(Guide) Tips and Tricks for Crafting by Godot_12

[Endless Winter]

I've been crafting a fair bit in FFXIV (got lvl 50 GSM, 26 BSM, 18 WVR, 15 ARM), and I thought I'd share some things I've learned with people who might be new to crafting.
1) You can pretty much get to about lvl 15 in any craft with the shards they give you from starter quests, and it's a pretty good idea to get a few different classes to lvl 15 as you will receive a cross class ability. The best ones imo are "Careful Synthesis" (WVR), "Waste Not" (LTW), Tricks of the Trade (ALC) and "Hasty Touch" (CUL). Of course basically all of them will give you an advantage, but Careful Synthesis is a staple, and is one of the best level 15 abilities.
1edit) As /u/topshelf821 and /u/vinto923 and others pointed out, Hasty Touch combined with Inner Quiet, Tricks of the Trade, Master's Mend and Byregot's Blessing, is excellent for extending the crafting process and getting quality up to 100%. Check out their posts here for some more info
2) As I said it's a good idea to get multiple classes to 15 and the quests for lvls 1, 5, and 10 give you shards, so when you find yourself running low on shards, they make a great source for easy shards.
3) When you first start, I recommend talking to the guild supplier, opening up your crafting log, and buying everything you need for the first set of recipes. Then just go to town making 1 of each item. Any time you get a new list you should prioritize checking off each item because you get a nice bonus for the first one you make.
Edit Check out http://craftingasaservice.com for assistance in finding exactly what materials you need and where to get them (credit to /u/Tickthokk). Besides that I've found http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com to be a useful site as well.
3) When there is a new ingot (or other material that will be used frequently in future recipes like cloths if you're a WVR and leather if you're a LTW), you should pound out as many of those ingots/materials as you can stand. Better yet, figure out how many will need in all the future recipes and make that many (plus a couple extra perhaps).
4) Anytime you can do your class quest, do it.
5) Save levequests for when you've already made all the ingots (or w/e materials) you'll be needing, you've already made 1 of everything that you can, and you're still haven't gotten a new recipe list (or if those recipes are a bit too hard to complete yet). I find that you really don't need to use leves prior to 20 and you shouldn't if you can help it, but 1 or 2 to get you over some humps is fine.
6) When picking leve quests, you want to probably aim for leves a little below your level. You want to turn in HQ items as you get a 200% bonus on exp and gold, so pick leves that you know you can HQ. Your options will typically be either a single item or a set of 3, and you will either be turning it into someone who's nearby in the same town or you will have to go to an outpost to turn in your items. Personally I prefer to ignore the ones that make go to an outpost because it's time consuming, but I'll take it if I need to go there anyway or if the item required is really easy to make or something. You might even consider buying a HQ version of the item in the market if the price is right. I did this a couple times and the gold reward basically paid for it; it's a very good idea if the market price is low and you are having a hard time getting HQs.
7) Always try to get the quality up as high as possible because you get bonus exp for doing so even if the item itself doesn't turn out HQ.
In order to get the maximum quality on an item and therefore get the most exp and the most HQs you can, you have to do a little math and thinking. Your skill cycle depends on how many progress increasing steps it takes and what the condition of the material is which fluctuates between Poor, Normal, Good, & Excellent. The only time you get "Poor" is immediately following an "Excellent" condition. Otherwise you will always have Normal or Good. Condition starts on Normal and will either change to Good, Excellent or remain on Normal in the subsequent step(s). Condition will never be Good or Excellent twice in a row. Condition will always go back to Normal after any of the other 3 conditions.
9a) As I said which skill to use mostly depends on how many progress increasing steps it will take to complete the item. If it will only take 1 step, obviously you will use the Basic Synthesis (or Careful Synthesis if possible. I can't over-emphasis how good 100% success rates are) last. Since the first condition is always Normal use something like Inner Quiet first and hope for Good or Excellent condition on the next turn. If you have the CP for it you might even use something else like Steady Hand after Inner Quiet if you didn't get Good condition. The goal as always will be to use up as much CP as possible using those quality increasing abilities.
9b) If it takes 2 steps to complete, use the first step to increase progress. This gives you a chance to get Good condition on the second step, and if you don't get it then, you can use other abilities that don't reduce durability to see if you'll get a more favorable condition. Then use the 2nd progress increaser on the last 10 durability (it's a little risky if you're using Basic Synth because there's a 10% chance of failure, but hey I already told you. GET CAREFUL SYNTHESIS!).
9c) If it takes you 3 or more steps to complete, then use those progress increasers whenever the quality is Normal. If it's a 40 durability item you will probably want to save enough CP for Master's Mend or Manipulation, and you won't have as much to spare for things like Inner Quiet and Steady Hand. If it's a 70 durability item you might still want to use Master's Mend or Manipulation in the lower levels, but once you get Great Strides this is less true.
10) Great Strides lasts for 3 turns or until you successfully use a touch ability. This means it's best to cast Great Strides on a Normal condition, and use progress increasers or other buffs until you get good condition or the countdown reaches 1. It's important to note that if you attempt a touch ability and fail, you still have the buff (provided 3 steps have not elapsed of course).
11) It's not worth using HQ materials most of the time unless you really need the result to be HQ. If your level greatly exceeds the level of the recipe using HQ mats doesn't really matter at all as you can likely get a HQ without them, and if your level is below the recipe's level, you're likely to not even get a HQ even if you do use HQ materials.
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now. If you have other tips you'd like to share or questions post away.

Credited to http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1mgap5/tips_and_tricks_for_crafting/

[Yarikh]

I haven't reached level 50 in any craft yet, but I'm leveling multiple crafting jobs at the same time at a casual pace.

My patterns change according to the conditions that come up and there are several ways and patterns to achieve HQ so I'm just sharing what I usually do.

The cross class skills I use frequently are below:

Careful Synthesis (WVR 15) - 0 CP
Hasty Touch (CUL 15) - 0 CP
Waste Not (LTW 15) - 56 CP
Rumination (CRP 15) - recovers CP
Tricks of the Trade (ALC 15) - recovers CP
Rapid Synthesis (ARM 15) - 0 CP



1. Always activate Inner Quiet before beginning any synthesis.

2. Careful Synth until one last step is needed to complete. Usually for items with 40 durability.  Usually takes 1-2 depending on the recipe you are trying to craft. Or if it takes only 1 careful synth complete, disregard this for now and focus on building up quality.

3. Great Stride. In the event that a Good condition pops up within the 3 steps of this buff. Press it. Contrary to the guide above, I usually end up putting greater emphasis on using Great Stride for Good/Excellent condition, or last resort is using Standard Touch.

4. My usual pattern for above is: Great Stride (32CP) > Steady Hand (22CP) > Waste Not (56CP) >Standard Touch (32CP) > Hasty Touch (0CP) in the next 4 steps to follow until both buffs expire. 

I don't like using Manipulation. I prefer Steady Hand + Waste Not. But whichever works better for the crafter, there is no one way to do things.


5. Master's Mend when it's 10 dura left or if you need more CP to recover, use Rumination.  Tricks of Trade is more luck based so it's good to have both.  But if I had to pick one out of the two, Rumination is more reliable and can recover more CP.

Tricks of the Trade is more situational. It's very useful for when you only have 10 dura left and the condition is Good. (This happens a lot than you'd think it would.) You can use that skill to recover 20 CP before using Master's Mend.

6. Hasty Touch and Rapid Synthesis both have a success rate of 50%. I usually only do these when I have Steady Hand active.

7. I only use Rapid Synthesis for items with over 40 durability and that are on the higher end of my current level when Careful Synthesis doesn't give much progression.  It's risky and your synth could fail if your luck is really bad but it's worked more times for me more times than not.

When I use RS, I will usually only need 1 more Careful Synthesis to complete. And I will want to use the rest of the durability to focus on increasing quality so I switched around my pattern for this.

Inner Quiet > Great Stride > Steady Hand > Waste Not > Standard Touch > Rapid Synth > Hasty Touch till buff wears off > Rumination > Steady Hand > Waste Not >Hasty Touch till buff wears off > Careful Synth

8. My last step / finisher is always that last step of Careful Synthesis to complete. It's a more secure way to make sure your synths never fail.

9. And even at quality 92% there is still a chance for it not to be HQ so as much as possible, if you still have the means (CP/dura) to try to get it to 100%, go for it.

10. Aside from leves, there is also exp and gc seals to be gained from submitting HQ items to Grand Company supply/provisions.


I also found this useful: (will add more later)
http://eorzeareborn.com/crafting-leves/

[Mion]

I posted this on Facebook, but just wanna put it here in case some are not in the EsF Facebook group:

http://www.gameskinny.com/4rc10/ffxiv-leveling-craftingtradecrafts-with-repeatable-leves-guide

List of repeatable leves to level Tradecraft classes, and also, a good way to decide what to sell on the market :3 Just be sure that if you are doing the leves for leveling, do the repeatable leves that are a few levels lower so that it is easier to HQ. Also, a tip from Esmme, do the repeatable leves that give like 40+ shards each turn in. Good way to top up shards.

[Endless Winter]

Cool Yarikh and Mion