I wrote a huge long guide and almost finished and my computer ATE it by closing the entire window without asking me to confirm. D: So here is a new, shorter guide that is probably better because it's shorter and less rambly. >.>
Anyway. Sea asked me if I could write down my crafting process for her, and I figured I'll just post a guide here for everyone, and so Elliott and other high-level crafters can correct me and I can learn new things too. XD
It's split into 3 main sections: a description of the abilities with commentary, an ordered list about which abilities are more useful and what you should prioritize on getting, and an explanation of my methods.
Crafting Abilities
There are two types of crafting abilities: common ones and class-specific ones. Most crafting abilities are common to all the crafts, and are not cross-classable. But at level 15, 37, and 50, each crafting class learns a unique ability that the other classes can share. So abilities will be listed as common ones, then the lv 15s, 37s, and 50s.
Common Abilities
Lv 1 - Basic Synthesis - Increases progress, 100% efficiency, 90% success, 0 CP. This is pretty much your basic ability until you get Careful Synthesis II. And after that, it becomes utterly obsolete. :D Keep in mind it's got 90% success rate, not 100%, so if you don't have Steady Hand or something up, leave some extra durability in case of explosions.
Lv 5 - Basic Touch - Increases quality, 100% efficiency, 70% success, 18 CP. At the start, before you get any other abilities, you won't have much choice but to use this one. After you get other touches, you'll almost never use it again.
Lv 7 - Master's Mend - Restores item durability by 30, 92 CP. If you can spare the CP for this, use it, especially for 40-dura mat items. It only restores durability up to the max though, so if you're missing less than 30, don't use it yet.
Lv 9 - Steady Hand - Improves action success rate by 20% for the next 5 steps, 22 CP. This is one of the best abilities ever, until you get the even better version. You should have this up almost all the time when you're using abilities with less than 100% success.
Lv 11 - Inner Quiet - Grants a bonus to control with every increase in quality, 18 CP. You should always have this up if you're trying to HQ. Aside from the initial cost, it has no downsides.
Lv 13 - Observe - Do nothing for one step, 14 CP. I'm… not sure why you'd ever use this. I can think of a grand total of one circumstance. O_o
Lv 18 - Standard Touch - Increases quality, 125% efficiency, 80% success, 32 CP. Before getting Byregot's Blessing, this one is decent to finish synths off (in combinaton with Great Strides if CP allows) for a big burst of quality. Also good if an excellent condition springs up on you unexpectedly, since Steady Hand will give this one a 100% success rate.
Lv 21 - Great Strides - Doubles efficiency of next "Touch" action, effect active for three steps, 32 CP. The description doesn't say it, but this gets used up as soon as you use a touch action. This is best used near the end, when your control is highest.
Lv 28 - Master's Mend II - Restores item durability by 60, 160 CP. Once you get this, you should use this instead of Mend I, for all items with 70 durability or more, since it's double the amount restored for way less than double the CP cost. :D
Lv 31 - Standard Synthesis - Increases progress, 150% efficiency, 90% success, 15 CP. This should only be used instead of Basic Synthesis if using 1 or 2 Standards would lower the number of steps for completion. For example, if you need 100 progress and one Basic gives you 40, then you'd need 3 Basics to complete it, but only 2 steps if you use Basic and Standard. Use as little number of Standard Synthesis as you can, because it has a CP cost.
Lv 43 - Advanced Touch - Increases quality, 150% efficiency, 90% success, 48 CP. Don't use this unless you're overflowing in CP at the end of a synth, or want to HQ a low-level mat and would only need to use it a couple times. Pair it with Great Strides if you can, since you'd be sorta saving 16 CP.
Lv 15 Abilities
ALC - Tricks of the Trade - Restores 20 CP. Can only be used when material condition is good. This is amazing. \o/ This is one of three abilities that restore CP, and probably the best one, though it depends a little on luck.
ARM - Rapid Synthesis - Increases progress, 250% efficiency, 50% success, 0 CP. Too low of a success rate to take a gamble on IMO, but good to have if you miscalculated something and can't finish a synth. With Steady Hand II, it's 80%, so it's slightly worth using.
BSM - Ingenuity - Slightly lowers recipe level for the next five steps, 24 CP. They haven't stated how much, but it used to drop the recipe to your level, and the effect is greater than or equal to what it was before, and the highest you can craft is 5 levels higher, so I'm assuming it drops something by 5 levels.
CRP - Rumination - Removes Inner Quiet effect and restores CP proportional to the number of times control was increased. Good to use towards the end so you can stack some Great Strides + Standard/Advanced Touches until you get Byregot's Blessing. After Byregot's though, you don't want to use Rumination unless you have to, since they both use/remove Inner Quiet.
CUL - Hasty Touch - Increases quality, 100% efficiency, 50% success, 0 CP. You are not HQing anything past the lowest levels unless you've got this, basically. But… try not to use it without some form of Steady Hand on.
GSM - Manipulation - Restores 10 points of durability after each step for the next three steps, 88 CP. If you have this, it's slightly better than Master's Mend, since it's the same amount of durability for 4 less CP. However, it takes more planning to use.
LTW - Waste Not - Reduces loss of durability by 50% for the next four steps, 56 CP. This is somewhat equivalent to restoring 20 durability for 56 CP, which is slightly cheaper than Manipulation (which is cheaper than Mend). But I find it harder to use because you have to do a synth/touch on all four steps, not any other action.
WVR - Careful Synthesis - Increases progress, 90% efficiency, 100% success, 0 CP. 100% success at no CP cost! \o/ The only downside is that it is only 90% efficiency. If you can finish the synth in the same number of steps using Careful as you would Basic, then go with Careful instead. If you take an extra step doing Careful, it's not worth it, just use a Basic or two.
Lv 37 Abilities
ALC - Brand of Water - Increases progress. Progress doubles when recipe affinity is water. 100%/200% efficiency, 90% success, 15 CP.
ARM - Brand of Ice - Increases progress. Progress doubles when recipe affinity is ice. 100%/200% efficiency, 90% success, 15 CP.
BSM - Brand of Fire - Increases progress. Progress doubles when recipe affinity is fire. 100%/200% efficiency, 90% success, 15 CP.
CRP - Brand of Wind - Increases progress. Progress doubles when recipe affinity is wind. 100%/200% efficiency, 90% success, 15 CP.
CUL - Steady Hand II - Improves action success rate by 30% for the next five steps, 25 CP. Superior to Steady Hand I in almost every way. \o/ 10% more for 3 CP more.
GSM - Flawless Synthesis - Increases progress by 40, 90% success, 15 CP. This is pretty useful at the start, when you do less than 40 progress on a regular synth. But it becomes useless later because you'll be doing 40+ for free.
LTW - Brand of Earth - Increases progress. Progress doubles when recipe affinity is earth. 100%/200% efficiency, 90% success, 15 CP.
WVR - Brand of Lightning - Increases progress. Progress doubles when recipe affinity is lightning. 100%/200% efficiency, 90% success, 15 CP.
Lv 50 Abilities
ALC - Comfort Zone - Restores 8 CP after each step for the next ten steps, 58 CP. 22 free CP, basically. The problem is, you're down 58 CP until the 7th turn. If you know you won't run out, this is good, since… well. Free CP. \o/
ARM - Piece by Piece - Increases remaining progress by 1/3, 90% success, 15 CP. I'm not there yet, so I don't know if this would be much good. It'd be useful on things that take you 5-6 steps to complete I guess? But anything less than 5, the 45 CP and the 22 for Steady Hand (since it's only 90% success) is probably not worth one step.
BSM - Ingenuity II - Lowers recipe level for the next five steps, 32 CP. This one used to drop recipes 3 below your level, so I'm assuming it lowers them by 8 levels.
CRP - Byregot's Blessing - Increases quality, 100% efficienty plus 20% for each bonus to control granted by Inner Quiet, 90% success, 24 CP. The best HQ-maker! *_* With 3 stacks of Inner Quiet, which shouldn't be hard to get at all even with the worst of luck, it is already stronger than Advanced Touch, for half the CP cost. Best used near the end with all the buffs you can stack.
CUL - Reclaim - Increases the chance materials will not be lost after botched synthesis to 90%, 144 CP. Elliott says it's more like 50%. >.> I feel like it could be useful, if for example you need to HQ something with rare mats and it's not going to happen. But by the time you know you'll need it, you probably won't have 144 CP left, so I don't know what they were thinking with this one.
GSM - Innovation - Increases control by 50% for the next three steps, 18 CP. This is pretty good for HQing, especially if you're using it together with Great Strides and either Byregot's Blessing or one of the higher touches.
LTW - Waste Not II - Reduces loss of durability by 50% for the next eight steps, 98 CP. This is like 40 durability for 98 CP! But keep in mind this means you need to craft for 8 steps straight without using Steady Hand or any buffing abilities, which requires prior planning/counting, and an actual rotation.
WVR - Careful Synthesis II - Increases progress, 120% efficiency, 100% success, 0 CP. There is absolutely, absolutely NO downside to this ability. None. At all. This should replace Basic Synthesis completely once you get it. The only reason you'd ever use any other ability for synthesis is if they can tip the amount over to take one less step to complete.
Elemental Brands
The brand abilities (Brand of Fire, Brand of Lightning, etc) only work on recipes for "vintage" items. Like, the ones you make out of the mouldy/ripped/blackened/cracked/etc stuff you get out of dungeon chests.
When you try to make one of those, the synth kind of… flares up in a certain element, and using the brand of that element increases progress at a 200% rate. They are generally helpful for those recipes, since you'll be making a lot less progress than usual. (Hm. Now that I think about it, Piece by Piece might be worth using on those. They generally take a lot more than 3 synths to complete.)
Most of the vintage recipes for each craft uses the brand from that craft, but a few do cross over, like I think weaver gets a wind one, alchemist gets a lightning one…? Something like that. You'll want to check beforehand if you intend to use a brand to make them, to make sure you have the right one.
Other than for vintage items, brands are useless. Don't cross-class them unless you know you'll need a specific one.
Ability Prioritization
This is my personal opinion on which abilities you should get first, based both on how useful they are, and how easy they are to get (ie, I may recommend getting a lv 15 ability before a lv 50 one, simply because it's that much easier, and helpful on your way to 50).
Essential Abilities
Get these first. At least, get all the lv 15 ones listed here first. >.>
CUL 15 - Hasty Touch - You can't really HQ much without it.
ALC 15 - Tricks of the Trade
WVR 15 - Careful Synthesis - It's on the way and can come in handy.
CUL 37 - Steady Hand II
CRP 15 - Rumination - It's on the way.
WVR 50 - Careful Synthesis II - Should try to make this your first 50.
CRP 50 - Byregot's Blessing - Should be your second 50.
Useful Abilities
These are less "essential" than the previous list, but, most of these are only lv 15, so you may want to get some of them before getting those 50s. You may even want to get everything to 15 before moving on with any of them.
GSM 15 - Manipulation - I prefer this over Waste Not, but YMMV.
ARM 15 - Rapid Synthesis - Good for "ohcrapImiscounted".
BSM 15 - Ingenuity
GSM 37 - Flawless Synthesis - It's on the way.
GSM 50 - Innovation - Good for getting HQ.
BSM 50 - Ingenuity II
LTW 15 - Waste Not - If you didn't get Manipulation, get this.
ALC 50 - Comfort Zone
LTW 50 - Waste Not II
Shrug Abilities
Might as well get them all by this point, but these are prolly less useful than others.
ARM 50 - Piece by Piece - You shouldn't really need it.
CUL 50 - Reclaim - CP cost is too high for it to be useful.
Expanded Notes on Abilities / Priorities
Manipulation vs. Waste Not ( vs. Waste Not II) - As stated above, I prefer Manipulation over Waste Not, but it's a personal preference. Waste Not is technically better (see CP/durability ratio). However, for Manipulation, you can still pop other actions (Steady Hand, etc), but for Waste Not, unless you're doing a synthesis/touch on every turn it's active, it will be a… well. Waste. Waste Not II is even harder to plan, because at least for Waste Not, you can do Steady Hand > Waste Not > 4 touches. But Waste Not II is 8 actions, so… Iunno? Go ask someone else how to use it effectively. :D
"Touch" Abilities - Byregot's Blessing counts as a touch, both for sake of Great Strides, and when I say a touch ability in the guide. Because why not. On that note, when I say a synth/synthesis ability, I mean the ones that are named " synthesis", the ones that increase progress.
Steady Hand / Steady Hand II - Pretty sure the effects of Steady Hand / II are additive. (They don't stack with each other though.) Meaning, when you use Steady Hand (+20%), your Hasty Touch (50%) becomes 70% (50+20), not 60% (50*1.20). …But Iunno, RNG likes to screw with me. Also keep in mind you do not always need to use Steady Hand II. If an ability has an 80% or 90% success rate, the regular Steady Hand works just fine, for 3 CP less. It's not a lot, but sometimes you may actually be 2-3 CP short near the end.
Comfort Zone - The reason I put it on such low priority is, it could put you in a bind earlier on when you don't have so much CP, because it eats 58 CP right off the bat, and you may miscalculate and not have enough for a durability-restoration ability. It's good at high levels though because it's just free CP.
Piece by Piece - As noted in the ramble earlier about brands, Piece by Piece may be useful for things like vintage pieces, because they have really bad progress increases.
Manipulation at 10 Durability - Does not work. Or let me explain. Manipulation ticks the durability restoration after your step. So if you're at 30 dura, and you do a touch or synthesis, you will stay at 30, because it goes -10 / +10. If you're at 30 and you do an action that doesn't cost durability, it goes up to 40 (obviously). However, if you're at 10, you will not stay at 10 after doing a synth/touch with Manipulation active - you will go to 0 first, and the synth will end before Manipulation takes effect. So plan accordingly.
Rumination vs. Byregot's Blessing - Even though it doesn't say it on the in-game description for Byregot's, both these abilities will use up your Inner Quiet stacks. You'll be using Rumination at first, since you get it earlier and on the same craft. After you get Byregot's, you will almost always be using that. However, I find it useful to have Rumination in case something wrong happened and you're out of CP at the end. Then you can still at least either get a bit of dura back to finish the synth, or pop Steady Hand II and Rapid Synthesis and hope for the best, and stuff like that.
Durability / CP Ratio
If used to their full degree:
Master's Mend - 30 dura / 92 CP - 30.67 CP per 10 dura
Master's Mend II - 60 dura / 160 CP - 26.67 CP per 10 dura
Manipulation - 30 dura / 88 CP - 29.33 CP per 10 dura
Waste Not - "20" dura / 56 CP - 28 CP per 10 dura
Waste Not II - "40" dura / 98 CP - 24.5 CP per 10 dura
If not used to their full degree:
Master's Mend II for 50 dura - 32 CP per 10 dura
Manipulation for 20 dura - 44 CP per 10 dura
Waste Not for 3 turns - 37.33 CP per 10 dura
Waste Not II for 7 turns - 28 CP per 10 dura
Waste Not II for 6 turns - 32.67 CP per 10 dura
Conclusion: Actually Waste Not II is still worth using even if you have to use one Steady Hand or something in between! New discovery for me! >.> It's the ony one worth using to a non-full degree.
My Crafting Methodology
Okay! I guess this is what Sea was really asking me to post, but, shhh, the other stuff was important, okay? Okay? :D
Making Mats
I am really bad at making HQ mats. I don't like dealing with 40 durability, so I usually just say screw it
Loose Rotation:
Inner Quiet (40 dura left)
Steady Hand II
Hasty Touch (4 SH / 30 dura left)
Manipulation (3 SH / 3 manip / 30 dura left)
Hasty Touch x3 (0 SH / 0 manip / 30 dura left)
Manipulation (0 SH / 3 manip / 30 dura left)
Steady Hand II (5 SH / 2 manip / 40 dura left)
Hasty Touch x5 (0 SH / 0 manip / 20 dura left)
Steady Hand II, pile on as many buffs as CP allows
Byregot's Blessing (10 dura left)
Careful Synthesis II
If it takes more than 1 Careful Synth II to complete, I will do CH2s until I only need one left after the second Manipulation, before the second Steady Hand.
This is my lazy rotation. >.> When I am less lazy, I kind of pick random orders and I don't know what I do.
Elliott suggested using Tricks of the Trade whenever it pops, which I've been halfway following. Because of the low durability and having to constantly refill it, 20 CP is more important than a boost to quality.
Mat-making is a lot more CP-counting and strict-rotation-y than making finished items, I find, so I'm too lazy to work it out.
What I would change: Figuring out how to use Waste Not II like everyone else. >.> Or something. Or meld more / get better at finished items so I can keep mass-producing mats withough HQing.
Making Finished Items
I like making finished items much more than mats. Unless it's significantly higher-leveled than you (like 3-5 or something) and you're undergeared/undermelded, or you get very unlucky, you should be able to HQ most finished items at 90-100% (generally 100%) with NQ mats, which is why I usually don't bother with HQ mats unless I already have them on hand. (Ie, finished items are easier to HQ than mats are.)
Loose Rotation:
Inner Quiet (80 dura left)
Steady Hand II
Hasty Touch x5 (30 dura left)
Tricks of the Trade whenever it's up, until next SH2
Careful Synthesis II (20 dura left)
Master's Mend II (80 dura left)
Careful Synthesis II until 1 away from completion (60-70 dura left)
Steady Hand II
Hasty Touch until 20 dura left (20 dura left)
Depending on CP: Steady Hand / Great Strides / Innovation
Byregot's Blessing (10 dura left)
Careful Synthesis II
The last bit really depends on how much CP is left. Steady Hand is a must if it will run out before you do Byregot's. Prioritize Great Strides over Innovation if you have the CP for it. If you don't have enough CP for Great Strides, then skip it, obviously (it's pretty CP-heavy). If you still have more CP, I think you can fit Ingenuity / Ingenuity II in there somewhere too. If after popping Great Strides, the quality is good, I will just use Byregot's already without using Innovation.
This is based on an 80-durability synth. I do 70-duras pretty similarly, just one less Hasty Touch at the end there. I haven't done 60-duras in a long time, so I don't actually remember how they go, since Mend II won't have its full effect, so maybe use Manipulation or something instead.
This is also assuming it takes more than one Careful Synth II to finish - if it only takes one, I just go SH2 again after it runs out and then Hasty, Mend 2, and continue, refreshing SH2 when needed.
If an excellent condition comes up, I will do a touch of some kind unless I'm at 10 durability, in which case I don't really have the choice to do it. Usually, I will use Standard Touch on excellent, because Advanced is too CP-heavy, but not always. If it's already near the end of the synth or I know it will fill up quality to almost full, I'll use Byregot's Blessing. If it's near the middle, it's usually not worth losing all the control boosts from Inner Quiet if Byregot's won't enough. I'll generally pop a touch on excellent even if I don't have Steady Hand up.
In the same vein, I'll try to do a synthesis or other non-touch ability on a poor condition unless I don't have a choice.
What I would change: Prolly same as for mats, figure out how to use Waste Not II. Though generally speaking, it hasn't been necessary. I'd also like to work in Ingenuity/II if I can. I should prolly just go ahead and pop Comfort Zone, because why not.
Ability Combos
Steady Hand + Hasty Touch - Steady Hand turns Hasty Touch into Basic Touch basically, for slighty over 1/5 the cost. Steady Hand II will make it 80%, which is almost reliable! It will only explode half the time instead of all the time!
Steady Hand II + Waste Not + Hasty Touch - It's basically the same thing, but this might be a bit more CP-worth-it. …maybe? But you're losing a hyperthetical 5 CP from one turn of SH2, so, it'd essentially mean your WN "costs" 61 CP instead of 56, so 30.5 per 10 dura then. …though it also depends when you use it, anyway.
Waste Not II + Steady Hand II - As in, popping Waste Not II first. Now that I think about it, it would be really good to start synths as long as it takes more than 2 Carefuls to finish.
Pop WN2, then…
Turn 1 - Careful Synth II
Turn 2 - Careful Synth II
Turn 3 - Steady Hand II
Turn 4-8 - Hasty Touch (x5 total)
Since I've calculated above that even using WN2 for 7 turns instead of 8, it's the most CP-efficient. Maybe I'll try it when I feel less lazy and more mathy.
Steady Hand + Basic Touch - Sometimes if I have enough CP, I will pop Basic Touch with SH/SH2 up on a good/excellent condition. Steady Hand II will make Basic Touch 100%.
Steady Hand II + Rapid Synthesis - Staticstically this is better than using Careful Synthesis II, but, it's still 80%, so you can't really count on it as a last step… Maybe if a synth takes over 250% to complete, do this near the start, and then finish it off with a Careful?
Rumination + Buffs + Advanced Touch - Before getting Byregot's Blessing, what I used to do on 20 dura was Rumination, then as many as I have CP for of Great Strides, Innovation (actually that's a lie, I got Byregot's before Innovation >.>), and Ingenuity, and then did either Standard or Advanced Touch. It's not nearly as good as using Byregot's, since you will have lost your Inner Quiet control bonus, but can often be more than just doing a last touch without all the buffs.
Buffs for Byregot's Blessing - The buffs are: Steady Hand (you don't need II), Ingenuity II (or the first), Innovation, and Great Strides. Steady Hand and Ingenuity/II last 5 steps so should be popped first, Innovation and Great Strides last 3 so should be popped after. This will be pretty costly though - 129 CP total (121 if basic Ingenuity - doesn't really help either >.>). Usually you won't need all of them. But you do need Steady Hand (90% can still explode!) and preferably Great Strides.
Other Notes
Last 10 Durability - Just in case anyone isn't aware, you do not have to have durability left when you finish a synth. If you only have 10 (or 5) left, and your next move finishes the synth, it will be complete. However, see note in abilities section about Manipulation - abilities that tick after you make a move will not work. Slightly related to Waste Not, having 5 durability left is the same as having 10 if you don't currently have Waste Not up. So sometimes wasting one step of Waste Not/II is the same as not wasting it. Kind of.
Good Condition - "Good" condition is when your glowyballthing is red, and has two different uses: you can pop Tricks of the Trade for 20 CP, or you can use a touch for an extra boost to quality. I'm not sure if there's a condition for triggering it, but I've noticed that once it happens, it tends to happen 1-2 times after that on alternate turns. Like, if it happens on turn 3, it will often happen on 5 and 7 before going back to normal for a while. Generally you should not do a synthesis on a good condition, since it only affects quality and not progress.
Excellent and Poor Conditions - "Excellent" condition is when the glowyball is shiny rainbow colours, and "poor" condition is when it's black/purple. A poor condition will always be the turn right after an excellent, so plan accordingly. Excellent boosts your quality increase by a whole lot, and poor decreases it by a lot. (I think it's around double/half, respectively? With good at 1.5x? Not sure, never counted.) I will usually do a fancypants touch (or Byregot's) at an excellent condition, even if I don't have Steady Hand up, and then do a synthesis at poor condition, unless the synth would finish the item and I'm not done increasing quality yet. Like the good condition, excellent/poor conditions do not affect progress, only quality.
