Macro Info
Class Macro examples
/equip main "Weathered Shortbow"
/equip pack "Warped Arrow"
/eaction 6 "Raging Strike"
/eaction 7 "Shadowbind"
/eaction 8 "Puncture"
/eaction 9 "Wide Volley"
The equipment slots are as follows, with the value in parens what you use in the command:
Main Hand (main)
Off Hand (sub)
Throwing weapon (throwing)
Pack-Ammo (pack)
Pouch-bait? Not sure (pouch)
Head (head)
Body (body)
Body (clothing) (shirt)
Legs (legs)
Legs (clothing) (garment)
Hands (hands)
Feet (feet)
Waist (waist)
Neck (neck)
Right Ear (R.ear)
Left Ear (L.ear)
Right Wrist (R.wrist)
Left Wrist (L.wrist)
Right Index Finger (R.index)
Left Index Finger (L.index)
Right Ring Finger (R.ring)
Left Ring Finger (L.ring)
Battle Macros
• /ac “Skill Name” <t>
Sub-commands:
<t> - Performs the selected action on the eligible target.
<st> - Selects a sub-target that is different from your regular target.
<me> - Selects yourself for the target. Make sure to use this sub-command for all self-casting abilities.
Ex:
/ac “Ferocity” <me>
/ac "Speed Surge" <me>
/ac "Doomspike" <t>
For casters:
• /aoe – Use this at the start and end of all AoE Spell Macros. By doing this, you turn AoE on to execute a spell, and back off once the cast has been finished.
/wait # – Prompts the macro to wait a certain number of seconds before performing the next line of action. Without the wait macro, the AoE will be toggled off before the spell finishes casting. Personally, I think 5 seconds is pretty much the perfect amount of wait time in a macro.
Ex:
/aoe
/ac "Sacrifice" <me>
/wait 5
/aoe
Battle Regiments
• /br on
/ac "Skill Name" <t>
Once the macro is activated, the Battle Regiment will begin. When everybody in the party is ready to activate the ability, just press the 'G' button and enjoy watching the various abilities get unleashed all at once!
The darkness will descend and consume you all!
Attributes (can be reassigned anytime slowly!)
As you come to change Disciplines, you will probably want to reassign them. In order to do this, go to the 'Attributes' tab and hit the 'Reassign' button. Currently, you can only reassign a small fraction of your points at a time. It takes a few hours between each reset, probably linked with the anima.
o Strength(STR) – Increases physical attack power
o Vitality (VIT) – Increases physical defense and HP.
o Dexterity (DEX) – Increases attack accuracy.
o Intelligence (INT) – Increases magical attack power.
o Mind (MND) – Increases magical defense and healing power. Also increases MP.
o Piety (PIE) – Increases magical accuracy.
o
o Fire beats ice, but loses to wind.
o Ice beats wind, but loses to fire.
o Wind beats fire, but loses to ice.
o Earth beats lightning, but loses to water.
o Lightning beats water, but loses to earth.
o Water beats earth, but loses to lightning.
Mobb Difficulty
o Blue – Very Easy
o Green – Easy
o Yellow – Even Match
o Orange – Stay Far Away
o Red – Stay Even Further Away
As you come to change Disciplines, you will probably want to reassign them. In order to do this, go to the 'Attributes' tab and hit the 'Reassign' button. Currently, you can only reassign a small fraction of your points at a time. It takes a few hours between each reset, probably linked with the anima.
o Strength(STR) – Increases physical attack power
o Vitality (VIT) – Increases physical defense and HP.
o Dexterity (DEX) – Increases attack accuracy.
o Intelligence (INT) – Increases magical attack power.
o Mind (MND) – Increases magical defense and healing power. Also increases MP.
o Piety (PIE) – Increases magical accuracy.
o
o Fire beats ice, but loses to wind.
o Ice beats wind, but loses to fire.
o Wind beats fire, but loses to ice.
o Earth beats lightning, but loses to water.
o Lightning beats water, but loses to earth.
o Water beats earth, but loses to lightning.
Mobb Difficulty
o Blue – Very Easy
o Green – Easy
o Yellow – Even Match
o Orange – Stay Far Away
o Red – Stay Even Further Away
last edited 762 weeks ago by Darknessangel
The darkness will descend and consume you all!
Equipment Repair
Repair Spots
o Ul'dah - Gogorano is located in the front of the city, just west of the Chocobo Stables.
o Gridania - Meara is located in the Ebony Stalls.
o Limsa Lominsa - Braitgonieux can be found in West Hawkers' Alley.
Now repair NPCs can only fix up your equipment to around 75% or so, which means it'll pretty much break right away after a little while. The real way to fix it up is a little more work.
First be sure to unequip the piece of equipment you want to repair. There aren't any helpful error messages just yet, so you'll just have to remember to do this. While you're looking at this piece of equipment, click on it in your inventory to get the equipment's detailed info screen. This screen will show you what item you need to repair it, as well as the base type of the equipment. Next, you'll need to switch to the proper crafting profession. This depends on the base type of the equipment, for example Tanner profession for leather goods, or Weaver for cloth, or Blacksmith for most weapons. Pugilists, note that a weapon requiring bone chips to repair (your weathered hora, for example) requires the Goldsmith profession to fix it up.
Once you have the right profession, the right repair item, and unequipped your gear, you can go back into your inventory and click on the "Repair" button, bringing you to the synthesis screen. Put your repair item into the material slot and fix up your gear!
Repair Spots
o Ul'dah - Gogorano is located in the front of the city, just west of the Chocobo Stables.
o Gridania - Meara is located in the Ebony Stalls.
o Limsa Lominsa - Braitgonieux can be found in West Hawkers' Alley.
Now repair NPCs can only fix up your equipment to around 75% or so, which means it'll pretty much break right away after a little while. The real way to fix it up is a little more work.
First be sure to unequip the piece of equipment you want to repair. There aren't any helpful error messages just yet, so you'll just have to remember to do this. While you're looking at this piece of equipment, click on it in your inventory to get the equipment's detailed info screen. This screen will show you what item you need to repair it, as well as the base type of the equipment. Next, you'll need to switch to the proper crafting profession. This depends on the base type of the equipment, for example Tanner profession for leather goods, or Weaver for cloth, or Blacksmith for most weapons. Pugilists, note that a weapon requiring bone chips to repair (your weathered hora, for example) requires the Goldsmith profession to fix it up.
Once you have the right profession, the right repair item, and unequipped your gear, you can go back into your inventory and click on the "Repair" button, bringing you to the synthesis screen. Put your repair item into the material slot and fix up your gear!
The darkness will descend and consume you all!
Leves and Behests
Always try to Party for Guildleves
Guildleves reset every 36 hours and you can do 8 leves within that time period; this is to switch between prime-times for Asia/Europe and the Americas. When you join a party, you also get to participate in their guildleves, too. This way, you can do way more than the standard 8 guildleves. With more access to levequests, you will reap more rewards in the form of experience, armor and gil. The higher difficulty levequests also grant better rewards upon completion, and can usually only be done with a good party.
Also you can link leves if multiple people in the group have them. Like normal someone will activate a leve. After it is activated anyone in the group can go to the aether node, and click link leve. both will complete this way and you will recieve additional benefits!
Behests
Behests have the same structure as guildleves, and participating in them doesn't count against the dreaded 48 hour levequest timer. If you would like to participate in a behest, check drop by your nearest aetheryte on the half hour and sign up for it. after 8 people have signed up no one else will be able to join for it.
It is recommended you form the party before the behest begins, once everyone is signed up and the behest beings you have a 20 min timer to complete. Also, Behest starts every 30 minutes. Now you just have to follow the yellow arrow, and kill the appropriate mobs. Once the objective is finished, you will be ready to reap the rewards.
The rewards in behests are actually quite similar to those in Guildleves, making them well worth your time. Once the objective has been finished, talk to the NPC that has been following you, and the awesome rewards will be good as yours!
Always try to Party for Guildleves
Guildleves reset every 36 hours and you can do 8 leves within that time period; this is to switch between prime-times for Asia/Europe and the Americas. When you join a party, you also get to participate in their guildleves, too. This way, you can do way more than the standard 8 guildleves. With more access to levequests, you will reap more rewards in the form of experience, armor and gil. The higher difficulty levequests also grant better rewards upon completion, and can usually only be done with a good party.
Also you can link leves if multiple people in the group have them. Like normal someone will activate a leve. After it is activated anyone in the group can go to the aether node, and click link leve. both will complete this way and you will recieve additional benefits!
Behests
Behests have the same structure as guildleves, and participating in them doesn't count against the dreaded 48 hour levequest timer. If you would like to participate in a behest, check drop by your nearest aetheryte on the half hour and sign up for it. after 8 people have signed up no one else will be able to join for it.
It is recommended you form the party before the behest begins, once everyone is signed up and the behest beings you have a 20 min timer to complete. Also, Behest starts every 30 minutes. Now you just have to follow the yellow arrow, and kill the appropriate mobs. Once the objective is finished, you will be ready to reap the rewards.
The rewards in behests are actually quite similar to those in Guildleves, making them well worth your time. Once the objective has been finished, talk to the NPC that has been following you, and the awesome rewards will be good as yours!
last edited 762 weeks ago by Darknessangel
The darkness will descend and consume you all!
• The Fatigue System is Experience Based
I know that a lot of people out there believe the Fatigue System in FFXIV is a time-based system, but that couldn't be further from the truth. For example, let's say I started the week playing a Gladiator. After a certain point, I get the notification that I am now receiving surplus experience. I can now do 1 of 2 things about this.
1. Keep playing my Gladiator, receiving reduced experience.
2. Switch over to another Discipline, and receive 100% experience.
Some things to add about surplus, there are 5 level of surplus, each reducing more SP until you get 0. It reset after a few days if you keep playing the same job, but it also resets faster if you level another job. Your exp will always stay yellow even if surplus is rested. You need to kill a mob to bring it back to white.
I know that a lot of people out there believe the Fatigue System in FFXIV is a time-based system, but that couldn't be further from the truth. For example, let's say I started the week playing a Gladiator. After a certain point, I get the notification that I am now receiving surplus experience. I can now do 1 of 2 things about this.
1. Keep playing my Gladiator, receiving reduced experience.
2. Switch over to another Discipline, and receive 100% experience.
Some things to add about surplus, there are 5 level of surplus, each reducing more SP until you get 0. It reset after a few days if you keep playing the same job, but it also resets faster if you level another job. Your exp will always stay yellow even if surplus is rested. You need to kill a mob to bring it back to white.
last edited 762 weeks ago by Darknessangel
The darkness will descend and consume you all!
Recipe lists: ffxiv.yg.com/ and http://www.ffxivorigin.com/db/search/
There are three stats that affect crafting, outside from your primary attributes themselves: Control, Craftsmanship, and Mag. Craftsmanship.
Control - Control affects how stable your synthesis will be. The more control you have, the better a chance of succeeding any given synthesis option you will have. Of course, the harder the synthesis, the more control you will need to maintain it. This stat is probably the most important stat for crafter's looking to level up, with no care to quality.
Craftsmanship - Craftsmanship affects the quality gain in your synthesis. The more of this you have, the more quality you can gain from succeeding a synthesis option. The harder the synthesis, the more you will need to keep up a solid quality gain.
Mag. Craftsmanship - I will be honest, I have not found a lot of information regarding this stat, and haven't developed a solid theory on what it does myself. The best I can say, is that it perhaps affects the stability of your elements during crafting, helping to prevent elements from becoming unstable. I will update this as I discover more.
Main Hand vs Off Hand
When crafting, you may wonder "Well, I have two tools, my main hand, and my off hand. Which should I use?" Excellent question! Until you recieve your first upgraded main hand tool (which in the release, can be obtained, and optimally used at rank 7), the two are fairly close. However, there are subtle differences. The level 1 main hand tool have the stats:
Craftsmanship: 9
Mag. Craftsmanship: 8
Control: 7
Whereas your offhand level 1 tool will have the following:
Craftsmanship: 7
Mag. Craftsmanship: 9
Control: 8
These differences are very tiny, but can make a difference when starting out. As your offhand has a greater control rating, than your mainhand, it would be best to use your offhand if you fear for failing your synthesis. This added point of control will help to keep your synthesis in order, and prevent failures. If, however, you are looking for quality, and want better appraisal rating, per say, for that local leve you are doing? Well then your main hand would be a better choice, as it has a higher craftsmanship than your offhand. I would only recommend that if you feel secure in your ability to complete the craft, however.
*Author's Personal Note*: When accepting local leve's, I recommend not accepting leve's that are higher than your current level. If its maybe 1 level ahead of you, thats ok, just make sure to get Master's level facility support (discussed in Miscellaneous). Guild leve's, while they give material rewards, also give an increased skill point reward for succeeding them. This makes them an invaluable skillup tool. Failing a higher level leve, when you could travel to another city and succeed a slightly lower leve, is wasting skill up points.
1. Progress - Of course, this is the progress of your synthesis. You must reach 100% without your durability hitting 0, to succeed and complete the synthesis.
Durability - Durability is reduced by nearly every synthesis action you take. It starts at or above 100. If you use a material that is +1/+2/+3, your durability will start higher than normal. If you reach 0 durability any time during your synth, even if you hit 100% progress, you will fail the synthesis.
Quality - Quality affects your chance of high-quality'ing a synthesis. The higher your quality, the higher the chance. With Local leves, quality plays a different role. Local leves take the quality you obtained for a single synthesis, and divides that number by the total amount of materials you are given for the local leve. It then adds that to a number called "Appraisal Value". This value will determine your ending reward, both item and gil wise, should you complete the leve. Quality gain on any synthesis attempt scales with difficulty. If the synth is above or at your level, dont expect to get the quality over 20-30 by the time you complete the synth. As you get increasingly higher in your levels, quality gain will start to come quicker, in larger chunks for each synthesis attempt. HQ'ing is still random. I've HQd with 54 durability, no touch-ups, and yet not with 117 quality, and multiple touch ups.
i. Synthesis Options
You will notice on the left hand side, that you have several options to choose from: "Standard Synthesis" "Rapid Synthesis" "Bold Synthesis" and "Wait". Any synthesis option you choose besides wait, has the capability to fail or succeed, or somewhere in between. When you use one, if you get the "The attempt Succeeds!" Or "The attempt fails!", then of course, you just succeeded or failed. If you dont see anything, just "You Use x Synthesis", thats where the inbetween falls in. Not a success, but not really a failure.. The results will be somewhere in between.
Standard Synthesis - This is your basic synthesis option. It is the most prone to succeed of the three synthesis options. At its top, you can gain up to 20% progress, with low to mid quality gain, and durability loss. Failing this synth will typically result in low to medium progress (3-10%), with a medium to high amount of durability loss, ranging from 11-20 loss (from personal experience). When it does succeed however, you can expect to recieve 10-20% progress, with a low durability loss (5-10), and variable quality gain based on your level compared with the synth's level.
Rapid Synthesis - This is the option for those crafters who want it now! This option has the highest progress gain, and lowest durability loss, but also the lowest, if any, quality gain. Dont think you can simply spam this option to always succeed, however. Consecutive failures can still result in 0 durability. At its peak, during a success, Rapid synthesis can net 30% progress, with next to no durability loss or quality gain. Failing will likely result in a tiny amount of progress, ranging from 1-10% gain (depending on orb stability and spark amount, discussed below). Succeeding can result in as low as 2-3 durability loss, while failing can result in 15-20 durability loss.
Bold Synthesis - This option is for those crafters who want to make a masterpiece! Bold synthesis offers the highest amount of quality gain, but also the lowest progress gain, and highest durability loss. If you find yourself very close to the finish of your synth, with lots of durability leftover, this is a great option for last minute quality gain. At its peak, succeeding can net 10% progress, with large amounts of quality, while only suffering a mild durability hit (5-15). Failing can be catastrophic, however, gaining no progress, no quality gain, and a large durability hit (typically 20-35). This is not a recommended option for a crafter looking to gain skill points only.
Wait - Waiting doesnt actually increase progress. It does however, have a very unique feature. If you are crafting, and your orb color (discussed below) is an unfavorable one, you may wait, at a chance of changing the color. Or if an element becomes unstable (also discussed below), waiting can possibly cause it to become stable again. Your first wait will cost 1 durability. Using "Wait" consecutively will cause an increasing loss to durability, going up by 1 each time. I personally only wait 2-3 times, before proceding with Standard, if the color is still unfavorable.
Solid White - This is the most stable form of your synthesis. All synthesis options here, Standard Rapid and Bold, have the highest rates of success in this form. Every synthesis will begin Solid white. The only downside to a Solid white Orb, that I've personally observed, is there is a decreased quality gain from success in a synthesis attempt.
Solid Yellow - Solid yellow orbs are a sort of mid point for synthesis, as far as progress, durability loss, and quality gain. They have a medium chance of success, with medium durability loss, and medium quality gain. It does not favor any particular aspect, and is thus great for someone with a mild interest in quality gain, yet still wants to complete the synth. YOu may cut it close on success, and you may not have super quality, but its decent enough for you, right? This is the yellow orb
Solid Red - This is a stable state, which favors quality gain, as per SE's official statement. This orb color favors quality gain, netting an increased gain in quality from successful synthesis attempts. However, this orb color also has a lower rate of success than yellow or white orbs do. As bold synthesis has the highest potential for quality gain, it is the most affected in this case. This does not mean that this orb color has an increased success rate for Bold synthesis. However, as a personal note, I will caution using bold on higher level synthesis recipes, unless you are a sufficient level higher than they. Unsuccessful bold synthesis attempts can result in large amounts of durability loss.
Flashing/Multi Colored - This is an unstable state. This is a risky time to attempt any synthesis. If you fail a synthesis attempt while the orb is flashing, you risk an element in your synthesis becoming unstable. Unstable elements will persist until they become stable again by either successful synthesis attempts, or by waiting. If you attempt a synthesis option, and fail, the unstable element can possibly explode, or "Grow Chaotic". This will result in a massive durability loss, and even losing 1/2 of your total quality, which nobody wants. The upside to a flashing orb, if you succeed a synthesis, particularly standard or bold, you will experience a much increased quality gain. Personally, Ive gained 115 from Bold, or 65 from standard, by succeeding during a flashing orb. Its a risky process however, so be warned.
Other animations that can be experienced during synthesis are:
Sparks - Another affect that can be experienced while crafting, is sparks that will fly out from the orb. These will start to occur after repeated failing of a synth. Bold or Rapid synthesis attempts that fail will cause them to appear faster than standard will. These sparks can grow increasingly, the more you fail. What they do, is cause your overall success rate for any type of synthesis to decrease, cause the progress of successes to be lower, and cause overall durability loss to be higher. You need to be careful with these, as there is no way to decrease them, and they can quickly snowball into a broken synthesis.
Unstable Elements - This is cause by a failure of a synthesis, and it looks like a colored wiggly ring around your synthesis orb. The color of the ring dictates the element that is currently unstable. While you have an unstable element, your success rate is lowered, and your progress gain is decreased, with higher durability loss. An unstable element can grow chaotic, causing large amounts of durability loss, and halving your current quality. They can also become stable again, with successful synthesis attempts, or by Waiting.
There are 4-6 types of crafting outcomes and they are affected by the orb color.
Types:
Total Success - Signified by high note + large shine from orb
For Standard Synthesis: 0 Durability loss, 5+ Quality Gain, 15-20% Progress
For Rapid Synthesis: 5-10 Durability loss, 1-3 Quality Gain, 20-30% Progress
For Bold Synthesis: 0-5 Durability loss, 10+ Quality Gain, 10-15% Progress
Moderate Success - Signified by medium-sized shine from orb and a high note, though lower than Total Success
For Standard Synthesis: 1-8 Durability loss, 1-4 Quality Gain, 10-20% Progress
For Rapid Synthesis: 5-10 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, 15-30% Progress
For Bold Synthesis: 1-10 Durability loss, 5-15 Quality Gain, 5-10% Progress
I-Don't-Know-What-To-Call-It-Success - Signified by very small shine and the lowest of the 3 high “success” notes; usually only occurs when attempting recipes above your rank
For Standard Synthesis: 6-12 Durability Loss, 1-4 Quality Gain, 8-12% Progress (Within 2 points of the durability loss)
For Rapid Synthesis: 5-10 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, 10-20% Progress (a little bit more than the durability loss)
For Bold Synthesis: 8-12 Durability loss, 5-11 Quality Gain (about the same as the durability loss), 1-7% Progress
Normal Failure - Small explosion animation
For Standard Synthesis: 10-15 Durability Loss, no Quality Gain, 5-10% Progress
For Rapid Synthesis: 10-20 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, 5-10% Progress
For Bold Synthesis: 10-15 Durability loss, 0-5 Quality Gain, 1-5% Progress
Total Failure - Huge Explosion, if attempting Rank 10+ recipe, elemental instability has a high chance of occurring afterwards
For Standard Synthesis: 10-20 Durability Loss, no Quality Gain, 1-7% Progress
For Rapid Synthesis: 10-25 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, 1-10% Progress
For Bold Synthesis: 20-40 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, no Progress
1. Author's Personal Note*: In my experience as a blacksmith crafter in release thus far, I would like to give an indication as to how I personally craft. Starting out, I like to begin with Rapid, as the orb is in a perfect condition to do this, with no instability created yet. Past that, based on orb color, I use -only- Standard or Rapid. I try to shy away from rapid, unless Im really falling behind and need a progress boost. The reason for this is Rapid synthesis, in a harder synth, will generate sparks within 2 failed attempts, which will make the synth that much harder. Standard will not generate these sparks quite as quickly, but still can after multiple failed attempts. If when I get to roughly 80% completion, and I still have 50+ durability, I will attempt a bold synthesis, two if the first succeeds with minimal durability loss. As a smith, I have access to abilities that help with this (Blacksmithings Maker's Muse, and Armorsmith'ing Blinding Speed), that increase success with Standard synthesis and Rapid synthesis, so this strategy works well for me.
iii. Success!
By choosing your synthesis options wisely, and weighing the risks, you may or may not find yourself at 100% progress, with some amount of durability left. You know what that means, right? Success! But wait…. what do you do now? Well, depending on what you were making, the may have 1, or 2 options. If you were making a part, or a reagent in itself, you may simply finish, gain your skill points and experience points, and do it all again!
But if you were making a finished product, you have a second option. When you reach 100% progress, with more than 0 durability, your normal synthesis options are replaced with "Finish" and if you were making a piece of gear, or weapon, you will also have the option "Touch up". Touch up allows you to attempt to improve the quality of your item using your leftover durability. Each time you use it, it drains a bit of durability, in an attempt o add quality, and possible +1/+2/+3 your item. Be warned, the lower the finishing quality of the item, the more durability each touch up will use. You will not see your actual quality amount increase with Touch up. And dont think "Well, I wont be able to HQ anything for a while, im still a low level crafter". Wrong! You can HQ while skilling on a synthesis. Its quite possible, and quite doable. The HQ rate is fairly random, that I can tell so far, but it is quite possible to do as a lower level crafter.
i. Skills required and Facility Support
While you are crafting, you may come across a synthesis that says it requires a certain skill to be able to make. "Darn, I cant make this then!" You may think. This, however, is very misleading. Without the skill, it will be harder to complete the synthesis than normal, but it can still be done. The synthesis will just feel a few levels higher than it really should be. Skills can be obtained through purchase using Guild Marks for your craft. Guild Marks can be obtained from upper level Local Guild leve's, as an occasional reward for completing one. Personally Ive never seen them as a reward, but I believe this starts coming into play at about rank 20.
Another thing you may see in your synthesis, is it telling you that you need facilities, to synthesize that item. Like skill training, the facility is not required, but it will become more difficult to create without it. This, however, is much more readily available to you. There are three places at which you can gain Facility support:
1. The Guild that houses that craft
2. The repair NPC in every town.
3. Facility managers at each Camp area.
The guilds are the only places where you can obtain the highest level synthesis support, Master rank. Facility support, besides helping with certain synthesis, will in general help you to succeed your synths. Support is not free, however. There is a fee behind it, that increases as your level goes up. At level 1, I believe Master rank support is 500 gil, Guild rank support is 250 gil, and Common rank support is 150 gil. If you are performing a synthesis that is at or above your level, I would always recommend the Master support. Its isn't too expensive, and can mean the difference between a failure and success. If you are a bit above the synths level, but still feel a bit edgy, or maybe are making something for someone else, Common or Guild rank should cover you nicely.
There are three stats that affect crafting, outside from your primary attributes themselves: Control, Craftsmanship, and Mag. Craftsmanship.
Control - Control affects how stable your synthesis will be. The more control you have, the better a chance of succeeding any given synthesis option you will have. Of course, the harder the synthesis, the more control you will need to maintain it. This stat is probably the most important stat for crafter's looking to level up, with no care to quality.
Craftsmanship - Craftsmanship affects the quality gain in your synthesis. The more of this you have, the more quality you can gain from succeeding a synthesis option. The harder the synthesis, the more you will need to keep up a solid quality gain.
Mag. Craftsmanship - I will be honest, I have not found a lot of information regarding this stat, and haven't developed a solid theory on what it does myself. The best I can say, is that it perhaps affects the stability of your elements during crafting, helping to prevent elements from becoming unstable. I will update this as I discover more.
Main Hand vs Off Hand
When crafting, you may wonder "Well, I have two tools, my main hand, and my off hand. Which should I use?" Excellent question! Until you recieve your first upgraded main hand tool (which in the release, can be obtained, and optimally used at rank 7), the two are fairly close. However, there are subtle differences. The level 1 main hand tool have the stats:
Craftsmanship: 9
Mag. Craftsmanship: 8
Control: 7
Whereas your offhand level 1 tool will have the following:
Craftsmanship: 7
Mag. Craftsmanship: 9
Control: 8
These differences are very tiny, but can make a difference when starting out. As your offhand has a greater control rating, than your mainhand, it would be best to use your offhand if you fear for failing your synthesis. This added point of control will help to keep your synthesis in order, and prevent failures. If, however, you are looking for quality, and want better appraisal rating, per say, for that local leve you are doing? Well then your main hand would be a better choice, as it has a higher craftsmanship than your offhand. I would only recommend that if you feel secure in your ability to complete the craft, however.
*Author's Personal Note*: When accepting local leve's, I recommend not accepting leve's that are higher than your current level. If its maybe 1 level ahead of you, thats ok, just make sure to get Master's level facility support (discussed in Miscellaneous). Guild leve's, while they give material rewards, also give an increased skill point reward for succeeding them. This makes them an invaluable skillup tool. Failing a higher level leve, when you could travel to another city and succeed a slightly lower leve, is wasting skill up points.
1. Progress - Of course, this is the progress of your synthesis. You must reach 100% without your durability hitting 0, to succeed and complete the synthesis.
Durability - Durability is reduced by nearly every synthesis action you take. It starts at or above 100. If you use a material that is +1/+2/+3, your durability will start higher than normal. If you reach 0 durability any time during your synth, even if you hit 100% progress, you will fail the synthesis.
Quality - Quality affects your chance of high-quality'ing a synthesis. The higher your quality, the higher the chance. With Local leves, quality plays a different role. Local leves take the quality you obtained for a single synthesis, and divides that number by the total amount of materials you are given for the local leve. It then adds that to a number called "Appraisal Value". This value will determine your ending reward, both item and gil wise, should you complete the leve. Quality gain on any synthesis attempt scales with difficulty. If the synth is above or at your level, dont expect to get the quality over 20-30 by the time you complete the synth. As you get increasingly higher in your levels, quality gain will start to come quicker, in larger chunks for each synthesis attempt. HQ'ing is still random. I've HQd with 54 durability, no touch-ups, and yet not with 117 quality, and multiple touch ups.
i. Synthesis Options
You will notice on the left hand side, that you have several options to choose from: "Standard Synthesis" "Rapid Synthesis" "Bold Synthesis" and "Wait". Any synthesis option you choose besides wait, has the capability to fail or succeed, or somewhere in between. When you use one, if you get the "The attempt Succeeds!" Or "The attempt fails!", then of course, you just succeeded or failed. If you dont see anything, just "You Use x Synthesis", thats where the inbetween falls in. Not a success, but not really a failure.. The results will be somewhere in between.
Standard Synthesis - This is your basic synthesis option. It is the most prone to succeed of the three synthesis options. At its top, you can gain up to 20% progress, with low to mid quality gain, and durability loss. Failing this synth will typically result in low to medium progress (3-10%), with a medium to high amount of durability loss, ranging from 11-20 loss (from personal experience). When it does succeed however, you can expect to recieve 10-20% progress, with a low durability loss (5-10), and variable quality gain based on your level compared with the synth's level.
Rapid Synthesis - This is the option for those crafters who want it now! This option has the highest progress gain, and lowest durability loss, but also the lowest, if any, quality gain. Dont think you can simply spam this option to always succeed, however. Consecutive failures can still result in 0 durability. At its peak, during a success, Rapid synthesis can net 30% progress, with next to no durability loss or quality gain. Failing will likely result in a tiny amount of progress, ranging from 1-10% gain (depending on orb stability and spark amount, discussed below). Succeeding can result in as low as 2-3 durability loss, while failing can result in 15-20 durability loss.
Bold Synthesis - This option is for those crafters who want to make a masterpiece! Bold synthesis offers the highest amount of quality gain, but also the lowest progress gain, and highest durability loss. If you find yourself very close to the finish of your synth, with lots of durability leftover, this is a great option for last minute quality gain. At its peak, succeeding can net 10% progress, with large amounts of quality, while only suffering a mild durability hit (5-15). Failing can be catastrophic, however, gaining no progress, no quality gain, and a large durability hit (typically 20-35). This is not a recommended option for a crafter looking to gain skill points only.
Wait - Waiting doesnt actually increase progress. It does however, have a very unique feature. If you are crafting, and your orb color (discussed below) is an unfavorable one, you may wait, at a chance of changing the color. Or if an element becomes unstable (also discussed below), waiting can possibly cause it to become stable again. Your first wait will cost 1 durability. Using "Wait" consecutively will cause an increasing loss to durability, going up by 1 each time. I personally only wait 2-3 times, before proceding with Standard, if the color is still unfavorable.
Solid White - This is the most stable form of your synthesis. All synthesis options here, Standard Rapid and Bold, have the highest rates of success in this form. Every synthesis will begin Solid white. The only downside to a Solid white Orb, that I've personally observed, is there is a decreased quality gain from success in a synthesis attempt.
Solid Yellow - Solid yellow orbs are a sort of mid point for synthesis, as far as progress, durability loss, and quality gain. They have a medium chance of success, with medium durability loss, and medium quality gain. It does not favor any particular aspect, and is thus great for someone with a mild interest in quality gain, yet still wants to complete the synth. YOu may cut it close on success, and you may not have super quality, but its decent enough for you, right? This is the yellow orb
Solid Red - This is a stable state, which favors quality gain, as per SE's official statement. This orb color favors quality gain, netting an increased gain in quality from successful synthesis attempts. However, this orb color also has a lower rate of success than yellow or white orbs do. As bold synthesis has the highest potential for quality gain, it is the most affected in this case. This does not mean that this orb color has an increased success rate for Bold synthesis. However, as a personal note, I will caution using bold on higher level synthesis recipes, unless you are a sufficient level higher than they. Unsuccessful bold synthesis attempts can result in large amounts of durability loss.
Flashing/Multi Colored - This is an unstable state. This is a risky time to attempt any synthesis. If you fail a synthesis attempt while the orb is flashing, you risk an element in your synthesis becoming unstable. Unstable elements will persist until they become stable again by either successful synthesis attempts, or by waiting. If you attempt a synthesis option, and fail, the unstable element can possibly explode, or "Grow Chaotic". This will result in a massive durability loss, and even losing 1/2 of your total quality, which nobody wants. The upside to a flashing orb, if you succeed a synthesis, particularly standard or bold, you will experience a much increased quality gain. Personally, Ive gained 115 from Bold, or 65 from standard, by succeeding during a flashing orb. Its a risky process however, so be warned.
Other animations that can be experienced during synthesis are:
Sparks - Another affect that can be experienced while crafting, is sparks that will fly out from the orb. These will start to occur after repeated failing of a synth. Bold or Rapid synthesis attempts that fail will cause them to appear faster than standard will. These sparks can grow increasingly, the more you fail. What they do, is cause your overall success rate for any type of synthesis to decrease, cause the progress of successes to be lower, and cause overall durability loss to be higher. You need to be careful with these, as there is no way to decrease them, and they can quickly snowball into a broken synthesis.
Unstable Elements - This is cause by a failure of a synthesis, and it looks like a colored wiggly ring around your synthesis orb. The color of the ring dictates the element that is currently unstable. While you have an unstable element, your success rate is lowered, and your progress gain is decreased, with higher durability loss. An unstable element can grow chaotic, causing large amounts of durability loss, and halving your current quality. They can also become stable again, with successful synthesis attempts, or by Waiting.
There are 4-6 types of crafting outcomes and they are affected by the orb color.
Types:
Total Success - Signified by high note + large shine from orb
For Standard Synthesis: 0 Durability loss, 5+ Quality Gain, 15-20% Progress
For Rapid Synthesis: 5-10 Durability loss, 1-3 Quality Gain, 20-30% Progress
For Bold Synthesis: 0-5 Durability loss, 10+ Quality Gain, 10-15% Progress
Moderate Success - Signified by medium-sized shine from orb and a high note, though lower than Total Success
For Standard Synthesis: 1-8 Durability loss, 1-4 Quality Gain, 10-20% Progress
For Rapid Synthesis: 5-10 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, 15-30% Progress
For Bold Synthesis: 1-10 Durability loss, 5-15 Quality Gain, 5-10% Progress
I-Don't-Know-What-To-Call-It-Success - Signified by very small shine and the lowest of the 3 high “success” notes; usually only occurs when attempting recipes above your rank
For Standard Synthesis: 6-12 Durability Loss, 1-4 Quality Gain, 8-12% Progress (Within 2 points of the durability loss)
For Rapid Synthesis: 5-10 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, 10-20% Progress (a little bit more than the durability loss)
For Bold Synthesis: 8-12 Durability loss, 5-11 Quality Gain (about the same as the durability loss), 1-7% Progress
Normal Failure - Small explosion animation
For Standard Synthesis: 10-15 Durability Loss, no Quality Gain, 5-10% Progress
For Rapid Synthesis: 10-20 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, 5-10% Progress
For Bold Synthesis: 10-15 Durability loss, 0-5 Quality Gain, 1-5% Progress
Total Failure - Huge Explosion, if attempting Rank 10+ recipe, elemental instability has a high chance of occurring afterwards
For Standard Synthesis: 10-20 Durability Loss, no Quality Gain, 1-7% Progress
For Rapid Synthesis: 10-25 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, 1-10% Progress
For Bold Synthesis: 20-40 Durability loss, no Quality Gain, no Progress
1. Author's Personal Note*: In my experience as a blacksmith crafter in release thus far, I would like to give an indication as to how I personally craft. Starting out, I like to begin with Rapid, as the orb is in a perfect condition to do this, with no instability created yet. Past that, based on orb color, I use -only- Standard or Rapid. I try to shy away from rapid, unless Im really falling behind and need a progress boost. The reason for this is Rapid synthesis, in a harder synth, will generate sparks within 2 failed attempts, which will make the synth that much harder. Standard will not generate these sparks quite as quickly, but still can after multiple failed attempts. If when I get to roughly 80% completion, and I still have 50+ durability, I will attempt a bold synthesis, two if the first succeeds with minimal durability loss. As a smith, I have access to abilities that help with this (Blacksmithings Maker's Muse, and Armorsmith'ing Blinding Speed), that increase success with Standard synthesis and Rapid synthesis, so this strategy works well for me.
iii. Success!
By choosing your synthesis options wisely, and weighing the risks, you may or may not find yourself at 100% progress, with some amount of durability left. You know what that means, right? Success! But wait…. what do you do now? Well, depending on what you were making, the may have 1, or 2 options. If you were making a part, or a reagent in itself, you may simply finish, gain your skill points and experience points, and do it all again!
But if you were making a finished product, you have a second option. When you reach 100% progress, with more than 0 durability, your normal synthesis options are replaced with "Finish" and if you were making a piece of gear, or weapon, you will also have the option "Touch up". Touch up allows you to attempt to improve the quality of your item using your leftover durability. Each time you use it, it drains a bit of durability, in an attempt o add quality, and possible +1/+2/+3 your item. Be warned, the lower the finishing quality of the item, the more durability each touch up will use. You will not see your actual quality amount increase with Touch up. And dont think "Well, I wont be able to HQ anything for a while, im still a low level crafter". Wrong! You can HQ while skilling on a synthesis. Its quite possible, and quite doable. The HQ rate is fairly random, that I can tell so far, but it is quite possible to do as a lower level crafter.
i. Skills required and Facility Support
While you are crafting, you may come across a synthesis that says it requires a certain skill to be able to make. "Darn, I cant make this then!" You may think. This, however, is very misleading. Without the skill, it will be harder to complete the synthesis than normal, but it can still be done. The synthesis will just feel a few levels higher than it really should be. Skills can be obtained through purchase using Guild Marks for your craft. Guild Marks can be obtained from upper level Local Guild leve's, as an occasional reward for completing one. Personally Ive never seen them as a reward, but I believe this starts coming into play at about rank 20.
Another thing you may see in your synthesis, is it telling you that you need facilities, to synthesize that item. Like skill training, the facility is not required, but it will become more difficult to create without it. This, however, is much more readily available to you. There are three places at which you can gain Facility support:
1. The Guild that houses that craft
2. The repair NPC in every town.
3. Facility managers at each Camp area.
The guilds are the only places where you can obtain the highest level synthesis support, Master rank. Facility support, besides helping with certain synthesis, will in general help you to succeed your synths. Support is not free, however. There is a fee behind it, that increases as your level goes up. At level 1, I believe Master rank support is 500 gil, Guild rank support is 250 gil, and Common rank support is 150 gil. If you are performing a synthesis that is at or above your level, I would always recommend the Master support. Its isn't too expensive, and can mean the difference between a failure and success. If you are a bit above the synths level, but still feel a bit edgy, or maybe are making something for someone else, Common or Guild rank should cover you nicely.
last edited 762 weeks ago by Darknessangel
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Darknessangel Admin replied
762 weeks ago