My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

[Snowball]

So my leathercraft is only LvL 2, and I've been crafting sheep leather for a while now. (it's currently my favourite item to craft) I find it the most easiest thing to craft because 1) the materials are easy to obtain 2) I don't like to craft something which includes too many of one thing, and..... 3)sheep leather at skill LvL 2 sells for a higher price on fenrir out of all you can craft at LvL 2.
But now, here's my problem.
After a while of crafting the same item, I am finding that my leathercraft skill isn't giong up anymore. /sigh. so I proceed to search the info with the guild npcs to see what else I could craft instead. (not sure which they are right now. still have to go back and search on this one)
So anyway, I'm In Windurst, and I continue to craft roasted corn, (also at lvl 2, my current cooking skill lvl) which ALSO..... is not raising my skill any, after crafting it for a while. So again, I proceed to to ask around the npcs to see what else I can craft.
But here's another problem.
Some of the other foods they have said I can craft, are at a higher lvl than my cooking skill lvl. For e.g. I look up "Pebble Soup" on 'somepage.com' (I was told that I could craft this by one cooking guild npc) which is skill lvl 5, grilled hare at skill lvl 6, orange juice at skill lvl 10. I just don't understand!
I thought I would at least be told to start crafting foods at lvl 3, but why am I given the option to craft food items which are beyond my skill lvl?
Shouldn't the npcs be waiting until I reach that skill lvl until they tell me I can craft something at a certain lvl?
I'm quite confused over this, and am wondering if anyone could expain why I am getting this ingame? Does this happen to anyone else?
Please help.

[Icemage]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

Uh... you gain skill by attempting synths ABOVE your skill level. Crafting anything at or below your level produces no skill gains (as you've noticed).

This is how it's supposed to work. The NPCs explain this pretty thoroughly when you sign up for the guilds...


Icemage

[Caspian]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

Its best to pick a craft thats 3+ levels ahead of your current skill. Click me for a database with all the possible crafts. At 5 levels and less you can skill off of breaks. You can pick crafts that are 7 or so levels ahead of your current level if you use guild enhancement. Much more than that without guild point items and you'll get lots of breaks with no skillups and very few successes at all.

[Treth]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

also, it is said that skill ups, hqs and synth completions have a tie into what direction u r facing when u synth (idk if its been technically proven, but it doesnt hurt) try checking out this website http://www.iluvitar.com/sections/ffx...t/compass.html

[Snowball]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

Thanks a lot for the info guys.
But I was always under the impression that you could only craft items at your own skill LvL, (thus raising skillups in this way) otherwise it would become a desynth, and have a lot of breaks. But the way you describe it, I guess it starts to make more sense to me.
Also, I probably didn't folow the dialogue properly with the npcs you speak to when you first sign up with each of the guilds around vana 'diel. I was hoping I might find somewhere, (around the ffxl sites) any of the explanations on registering with the guilds that you read with the npcs ingame, so that I could read over them again to give myeslf a better understanding. I have looked around, but all I can find is the location of the guild npcs, and where the guilds are. Is there any info on this that I could possibly read over again or not? If not, then it's no big deal.
I've been reading a few posts here in which people have said that you can synth items about 10-15 levels above your skill lvl, but I'm worried about too many breaks in this case. I guess I should probably stick to something about 5 levels above, at the most.
"Treth",
Thanks for the chart info.
I've read that people get successful synths depending on the day (and the element) and the direction you face (I think there was something else too, though I can't remember right now) though I'm not too keen on the idea.
I'll use that chart though and see what I get. It might come in useful. I'll see.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

Thanks a lot for the info guys.
But I was always under the impression that you could only craft items at your own skill LvL, (thus raising skillups in this way) otherwise it would become a desynth, and have a lot of breaks. But the way you describe it, I guess it starts to make more sense to me.

A desynth is a recipe where you use a Lightning Crystal on a finished product, and a successful attempt results in one of the ingredients for making the product. What you've described is imply a failed synthesis, not a desynthesis.

Also, I probably didn't folow the dialogue properly with the npcs you speak to when you first sign up with each of the guilds around vana 'diel. I was hoping I might find somewhere, (around the ffxl sites) any of the explanations on registering with the guilds that you read with the npcs ingame, so that I could read over them again to give myeslf a better understanding. I have looked around, but all I can find is the location of the guild npcs, and where the guilds are. Is there any info on this that I could possibly read over again or not?

What the Guild NPC tells you when you first sign up is inconsequential. You can sign up with all the guilds without any drawbacks.

I've been reading a few posts here in which people have said that you can synth items about 10-15 levels above your skill lvl, but I'm worried about too many breaks in this case. I guess I should probably stick to something about 5 levels above, at the most.

Technically, you can attempt a recipe once it is within 15 levels of your effective skill. But you're practically guaranteed to break the synth. The main reason anyone tries a recipe this far above their level is to verify the level cap for a recipe's support craft. If the cap is 16 levels above your effective skill, you won't even attempt it. You'll simply be given a message that says this recipe is too far above your skill, or something to that effect.

The only time I would suggest using a recipe that is 10 levels or more above your actual skill level is if you have enhancements to raise your skill level. This is what is meant by "effective skill". For instance, if your skill is 50, and you get advanced image support, your effective skill is 53. If you also happen to have a guild item that gives you +1 skill, then your effective skill is 54.

Generally, I'm willing to try a recipe for skill ups if the cap is 5 levels above my effective skill. A few times I have done a recipe that was 6 or 7 levels above my effective skill, but those were rare cases where the recipe I was attempting was much, much cheaper than the alternatives (e.g. Insect Fletchings, caps at 52, I started right at 42 once I was done with Bird Fletchings).

[Snowball]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

A desynth is a recipe where you use a Lightning Crystal on a finished product, and a successful attempt results in one of the ingredients for making the product. What you've described is imply a failed synthesis, not a desynthesis.

I assume you were using Lightning crystal as an example to describe what a desynth is. (i.e. you could have used earth or fire or wind e.t.c. it doesn't JUST have to be lightning)
Okay, so for e.g. - Sheep leather at skill level 2.
Ingredients : Sheepskin, Windurstian Tea Leaves, Distilled Water.
Crystal : Dark
So what you're saying is, (in this case for e.g.) that could use a dark crystal with a sheep leather, (the item being crafted in the 1st instance) resulting in either Sheepskin, Windurstian Tea Leaves or Distilled Water. Is that correct?
If so then, then I have never tried it before. Probably because I what I originally thought was a desynth is now wrong.

What the Guild NPC tells you when you first sign up is inconsequential. You can sign up with all the guilds without any drawbacks.

True, but maybe if I had been able to read over their dialogue, it might have helped me to understand that to raise skill level, you have to attempt synths above your level. I can't remember when I first started, but I know I have been playing FFXl for at least over 3 or 4 years now, and in that time I have been playing without the correct knowledge on how to raise guild skills.
Ahh well.... it's always a joy to have very helpful game forums like these, and I feel they have helped me learn a bit more now than what I used to know, and for that...... I am greatful.

Technically, you can attempt a recipe once it is within 15 levels of your effective skill. But you're practically guaranteed to break the synth. The main reason anyone tries a recipe this far above their level is to verify the level cap for a recipe's support craft. If the cap is 16 levels above your effective skill, you won't even attempt it. You'll simply be given a message that says this recipe is too far above your skill, or something to that effect.

So by attempting a synth at a high skill level and causing it to break, a player is veryfying the cap at which they can synth an item, therefore they should attempt something a bit less higher than their own skill level.

The only time I would suggest using a recipe that is 10 levels or more above your actual skill level is if you have enhancements to raise your skill level. This is what is meant by "effective skill". For instance, if your skill is 50, and you get advanced image support, your effective skill is 53. If you also happen to have a guild item that gives you +1 skill, then your effective skill is 54.

So when you use the advanced image support, your sikill level is 3 more than normal? (meaning that you can try a synth a bit higher too)
Cool! How do you work that one out?

Generally, I'm willing to try a recipe for skill ups if the cap is 5 levels above my effective skill. A few times I have done a recipe that was 6 or 7 levels above my effective skill, but those were rare cases where the recipe I was attempting was much, much cheaper than the alternatives (e.g. Insect Fletchings, caps at 52, I started right at 42 once I was done with Bird Fletchings).

Thanks a lot for the very useful Info!

[neighbortaru]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

no, snowball, desynthing can ONLY happen with lightning crystals.

[Caspian]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

Wind crystals can also desynth, but afaik, thats it.

Actually advanced guild support is 2 effective levels, not 3. Atleast not until you become a Veteran rank in the respective craft. At that point it is indeed 3 levels.

Snowball: You have the mysterytour link, correct? Go to guilds then to desynthesis and it will tell you all the currently known possible desynths you can perform for any particular craft at any particular level.

[neighbortaru]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

wind crystals just carve, not desynth. what recipe uses wind to desynth? unless you mean wind + yag necklace or wind + gob mask? those aren't really desynths since you can't synth yag necklaces or gob masks

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

I used to think that Wind Crystals can also be used for desynth. This was back during my early days when I would farm yagudo bead necklaces, and either make Copper Ingots (Lightning + Bead Necklace) or Grass Thread (Wind + Bead Necklace) out of them.

However, my understanding of desynthesis has grown since then. Desynthesis is characterized by the following:
- success rates above the recipe's cap are no where near the 90% ~ 95% you normally achieve with synthesis
- HQ rates for desynthesis can be quite high, even when below the recipe's cap
- the game message for a successful desynth is "PlayerX obtained a xxxx", rather than the synthesis message of "PlayerX synthesized a xxxx"

Wind crystal + Yagudo Bead Necklace is not a desynthesis due to the fact that the success rate is consistent with typical synthesis recipes. Lightning crystal + Copper Ingot, in spite of using a Lightning crystal, is also not a desynthesis. I was successful with this recipe about 95% of the time.

Okay, so for e.g. - Sheep leather at skill level 2.
Ingredients : Sheepskin, Windurstian Tea Leaves, Distilled Water.
Crystal : Dark
So what you're saying is, (in this case for e.g.) that could use a dark crystal with a sheep leather, (the item being crafted in the 1st instance) resulting in either Sheepskin, Windurstian Tea Leaves or Distilled Water. Is that correct?

If sheep leather was a desynth-able item, then you could substitute Lightning crystal in place of Dark crystal in your question, and expect that result. However, not every craftable product is able to be desynthed. "Refined" products, such as leathers, ingots and cloths, cannot be desynthed. There are other products which surprisingly cannot be desynthed. For example, Eremite's Rings and Saintly Rings cannot be desynthed, even though they are crafted products.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

wind crystals just carve, not desynth. what recipe uses wind to desynth? unless you mean wind + yag necklace or wind + gob mask? those aren't really desynths since you can't synth yag necklaces or gob masks

"If you can't synth the item, then it's not desynthesis to break it apart with a Lightning crystal."

I might agree with that, if it wasn't for items such as Quadav Backplates. While there is no known way to create backplates, the success rate for turning backplates into materials is consistent with desynthesis, and so is the in-game message given when it succeeds.

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?

[Caspian]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

wind crystals just carve, not desynth. what recipe uses wind to desynth? unless you mean wind + yag necklace or wind + gob mask? those aren't really desynths since you can't synth yag necklaces or gob masks

Specifically, I was thinking of antican pauldrons. While its not a desynthesis of of synthable material, it is the breakdown of an item into its component(s). That and mysterytour lists them as such, so I've just kinda gone with the accepted terms for it.
Oh, and along the same lines, don't light crystals "desynth" rusty caps?
I know wind crystals and antican pauldrons make darksteel sheets, and have the about the same success and HQ rates as lightning crystal desynths.

[Omniblast]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

"If you can't synth the item, then it's not desynthesis to break it apart with a Lightning crystal."

I might agree with that, if it wasn't for items such as Quadav Backplates. While there is no known way to create backplates, the success rate for turning backplates into materials is consistent with desynthesis, and so is the in-game message given when it succeeds.

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?

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.

[neighbortaru]

Re: My Craft Skills Aren't Going Up. Please Help!

light crystals "repair" rusty caps. didn't think about the pauldrons

hmm, perhaps Lyonheart's method is more accurate then, "Player obtained a xxxx" will signify desynth.