Thread: [Contest]A crafter's how-to in FFXIV

Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Getting Started

i. What craft is good for me?
ii. Various Tools
iii. Stats associated with crafting
iv. Main Hand vs Offhand

III. Materials

i. Normal Synthesis
ii. Local Guild Leves
iii. One Recipe make several items?

IV. Synthesis Process

i. Synthesis options
ii. Synthesis colors
iii. Success!

V. Leveling as a crafter
VI. Miscellaneous

i. Skills required and Facility Support
ii. Level 10+: Synthesis Abilities
iii. Repairing Items

VII. Crafting Theorycraft

i. Attributes affect on crafts

VIII. Finish



I. Introduction

Welcome to the wonderful world of FFXIV crafting! This path can be a very frustrating path, but can turn out to be quite rewarding in the long run. Crafting is by no stretch of the imagination easy. It will require a lot of time, patience, and in most cases, lots of gil. By leveling smart, however, you can save yourself some gil here and there. So, with that foreword, and warning, out of the way, let's get started!

II. Getting Started

So you want to craft? Did you start as a crafting profession? Because if not, you'll have to go and purchase a crafter's tool. Every city houses vendors of every sort, as well as vendors of various goods.

i. What craft is good for me?

Those who didn't start as a crafter, are likely wandering "Well, what craft would best support my Disciple of War or Magic class?". The answer is: Any of them! Crafting any sort of finished product requires parts from all sorts of various crafts. Crafting is very dependent on other crafters, creating a large economy amongst crafters for parts. Perhaps the only crafts that I can say would pertain to a class, is Weaver vs Armorer. If you're a disciple of war looking to make armor for yourself, Armorer is definitly a good way to go. Same for Disciple of Magic looks for armor, weaving would likely better suit you. This is because Weaving makes the cloth armor that magic users will likely enjoy, as with armorer making metal-armor that would better benefit a melee or DD class.

ii. Various Tools

Every city possesses a vendor that will sell you a tool for any trade. Its just a matter of finding them! Normally, if the city doesn't house a guild of the craft you wish to do, then you can find the tool from a normal vendor booth. These tools cost 1,200 gil for a mainhand, and roughly 950 gil for the offhand. To get started, you don't necessarily have to purchase the offhand, but it can be useful, for reasons I will explain below. If you would like to find a vendor that sells your tool of choice, first check that the city does or does not house the guild for that craft. If not, then check for the market alleys, that house the various vendors, and look for the booth with your trade-crafts sign in front of it, or hanging from the booth. This is where you will find your tool.

iii. Stats associated with crafting

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.

The following image shows where you can find these attributes, on both yourself, and on your weapon. It is worthwhile to note, that offhand starter tools have a higher control value, than your standard mainhand starter tool.



If you're reading this in order with no previous knowledge, then terms like "Quality" or "Unstable Elements" will likely throw you for a loop. These will be discussed further down, in the Synthesis section.

iv. 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.

The Following is an official statement regarding main hand vs Off hand from Square Enix:

Originally Posted by Square Enix

Main hand and off hand tools have varying characteristics which manifest themselves in different ways when a high-quality result is achieved while synthesizing. There are many possible outcomes. For instance, a successful synthesis with a main hand tool may result in a +1 or +2 item, while the result obtained with an off hand tool may be a higher yield of regular quality items.

Upgrading your tools, will change things, however. As you dont recieve a new offhand until around rank 20, but can recieve a new main hand as early as rank 7, and at rank 12, as well as rank 20, you will be using your main hand a lot. The upgraded main hand, even the rank 7, will outperform the offhand rank 1 any time of the week (with the exception of it being broken, at which point you should fix that!). As soon as you are able, you should try to find a suitable upgrade for your mainhand. You will find that it makes a huge difference!

III. Materials

Obtaining materials for synthesis can be quite daunting. They can be farmed, through various means, such as killing monsters, through gathering professions, as rewards from guild leves, or bought through vendors. This last option can get quite expensive. As a personal choice, I choose to do all four, so that I never get burnt out from any particular thing. I have marauder that Im leveling as a War class, so killing monsters can yield various aetheryte shards or crystals that us blacksmiths need. Coblyns in Ul'Dah's areas actually drop ores, which is quite nifty for the aspiring blacksmith. I also mine, which allows for various shards, as well as various forms of ore. Doing my local leves gives me large amounts of more ore, and even allows me to level up my class. And when Im all out of leves, and dont feel like mining or killing, I spend a bit of that hard earned gil on the vendors, getting what I need. Its all about balance.

i. Normal Synthesis

So you've got your tool, you know what the stats do, and you've got your materials. You want to make something! Simple enough. After you've equipped your tool, you will have a constant option of "Synthesis" in your action menu. Clicking this will cause your character to kneel down, and prepare for synthesis. After a second or two, a window should appear, for your synthesis materials. You will see 8 slots for items, as well as buttons labeled "Main Hand" "Offhand" and "Requested Items" at the very top of the window.



To insert your materials in that you wish to use, simply select one of the slots for materials. This will bring up your inventory, and allow you to select a material, and how many of that material. Materials that stack in your inventory, will not stack in the material slots. As an example, we can make a simple Copper ingot, a low level blacksmith synth, that requires 5 copper nuggets, and 8 fire shards. To insert your nuggets, click on a single material window. Scroll in your inventory and find the nuggets, and select 5 of them.


This will fill 5 material slots. After inserting them, select the button to use your main hand. This will bring up the possible results from this material list. Select Copper ingot. It will then tell you what you are making, and how many aetheryte shards or crystals it will require. In this example, it will take 8 fire shards. Select confirm, and the synthesis process will begin.



To find a particular synthesis recipe, I would recommend using an online database, such as FFXIV Origins own recipe list, or Square Enix's supplied list on Lodestone. If you cant find a recipe, look to see if theres a higher level or lower level version of what you are trying to make. Use logic and sense, and replace parts with higher level material parts, and see if that works.

ii. Local guild leves

If you have obtained a local guild leve, and wish to perform, the steps are very similar to those for normal synthesis. After you obtain the leve, speak with the person listed on the leve information. This person will give you the required materials to make what they want. After this, go into your synthesis window, and click that button, at the very top, labeled "Required Items". This will open your journal, allowing you to select a local leve you wish to attempt.



When you select a leve, it will autofill your material slots with the needed materials. These materials will not be found in your own inventory. After you have the materials in your slots, you can look at them yourself by scrolling over them. This is a great way to learn new recipes without spending your own gil to experiment. Selecting "Main Hand" or "Off Hand" will get you going. The only difference past this point, is that in the final window, the one that tells you what you're making, how many, and the shard cost, if you don't have the required shards, it doesnt matter, you can attempt it anyways, as the client gave you crystals to synthesize with. These just dont appear on this window.

iii. One recipe makes several items?

Recipes in FFXIV arent unique to one specific item. Take the blacksmithing recipe for Bronze ingots, which is 5 bronze nuggets. They can make the ingot, but 5 nuggets will also create a Bronze Dagger Blade, or a set of Bronze Pliers.



The only difference in these synths is their difficulty, and the elemental shards required for them. the difficulty of one synth could be fairly low, such as the ingot. But creating a dagger blade is considerably harder.

*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.

IV. Synthesis Process

***Disclaimer***: The following information and data are observations that I have made thus far into the release version of FFXIV. SE has decided to redo several things in their system, so new data was needed. I will note the new data in appropriate sections. Much of this is still the same however.

This is the big moment. You've done all this prep work, and now we're finally to the process of synthesizing itself! You've got your recipe set up, you just hit Confirm, and the process window is now open. So what do you do? Well, you should know what does what, before you click anything! The three major functions to crafting, as far as the actual process is concerned, are as follows:



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.

ii. Synthesis Colors
The following is an official release from Square Enix regarding synthesis colors:

Originally Posted by Square Enix

The colored, glowing graphics provides players with a large hint toward a successful synthesis. When the glow is white, the synthesis is at its most stable, and the chances of success are high. When the glow takes on a color, however, the chances of success are low. Players seeking simple completion of their synthesis rather than high-quality results should attempt to use the Wait command when the indicator is colored to restore the stability of the synthesis before finishing it.

Though synthesis actions carried out while the colored circle graphic is red suffer a reduced rate of success, they often serve to increase the quality of the synthesis. In addition, the successful execution of consecutive actions also serves to increase quality. Ultimately, the higher the quality of the synthesis process, the more likely it is to yield a high-quality result.

This follows fairly closely to what I have observed, which is described in detail below.

You will notice that once you start crafting, a small glowing orb, solid white, will appear in your hand, or on your work platform. This is a synthesis "indicator" as I prefer to call it. The color of the orb can indicate various things, and can sway your decision of your next synthesis option. The colors, and their meanings to you, are as follows:

(The following images may not show it the best, but they try to depict each situation being described)


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.

(This image is hard to tell that its actually flashing, due to it being a still image.)


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.

(The sparks are hard to see here, but they are indeed coming out of the orb, they are much more noticeable in real time)


*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.

V. Leveling as a Crafter

Increasing your skill rank as a crafter will start out fairly easy. Until you reach around skill rank 10, you will find yourself gaining skill points quickly, and ranking up fast. When you hit about rank 10, the process slows down considerably. Crafting also nets a large amount of physical experience points, causing your physical levels to jump quick as well.

My personal advice for easy leveling as a crafter: First, do your local leves, as often as you can! They are free synthesis, with increased skill point gain for successful attempts. Its a great win-win scenario. And it rewards you with materials you can use on your own later. Whats not to like?

For own your own synthesis: Find a synthesis that requires very few materials, that are easy to obtain. Personally, as a blacksmith, you can level off a single material for a long while. Making Bronze Needles, Copper Gorge Hooks, and later on, Iron Spear Butts, is extremely cheap, maybe 600 gil a synth, if you dont farm the materials.

Find an easy camp to farm shards. Potentially the best way to obtain shards, is to simply kill everything that moves. If you have a Disciple of War or Magic leveled, I'd recommend finding a camp, that isnt overcrowded with people from the level 1 or 10 campgrounds, that has mobs that drop your shards or crystals you want. Personally, as a smith, I start in Limsa Lominsa, there is a firefly, glowfly, and cave bat cavern, north of Camp Bearded Rock, thats close to the pass entering Skull Valley. This cave is usually pretty empty, and is a wonderful place to farm Fire and Wind Shards, as well as Fire Crystals, to make nuggets with.

The following is an official statement from Square Enix regarding Crystal and Shard acquisition:

Originally Posted by Square Enix

Other than looting fresh corpses, crystals can also be obtained through gathering. Further, for Disciples of the Land, allotting elemental bonus points to a certain element will result in a greater likelihood of procuring crystals of that type. Location is another factor to consider, as some places will yield more of certain crystal types than others.

And lastly: Work the market. Once you start making finished goods, dont be afraid to sell them a bit higher than you normally would. Dont be cruel, and price your items insanely high, but just high enough so you make a profit, and can use that profit for more materials, or even to buy shards. Once you get yourself going, you can purchase any shards you need, without the need to farm them. Though of course, farming them would be a more spend-smart method. Its all how you want to do it.

VI. Miscellaneous

While we have covered the major function of crafting, there are small things that come into play here and there, that you may wish to know about. Those will be addressed here.

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.

This picture shows a synthesis that requires both, a facility support, and skill training. The facility support is outlined in red, the training in green.

ii. Level 10+: Synthesis Abilities

First off, Congratulations on reaching rank 10 of your chosen craft! You will likely have noticed that you have gained an ability. Exciting right? These abilities can be used for a number of things. Each craft obtains a different rank 10 ability, but they can all be used on another crafting class as well. For example:



This is the rank 10 Blacksmithing ability. It will appear randomly during synthesis as an option in your synthesis actions. These abilities will always appear underneath the wait option. Usually, due to the size of the synthesis window, you will see a scroll bar when it actually occurs, so you can scroll down to select your ability.

These abilities can only be used once per synthesis. Once activated, they will last their duration, then fade. The example above, Maker's Muse, lasts for 3 actions after being used. It increases the success rate of Standard Synthesis while it is active, but can be wasted by waiting or using other synthesis actions. Therefore, it is a good idea to be mindful of where you're at as far as your synthesis goes, and how much use you will get from it.

Another, more practical, example I will use is Armorer's Blazing Speed ability. When activated it will increase the success rate of Rapid Synthesis for 3 actions. Lets say you are crafting, and you are at 90% progress, but only 10 durability left. You know if you fail, you'll likely break your synth. You need a success here. This is a perfect time to use Blazing speed, to help you with that last moment that you need, as a success with Rapid Synthesis will most likely take less than 10 durability to complete.

Other classes abilities can improve your quality gain for the next few actions, can decrease the risk of the overall synthesis for a few actions, or even maintain a favorable orb color. And these can all be used on other classes, so long as you have the points to equip them!

List of level 10 abilities:

Blacksmithing: Maker's Muse
Armorsmithing: Blinding Speed
Alchemy: Preserve
Carpenter: Tender Touch
Culinarian: Harmonize
Goldsmith: Epiphany
Leatherworking: Fulfillment
Weaving: Masterpiece

There are more abilities gained as one levels up their crafting rank. You find these abilities by searching for your class here. It gives a listing of abilities learned by each class.

iii. Reparing

Gear breaks doing nearly any activity except running around in FFXIV. The wear and tear can affectively cripple you, as this reduces your affective gains from your armor and tools. As a crafter, you have the ability to repair items that were made using your skill craft. If you are unsure as to whether you can repair an item, take a look at the item. At the bottom, you'll see a bar that says "Wear:" then the amount of wear your item has, out of its maximum durability. To the right of this, you'll see the item used to repair it.



If the item used to repair it, is something you use in your craft, or something you make in your craft, chances are your craft can repair that item. In order to do this, all you need to do is select that repair button on the item. It will then bring up what looks similar to a synthesis window. You then click on a material slot, and add the material(s) that was requested to repair the item.



Select which tool you wish to use, and the system will do the rest. No action is required to repair, its a simple Success or failure. Most often you will succeed, but on occasion, you can fail to repair an item, in which case you will have to try again. This will also consume the materials used.

Certain items that are higher level will require that you be a higher level crafter in order to successfully repair them. In this case, you will know, because when you try to repair an item out of your range, the chat log will say that you need to level more to repair that item.

VII. Crafting Theorycraft

This section will hold the major theories surrounding crafting currently.
[indent]i. Attributes affect on crafts

SE has officially stated that attributes do indeed affect crafting. However, they failed to mention exactly how they affect crafting. The following is my personal theory on this, as well as I believe the most widely believed theory:

6 of 8 crafts have an ability at rank 40, which increase how a certain attribute affects synthesis with that craft. The list of these rank 40 abilities are as follows:

Blacksmithing Rank 40: Sublimation: Temporarily increases the influence of strength on craftsmanship.
Armorer Rank 40: Resolution: Temporarily increases the influence of vitality on craftsmanship.
Alchemy rank 40: Extrapolation: Temporarily increases the influence of intelligence on craftsmanship.
Cooking rank 40: Devotion: Temporarily increases the influence of Piety on craftsmanship.
Goldsmithing rank 40: Manipulation: Temporarily increases the influence of Dexterity on Craftsmanship.
Weaver rank 40: Determination: Temporarily increases the influence of Mind on craftsmanship.

Unfortunatly, Carpentry and leatherworking do not have rank 40 abilities that mention an attribute.

These abilities leads me to believe that these attributes most affect synthesis that pertain to these classes. However, without re-rolling my character, several times over, I have no way of properly testing this theory. I will update this when more testing is done and recorded.


VIII. Finish

Thank you for reading my guide, I hope you find it informational. I do plan on adding more, as I discover and research more.

(Me, doing a retarded pose, trying to give a good thumbs up picture , dont mind the random dude to my left. )

looking forwords to your next instalment, but maby class isn't the best time to wright a guide lol

---------- Post added at 01:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 PM ----------

by the way what city u based in, i'm on Besaid aswell in Gridania.

---------- Post added at 01:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 PM ----------

also if you know how stats (ie: mind, dex, ect...) effect crafting i would lov it if u whould add that as well
thx

Thanks for the comments Drozz. I know class isnt the best time...but its just a web programming class Its all good.

Im on Mysidia Server, Character name Duna Levoitz, base in Limsa Lominsa, though I have the aetheryte crystals for every city, and camps level 1/10/20. So yea, I can be wherever

Im definitly trying to look into how your main attributes affect crafting. Once I figure that one out, I will definitly be adding it into the guide. I just need to do some poking around

To anyone else: feel free to comment, especially if you read something, that doesnt sound right to you. I have no doubt that something in there is incorrect, or was observered differently from someone else. I have no qualms about changing anything. This is simply taken from my own experiences, and they combined research of various beta testers, who's posts I have read.

I do plan on adding pictures later, possibly tonight after work, to assist with the instructional process of this guide. If anyone has any requests for me to add here, please let me know, here or in a PM.

Thank you~

Dunador

Thank you thank you Now that Ive got the base guide out, I can go post elsewhere and make myself known~ I made an intro post....but I cant find where it went now x.x

---------- Post added 09-24-2010 at 04:02 AM ---------- Previous post was 09-23-2010 at 04:03 PM ----------

Updated with pictures, and some notes Ive made from release observations so far.

Love this guide. Thank you

indeed. this guide is awesome

Originally Posted by Avult

I have seen elsewhere a different in the synth colors and the favored selection and have decent success with it.
White : favors standard
flashing: favors rapid
yellow: favors bold
red: wait.

I will try what you have and see if it changes any.

Strange, Ive never actually heard this one. One thing I should probably mention, is with the changed in the system from open beta to release, the colors seem to not matter near as much, not until you're a higher level. They seemed to make more of an affect then. When I was skilling up last night, my success rate for rapid and bold was so low, it just wasnt worth it. Plowed through with Standard the whole way. I dont know if this is the same case for you or not.

If you have both the basic level 1 main hand and offhand, then use your offhand Id say. It has more control, which will allow you to get just a bit more successful with your synthesis attempts.

As for the difference in color there, I think Id like to disagree. Red may indeed be the lowest success rate, since I never actually use bold on it due to the durability loss. But I dont believe that yellow is the highest either. I can try and do some testing later, but what with being unable to control when I get a certain color or not, its rather difficult.

Originally Posted by RTLate

two additional components i would like to see are
1) when to use main or offhand
2) lvl10+ abilities - how to equip, how and when to use, how and if they effectively cross over other crafting classes

let me know if you want help puting anything together im gonna put together some lvl 10-20 guides for a couple classes but i could do this first

---------- Post added at 11:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:27 PM ----------

just thought of an important one,
using crafting facilities - when, how much, why / benefits, etc.

I can do that. I'll see about putting them in here in the near future.

Something I wanted to note, as a general thing, Im not really going to get into any sort of leveling guides here, as honestly the only one I would have a clue about would be blacksmithing, and even then, Its kinda hit or miss. Im going to keep this pretty generalized for all crafters.

---------- Post added 09-26-2010 at 12:11 AM ---------- Previous post was 09-25-2010 at 11:47 PM ----------

Actually, Im rather tired of farming shards. So I figure its a good time to update this, and take more screenshots! Wooo screenshots!

Re: the mainhand/offhand thing...

Someone has said it here somewhere before, but a lot of that is pretty intuitive.
For example... when cooking, using mainhand for recipes that would require -heat-. Anything that wouldn't be grilled up (ie: orange juice) seems to have a way higher success rate with my offhand.

Same seems to be true for alchemy, though it takes more experimentation... dry ingredients definitely seem to work better with the offhand, while wet ingredients work better with main.

And updated~ Added in Mainhand vs Offhand in the tools section
Also added a miscellaneous at the end, covering:
Skill training and Facility support
Rank 10 abilities, and how to use them
Repairing items

The guide looks great! Good luck in the contest.

Originally Posted by ScreamRawr

The guide looks great! Good luck in the contest.

Thank you much ^^ Im getting a bit antsy already, as Ive not seen anyone put up any others yet x.x

Originally Posted by Dunador

Thank you much ^^ Im getting a bit antsy already, as Ive not seen anyone put up any others yet x.x

I plan on making a guide for the contest actually, I just haven't posted anything yet.
Mine will be.. interesting.

Originally Posted by ScreamRawr

I plan on making a guide for the contest actually, I just haven't posted anything yet.
Mine will be.. interesting.

Interesting you say Well best of luck to you then good sir!