new melding system. more casual? no thanks!

Casual is a dirty word. Many things in ARR have been dumbed down and made easier to understand. I don't see that as a bad thing. Why would you want something to be complicated?

Much of the hate for melded gear comes from the fact that a 5-melded tier IV item can hypothetically beat out Darklight, Relic, etc.

Where are all these 5x Tier IV material melded items that these so-called lucky crafters get from sitting on their ass??

I've heard of only one in existence on any server, and I haven't found a SS of it...

On the other hand, relics (and Darklight) were very common - at least on my server (before the final save, of course)

Shouldn't multi-melds at least be as common as the superior Relic and Darklight counterparts?

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

Much of the hate for melded gear comes from the fact that a 5-melded tier IV item can hypothetically beat out Darklight, Relic, etc.

Where are all these 5x Tier IV material melded items that these so-called lucky crafters get from sitting on their ass??

I've heard of only one in existence on any server, and I haven't found a SS of it...

On the other hand, relics (and Darklight) were very common - at least on my server (before the final save, of course)

Shouldn't multi-melds at least be as common as the superior Relic and Darklight counterparts?

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Well that really depends on how you look at it. On the grand scheme beyond that of just player progression and/or advantage the materia meld system brings a complete life cycle for gear. Gear in of it self is useless after it is trumped it just sits in the auction house/ storage having no use. The materia system gave it a perishable factor with spiritbonding burning gear.

IF you recall the servers prior to it introduction the markets were flooded with gear that had no use because the Alpine jacket or canopus spear was better or the stats didn't match well. Many reasons not to get them, but materia changed that having people consuming armors and weapons allowed for more armorers and bsms crps to make and put more stuff up that would also be consumed. Now the life cycle of all gear capable of being bound and converted was complete which is one reason dated gears were being bought up and vanishing from the wards at breakneck speeds.

But that still leaves a newer dead end with melds, because you gain no bonus for converting them so keeping/ selling it is the only option. Now at this point the fact that you can make it better with a dual>penta meld is a risk still gives that gear a life cycle of use. If you fail more gear will have to be used up to make it again, if you succeed it will be in use. So those harsh restrictions do have a purpose. And trust me I am say this as jaded as anyone with being 0/120 on triple str melded red cobalt gauntlets alone.

The best way to sort this out and keep that needed life cycle to stop stagnation would be a methods of melding that increase the changes beyond just +1. And if that could be done using materia of different types in combination such as resistances that would help those lucky unlucky few that beat the high percentage of getting a base stat or focused stat and getting a resistance then all the better (Statistically status resistances are rarer then every other type besides the last materia added that come from the primal/dungeon drops but are not used at all).

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Originally Posted by Alaltus

Maybe but you cant buy it with these changes either so you will be completely at the mercy of the rng.

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Why wouldn't you be able to buy it? higher success rate on double meld = more melds on these weapons successful = more people selling them for less than they were in ARR. There will still be people silling them, tho they shouldn't cost nearly as much if they put double meld success rate at a good level.

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Originally Posted by Sakasa

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.

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You need to take in account the inability to equip a helm or boots with the heavy darklight legs and chest. They have higher defense based on that. if you were to wear a normal chest with double defense materia, and a helm, you would have more defense with those put together than the darklight chest.

Darklight gear is better because it has some stats that cant be materia'd onto crafted pieces of the same slot. It definantly should be overal better than stat stacking with materia, and I hope they make it so.

No relic should be beaten by a melded weapon either. There should be something situationally equal like weapons with elemental damage, or even slightly better, in Drop form (or U/U crafting that i brought up elsewhere) but no normal crafted item with any amount of materia should ever beat them. You may be able to get more overall mag att pot with an 80+ int lightning brand +1, but that thing will never have MP conserve or increased crit rate.

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Originally Posted by Nanaya

Never been a fan of luck being more important than hard work, and that is precisely what 1.0 was. The amount of materia I had was getting a little absurd also, it's a little crazy for Strength materia to take up five inventory spaces simply because my luck fluctuated from STR16, all the way up to 20.

A triple meld should indeed be a very high risk, however, the fact that it was purely, 100% luck is absurd in a game where pretty much everything is reliant on how good your equipment is. At best you could synth up a +1, for a meager 5% improvement, but when you meld, whether you're wearing incredible crafting gear, or totally naked, the result is the same. This is where I have issues. HQing a level 54 craft is not an easy task, but I've never complained about it, because I could directly influence my odds. Get better gear to craft with, streamline my five skills a little more, use food and guild synthesis support. Melding has none of this. Aside from HQ, they strip the process entirely out of your hands, and you sit there helpless as the explosion animation plays because your +1 is still only an abysmal 22% chance.

So I'm all for the "casual" version. Every single one of my really good pieces of melded gear were only a stroke of fortuitous luck, and my deep pockets of gil. There's nothing really to feel proud of from such a thing, as I basically brute forced my way to what I wanted with absolutely no finesse or skill involved.

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Also to add, when you get blocked in the relic quest due to RNG it only compounds the frustrations with the system

Yes, and systems like the one TERA has that go down the path of blocking you in to things because you weren't lucky enough to succeed in that equpment upgrade are TERAble. Even worse in XIV, it blows up and you have to start all over. I hope XIV pulls far away from that path.

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Originally Posted by Akira_Tenshi

Casual is a dirty word. Many things in ARR have been dumbed down and made easier to understand. I don't see that as a bad thing. Why would you want something to be complicated?

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Why do people climb mountains? It's the sense of accomplishment. Imagine, new content appears in a theoretical patch, your group strives to work on it and clear it just some hours after it's been out. They feel great, they've accomplished something, only to realize that just about everyone else has done it, realizing how easy-breezy it was, and thus, not a challenge.

Most of common gaming experience thrives in balancing a decent learning curve and making activities enough of a challenge, so that they're just difficult enough to grant you a feeling of having "won" the game. It's one of the reasons Hamlet was so damn boring. You were repeating the same thing, over and over, it was tedious and unskilled, and very randomly rewarding.

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Originally Posted by reefo

Easier melding means I get my relic weapon cheaper, I'm all for it. pce

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/thumbsup
Real arguments!

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Originally Posted by Reika

Why wouldn't you be able to buy it? higher success rate on double meld = more melds on these weapons successful = more people selling them for less than they were in ARR. There will still be people silling them, tho they shouldn't cost nearly as much if they put double meld success rate at a good level.

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There making melded gear Untradable, which is just stupid.