How many level till cap do you synth?

[Hogie]

So im leveling Bonecraft right now and i was going stuff around 6 levels above my cap with advanced support and was getting ok skillups (66 bonecraft right now). A friend of mine said i was craft and it would be a lot better skill ups to do 3 to 4 levels above my cap with NQ support or non at all. I tried this and it did seem to work a bit better and, but that could be placebo since it was really only a couple stacks of mats.

Anyone have a general amount of levels above craft level they like to try and hit to optimize skill ups?

[carste]

I've been working on my woodworking quite heavily lately. I even got to the point where I was making a spreadsheet tracking my synths per skill up.

Here's some of my data and key points:
recipe cap: 79
75-76: 35 synths
76-77: 36 synths
77-78: 16 synths
78-79: 51 synths
breakdown for the 78-79 synths:
5 synths before my first .1
.7 in 8 synths (which includes the first .1)
13 synths before my next .1 then another .1 right after
27 synths before getting the last .1

Here's the conclusion I drew from it: It's all either random or is programmed to piss you off when you've almost reached your goal. I wouldn't do more than 5 levels below the cap since you can still skillup on breaks. I usually start at 4 levels below the cap depending on the expense/loss ratio of the synth (I did 11 levels of holy water on alchemy since it was about a 10gil loss on a crit break and light clusters were easy enough to farm).

[Sqwunk]

i'm 91.9 cloth and I tend to go for things that are 3-6 levels above me. For instance I'm on Giand Bird Fletchings right now, and I started them when I was at lvl 88. Now 3 levels is generally the preferred gap that people say you should go for.

So I'll wear a piece or two of my crafting armor to put me at the 2-4 range. But I'll make the same thing until I hit it's cap. I'll be making these fletchings until I cap them at 94. The skillups definitely slow down when you get that close, but right now in the 3 lvl range, I see a lot of skillups even at this level. For instance I bought one stack of plumes to make 6 synths, and I got .5 skillup yesterday.

Now this doesn't always happen a lot of times I can go almost 12 synths without a skillup (like the person above me said) it's usually, you skillup a lot right in a row, or you don't skillup at all later on. At least for me and it's going to be much harder for me to do synths in stacks of 12 later on lol.

[cdgreg]

To me it depends a lot on the price of mats, loss on of successful synth, and availability of materials.

A few examples:
Insect Fletchings: Price of mats = dirt cheap, loss on a successful synth = since the mats are so cheap, and the final product is npc'd for such a tiny amount this is low, availability of mats = high. I'll break these mofos all day. Once I hit within 5 levels of the synth cap I'll not use any support in an effort to break more so I don't need to buy more mats.

Silk Cloth: Price of mats = somewhat pricey, loss on a successful synth = PROFIT!, availability of mats = high. I'll do my best NOT to break these, I will use support & GP +1 items so materials are not wasted in the least. I'd rather buy more mats and make gil from excessive synths.

Panther Mask: Price of mats = reasonable, loss on a successful synth = reasonable, availability of mats = LOW. I will do my best TO BREAK THESE SYNTHS. I prefer a break and to not lose HQ Coeurl Hides & Wyvern Skins. If I successfully synth all the synths then I have fewer opportunities at skill ups since the mats are rare. I'd rather lose a bit of gil in breaks than wait on the AH & lose more in the long run NPC'ing the results.

[Valisk]

To me it depends a lot on the price of mats, loss on of successful synth, and availability of materials.

^This. If the synth is dirt cheap then I'll start 8-10 levels under cap with adv support and + gear. Otherwise I prefer to start 5 levels under cap (no synth support, no + gear) so that I can gain skill from breaks. It's awesome to skill up for the price of a crystal (failed synth, no items lost, .1, profit)

[Kyreth]

If it's cheap or a profit, I'll do a synth right up to it's skill cap.

If it's expensive, I'm looking for another less expensive or profitable option the second I can do it and gain off failed synths (in other words, 5 or less from cap).

[Sqwunk]

I don't think there's such a thing as cheap mats at 90+ cloth lol.

Well I mean Giant Bird Plumes are 55k/stack for us which is kind of expensive but compared to the 100cap synth it's cheap.

[Kyreth]

I don't think there's such a thing as cheap mats at 90+ cloth lol.

Well I mean Giant Bird Plumes are 55k/stack for us which is kind of expensive but compared to the 100cap synth it's cheap.

Cheap is relative. After Wamoura Cloth, that's about it for "cheap" unless you're going to spend time instead of Gil and kill Attercops for rainbow cloth till your eyeballs bleed from their sockets.