Why No Melds?

I meld everything I get, even if it's just putting III/IV in the slots, because otherwise I feel like I'm not making the effort to do the most DPS I possibly can.

If you don't wanna meld your gear that's your choice. I just can't stand seeing empty slots on my gear.

Becasue it's my 4th job and idc

*puts on devil's advocate hat*

Because... frankly it's none of your business what I do with my time.

Seriously, the implications of social pressure to force someone to do ANY content they don't like, even if it is as something as material melding, is BS. If it bothers you that much, don't pug. People don't have to justify their lifestyle or play-style to you, period.

If you're curious, and you're open to the response, sure, ask away. But using is a negative implication to try to shame or pressure someone into doing so? - no bueno.

The material system in general is a bonus, not a requirement.

*devil's advocate hat off*

That said, tier IVs are fairly easy to come by if you do the beast-men dailies, and are good, at the very least, for slot experimentation.

To the ire, and in direct spite to, everyone here. I've been using my junk skill-speed materia to hit the 860 - 900 breakpoint on SKS, purely for experimentation and fun factor. So while I don't expect it of anyone, I do encourage it as a way to play around with your stats a bit.

I only meld gear when I am 100% sure it is the strongest gear I will get for awhile(months).

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Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH

It is the same thing, though. You're keeping yourself at a minimal chance for success and leaving wipes as a more likely outcome by unmelding. You might as well be at the bare minimum ilvl.

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All the debate has moved from needing the best gear to having the best gear with melds. Gear/melds does not equal skill, it not going to make a "bad" player better, cause you know can polish a turd but it still a turd.

On an separate note:
Maybe if the gear was not pretty much throw away gear that always being replaced and the content was harder that needed melds maybe more people would take the time to meld their gear.

If you are not raiding, it is not a big deal if you do not meld. Personally I meld my primary job with materia just to give it all I got since I have plenty of gil from crafting and gathering. If you want the very best gear, you want to have optimum melds within your own financial means.

However, player skill makes more of a difference than materia melds in most situations.

Ive seen a frost blm with full fire resist materia. Sadly he still out dps some pugs in df lol

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Originally Posted by Hyrist

*puts on devil's advocate hat*

Because... frankly it's none of your business what I do with my time.

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Actually, it is their business if they are put on a team with you.

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Originally Posted by Urthdigger

Technically, it's not free. There's a thing called "Opportunity cost." Basically, by melding materia you're losing out on the potential gil you could have gotten by selling it.

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There is also the added opportunity cost of having increased time spent in content, taking away from time spent in things that provide you with gil.

Looking back at 2.x only raiders would meld their gear, or let me rephrase that, would only meld their gear correctly. To that time you needed a crafting profession or a friend to have melds and a lot of people loved the challenge of over melding. Some just melded for spirit bonding to speed it up a little bit while doing their relics.

With 3.x there was not really a reason to meld your gear unless you wanted to raid, but that only applied to savage since the regular mode clearly wont need it. You don't need to meld your gear for any other content, I mean sure it might make your expert roulette 3 minutes faster if people would have melded their gear, but I don't think anyone really cares.

With the implementing of the new menders, some people especially those that took a break mid season, are not aware of the melder npc's. Some people as the topic shows, don't like to meld their gear since it's not BiS yet and others just don't have the time to farm gil/materia or run the content that gives the materia/tokens and are left with just a couple of materia they like to hold onto, till they are sure that this is what they like to meld to their gear.

Either way, I do think that if you're not a raider and just run the content casually/laid back once or twice a week, there's no reason for you to meld your gear. It's a game after all and of course the perfect scenario would be people melding everything everywhere, but I think that we gotta cut them some slack. With 4.0 maybe melding materia is more important.

The problem with MMOs are these type of threads and always seem to end up in the "if you don't play the same way as everyone else you a bad player and wasting people time" anyways that my piece pretty sure I'll get flamed for it be least couple people.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

The problem with MMOs are these type of threads and always seem to end up in the "if you don't play the same way as everyone else you a bad player and wasting people time" anyways that my piece pretty sure I'll get flamed for it be least couple people.

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Shrug, you have the right to play how you want, just the same as I have the right to complain about it.

I'm banking all my materia until we get the eventual third 24man and it's associated 10 ilevel upgrade for the tomestone gear.

I look at it this way: My gear on mains (healers) is melded with V materia IV on pieces that I plan to replace soon or on my alt healers weapons. I raid casual midcore though and don't expect everyone to be melded. Alt job I occasionally take into a raid/primal have lazy melds sometimes pieces unmelded.

If someone though applies to a raidspot in our team unmelded gear is a big minus and he will be questioned for its reasons and have a doubt on him. Actual raiding on a mainclass just has a different meaning to me.

• I don't play Savage mode content
• I don't play EX trials till months later
• Gear gets oudated too damn fast
• People like paying stupid prices for the materia I sell

I've read through half of the thread and this is my only response - ITT: mediocrity

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Originally Posted by Wizhard

I've read through half of the thread and this is my only response - ITT: mediocrity

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http://i.makeagif.com/media/11-19-2015/re81Us.gif

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Originally Posted by Zojha

These people are also not participating in Savage content. The only content these people are participating in where the probability to fail at all is greater than zero are Alexander and Sophia normal.

I'm not sure what game you are playing, but in my FFXIV, I can spend 90% of an expert dungeon in cleric stance because nobody even needs a heal for the most part. I can only use half my rotation and still easily beat DPS checks. If that is different in your version of the game and you need those 162 substats to considerably boost clear rates, well...sucks to be you I guess? You have my sincere pity. It's not the same in my game and consequently, I don't value those stats as highly.

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I play a FFXIV where average people jump right away in Thordan/Sephirot/Nidhogg/Sophia Extreme without meld, food buffs or stat pots, dying like idiots on some mechanics, while a few Vitality Materias could've saved them.
The same players who are not pulling their weight during DPS checks, where these "minor" buffs could've helped their teammates a little bit.
The same players who barely have the minimum iLv to get into these fights, because they were too lazy to run Void/Mhach a few times to upgrade their gear.

If you never saw these players, then yeah, we are not playing the same FFXIV.

By the way, you mentionned Alexander Normal. I had to do something like 20 to 25 runs of A12 to get my token, and I can assure you that I saw quite a good number of wipes that could've been avoided if people only had a few more DPS ("Oh this add is still alive with 1% HP and Alexander is using its ulimate, well, too bad I guess") and an extra few hundreds HP ("Hello Mega Holy! Oh, you have a double Weakness on you and won't survive it? Too bad I guess.")
I'm not saying that they are useful everytime, but when they are, these buffs can turn a Vote Abandon into a successful run. And the only fact that they can allow that to happen is enough to care about them instead of playing Greedy Fantasy XIV.

But there's one think I do agree with: I don't care if you go in Sastasha without melds.

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Originally Posted by Fyce

I play a FFXIV where average people jump right away in Thordan/Sephirot/Nidhogg/Sophia Extreme without meld, food buffs or stat pots, dying like idiots on some mechanics, while a few Vitality Materias could've saved them.

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Who in their right mind meld's Vit?

Forgive me for being ignorant, but... was there some sort of change in Heavensward that made it so crafted gear was the best raiding gear or something?

Back when I last played, the only gear you could meld materia to was crafted gear and that was only really useful if you wanted to drop a bunch of gil on some starter gear you'd replace in a week or two. Any raid gear had no materia slots...

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Who in their right mind meld's Vit?

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Healers in their accessory slots. + 75 vit or more can add up to a very good of hp.

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Originally Posted by Bdyer

Healers in their accessory slots. + 75 vit or more can add up to a very good of hp.

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Except you know SpS, CRIT or PIE...

People being so anal about not melding but then complaining about how they should have Vit melded is just mind boggling. The standard rule for HP is you don't get hit by avoidable stuff.

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Except you know SpS, CRIT or PIE...

People being so anal about not melding but then complaining about how they should have Vit melded is just mind boggling. The standard rule for HP is you don't get hit by avoidable stuff.

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In a static or having everyone on voice chats then yes sps/crit/det are better but in pugs I find 3k more hp is greater that .08 sec faster cast time ... For the time when someone makes a mistake or is uncoordinated. When those mistakes happen 1 death will totally erase everything you get from other melds

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Except you know SpS, CRIT or DET...
Y
People being so anal about not melding but then complaining about how they should have Vit melded is just mind boggling. The standard rule for HP is you don't get hit by avoidable stuff.

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VIT melds have already proven themselves effective during FCoB early progression to cheese gear checks and mechanics. While I don't personally use them, with the amount of raid wide unavoidable AoE going out in even the normal mode raids, an extra 800 HP could be the dealmaker between giving a healer time to heal you, and being forced to res with weakness, especially if the healers fall behind for whatever reason.

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Originally Posted by Bdyer

In a static or having everyone on voice chats then yes sps/crit/det are better but in pugs I find 3k more hp is greater that .08 sec faster cast time ... For the time when someone makes a mistake or is uncoordinated. When those mistakes happen 1 death will totally erase everything you get from other melds

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Case in point: If it prevents a death, it's still an indirect dps gain. Being dead is the biggest dps loss in the game, even if you ignore the 15% weakness.

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Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH

VIT melds have already proven themselves effective during FCoB early progression to cheese gear checks and mechanics. While I don't personally use them, with the amount of raid wide unavoidable AoE going out in even the normal mode raids, an extra 800 HP could be the dealmaker between giving a healer time to heal you, and being forced to res with weakness, especially if the healers fall behind for whatever reason.




Case in point: If it prevents a death, it's still an indirect dps gain. Being dead is the biggest dps loss in the game, even if you ignore the 15% weakness.

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I come from a time when everyone was expected to do their job.... No I would put the blame on the healers for failing the mechanic intended to test them.

Btw I can't even parse :P

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Who in their right mind meld's Vit?

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Great thing to have in non fending accessories that can be overmelded. Get some more HP for the squishies and can overmeld desired secondary stats.

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Originally Posted by Naunet

Forgive me for being ignorant, but... was there some sort of change in Heavensward that made it so crafted gear was the best raiding gear or something?

Back when I last played, the only gear you could meld materia to was crafted gear and that was only really useful if you wanted to drop a bunch of gil on some starter gear you'd replace in a week or two. Any raid gear had no materia slots...

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Scrip and raid gear have added materia slots recently. No overmelding yet.

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Originally Posted by Bdyer

In a static or having everyone on voice chats then yes sps/crit/det are better but in pugs I find 3k more hp is greater that .08 sec faster cast time ... For the time when someone makes a mistake or is uncoordinated. When those mistakes happen 1 death will totally erase everything you get from other melds

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I mean this doesn't make a lot of sense. If you are confident in your ability to avoid stuff, VIT won't help you. VIT isn't going to give your party members more HP. As a healer, if you meld up stuff that increases your health, it will add up to more total HP throughout the fight.

Let's say that those melds will give you a minor 1% boost in your healing abilities. Let's say as a healer, you're doing 3k HPS in an 8 minute encounter. 3000 HPS x 60 sec/min x 8 min = 1.44 million HP healed. A 1% increase gives you 14,400 more HP healed in the fight. That's quite a bit more effective HP gained than the 3K from VIT.

The only reason to meld VIT is if you are in progression and are undergeared for an unavoidable aoe attack.

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Originally Posted by aesteval

Scrip and raid gear have added materia slots recently. No overmelding yet.

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*tome, dungeon, raid, etc. You get my point. Scrip -> Scripture tomestones

Started with the 220/230 gear I think. Dungeon gear started with 225?

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Originally Posted by aesteval

Scrip and raid gear have added materia slots recently. No overmelding yet.

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Which will never happen unless they add more guaranteed slots on crafted gear.

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

I come from a time when everyone was expected to do their job.... No I would put the blame on the healers for failing the mechanic intended to test them.

Btw I can't even parse :P

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Funny thing, that. Following that mindset, tanks should keep tank stance on 24/7 and healers shouldn't touch cleric stance, ever because that's 'not their job'. 'u' I wonder how many arguments started over Cleric Stance because of that.

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Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH

Funny thing, that. Following that mindset, tanks should keep tank stance on 24/7 and healers shouldn't touch cleric stance, ever because that's 'not their job'. 'u' I wonder how many arguments started over Cleric Stance because of that.

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Ahh no there is a fundamental difference in the roles.

More damage helps everywhere 100% of the time, more HP helps how often? More damage helps everyone in the group, more HP helps yourself.

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Originally Posted by Kaurie

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There have been plently of times having extra bit saved my life.
-tank turned the final boss of weeping making me smack dab in the middle of her hair attack, the extra hp gave me 1 more tick to remove the dot
-I missteped in a12 and would have died from the aoe if not for the extra vit
-it has allowed me to proitize the tank in healing rather than myself
-it has allowed me to take an aoe while rezzing the healer (without swiftcast)

I'm not arguing that any of the secondary stats wouldn't increase healing, but the extra buffer can be a lifesaver

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Ahh no there is a fundamental difference in the roles.

More damage helps everywhere 100% of the time, more HP helps how often? More damage helps everyone in the group, more HP helps yourself.

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Any time you take an unavoidable AoE that would have killed you without it, either due to your bad positioning for AoE heals or the healers prioritizing other more important party members instead of the dps.

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Originally Posted by Thunda_Cat_SMASH

Any time you take an unavoidable AoE that would have killed you without it, either due to your bad positioning for AoE heals or the healers prioritizing other more important party members instead of the dps.

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If I died due to my bad positioning then I highly doubt I would've survived even with Vit melds. If I'm not getting healed after unavoidable damage then that is not my burden and the healer needs to pick up their game, have had many a time where I've been marked and not been healed for a good 10 seconds before dying to an unavoidable AoE.

Again it's very situational anyway and the other option is 100% useful 100% of the time.

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Originally Posted by aesteval

Scrip and raid gear have added materia slots recently. No overmelding yet.

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Oh poopies. XD I enjoyed not having to spend big bucks on materia back in the day...

Everyone in my static but tanks have melded vits, because it helps with a12s progression. Yes, we are still progressing and didn't kill it in 2 days like the rest of community.

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Originally Posted by Naunet

Forgive me for being ignorant, but... was there some sort of change in Heavensward that made it so crafted gear was the best raiding gear or something?

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Side question: when you don't login in game for two weeks, you can't login to forums (source: me). But you are logged in, but wasn't in game since last winter, when they introduced slots in tome and raid gear. How?

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Originally Posted by vp_cmc

Side question: when you don't login in game for two weeks, you can't login to forums (source: me). But you are logged in, but wasn't in game since last winter, when they introduced slots in tome and raid gear. How?

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I came back recently. Last time I played was in the middle of second Coil. I haven't even touched HW content yet outside of unlocking Astrologian on my main character. Working on leveling it up to 50 (ugh... wish I could have done this ages ago, stupid restrictions) so we can do HW quests.

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Originally Posted by Bdyer

There have been plently of times having extra bit saved my life.
-tank turned the final boss of weeping making me smack dab in the middle of her hair attack, the extra hp gave me 1 more tick to remove the dot
-I missteped in a12 and would have died from the aoe if not for the extra vit
-it has allowed me to proitize the tank in healing rather than myself
-it has allowed me to take an aoe while rezzing the healer (without swiftcast)

I'm not arguing that any of the secondary stats wouldn't increase healing, but the extra buffer can be a lifesaver

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And there would be plenty of times that the extra 1% healing ability would have saved the lives of you and/or your team. My argument wasn't that VIT cannot save your life, it's that it is less effective (about 33%) than the alternative.

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

If I died due to my bad positioning then I highly doubt I would've survived even with Vit melds. If I'm not getting healed after unavoidable damage then that is not my burden and the healer needs to pick up their game, have had many a time where I've been marked and not been healed for a good 10 seconds before dying to an unavoidable AoE.

Again it's very situational anyway and the other option is 100% useful 100% of the time.

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You may have, you may not have. However, that's also not the point of my post, which is that everyone should help everyone, not that the dps should be carried by the tanks and healers because they can't meet checks.