Penta-melding? Durrrr?

So I now realize I maybe should have paid more attention to the quest where I unlocked melding rather than just clicking through it as quickly as possible (in my defense it was late and the quest was dull). Or at least I should develop better Google-fu. But in the abscence of that, can anyone recommend a good guide on the mechanics of melding? I’m looking at this (http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/13997) gear setup for 2* HQ crafting at level 70 using a macro and wondering how and why it’s like that? And the Ariyala tool tips show that weaker materia has a higher chance to succeed, and that melding gets progressively more prone to failure after you get past the 1st slot or 2? Is that right? Is the 1st slot or 2 100% chance for crafters, or is that just an NPC melded thing? Can any crafter attach any materia to any gear, or are their class and/or level and/or item level restrictions? I plead ignorance and confusion! Thanks in advance.

I don't know of a good guide per-say. But I can give a general idea on melding.

a) Melding means to slot materia into gear to give it more stats.
b) When melding, each piece of gear has a max on each stat it can have in it. You can find this in the bottom bar when you are trying to meld materia into a piece of gear for the first time (may have to hold down the ALT key to hide the tooltip). So as an example, say an earring says it has 26 CP but it has 33 CP next to it. it means the most you can meld into it is 7 CP. If you run over that CP, it will cap at 7CP but show up as red text underneath.

c) The reason people are going for certain stats is due to minimum stats that SE has set for recipes. For example, Level 70 2-star recipes require 1320 Craftmanship and 1220 Control. What players provide beyond those two stats is up to them.
d) The macros people where able to come up have a minimum of 505 CP. So with Tempura food (and maybe Competent Craftsman's Tea or Commanding Craftsman's Tea), people have made gear lists to come up with the minum stats + CP needed for the rotation.
e) Each piece of gear has a set of given materia slots. These are 100% guaranteed to meld by anyone (Human or NPC). Most left-side items (chest, Legs) have 2 of these guaranteed slots. Right side (neck, rings) tend to only have 1 slot. People use those slots to put in the highest level materia they have (either level 5 or 6 materia). Anything beyond those guaranteed slots have "a chance" to meld.
f) The higher the materia you try to "overmeld" (melding beyond those guaranteed slots), the harder it is the meld. So as an example, You put in 2 level 5 materia into guaranteed slots. If you try to put in a level 5 in the 3rd slot, it may say it has a 18% chance to meld. However if you try to put in a level 4 materia instead, it may say it has a 26% chance to meld.
g) Each subsequent chance to meld has a lower and lower chance to meld. So it's advised to start with your highest meld in guaranteed slots, and work your way down to level 1-3 materia in slot 4 and 5.
h) due to low chance to meld when quatro or penta-melding, you will go through a LOT of materia. So stock up on level 2, 3 and 4 materia (3 and 4 in particular). These can either be gathered from Ixal dailies (handing in the tokens you get from the level 15 and 16 dailies near the airship to the materia vendor), or in the case of level 4, from Red Scripts.
i) As for actually Melding, you have to be the same level of the recipe to meld an item into that slot. Meaning level 60 or higher weavers can meld level 60 weaver gear (if you hover over an item it will say which craft is needed to repair and that is the craft that can meld as well). Level 70 crafters can meld level 70 gear. The level of the recipe does not always correspond to the level of the item. You can have a level 67 recipe make a level 68 item.
j) if you are not of the same level, you can talk to one of the melding vendors in major cities who will meld for you but at 1k gold charge per attempt.

Ok, that makes more sense. Thanks! Can NPC’s overmeld? Or have to find (or become) the right crafter to do that?

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Originally Posted by Lyraele

Ok, that makes more sense. Thanks! Can NPC’s overmeld? Or have to find (or become) the right crafter to do that?

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As of right now, Materia Melder NPCs cannot overmeld. So you will either have to level up the appropriate crafter to pentameld, or find a crafter to do it for you. Most don't mind overmelding if you /shout in a city state for someone to help you.

Ok, cool. Thanks for confirming that. I have FC mates I can hit up, but I figured if an NPC can do it I don’t need to distract a fellow player. Looks like I need to shake down a Weaver, Leatherworker, Carpenter, Armorer, and Blacksmith. Wheeeeeee!

So one thing that just now occurs to me... As a CUL, is there any gear I can attach crafter materia to? I vaguely remember being forced to attach materia to some stuff to fulfill the materia quest, and I thought I did it as CUL. But if armor repair type determines materia attachment, it wouldn’t seem like CUL can attach materia to anything. It’s been about a month or two ago and I was leveling everything up to 15/37 at the time, so maybe I didn’t do it as CUL and am remembering it wrong...

Correct, cul doesn't have anything to meld.

Forgot to mention, but you asked if materia can be put into any gear.

The answer is no. Not all gear can have materia be put in. Usually the case is any non-crafted gear cannot have materia be placed in it; except for guaranteed slots. So as an example, the Yellow script gear you can buy for your crafting job cannot have any materia be placed in it. Omega gear has guaranteed slots in which you can put materia in, but anything beyond those guaranteed slots is not allowed. Leveling gear you can purchase from vendors are allowed to overmeld since they can also be crafted, but most people tend not to overmeld non-HQ items.

Righto. At this point I have a full set of crafted HQ gear (all crafters) and crafted primary/secondary CUL tools. And have almost filled all the guaranteed spots with V’s. Should have the V’s finished tonight with another round of deliveries for red scrip. Then the real fun of overmelds begins, made more annoying by not having any class that can meld 70’s gear (working on that, too!).