How to blacksmith to three star quality?

[vakarr]

I've never been able to work out what it is I'm trying to do exactly when blacksmithing, and now there's the option to upgrade most of your weapons and armour to three stars. Am I trying to click when the hammer hits the shiny bit, or before the hammer hits the shiny bit, or what? I have got some three star armour but the the best weapons I've made so far have been two stars, and it once took two hours of save scumming to get to the two star weapon.

[Wandering Flare]

3 stars are only a chance if you manage to hit all 4 plates correctly.

[pd28]

You should be aiming to hit the four plates at the moment when they are lit up the brightest. You'll see stars appear on impact if you've got it exactly right. You have to get it exactly right four times and only then is there a small chance that you'll produce a three star weapon. With practice you should be able to always produce two star kit and now they've introduced modification it's a short step to three stars - which to my mind rather devalues the whole exercise. When you're playing the mini game I find it helpful to go by the sound as much as the visuals to time my strike.

[valpolanco47]

agreed on the going by sound thing, its a lot easier when you hear the ding then when you see the bright circle.

[Wandering Flare]

You will eventually get into the rhythm of it, there's only a slow and a fast one and if you don't strike the plate you get as many chances to do it again as you need.

[n3mes1s]

Its luck, A LOT of luck.
The only prerequisite is to nail the four irons to be "eligible" for a three star piece. Its easier to get a three start equipment from enemies than crafting something yourself. Dont bother. And of course, dont even try to grind materials to craft the same thing over and over again expecting a three star piece. Thats insane and again, the chances are so low that its not worthy.

There is a backpack item that increases the chances of getting a superior item, but honestly those extra chances are so small that the item itself is basically useless. We are still waiting for the devs to do sometihng about it, but as with many other hundred of things, i guess we will need to live with it.

[Blud]

Originally posted by n3mes1s:

Its luck, A LOT of luck.
The only prerequisite is to nail the four irons to be "eligible" for a three star piece. Its easier to get a three start equipment from enemies than crafting something yourself. Dont bother. And of course, dont even try to grind materials to craft the same thing over and over again expecting a three star piece. Thats insane and again, the chances are so low that its not worthy.

There is a backpack item that increases the chances of getting a superior item, but honestly those extra chances are so small that the item itself is basically useless. We are still waiting for the devs to do sometihng about it, but as with many other hundred of things, i guess we will need to live with it.

They ruined it with the change a few patches ago.

[Stocke]

Originally posted by n3mes1s:

Its luck, A LOT of luck.
The only prerequisite is to nail the four irons to be "eligible" for a three star piece. Its easier to get a three start equipment from enemies than crafting something yourself. Dont bother. And of course, dont even try to grind materials to craft the same thing over and over again expecting a three star piece. Thats insane and again, the chances are so low that its not worthy.

There is a backpack item that increases the chances of getting a superior item, but honestly those extra chances are so small that the item itself is basically useless. We are still waiting for the devs to do sometihng about it, but as with many other hundred of things, i guess we will need to live with it.

No need to craft the same item over and over. After reaching Experienced you can upgrade an item's quality by playing the smithing minigame again (costs a few mats but it's not much).