Best materia setup for crafters?

[Searious]

I didn't list it, since it's your call as to which order you meld in, and there's a few different options. I'm not even sure which one I would suggest since I haven't max-melded any body yet (though I have done all the rest, except offhand of course).

This option has the advantage of using cheaper materia on the forbidden melds, so you don't blow up as much cash.

Each option is equally valid, and will get you to the same stats. The choice is yours. There are other options you could use (such as using Control IV and I, instead of III and II for either option), but I consider the above two to be the best ones when taking materia prices and availability into account.

I've updated my earlier post to reflect this information, as well as the optimum melds for the accessories.

Thank you very much!

[Rehwyn]

I'm not sure how it is on Legacy servers, but at least on my non-Legacy server, Tier IV materia are grossly more expensive than Teir III and below. In fact, there is less than a full sales log for most of them on the market board. Just to give you an idea, Control IV is 300-450k, Control III is like 25k, Control II around 15k, Control I around 1.5-2k. Another notable example is CP IV at 70k, CP III at 10k, CP II at 2k, and CP I at 500g.

Because of this, I've come up with some alternatives melds for every piece except Body and Off-Hand that still cap the possible stats but do not use grade IV materia. Think of these as "budget" alternative approaches that generally require more meld attempts, but with cheaper materia. It also is a little more "modular" in that you can add the guaranteed III/II melds for much cheaper than IV melds and then add the remaining materia as your funds allow it.

Had to split the post due to character limit... please see next post.

[Rehwyn]

Note: Over-melded materia can be performed in an alternative order based on your server prices.

Off-Hand: No optimal budget alternative
Head: Control III, Craft II | Control I, Control I
Body: No optimal budget alternative
Hands: Control III, Craft II | Control I, Control I
Legs: Control III, CP III | Control I, Control I, Craft I
Feet: Control III, CP III | Control I, Control I, Craft I

Belt: Control III | CP III, Craft I, Control I, Control I OR Control III | Control II, CP II, Craft I, CP I
Choker: Control III | CP II, CP II, Craft I, CP I
Ears: Control III | CP II, CP II, CP II, Craft I OR Control III | CP III, CP II, Craft I, CP I
Wrists: Control III | CP III, CP III, Craft II, Control I
Rings: Control III | CP III, Craft I, Control I, Craft I OR Control III | Craft II, CP II, Control I, CP I

I have not personally tested the Earring approach listed, but believe it should work fine. Hope this is useful to some people!

[Angron]

Would love to get something like this for gathering classes. Would anyone have a link to one or know if one exists?

[Spider-Dan]

Just FYI, I made a spreadsheet a while back with meld order, shopping lists, etc:

http://viperbeam.com/ffxiv/doh_materiacaps.xls

[Raldo]

Would love to get something like this for gathering classes. Would anyone have a link to one or know if one exists?

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ciples-of-Land

[CatholicFan]

Head (HQ AF): 4 Craftsmanship; 5 Control; 0 CP
- Optimum meld: Control IV, Craftsmanship II, Control I

Just a quick note, you can obtain this optimum meld with Control III, Control II, Craftsmanship II. Because the head-pieces have two materia slots, you're guaranteed 100% on the first two melds. You can just pick whichever rank-II materia is cheapest on your server to use for the forbidden meld, which actually has a fairly high percentage to succeed (42%, if I remember correctly).

I just wanted to point this out, as it is a significant difference in cost to go for a IV+I setup over a III+II setup, and they yield the same statistics for your piece.

[CatholicFan]

Offhand (HQ Militia): 19 Craftsmanship; 11 Control; 3 CP
- It is impossible to reach all the stat caps on this, so it's your pick what you meld.

I'm getting ready to start melding my Militia offhand. Does anyone have any suggestions based what they put into theirs? I'm considering doing the following:

Control IV
Craftsmanship IV
Control III
Control III
CP III

That would give me +10 Control, +6 Craftsmanship, and +3 CP. Any thoughts? Do you find you have enough Control with the other stats in the optimal, where I should swap the Control III's with Craftsmanship III's to help progress?

[Kakure]

That would give me +10 Control, +6 Craftsmanship, and +3 CP. Any thoughts? Do you find you have enough Control with the other stats in the optimal, where I should swap the Control III's with Craftsmanship III's to help progress?

If you have max-melded accessories, you can get the stats to make 100% HQ 80-durability items (see the guides in this forum) without overmelding any of your class-specific pieces except maybe the chest. At that point, the only real benefit you get from additional melds is a higher chance of making HQ 40-durability items.

Once you have the stats necessary to make HQ 80-durability items with NQ components, you don't really need to HQ the components anyway. So unless you plan on making HQ two-star 40-durability components (e.g. Vanya Silk) to sell, you are pretty much just improving your already high chance of making HQ Darksteel Nuggets or whatever.

In short, overmelding your offhand seems kind of like overkill to me.

[Raldo]

I'm getting ready to start melding my Militia offhand...

After melding everything else, I've deemed it a complete waste of time to bother melding the offhand beyond a single materia (and to be entirely honest, I just meld enough to reach the 2-star stat thresholds w/o food, then stop so most of my offhands have no materia on them at all).

Oh dang, the person above me just basically said the same thing, whoops.

Just a quick note, you can obtain this optimum meld with...

I'm well aware of this, and anyone who took the time to think things through should be able to figure this out for themselves. Your suggestion applies to head/hands/legs/feet. I posted those optimum melds long before putting much thought into it (back when I was blowing my cracked materia and didn't realize the rarity of T4 materia), but I will update my earlier post to reflect the obvious ones.