[Caspian]

I never really thought about it before, but he is right.
I always thought of them as you get an item or material that would have been used (theoretically or otherwise) to make the original item.
A padded cap turned into a rusty cap over time. The light crystal brings back what it was.
A piece of darksteel or bronze (ingot or sheet) was used to make a pauldron.
Bloodwood lumber is used to make soulflayer staves, etc.

[Nakti]

Wind + Goblin Mask = "You obtained a square of sheep leather."

I'm thinking that Fire + Gigas Socks results in an "obtained" message also.

[Kitalrez]

Lightning is mainly the only crystal you'll see used in desynths of actual player craftable or usable items. Beastmen crafted items, however, have all kinds of odd desynths. For instance, Tonberry Lanterns can be desynthed with a water crystal to obtain olive and slime oils. Both Mysterytour and Somepage have listed this as a "desynthesis" recipe, although I'm not sure how they categorize it.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by LyonheartLakshmi

Edit: As far as wind crystal recipes, I don't have any personal experience with recipes like Wind + Goblin Armor or Wind + Antican Robe. Can anyone lend their personal experiences with the success rates of those (and similar) recipes?

Those are definitely desynthesis recipes.

There's also a fire desynthesis:
http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/3596

---

Originally Posted by Omniblast

I've managed to desynth a god item before. You can't synth a god item, but yet you can desynth them.
I forgot what that item was >_<. Sorry.

You probably desynthesized Genbu's Kabuto. It's the only god item I know of offhand that has a valid desynthesis recipe.


Icemage

[Nakti]

yep to Kitalrez' post

Wind + Yag Necklace = synth (very odd)

Also, Lightning + Tahrongi Cactus = synth if I remember correctly.

Somepage has this listed as a desynth, but I remember trying it *way* back when and I succeeded easily so I doubt it's a desynth.


SE breaks their general rules of thumb often.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Nakti

Also, Lightning + Tahrongi Cactus = synth if I remember correctly.
Somepage has this listed as a desynth, but I remember trying it *way* back when and I succeeded easily so I doubt it's a desynth.
SE breaks their general rules of thumb often.

Lightning + Tahrongi Cactus is definitely a synth. A level 0 synth, at that (I'm pretty sure somepage is wrong about the synth level as well - I remember trying it many moons ago and realizing I got no skillups at 0 alchemy after a stack of lightning crystals). Quite possibly the most useless synthesis in the game, since the only thing it produces is distilled water, which can be purchased for 11-12 gil in virtually every town.


Icemage

[Taskmage]

Originally Posted by Icemage

Lightning + Tahrongi Cactus is definitely a synth. A level 0 synth, at that (I'm pretty sure somepage is wrong about the synth level as well - I remember trying it many moons ago and realizing I got no skillups at 0 alchemy after a stack of lightning crystals). Quite possibly the most useless synthesis in the game, since the only thing it produces is distilled water, which can be purchased for 11-12 gil in virtually every town.
Icemage

Not to mention how terribly inconvenient it is to get the tahrongi cactus itself. This used to frustrate the heck out of my friend and I, back when we were newbs and had no idea where to buy anything from NPCs.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Heh, Tahrongi Cactus. The first craft I attempted to level was Alchemy, when I was still in the teens of my first job. I remember getting that recipe from one of the Guild NPCs, and franticly searching the AH for Tahrongi Cactus. I even shouted a couple of times for help finding it, with no success.

Stupid SE, they just wanted to mock us with that recipe

[Snowball]

Okay, I understand what a desynth is now. I have the link for the mysterytour site, so I will look over it later to see what available desnths there are, created by the only...... lightning crystals!

A couple of you have mentioned light crystals. I've never used these for anything so far, apart from the occasional glance over at random AHs. So how are these obtained? Are they dropped from high LvL mobs? I'm guessing they would be, since I'm not a high LvL player...... yet! (I maybe roughly half way there with my WHM though)

Other than that, you don't really get a big profit out of crafting a lot of items ingame, do you? The other day, I started crafting shell earrings for a short while, using a stack of wind crystals, and when they ran out, I went over it, crafting the same item again until I had reached LvL 3, (the skill LvL for shell earrings) but this time, I bought my wind crystals from the AH, which only sell for about 2k a stack but they sold for a bit more than the earrings themselves did at 500gil each, and since I found that they weren't very popular, I just kept throwing them away when I had crafted them, so in this case I thought it more important for my skill to increase than to actually want the earring. Nevertheless, I have found sheep leather to be a higher earner up to now, (and quite a popular item to buy too. It was around 30k a stack, but it may have gone down a bit) so every now and again, I think I would still craft it just for the sake of receiving some gil here and there. The ingredients are quite cheap too.

Btw - "Taskmage"
May I just say how much I LOVE your new baby chocobo avatar!
It's sooooo cute! I'm aching to take it for short walks as it waddles along behind me! Kwhee! Kwhee!

[Caspian]

There are profitable crafts at lower levels, though for most crafts you have to be high enough to get a significant number of high qualities. That fact holds true pretty much throughout your crafting career, just at the highest levels you can make HQ higher level synths and make much more money per synth.
I can't actually recall ever getting light crystals as a mob drop, I know they drop from things other than light elementals, but those are the only ones that come to mind. I think light crystals are mostly used for alchemy, though they aren't even used much in there, just a few "desynths" and some random synths for skillups.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Caspian

I can't actually recall ever getting light crystals as a mob drop, I know they drop from things other than light elementals, but those are the only ones that come to mind. I think light crystals are mostly used for alchemy, though they aren't even used much in there, just a few "desynths" and some random synths for skillups.

A few different enemies drop light crystals. Bid bird type enemies like Perytons in Valley of Sorrows drop light crystals. All Tonberries do, too. There's probably a few more that I'm forgetting as well.

There aren't many synths that use them. Repair synths are the most common use for them (for broken fishing rods, for example). The formulas for Prism Powder also uses light crystals, as does the synth for the Hakutaku Cluster.


Icemage

[Sabaron]

Originally Posted by Nakti

Wind + Goblin Mask = "You obtained a square of sheep leather."

Don't use wind crystals on Goblin Masks, whatever you do (you can only get 1 leather at most). The resultant product is worth no more than the mask itself, generally. However, an Alchemist can turn a Goblin Mask into Glass Fiber using a Lightning Crystal and actually acquire a useful amount of a valuable product--up to 8 Glass Fiber can be made from just one mask.

Desynthing goblin masks is also not good for skillups unless you're incredibly poor and like farming for countless days on end. Desynths produce very few skillups and generally yield little product. The Wind->Goblin Mask desynthesis is an especially good example of a very bad desynthesis.

[Caspian]

Originally Posted by Icemage

A few different enemies drop light crystals. Bid bird type enemies like Perytons in Valley of Sorrows drop light crystals. All Tonberries do, too. There's probably a few more that I'm forgetting as well.
There aren't many synths that use them.

Thats why I've never seen them drop. Never killed any Perytons, and never killed Tonberries with Signet.
Yeah, I'd forgotten about repairing rods, never did that for skilling ww'ing.

[Nakti]

Originally Posted by Sabaron

Don't use wind crystals on Goblin Masks, whatever you do (you can only get 1 leather at most). The resultant product is worth no more than the mask itself, generally. However, an Alchemist can turn a Goblin Mask into Glass Fiber using a Lightning Crystal and actually acquire a useful amount of a valuable product--up to 8 Glass Fiber can be made from just one mask.

Desynthing goblin masks is also not good for skillups unless you're incredibly poor and like farming for countless days on end. Desynths produce very few skillups and generally yield little product. The Wind->Goblin Mask desynthesis is an especially good example of a very bad desynthesis.

Sorry if it seemed like I was recommending this desynth. I was only giving an example desynth not using Lightning Crystals that I could easily get my hands on.

Lately, I've been experimenting with Lightning + Cotton Kyahan to get Cotton Threads (I'm in that Hunter's Cotton stage).

One thing I noticed with desynths is they seem to work opposite from regular synths. Where Lightsday is usually a safe day to do a synth (except for maybe Dark Crystals), I got more breaks when de-synthing.

Edit Add: Although I've never fought them, I've seen Cardians listed as dropping Light Crystals.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Originally Posted by Nakti

Edit Add: Although I've never fought them, I've seen Cardians listed as dropping Light Crystals.

I fought Cardians in Horutoto when I leveled NIN to 10. Each cardian can drop a different crystal, based on their job.