Why should crafters have a glass ceiling for their work? The goal is to make exceptionally good gear. Without materia crafting becomes a lot less viable in making an economy and customizing builds for maximum effect.
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Easier melding means I get my relic weapon cheaper, I'm all for it. pce
i'm not sure what you're trying to get at, i never implied that i want materia to get useless, crafters will still make equipment and they would even without materia.atleast i was before materia was introduced.
and i heared people in games that don't have materia like systems make equipment still aswell!
all i'm saying is that it should be looked at as a meaning to get to your goal quicker.and that shouldn't be another +16 STR on some 40k gil piece of equipment that can be crafted, but rather a piece of dungeon equipment.
builds for maximum effect is the right word.tho, that 100 INT from only stacking INT on a BLM isn't exactly what i would call maximum effect.it's just a way to dumb down a good game.
So because I spent several hours farming materials from mobs and repeating a recepie and blowing up melds until I got what I wanted. It doesn't count
But it does count if I spend several hours farming NMs, repeating an instance, and blowing up adds until I got what I wanted?
Same randomness, imo.
it is the same randomness, you're right.
one thing requires either gil or time to farm/exp/craft
one thing requires a group, a portion of brain to get done and some equipment to help that process.
combine both and you got a good balance, take away one of them and you got an ever repeating process of the same old crap.
the current version doesn't require you to work your ass of for endgame equipment, you can just farm gil or spiritbond enough equipment to make you happy (depending on you luck with melding)
BUT
wouldn't it be more nice to make use of both, one being more solo orientated while the other requires a group to get done with?
well the static stats on both are just hard to match even if you assume 100% 5 meld. DPS for relics are so high that no amount of attack power, or stat push will match it in the mathematical standpoint. For Darklight pieces it is possible for some pieces and not for others. For instance heavy darklight def per piece is more then 2 melds of def materia for some pieces so there is no way to get it in the total def score. Same for the huge hp boost while balancing other stats but materia goes around the designer balancing idea.
The only thing that will ever Balance Crafting Gear against Dungeon gear is to make Crafted Gear that requires the completion of Dungeons.
The End All Be All of Gear should be HQ Crafted Armour/Weapons that Requires a Material that can only be obtained by completing a Specific Dungeon and a Material that can only be obtained by Gathering in a Special Location. When this level of Crafted Armour/Weapon is Melded with 5 Different Types of Materia, it should far out class anything else in the game.
*Tangent*
In writing what I just wrote it occurred to me that by creating Materia Combo Effects. The Devs could alter the system just slightly enough to make Melding the same Materia Type to a Single Piece of Armour an ineffective way to gear up.
ex. Heaven's Eye Materia(+Acc) + Savage Might Materia(+Crit Pow) = Bonus Effect Savage Aim(+Crit Rate)