LOL, if you are risking your only set of gear for a double meld and lose it, it's you're own damn fault!
I'm working on my second full set of triple melded gear. It's really not that hard to get as long as you're persistent.
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Another SE please give me dbl melds for free thread/ Make my easy to get lol af gear better.
My 2 cents.
1: Doing anything that solely relies on RNG is bad, and the developers of such a mechanic should feel bad about it.
If I wanted to waste all my time and money on gambling. I still wouldn't because the odds are always against you.
The best way to fix this RNG problem is to implement skills/items that increase your chances of success. (1% is not an appropriate amount)
2: The idea to equip materia/gems into your gear is a tried and true mechanic, it works in Diablo, it works in FFVII and it works in FFXIV. However, creating useless materia (Namely the orange ones) and ones that increase stats by an unsubstantial amount. (T4 Manathirst 35mp. wow.) Makes little to no sense, and I am sure in 2.0 they will come in handy but what is the point of introducing them now when they do little more then to fill up our already bulging inventory bags.
3: Congratulations to everyone who have their double melds (or 4th), I am currently 0/4 on my first one. I don't think that is a big number and I am not raging about it, what I am raging about is the unclear progression. The game says I have a 16% to double meld, but doesn't show me what the end result is. As far as I am concerned all that means is, I have a predetermined result. I either get it or I don't. Add that on to the fact that double melding/triple melding decreases my chances but nothing increases my chances makes the whole thing complete rubbish. An mmorpg should not solely be based on luck. Farming endless hours only to watch your hard work shatter into a million pieces is not having fun, nor is it progressing my character's individual skills. It is a time sink and a gil sink.
Lastly: I am a patient man, I don't rage quit after wiping or doing 8 hours of hamlets without a single seal. I don't even raise my voice on vent when I don't get a drop I really want but someone else kind of wants (and gets). But this RNG materia crap is making ripples in my calm. /rant
In order to get triple melds, I expect no less than 30 failures. Prepare for it and there isn't a problem. If you want awesome gear, expect LOTS of failure to get it. You can always sell anything that's left over.
Honestly I think the RNG would be fine if we had more ways to improve the % chance
So what you are saying is that I should forget about making friends, doing fun stuff, or anything else in the game except spend every waking hour farming for a RNG to get the materia I want x90 (90 Strength T4), collect just as many catalyst and craft just as many pieces of armor to put that on, just to get one piece of T4, and that is of course assuming it actually happens within 30 tries. Since you don't actually stack the chances, meaning each try is <15% give or take... I'll pass.
I do want awesome gear though, I want to do dungeon runs (IE 100% drop rate at the end of a 5 hr run) and make real progress and watch my skills grow as a player and the end result being that not only myself but my team gets awesome gear. Not because we are so insanely lucky that we manage to win some lottery.
This is what it should have been in the first place.
Materia should be about learning and equipping to pre determined slots
Cruddy NQ gear could have 1 slot, HQ gear 2 slots, NM/Dungeon drops 3+ slots
Materia should cross combine for various effects or abilities like in FF7
If we could freely equip and deequip materia that would help go some way towards spec'ing our roles out for various events.
As it is right now, double and triple melds basically do nothing but reward people who can afford to throw lots of gil at the process to brute-force their way past the RNG aspect.
It's very intimidating for new/casual players, especially when double/triple melds become the expected norm and anything less is "gimp". That's not necessarily the fault of the players, as they're right to go with what's going to make them the most powerful, but it seems like an indicator of a flawed game system to me.
I don't carry large amounts of gil. Right now, I have less than 50k.
My process is simple
Mine > sell ores > buy spriritbond gear > spritibond > sell materia I don't want/keep what I do > buy any additional materia/catalysts > get help crafting the gear I want and blowing it up with materia > rinse > repeat
it's really quite simple and doesn't take millions of gil, just time.