The FFXIV Crafting System Explained: Dive into Crafting Basics
Crafting in Final Fantasy 14 is a vast and intricate realm. If you’ve ever wondered “how to start crafting in FFXIV,” you’re in the right place. In this piece, I’ll introduce you to the crafting basics and foundational crafting abilities. My aim isn’t to make you an expert, but to give you a solid starting point.
Understanding the Crafting Basics: Progress, Quality, and Durability
Every FFXIV crafting tutorial will emphasize the importance of three key aspects: progress, quality, and durability. These are the crafting basics that every crafter should be familiar with. Progress represents the completion of a craft, while quality determines the likelihood of creating high-quality items. Durability, on the other hand, represents how much a craft can withstand before it breaks.
When diving into the crafting basics, it’s generally advisable to aim for high-quality items, as they provide better stats and more experience. However, there are some instances in the game where quality may not matter as much. Be mindful of the durability of your craft, as using abilities that lower durability to zero will cause it to break and result in the loss of materials.
Conditions in Crafting: From Normal to Poor
As you delve deeper into crafting basics, you’ll learn that abilities can be affected by different conditions. There are four conditions to be aware of: normal, good, excellent, and poor. Normal conditions have no buffs or debuffs, while good and excellent conditions greatly increase the chances of obtaining high-quality items. These conditions also unlock special abilities that can only be used during these instances. Poor conditions occur after an excellent condition and should be avoided when using quality actions, as they significantly decrease the effectiveness of your actions.
Craftsmanship, Control, and CP: Crafting Basics in Stats
Crafting abilities are influenced by three main stats: craftsmanship, control, and CP. Craftsmanship relates to progress actions, control correlates to quality actions, and CP determines the number of moves you can make. Having higher stats in these areas will improve your crafting abilities.
Crafting Abilities
Now, let’s dive into the various crafting abilities you’ll encounter:
Progress Focused Abilities
- Basic Synthesis: Increases the progress bar.
- Rapid Synthesis: Increases progress with a 50% success rate.
- Veneration: Buff that increases progress/synthesis actions by 50%.
- Final Appraisal: Used to prevent accidental finishing before achieving high quality.
- Careful Synthesis: A reliable progress ability, low CP cost, high progress increase.
- Focus Synthesis: Increases progress with a 50% success rate.
- Groundwork: Increases progress.
- Muscle Memory: First action for specific crafting openers, increases progress.
- Intensive Synthesis: Greatly increases progress.
- Prudent Synthesis: Increases progress with reduced durability cost.
Quality Focused Abilities
- Basic Touch: Increases the quality bar.
- Hasty Touch: Has a 60% chance to increase quality but reduces durability.
- Standard Touch: A combo action of basic touch.
- Great Strides: Buff that increases the next quality/touch ability by 100%.
- Innovation: Buff that increases touch actions by 50%.
- Byregot’s Blessing: A powerful finisher for the quality bar, utilizing Inner Quiet stacks.
- Precise Touch: Can be used during good or excellent conditions, grants Inner Quiet stacks.
- Preparatory Touch: Increases quality and Inner Quiet stack, at the cost of higher durability.
- Advanced Touch: The advanced version of basic and standard touch abilities.
- Prudent Touch: Increases quality with reduced durability cost.
- Trained Finesse: Increases quality at no durability cost but requires 10 Inner Quiet stacks.
Durability Focused Abilities
- Masters Mend: Restores durability to an item using CP.
- Waste Not: Reduces durability cost for basic actions.
- Waste Not II: Upgraded version of Waste Not, with its own specific uses.
- Manipulation: Restores durability for every step of the craft.
Both Progress and Quality Abilities
- Delicate Synthesis: Increases both progress and quality simultaneously.
Using Teamcraft for Crafting in FFXIV
Crafting in Final Fantasy 14 can be made easier with the help of Teamcraft, a tool designed to assist players. It offers features like tracking materials and creating and sharing macros.
Macros are sequences of actions that can be executed automatically, simplifying crafting rotations. Teamcraft provides a platform where players can create, test, and share crafting macros. This is especially useful for optimizing crafting rotations or sharing expertise with the community.
Macros in Teamcraft
To find macros in Teamcraft, navigate to the website, click on crafting simulator. Once you’ve selected an item, you’ll be presented with fields to fill out with your current stats and level, do this and click on the button on the left side called “Rotation Finder”, Teamcraft will then find macros which fits your currrent level and gear.
You will also be able to export the macro to your clipboard, which enables you to easily paste it into a macro ingame. In the same row as “Rotation finder” look for the icon saying XIV, this is the export macro button.
Important abilities to Remember
While all crafting abilities have their uses, some are considered more crucial than others due to their impact on the crafting process:
- Byregot’s Blessing: A powerful finisher for the quality bar, utilizing Inner Quiet stacks.
- Manipulation: Restores durability for every step of the craft.
- Careful Synthesis: A reliable progress ability with a low CP cost.
- Prudent Touch: Increases quality while reducing the durability cost.
- Muscle Memory: Provides a significant boost to progress as a first action.
- Tricks of the Trade: Restores 20 CP when conditions are good or excellent.
- Reflect: Provides an easy and beneficial Inner Quiet stack at the beginning of the craft.
Remember, the importance of an ability can also depend on the specific craft and the strategy you’re employing. Familiarize yourself with all the abilities and understand their synergies to enhance your crafting experience.
Summary
In Final Fantasy 14, crafting is a deep and intricate system. My goal with this guide is not to transform you into an expert or even an intermediate crafter. Instead, I aim to demystify the various terminologies associated with crafting, providing a foundational understanding for newcomers or those looking to refresh their knowledge.
With tools like Teamcraft and a basic grasp of crafting abilities, you can navigate this art and produce high-quality items with greater confidence. Whether you’re crafting for profit, gearing up for end-game content, or simply indulging in the joy of creation, a foundational understanding of these abilities and the tools available can significantly enhance your crafting journey.
To find more helpful tools see my past blog Essential FFXIV Crafting Tools
