FFXIV Four Star (4*) Master Crafting Rotations (& More)

75 thoughts on “FFXIV Four Star (4*) Master Crafting Rotations (& More)”

1. I just got my Master book II for GSM. While crafting the HQ Calibrated Rose Gold cogs, I assisted my craft with a simulator to explore all possible options. I found that with 10+ Inner Quiet stacks, Innovation was actually more potent than Ingenuity II for Byregot’s Blessing, and a lot cheaper. However, depending on your Craftsmanship, you may need to spend that extra CP on Ingenuity II in order to complete the synthesis. For me, at 482 Craftsmanship, it made no difference whether I had Ingenuity II up for my Careful Synthesis II or not. The total synthesis required was 3x Piece by Piece and 4x Careful Synthesis II with no Ingenuity used.

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2. Hi. I’m trying to HQ Spicy Tomato Relish. which rotation should I use?

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3. Just like to point out that you are missing your first line, Comfort Zone. Otherwise having ToT as the first line in that macro is silly since you will never start a craft on with a better than normal condition. The macro is very similar to how when first started 4* but found that it’s better to start with manually:

   Comfort Zone
   Tricks of the Trade
   Inner Quiet
   Tricks of the Trade
   Piece by Piece
   Tricks of the Trade
   Piece by Piece
   Tricks of the Trade
   Steady Hand II
   Rapid Synthesis
   HT x 4
   Master’s Mend II
   Comfort Zone

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4. You mention an 11th cross slot? I only have 10 – am I missing some way to get an 11th slot?

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   1. 10 is the limit yes! But keep in mind a max of 3 come from the current base class you’re using

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5. Tried the 4 star rotation as goldsmith for book 2 hq item. U need to either give up reclaim or drop to steady hand 1. It’s hard lol.

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   1. Yes, GSM is gimped in the regard of cross class skills – it’s a good thing to note!

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   2. Also tried to set this up as weaver… you need 12 cross class skills according to his guide….

      Doesn’t add up…

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      1. Yes some classes are gimped in this regard – I can make a more cross-class friendly version. (CUL or ALC for example have no problem here)

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         1. there is another rotation floating around that uses WN instead of WNII. It is a 10 Touch Rotation and, yes, it gives you the chance to have reclaim for all classes. And if you have 393 CP after food, i found out that you can actually hold out on using Reclaim until right before Great Strides so if a HT fails or something and you just want to wait to see if you get that Excellent, you can.

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            1. There are indeed countless ways to do this, sacrificing one pro for a con and vice versa! feel free to share

   3. GSM is on that is the hardest to get HQ items turn-ins for master craft books 2. You basically cannot use RECLAIM due to limited space of needed cross class ability to complete a successful rotation. You just have to cross your fingers, grind your teeth and commit to the synth and pray that you get enough quality % to give you HQ. This was the only craft job I had issues with. All the other ones were much simpler.

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      1. Why does everyone think that GSM cannot use reclaim? Okay so GSM may not be able to get the Master II book right away until after getting Supra or maybe Lucis, but GSM can use reclaim and all other classes (except WVR) can use innovation… just swap out Careful Synth II for a Basic Synth… it is what i did, and really no problems at all. Note that I know this for sure only works when at 4* stats, i am not sure if it works completely if you only have Supra Main and artisan Off-Hand.

         If you are not sure if your stats are high enough to work, then use the simulator!

         There is another rotation out there that I mentioned a while ago that exists. It requires 379CP + 1 ToT (399CP total)..

         I am not taking credit for the base of the roation… it was originally posted here:
         http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/2krdgr/hq_supra_turnins_for_recipie_book_2/

         Comfort Zone *
         Inner Quiet *
         PbP*
         PbP*
         Ing II
         SH II
         RS
         RS <— any progress fails? Reclaim
         HT
         HT
         HT*
         Comfort Zone *
         Master Mend II *
         Waste Not **
         Steady Hand II **
         HT
         HT
         HT
         HT
         HT
         HT* ****
         Steady Hand II
         HT
         HT
         GS ***
         BB
         CS II

         * – you can use ToT at any point after any of these actions

         ** – You can switch the WN and Steady Hand II here and do 4 HT instead of 5. This would mean that you need to do 3 HT after the next Steady Hand II (this also means that you cannot bait using observe and still have 100% BB at the end) – If you are GSM, Then you want to have the extra Steady Hand II coverage at the end for the Basic Synth to be 100%

         *** – you require 56 CP to use GS + BB at the end. If you got one ToT before GS, then you will have enough CP to finish. If you got 2, then you can bait using observe. If you got more, then you can sub in BT for HT to try to get your 11 stack.

         **** – if you didn't get any ToT, then this is the last chance you have to Reclaim, or just use bare HT to get to 20 DUR (50% chance to stick each so why not got for it… not much to lose if going to reclaim anyways) and hope for an excellent and use BB at 90%. Best case you get that excellent when you need and you can choose what to do then.

         I used the above and variations of the above got all the books i wanted with no issues and minimal waste (since all but GSM can go for Supra and book at the same time, NQ can still be used).

         Got the GSM Supra, Lucis then the GSM book (using Basic Synth instead of CS II) with 1 wasted. Reclaim at any point you don't get 11 stack of IQ and don't have enough CP to bait using innovation (this means you need all HT to land and minimum of 2 ToT or you reclaim).

         If i would get a progrss fail on Rapid Synth, i would continue on like normal knowing i would only get a max of IQ stack 10. If i was lucky i would get an excellent otherwise i would just reclaim.

         I just modified it by switching the WN and SHII when needed… I also went against the grain and did ToT in places where i knew i could and used the CP to use touches after a buff would run out.

         Note: Once you figure these out and get really good at improvising to get these books, you will find that the 4* crafts to make HQ are a joke and a less CP intensive version of this rotation (hint, you can swap out PbP for a bare synth that requires 0 CP) can be used to get 100% HQ with minimal HQ mats and landing BB on any condition except a poor. You can also 100% HQ 4* at base stats if using mostly HQ materials and only getting an IQ stack of 9 or 10 depending on starting quality; Again, the simulator is your friend to figure out what your progress and quality gains will/could be given your stats.

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         1. wish i could edit my replay, i just caught an error in it. I had an extra HT after the WN and Steady Hand II combo… there should have only been 5 Hasty Touches, not 6.. but the same still applies, after that last Hasty, you can reclaim if you didn;t get any ToT and you can use ToT safely on a good after the last Hasty.

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6. HOLY HELL! I finally got my artisan weapon. Thanks so much for this guide! :)

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7. I just did the 3star master rotation and ended up failing the synth with 410 craftsmanship, 397 control and 392 cp. I followed the steps and careful synthesis II just gave me 74 progress, leaving me far away from the finish :/ Did something change with one of the latest patches?

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   1. You likely forgot Piece by Piece x2 :)

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      1. Yup, just tried again.. 397 craft, 381 control, 395 CP… Your rotation (again with nothing left out) gets you 650ish / 801 so not even close to finishing the synth. You need to take another look at your rotation.

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         1. What exactly are you trying to craft? I think this may be the same case as some of the commenters below.. youre using the “tier 1 token” rotation for tier 2 tokens? (Intricate/ non-Intricate SILVER BROCADE)

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            1. I just tried that rotation 3 times to make Water-hardened Hippogryph Straps.

               Crafts – 396
               Control – 384
               CP – 393 (with hq Bouillabaisse)

               Didn’t even come close to finishing the synth.

            2. Water Hardened Hippogryph Strap is “FOUR STAR” level token, that is not the rotation for it.

            3. Using the “Three Star Master Crafting Rotation” to craft things like “Intricate Silver Brocade”, “Rich Tomato Relish”, “Concentrated Spirits of Salt”. All of which are labeled with 3 stars in the crafting book. Your rotation does not complete the synth for those.

            4. Intricate Silver Brocade and such are 3 star token items, they are like 3.9 items. As such, the 3 star master crafting rotation won’t come close. You would use the “Four star token” HQ Rotation to complete those. They are really, really difficult to complete and require a lot of RNG luck.

            5. Yes indeed.

8. Are you going to update this soon for 2.4?

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   1. Yes we will! lemme just finish the caster bis :D

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      1. I can’t wait for you to add a 4 star rotation on how to obtain the new master book 2.

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         1. I’ll update this shortly but its basically and extra PBP with the minimum 4star stats.

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            1. Like the Augmented clothes?

            2. Augmented clothes items cannot be HQ’d! Ing2, Cs2x4, Masters mend /repeat

            3. I’m talking about the Saurian/Cashmere ones.

            4. Why not just post the update already?

            5. As a listed upside of the BiS above, the bacon bread is completely optional – you can use ANY food

9. Okay, what am I doing wrong. Following the Token rotation perfectly and still ending up with 30 durability rather than 40 near the end, lead to three breaks since I had to supplement with rapid synth.

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   1. Do you reach the minimum required craftsmanship listed? Missing even 1 will result in breaks.

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      1. I think OP is referring to this:

         1) Comfort Zone (Tricks?) – 80 dura
         2) Inner Quiet (Tricks?) – 80 dura
         3) Steady Hand II – 80 dura
         4) Waste Not II – 80 dura
         5) Hasty Touch – 75 dura
         6) Hasty Touch – 70 dura
         7) Hasty Touch – 65 dura
         8) Hasty Touch – 60 dura
         9) Steady Hand II – 60 dura
         10) Hasty Touch – 50 dura
         11) Hasty Touch – 40 dura
         12) Hasty Touch – 30 dura
         13) Hasty Touch – 20 dura
         14) Hasty Touch – 10 dura
         15) Manipulation (Tricks?) – 40 dura
         16) Steady Hand (Tricks?) – 40 dura
         17) Hasty Touch*** – 30 dura
         18) Great Strides – 30 dura
         19) Innovation – 30 dura
         20) Ingenuity II – 30 dura
         21) Byregot’s Blessing – 20 dura
         22) Careful Synthesis II – 10 dura
         23) Careful Synthesis II – 0 dura
         24) Careful Synthesis II – -10 dura
         25) Careful Synthesis II – -20 dura

         The abilities listed require 20 more durability based on what I see. Let me know if I’m misreading something. Thanks!

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         1. The thing you missed is waste not TWO, not one :)

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            1. Nope, its still fails. It will get more or less halfway to sucess. Have tryed it, it leads to a break.

            2. By the rotation listed above, the last 4 Steady Hand 2 make 316/801 and the recipe fails.

            3. Correcting last comment, the last 4 carefull synthesis 2 gets you 316/801. You can get the the craft simulation here: http://link.ffxivcrafter.com/?id=cbbV6

            4. Good thing you shared the link. Token Items are the 2-star, 419 difficulty items you craft to exchange for the iLvl 70 “Artisan” MH and Spectacles. This specific rotation, as you have found, comes nowhere close to the 801 difficulty of the 3-star items based off the Token Items. For you, it’s the difference between Silver Brocade and Intricate Silver Brocade. The rotation works with the former, but not with the later.

            5. Oh my, you’re trying to craft INTRICATE SILVER BROCADE level with SILVER BROCADE level rotation.. it definitely WONT WORK

   2. because the melds this guy is suggesting on artisans gear simply cant be done hes completely full of shit

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10. i have mad a nice 2 button macro for 80 Dur 2star + its only 100% f u are fully melded and using HQ items( depending on main had % goes up)

    1st button
    /ac “Comfort Zone”
    /ac “Tricks of the Trade”
    /ac “Inner quiet”
    /ac “Tricks of the Trade”
    /ac “Steady Hand II”
    /ac “Waste Not II”
    /ac “Hasty Touch”
    /ac “Hasty Touch”
    /ac “Hasty Touch”
    /ac “Hasty Touch”
    /ac “Steady Hand II”
    /ac “Hasty Touch”
    /ac “Hasty Touch”
    /ac “Hasty Touch”
    /echo end HQ 3 star part1

    2nd button
    /echo HQ 3 star part2
    /ac “Hasty Touch”
    /ac “Hasty Touch”
    /ac “Manipulation”
    /ac “Steady Hand II”
    /ac “Piece by piece”
    /ac “Great strides”
    /ac “Piece by piece”
    /ac “Ingenuity II”
    /ac “Byregot’s Blessing”
    /ac “Careful synthesis II”
    /ac “Careful synthesis II”
    /ac “Careful synthesis II”
    /echo end HQ 3 star part2

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11. Best gaming guide ive ever used. Worked like a charm for tokens and three star used same rotation to make Augmented Robe of Healing. Thanks so much. Be even happier with my 5 mil payday.

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    1. Stay tuned give me a week to make some gil and ill share what setup
       I use to make the new augmented gear. I got lucky the first time but will share my secrets soon.

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12. Can’t you just replace manipulation with master’s mend to save a spot? It’s a 4 cp difference .___.

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    1. Not sure where you’re referring to, but there is a potential problem with Manipulation that doesn’t occur with Master’s Mend. Master’s Mend immediate gives you back 30 durability. Manipulation restores 10 durability for three consecutive turns AFTER you perform a skill. If you use a skill that will cost you durability, you first lose that durability THEN Manipulation restores 10 points. So, if you are down to 10 durability then use Manipulation, if you then use a touch or synthesis skill that eats 10 durability you will hit 0 before that 10 gets restored and the craft will fail.

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13. 345 + HQ Bouillabaisse gives 388 cp, not 380.

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14. Also for the 2 star 80 durability rotation the craftsmanship is off a little. If you use Ingenuity I you’ll come up short of finishing the synth, but you can change fix that by using Hasty touch for your first touch and using Ingenuity II instead. Or if a TOT proc comes up on either Inner Quiet or Comfort Zone you can still use all 5 Basic touches and still use Ingenuity II

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    1. 2 star 80 does not work (at least for spicy tomato relish). i have 413 craft, 381 control 345 cp

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       1. Spicy tomato relish is a special recipe. Use the MAHIKO TOKEN rotation. While it’s listed as 2-star, it’s quality req is much higher (check notes in that token section)

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15. First of all, these rotations are downright magical — tyvm for them!

    Up under the 3-star master crafting rotation you list the required stats as:
    396 Craftsmanship
    374 Control (minimum)
    380 CP (345 + HQ Bouillabaisse)

    Looking at the recipes, the required craftsmanship is listed as 391 and that’s where I have my gear. I’m not sure that I can fit any more onto anything, so I’m wondering if 391 is the figure you meant or whether we need to be working under a FC action to hit this. When I was playing with this rotation I did have active Eat From the Hand II and I was sitting at 401 craftsmanship, so I can’t tell myself right now (it’s still active and, frankly, it’s nice to have 401 craftsmanship, not gonna cancel early ;)

    Also HQ Bouillabaisse will give you +43 CP. If you’re gear is at 342 CP unbuffed, HQ fishystufftoohardtospell will get you up to 385.

    You might also want to add a rotation for 1424 difficulty 3-star furniture recipes. The one I found (too late and 600k gil of lost mats later) is this:
    Steady Hand
    Piece by Piece (1)
    Piece by Piece (2)
    Piece by Piece (3)
    Piece by Piece (4)
    Piece by Piece (5)
    Careful Synthesis II (1)
    Master’s Mend II
    Ingenuity II
    Careful Synthesis II (2)
    Careful Synthesis II (3)
    Careful Synthesis II (4)
    I was able to complete my craft after the third Careful Synthesis II .. the rotation was posted as a macro, so I’m guessing the extra there is a little bit of overkill.

    Oh .. Byregot’s Killzone? That’s brilliant! Just don’t forget to hit your Ingenuity II .. that cost me about 300k gil.

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    1. Oops, just looking back at your 2.2 Gear Guide where you say that YOUR gear is at 395 and you’d like confirmation that 391 is enough. As soon as the Eat From the Hand II action drops….+

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       1. Ok, tested the Three Star Master Crafting Rotation on a Wolfram Ingot (445 Difficulty). I did not take any Tricks, followed precisely the steps listed with no options exercised. My stats are 391 craftsmanship, 374 control (exactly what is required for the recipe) and 342 CP boosted to 385 CP with HQ Bouillabaisse. I hit precisely 445 on the progress and had 2 CP to spare, so it does work with 391 craftsmanship.

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          1. i have better stats than those and these methods dont even come close

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             1. That’s a bit vague, but I’m going to guess that you’re trying to use the 3-star rotation for the 3-star token items required to get the Master II booklets. The 3-star rotation is for items with a difficulty of 445 or less, so it will not work for the 3-star tokens like Intricate Silver Brocade with a difficulty of 801.

    2. For non hq craftable items just waste not ii, ingenuity ii careful synthesis til ingenuity ii runs out throw one more and maybe a manipulation keep careful synthesis and you are golden

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16. You should ALWAYS start any craft with Inner Quiet followed Comfort Zone, because you can proc a free Inner Quiet if you get “good” than use TOT right after it.

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    1. Right, this is something i failed to mention but is obviously useful when you’re being “Serious”.

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       1. Now while I can see that being useful and all, I always use CZ 1st because it uses such a big chunk of your CP that if you proc a ToT you’re not going to hit your CP cap from gear. However, if you hit IQ, and then proc a ToT, IQ is 18 cp, whereas ToT recovers 20. Therefore wasting that sometimes ever so valuable 2 CP; and yes, I’ve fallen short a synth by 2 cp before.

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          1. Yes CZ->IQ is always better

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17. 2 Star 40 Durability rotation requires 364 CP not 358 as listed.

    66 => 8 (18 – 8) => 17 (25 – 8) => 48 (56 – 8) => (Hasty’s are 0 – gain 32 (8 x 4)) => 80 (88 – 8) => 17 (25 – 8) => 48 (56 – 8 — CZ drops) => (Hasty’s are 0) => 22 => 32 => 32 => 24

    66+8+17+48+32+80+17+48+22+32+32+24 = 364

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    1. will double check, thanks for catching it! Was confused with all my rotation spreads!

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    2. 2 small errors:
       1. (18-8 = 10, not 8) for your step 2, and
       2. Your sum should say -32 for the 5th term since you’re gaining cp with those touches, and not +32.

       I can confirm, however, that the final answer is correct at 364.

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       1. Yep, good call. I did that quicker than I should have it seems.

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          1. Question/comment on the 2 star 40 durability… I’ve found you can drop in a Waste Not II, and get 7 hastys off with a steady hand II reload in the middle. Then you can go manipulation, SH II, Hasty, then go into the Byregot’s Killzone. Why no innovation before the Byregot’s, though? I like to throw that in and max out my Byregot’s. Also, if you somehow aren’t out of CP, you can finish it in one shot under ingenuity II with Standard Synth (if Steady Hand is still up). Then you could possibly squeeze in another hasty earlier with the extra 10 durability. I realize that’s a ton of different thoughts… but I definitely recommend the waste not II, and using the 14 CP you save over 2x waste not to throw into Innovation!

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             1. Oh, and you can still 2-shot the progress with Ingenuity I instead of Ingenuity II, so you can save another 8 CP there! OK, I’m done now. :)

             2. To be honest I havent looked much into 2star 40 – will take these into account!

             3. I guess there are a few reasons why I wouldn’t want to go with these differences. (1) Using Waste Not I, you get one more opportunity to use Tricks, for a total of 4 before the Killzone comes up. (2) The rotation as is will leave you with 25 DUR at the start of the Killzone. If you have had no chances to take Tricks, you won’t have the CP for Innovation. You’re right that with Ingenuity II and the craftsmanship you’ll probably have at this level, one step is all that you should need to finish a 2-star 40 DUR recipe. 25 DUR means 3 steps left. One goes for Byregot’s, and a second for Careful Synthesis II. In between, if Byregot’s didn’t take you to 100% you have 1 more chance for a Hasty Touch. Looking at it now, though, you’re probably right that (a) if you get 1 Tricks in, (b) you can toss Ingenuity in after Great Strides. I was using any CP I had from Tricks to bump that desperation Hasty to a Basic Touch or better (if more Tricks) if I needed it, but Ingenuity (if you can pop it) would be better.

18. Missing tricks on step 8 & 14 on 3 stars carft ;)

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19. How did you manage to put so many cross class skills into the 3-stars master rotation? I assume on some classes we can’t put in Reclaim if we wanna use Innovation? Am I wrong? Cheers!

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    1. Yes, some of the classes cannot use reclaim if needed. Most of the time it’s a choice between reclaim or tricks.

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       1. 1 Tricks of the Trade? Replace step 20 with Innovation.

          Judging from the statement above, it looks like we can only pop Innovation if we proc the Tricks. Should I just take Tricks over Innovation then? Thanks!

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          1. For me, it’s a choice between reclaim and tricks. W/O tricks, you cannot pop innovation. You can go Tricks/Innov, but don’t cry when your hastys dont go your way.

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