Post 70 Smithing Guide by Ohgami

=Random Thought Bubbles:=
I have used Byrthnoth's Smithing guide and love it, it is great for getting you up to about 80 efficiently and I don't see the need to reinvent the wheel. I'd rather drive in a different direction by providing a more tighter skill up direction so that you won't be trying to skill off synths 8-10 levels below you. Yes you do get skill ups but, the further away you are past the cap the slower it is and after 70 it's already pretty slow. Now that you got 70 be prepared to spend money and lots of it. You can do some quick and easy synths that sell to the NPC for more than you made them (i.e. the Darksteel Pick Byrthnoth had in his guide). This guide assumes you already have the most important items needed for progressing: Smithy's Mitts, Blacksmith's Apron/Blacksmith's Smock, Blacksmiths' Stall and Smithy's Torque. Together this will give you a constant +9 to your smithing ability. Once you hit 98 you'll be able to start your Smythe's Ecu for an additional +1 and continue the Escutcheons quest for the Smythe's Scutum for +2. Together with the +9 from the previous gear and the +3 from Advanced support you'll have +13~+14 to craft with. Yes it IS possible to T1 a synth a couple of levels below cap with all of those bonuses active. I have done so myself. So don't be afraid to make things for LS members or others just cause you're not 95 or 100. 
Let's GO! Let's Go, Let's and GO!
==Artisan==
*Test Item Level 68*
* Starting this off let's break that limit so we can go to 80. You'll have to make this one since armor vanishes from the sparks vendor after level 50. It's not really that tough though.
68-73
* Get this party started here. As I mentioned above you can NPC these for a decent profit assuming the DS Ores aren't too expensive. I could get a stack for 50k and the pick NPCs for about 12k each so you SHOULD come out ahead. You should take this to 74. The reduction in skill ups won't be too bad.
74-79
* Purely a skill synth (and there will be lots of those). Iron ingots are easy to make as well as Tama-Hagane. Keep some of those Steel ingots and convert to sheets for the next synth. Any surplus Steel Ingots you make from those you can sell for a decent profit on the AH. Just NPC the Arrowheads and move on.
*Test Item Level 78*
* Make one and now you're ready for the big pushes.
==Adept==
78-83
* This one is right from Byrthnoth's guide. Assuming you followed his to get here you should have the Darksteel Mufflers already. Just pull 'em out and slap that steel sheet you made earlier on them. Keep the results for Cursed later on.
79-84
* Same as the Sollerets. Use 'em all up. Push yourself to 85 to be safe but if you wanna live on the edge start the next synth @ 84.
85-90
* Here's the big one. You'll be making LOTS of these. Save the ingots to make Sheets or Chains.
*Test Item Level 88*
* Easy one again. Just make this quickly so you can keep going.
==Veteran:==
88-93
* And now to use those ingots. I suggest getting Advanced Support while making these, You might just get a -1 on one of these.
89-94
* While you make the Sollerets you can skill up on the chains as well.
89-94
* Use up the Mufflers from before and get Advanced Support. Maybe get lucky.
From this point on all of these can be rode to 110, but like I said the closer to cap you are the better chance of a skill up. Once you go over the cap your already abysmal skill gains will be worse! So try to keep to the ones under the cap and you'll be less frustrated.
94-99
* If you don't want to spend the money on the ore then go to Dynamis and farm them. They can drop decently with TH and you don't need to proc.
95-100
* If you get the ores free/cheap just do this for the skill ups. It's not used for much. One result is you can turn these into Bolt heads once you safely reach 97.
96-101
* Not a bad one since you can do the Ingot to Sheet to eventually Sasuke-Shuriken. This is really for skill ups only any way.
97-102
* If you made any Titanium Ingots well here's some free skill ups. NPC the results.
97-102
* What you get from the Sheets, Man.
*Test Item Level 98*
* Once you reach 98 talk the Guild Master and he will unlock the Way of the Blacksmith (Key Item) with the Guild Points NPC. Buy it and a Inferno Crystal. Along with the mats make the Kukri and hand it in. Now you have past the FINAL Test. Now that you are Expert Rank the best thing to do is pause and start your Smythe's Escu. Below I'll outline the best route to go. You will need a LOT of Guild Points so I HOPE you have been stockpiling them. It took me about 100k GP to get enough Crafter Points to buy the mats needed.
==Smythe's Ecu.:==
Now that you are Expert Rank, go to Port Jeuno just past the MH HP is a NEW NPC Mewk Chorosap. Talk to her and she'll give you the Smythe's Aspis. This starts with a -30 Skill and as you complete synths it will eventually go away. This number corresponds to the Craftsmanship % on the shield. 
The best way is to raise your craftsmanship is to alternate between 3 Synths. My suggestion is to buy a CRAPTON of Tin and Copper ores and make a few Bronze Ingots. Then turn one into a Bronze Sheet and then the sheet into Bronze Scales. Just cycle through Ingot>Sheet>Scales using the Synthesis menu -> History. If you break just use the /lastsynth command to repeat the failed synth. I personally macro'd /lastsynth. Keep doing those using Kitron Macaroons, in Adoulin with Ionis with Advanced Support on. Once you have Craftsmanship @ 100% take the Aspis to the Guild Leader and he'll give you the Craftsman's Crystal: Smithing. From here you'll have to make Crafting Sets to accumulate Crafter Points. The Guild Point NPC will sell the Analysis Crystals for 5400GP a stack. Here HQing the synths gives you more CP. You will need 11000 CP to get the 3 items needed to make the Smythe's Ecu. The best and easiest one to make is Set 70.
* Get the ores your normal way and the Skins can be farmed easily in Crawler's Nest. It you have Leathercraft high enough you can buy from the guild. I STRONGLY recommend farming them since you will be using a LOT of gil already. Plus you can farm Silk Threads while you're at it for a little extra cash.
Now once you have all the parts, grab an Earth Crystal and make this recipe.
Now you have this beauty that'll give you +1 Smithing. Not quite a Kupo Shield but it'll do for now.
==Smythe's Scutum:==
Well upgrading this is trickier and I recommend looking at the steps on the Escutcheons page. My tips for this is:
* Again use the same 3 synths I suggested in the Ecu. (Tin+3xCopper=Bronze Ingot>Ingot to Sheet>Sheet to Scales) this seemed to work very well for me since alternating between crystals provides higher craftsmanship points. 
* Also try to HQ these synths as much as possible they will give you more Craftsmanship points.
* The 1st 2 RoE quests are really easy and I had no breaks @ 102.5 (+2 Torque, +5 Stall, +1 Smock, +1 Mitts).
* For RoE 2 any HQ synths will not count so make sure you have a Smith's Ring to force NQ on these. If you don't have one already then you failed somewhere and are just wasting your time and money.
* For RoE 3, while Copper Ingots, Mythril Ingots, Tama-Hagane, Ash Lumber and cotton thread are easy to buy/make again you will have to use Lizard Skins. My suggestion is to Farm the skins as I am estimating needing over 40 just for the RoE.
* For all the mats associated with RoE 3 I ended up needing: over 40 Copper Ingots, 120 Mythril Ingots, 40 Tama-Hagane, 40 Ash Lumber and 40 Cotton Thread to go with the 40 Lizard Skins. Mikazuki +1 is a Level 76 Synth. To HQ this you need over 11 levels over the cap to be T1 in it. That makes it 87. In order to T2 it you need the minimum of 31 Skills over the cap. OK 76+31=107. I was currently (as of this writing) 103.5 and with the above bonuses (+9) and adding Advanced Support (+3) I was: 103+9+3=115. This put me firmly in the T2 range. But that only gave me a 25% chance of a HQ synth.
* Going hand in hand with farming the Lizard Skins for RoE 4 you will need Silk Cloth and Silk Thread. Since you will be in Crawler's Nest any way reduce the downtime associated with the repops of the lizards by killing the crawlers. While you will only need to make 5 Hara-Ate +1 I am estimating needing 20 each of the thread and cloth. the other 3 items for the synth are easy but will cost a bit since you will need extras. 
* RoE 4 while having more Mats, is a slightly lower synth has a Sub of 49 Clothcraft. To HQ this you will need to get the sub in the HQ range as well so 11 over the 49 (60). Since the max level you can level a sub without impacting your main is 70 this puts you 21 over the sub's cap. This means that you'll only really be in the T1 Range on this one. In order to reach the T2 range on this you'd need another 10 skill in CC. This is possible if you were to get the Torque (+2), Apron(+1), Magnifying Spectacles (+1), Advanced Support (+3) and a Kupo Shield (+3). And if I had a Kupo Shield WHY IN THE HELL WOULD I BE DOING THIS QUEST IN THE FIRST PLACE!
* T1 on RoE 4 gives you a 1/16 chance of an HQ. Upon completion I needed: 402 Iron Sheets, 268 Iron Chains, 134 Sheep Leathers, 134 Silk Thread and 134 Silk Cloth. Using Sheeting and Chainwork are your friends here so be prepared!
*Here's your recipe. Camphor is the same as last time. The Gold Screw is 8000 CP and you only need 1 so CP wise the cost is only 2000 more than Stage 1.
*My recommendation is doing Set 70 like before. It's a simple recipe and won't set you back too bad financially. Heck I have a metric shit-ton of Darksteel Ingots in storage from all the Voidwatch I was doing.
*Still not a Kupo Shield but now you are ever closer to eventually reaching that fabled 125 Skill.
==Expert==
98-103
* OK back to work! Now you make your OWN D. Ingots!! /Hurray The only bad part is finding the Vanadium Ore. I have gotten some from the Mog Garden Rank 7 Mining Point 4.
100-105
* Another easy one to do. If you get the ore from HTMB or cheap on the AH you can do this. It's used for all Reforged AF+1 Hand Armor. So you can use them for yourself or sell to those that need.
100-105
* Pretty expensive to skill up on but you can probably make some money on this one. The ingots are used for Reforged AF +3 Body Pieces. The only known place to get the Ores is the Smithing guild. 
103-108
* Although it's uncertain whether the cap on this is 107 or 108 it really doesn't matter. Again a purely skill up synth. The other mats are super easy to make/get. You can ride this to 110 if you want assuming you have enough Sheets.
==Epilogue:==
To quote Byrthnoth's guides "With Skill+12 (including advanced support), you can Tier 1 a synth one level above you. Without Kupo shield, no one can reach Tier 2 on anything above level 91, so your HQ rate on these synths is the same as a 110+12 crafter. This is ultimately the largest secret to leveling a craft these days. There's no reason to be inferior to a 110+12 crafter above level 91, so everything you do after this point can be profit. If a lower level synth is profit and you have mats for it, feel free to keep doing it for skill as long as it isn't >11 levels below you." Obviously written before the Escutcheons came out but still the same principle. At this point you have the skill you need to HQ a synth and with +12~14 Skill from gear and support you can make almost anything and you'll probably skill up off it. Hell I got a .1 off of making my Escutcheon LOL.
--Ohgami (talk) 12:47, 6 April 2017 (EDT)