to get more skill. I've also noticed the dramatic drop in skill gain while using Adv. support near the cap of an item. I usually stop using it 2-4 levels before the cap, depending on the synth.

Here is my theory of full/new moon. Full Moon to me is more steady and more skill gains. I've noticed a lot more success and skill gain during a Full Moon along with a decent HQ rate. New Moon seems to almost "randomize" crafting more. Meaning I'm going to have more breaks/failures but also more chance of HQ's.

rofl

Is it possible that we are noticing less skill gain simply because we are closer to capping an item? <sigh> How difficult of a question.

That is possible Temis, but if that were the case why would our skill gains pick back up when we're not using Adv. Support? Square did a really good job with this crafting system, it's very deep but I still don't like the random chance of failure no matter how high you are.

Its unfortunate that items in the 90's will be next to impossible to hq synth